|
Q&A with Pro Andrew Freye |
|
|
Written by Andrew Freye
|
|
Saturday, 18 March 2006 |
 Q&A with Bikeman / Salsa Pro Andrew Freye:
Recently Andrew Freye provided a little insight into the life of a pro mountain bike rider. In the form of a Question and Answer session, Andrew answers questions about balancing college life and training. Andrew also dives into the serious question on everyone's mind: Who gets more chicks, DH, XC guys or Singlespeeders.... For the skinning on this and much more read on..
Is it hard finding the proper nutrition in the school cafeterias? Do you have to find some other alternatives?
Andrew: The food at USM is actually really good. Aramark is our catering service and they do a great job serving our (my) needs. Plus they have this kick ass meal plan, 19 meals a week! I think I am going to set some type of record by being on the 19 meal plan for 4 years straight.
 | | click to enlarge |
What time of day do you train? Does it vary depending on your class schedule—and do you ever split the training up—an hour here and a few later?
Andrew: I try and ride at different times of the day to maximize recovery time. Early some days and later on other days. Don’t tell my parents this, but I set up my class schedule around my training schedule. Right now I have a tit schedule where I only go to class on Mondays and Wednesday. If I have other obligations then yes I will split up my training etc.. But I usually like to get it all done with at once.
Do you have time for other fun college-type activities?
Andrew: I am taking this question as do I have time to drink? A bit of advice, moderation in everything is the key to success – personal coach Beau Lambert. I try to balance things out. This winter a couple friends and I went to see my school compete for the national championships in women’s basketball. This meant taking a day off from training, but it also gave me the time to be a “regular” college student. I just switched my days around that week so I could still get the hours in. Also I am a resident assistant in the dorms. So instead of participating in some activities I am the one putting on those “non-alcoholic” activities in the dorm.
 | | click to enlarge |
Do you think you will make Maine your home once you graduate?
Andrew: Maine will always be my home. I am 100% Main-ah, born and raised.
What’s the last movie you saw—any good?
Andrew: The last movie I saw in theaters was “Thank you for smoking”, and yeah I thought it was good. I loved how the movie made so much fun of Vermont!
How much of your training is on the road compared to in the dirt?
Andrew: I do a lot more training on the road then dirt. I do not know percentages, but it’s a lot on the road and not a lot on the dirt. I would like to ride on the mountain bike more, but it usually doesn’t mix well with training.
As far as your training goes, how many road miles and how many trail miles do you put in to keep yourself at such a high level of competition and how do you avoid overtraining?
Andrew: I do not keep track of miles. I don’t even have an odometer on my new road bike. I keep track of time. Well my coach (Beau Lambert) keeps track of the time. I avoid overtraining by having the best coach out there. I also check my resting heart rate every morning. This tells me if I am overtraining or not.
When you are not biking or studying what do you do in your free time?
Andrew: During the school year I tend to hang out with friends in the dorms and what not. I enjoy going out and doing college student things. I love the outdoors. I enjoy just being outside. Snowshoeing, skiing, hiking, canoeing, etc… I love it all.
 | | click to enlarge |
Outside of being a full time pro what are your goals and ambitions?
Andrew: My biggest goal right now is to get that piece of paper from the college that I go to and spend so much money at. Besides that I don’t really know what I want to do, I guess the only big goal I really have is to live for a long time. I don’t know what I want to do for a job or anything like that. I just want to get my degree and after that I am sure something will come up. There are always plenty of things to do out there, it’s a big world.
What type of products do you use in your training? (eg. Powerbars, Cytomax, Tiger Balm etc..)
Andrew: During training rides I use water, those cheep massed produced peanut butter crackers, granola bars, food from the cafeteria, and home made power bars when my mom ships them down to me at school. During the winter and on longer rides sometimes I will mix up the powder Gator Aid, except I usually forget to do that. It is a lot of work to remember to wash out your water bottles after a ride so water works best for me. During a race I use Cliff Bar drink mix, Power-bar gels, and Endurox recovery drink. Greyhound Juice provides with the appropriate leg warming materials and skin care products.
What's it like to race as a pro, as compared to semi-pro or expert?
Andrew: Well I am not sure what its like to race as a semi pro, but racing as a pro is much more demanding then expert. When money is on the line people will become much more aggressive. Also the hours spent training and preparing for your races increases a lot when you are a pro compared to racing as an expert. Just because you are pro does not mean you shouldn’t have fun with your racing. Racing should always be fun!
 | | click to enlarge |
I'm curious about your training. With the significant amount of technology involved in our training these days (HR monitors, power meters, etc.) I wonder how you've learned to "listen to your body"? There are those inevitable days where absolutely nothing goes right. Hopefully these are few and far between for you. I'm just curious about how you adjust your training when you encounter a bad day.
Andrew: The only technology I really use is a heart rate monitor when I train. Other then that a simple wrist watch and two fingers is all one needs to determine overtraining. By checking my resting heart rate every morning I can tell if I am able to train at my maximum potential or not. Sometimes school work keeps me up at night or something else prevents me from getting adequate rest and the next day my rhr is way high. When this happens I usually can the intensity scheduled for the day and log in the hours. Sometimes I might can the ride all together. It just depends on what needs to get done etc… During finals week or hectic weeks at school sometimes the ride might have to get cut. During the winter and even during the summer I might leave the hrm home and jut go out and ride. It depends on how I feel and what kind of mood I am in that day.
Do you have a trainer? If so, where did you find him/her? Explain a little about your relationship with him/her. (like does he/she bike with you, or do you study your stats together.
Andrew: My personal coach is Beau Lambert. Every year Beau does his magic and helps make me fast! Beau and I have been working pretty close for four or five years now. We correspond primarily through email and some phone. I have only ridden a bike once with Beau, so no we don’t really ride together. I don’t think we really “study” stats, but occasionally I will receive a phone call from Beau telling me who I have to beat or something along those lines before a big race.
What is your training regime... in a nutshell.
Andrew: I ride my bike a lot! Well not really. It’s all about quality, not quantity. There are many people out there who train more then I do and don’t do well. This is where having an experienced coach comes into play. But my training schedule starts out with crazy long rides in the freezing cold Maine winter, then I through in some intensity and build from there until when I want to peak. I really have no idea how to peak or anything like that. I hired a coach for a reason, to do that for me so I don’t have to spend the time figuring it out.
How many hours a week do you train?
Andrew: I get this question all the time along with how many miles do you ride. The answer is I don’t know! Some weeks I might ride as little as 5 or 7 hours or up to 25 hours. There is no magic set number.
Do you have any training tips that you are willing to share?
Andrew: Get a coach! Have fun!
I want to know what you eat. How much you eat, why you eat it, and how you get what you need for food at a university cafeteria.
Andrew: What I eat is what ever is offered by Aramark. How much I eat is a ton! I eat what I eat because I am a hungry athlete and I eat what tastes good. If I hit up the ice cream bar every lunch and dinner I would be like Jarred before he got rich off of Subway. I try to eat a light lunch consisting of just a wrap or something along those lines. Then for dinner I tend to eat a larger meal. I try not to eat anything after dinner until breakfast the next morning. I currently am on some food committee at USM where I meet with the bosses of Aramark at USM. Because I am on the highest meal plan the University has to offer, Aramark really likes me and my opinions. I know all the chefs by their first name and they know me personally too. Because of this good relationship they tend to take good care of me which works out well. If I have a race on a weekend and I want pasta with olive oil and good bread they get it for me!
 | | click to enarge |
What's the deal with the post mtn bike road ride. I've been told that that is one of the best ways to get faster. Why does it work? How long does it need to be? And what intensity?
Andrew: Well I can’t tell you how it works because I simply don’t know. Beau tells me to ride after a race and I do. I usually try to log in 60 minutes of just spinning. You don’t really need to do any intensity. Just remember to try and eat something before you go out for your ride.
Who gets more chixs these days? Pro downhillers, XC guys, or singlespeeders?
Andrew: Well here is my experience with this situation. The dh guys are like “dude pass me a butt, and lets get wasted before we race.” I don’t blame them for wanting to drink before they race, I’ve seen what they ride down and I wouldn’t want to do it sober. But anyways so the dh guys are partying and what not so yeah they might pick up more “chicks” but remember there is a term us college students use “beer goggles”. The XC guys are lean, shaved legs, and wear tight close, chicks like that. However, most XC guys are broke as a joke, drive a P.O.S. car and worry too much about there training to care about chicks. Single speeders don’t have to drop the money a XC guy does into drive train parts and they usually don’t train like the XC guys do. So to sum things up probably the single speeders will get more chicks and I don’t even know if that’s right. |
|
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enarge")
