One hour on the bike, one hour off the bike — repeat.
That’s the routine Redding resident Eneas Freyre, 42, and Westport resident Mark Pattinson, 48, followed continuously for more than six days in order to break a two-person world record riding their bicycles across the country.
They completed the ride on June 23, in six days, 11 hours, and seven minutes, averaging 19.79 miles per hour and covering more than 3,000 miles. They began their adventure in Oceanside, Calif., and ended in Annapolis, Md.
The prior two-person RAAM (Race Across America) course record of 19.65 miles per hour was set by Axel Fehlau and Anders Asberg Heinemann in 2014.
Early in their training, the record-breaking cyclists decided their strategy would be for one of them to ride for one hour while the other remained in a car for that hour, then switch.
Staying on the bike for anything longer than that “can cause you to lose focus and start to slow down,” said Freyre, owner of Total Training & Endurance in Westport, a personal training, group endurance and bicycle retail business.
Freyre is the father of two sons — Caden 11, and Rhys, 8 — with his wife Nancy Freyre, who teaches third grade at Ridgefield Academy.
“The key is to keep the average speed high,” he said.
Throughout his six-day adventure, there were four cars on the road at all times, with a crew of 10 people.
“There is a car following behind one cyclist and a car with the athlete who is not cycling but resting up for his shift about 20 miles down the road,” Freyre said. “The two other vehicles are shuttling off-duty crew to hotels to rest for a few hours and also getting food shopping and prep done.”
The time the men spent in the car was solely for eating and lying down, since it was nearly impossible to get any solid sleep, according to Freyre.
“You are taking these little cat naps,” Freyre said. “Over an entire day, I never slept more than 40 minutes at a single clip.”
Freyre, who is a vegan, lived on oatmeal, potatoes, bananas, dates, Clif Bars, bread and jelly.
In order to break the world record, the men had no time for talking during their adventure.
“As soon as you get back on the bike, you take off,” Freyre said.
Challenging moments
While Freyre said there was never a time during his adventure when he considered quitting, he recalled some moments of “pure exhaustion.”
One morning outside of Durango, Colo., the men decided to try riding the bike for a three-hour stretch.
“I’m on the bike from 2 to 5 a.m. and it was rolling terrain and very cold,” Freyre said. “I’m on survival mode, I’m looking at every second that goes by. I’m just so ready to get off that bike.”
That was the last time they decided to try that strategy, he said.
In the last two days of their adventure, Freyre and Pattinson encountered “horrible” headwinds and pouring rain all day long.
They also had an accident.
“One of my cars broke down,” Freyre said. “While all the supplies and storage was being stripped from that vehicle and sorted out into a new rental vehicle, it left me riding much longer than anticipated. In these kinds of events, you have to be adaptable and adjust.”
Freyre is a lifelong athlete and said he had a solid base of fitness long before he started training for the record.
He’s a professional cycling coach and 2013 Duathlon World Champion. A duathlon is an athletic event that consists of running and cycling.
He has competed in duathlons for four years and has been a road cyclist for 20 years.
Also, he bikes to work every day, year-round.
“I get on the bike at 4:45 every morning to ride down here, commuting 3,400 miles a year,” Freyre said. “I think it’s a great way to live, much better than sitting in a car. In the summer, you see the sunrise over the reservoir. In wintertime, you see super clear nights.”
Yet, he said, during his training, he had to string together longer workouts.
“I started picking it up in February,” he said.
A typical week for Freyre involves riding 10 to 15 hours, but when he was training, he increased this to 25 to 30 hours.
As part of his training, he also took part in the Velotooler New England Spring road cycling series.
He also incorporated the cycling class he teaches into his fitness routine.
It didn’t take Freyre long to recover from his adventure. He credits much of this to the power of the human body.
“The human body is amazing at taking stress. We are very resilient creatures,” he said, adding the only injury he got from his experience was tendinitis in the ankles and knees.
Making time for fitness
As a business owner and father of two young children, Freyre said his fitness routine always involves a lot of planning.
“I’m planning ahead all the time — food, clothing, equipment, work hours, and family schedule,” he said.
To accomplish any type of endurance race, he said there are no shortcuts or quick tricks.
“You have to live the lifestyle, you can’t just try to casually do something,” he said.
It also helps to enjoy the sport immensely, according to Freyre.
“The only way to commit is you have to find the sport you are passionate about,” he said. “Once you find that, making sacrifices is easy.”
Freyre said going forward, he plans to continue to take part in new adventures.
“This was a great opportunity to challenge myself and a great opportunity to see the country,” he said. “It is definitely a phenomenal athletics highlight.”