Black & Whyte - A Norseman Story (Award winning Documentary )

good morning boys just stop out for a quick 70 miler if you fancy joining me are you sure craig have you ever thought yourself why am i doing this now that is a very good question my name is professor greg white i'm an olympian a sports scientist and an endurance specialist and i've taken on multiple triathlons including five iron men but this year i'm going to take on my toughest triathlon challenge yet the ultimate triathlon the norseman [Music] the norseman has been dubbed the toughest triathlon on the planet the course requires competitors to leap off a passenger ferry at 4 30 a.m to begin a 3.8 kilometer swim in treacherously cold waters that's followed by a 180 kilometer cycle where it's not only the headwinds that are the problem but the very real threat of hypothermia if they make it that far the triathletes finish the race with a brutal 26 and a half mile run the last section of which is upper mountain there's an extreme triathlon which pushes even the most experienced athletes to the very limits of their endurance 300 begin the race far fewer completed as an athlete and performance scientist i've been involved in endurance sport for my entire life as an olympian i competed in modern pentathlon a multi-disciplinary sport i went to two olympic games the 1992 olympics in barcelona and the 1996 olympics in atlanta and won a silver medal at the world championships in 1994. i'm also proud to say that i've been involved with sport relief a worldwide aid organisation for many years i've trained dozens of celebrities to successfully complete some enormous endurance challenges including swimming the english channel cycling the length of britain and summiting kilimanjaro the tallest freestanding mountain in the world twice in order to help raise millions of pounds for people less fortunate than ourselves but i don't think anything i've done before can truly prepare me for the norsemen the toughest triathlon on the planet it is going to be a brutal physical mental assault probably the toughest thing i'm ever going to face but i am absolutely determined to be wearing that norseman black t-shirt at the end of the race even if it kills me actually if it does kill me do you want to cut that little bit out the norseman is a race within a race the first 160 competitors past the final checkpoint ascend the mountain and are awarded with a norseman black t-shirt the remaining competitors go around the mountain and are rewarded with a norseman white t-shirt the norseman white t-shirt is a badge of honor amongst triathletes the northern black however is something very special indeed missing that all-important cut-off can be heartbreaking i'm making this film for two reasons i think firstly it's actually to provide a guide for aspiring triathletes or triathletes who are currently doing sprint olympic and want to move to long course triathlon of how i process training how i approach the way in which i prepare for long course triathlons i think secondly though and most importantly is actually it's about age and i think in society what we tend to do is we tend to assume that as we get older we are less able and what i want this film to be really is a demonstration that actually as we age we can still achieve incredible feats of physical prowess yes there are differences we do change so so the way in which i train now is different to the way i trained when i was a junior athlete but modifying that training recognizing that i don't recover as rapidly as i used to but modifying that recovery approach so taking modifications to the training what i know is that at 52 years of age i am not on the scrap heap i can still continue to achieve i can still continue to push myself to the absolute limit and achieve success so i think overall what i want this film to be is a message to people to say if you believe you can achieve preparation begins eight months out from the event as greg begins to condition his body for the three triathlon disciplines cycling running and open water swimming january was brutal getting up at 5am in the dark and those weather conditions the snow the sleet and the hail makes it really really difficult but in the week it's the only way that i can do it i have to get up early so that i can get to work importantly on the weekend starting early means i get to spend that valuable quality time with my family it's really important preparation is central to success in any challenge but as part of that the primary touch point the most important part is the mind mindset is everything because mindset drives success in all other areas of that preparation and so for me i use a mantra and that mantra is nothing good comes easy so if ever i'm in a training session even before i start a training session my mind starts to wander i bring myself back to those four very simple words training is not a series of random events it's planned and the structure of that planning is absolutely crucial and what we have is we have periodized training so within that periodized model you have the long-term goal the macro cycle that is then dissected down to a meso cycle these medium term goals all the way down to micro cycles and that they are weekly and daily goals and at the end of the session i can look back i can reflect on that session and see if i had delivered on what the aims of that session were so i use this concept of reverse periodization which effectively means that i'm trying to get to my predicted race speed so i predict a speed i want to be at for the norseman and then having hit that speed what i then do is go longer and longer brick sessions are absolutely instrumental to any triathlete they are a central part of training because they are technical tactical physiological psychological they work everything simultaneously they are brutal and what they are is simply a transition from one discipline to another and repeating that so anyone who's done a triathlon before will know what it's like the jelly legs when you get off the bike well actually that's trainable and if you repeat that in training with brick sessions that will improve in the winter season when it's difficult to get open water i spend much of my time focusing on speed and speed endurance and that really is shorter repetition so it's 100 efforts 200 efforts anything up to 400 efforts and then the speed endurance comes by repetition so one of the classic sessions that i often do is actually a hundred one hundreds which is a brutal two and a half hour session because i take them off 130 but incredibly difficult to do but what that is it's not necessarily particularly quick but what it is it's about trying to maintain that speed over time and that's what that's what iron man triathlon is about so to a seasoned open water swimmer 3.8 kilometers of the norseman's swim leg may not seem that far but it's interesting because what you have to do is layer the environment on top of that the first thing is the mass start and the mass start can feel like an absolute washing machine because everybody is fighting for their space while still trying to swim in a forward motion it can be an incredibly scary place if you're inexperienced and so therefore making sure that you can handle that that you don't expend too much energy early on is absolutely crucial the run's an interesting one because actually the distance doesn't faze me what does concern me is the end of the run up a mountain and i have a history of achilles and calf injuries and hills are fundamentally the nemesis for both of those areas one of the key things which is now central to performance enhancement is this idea of marginal gains and what marginal gains is is actually looking for small margins of improvement lots of those across each of the disciplines and when we accumulate those small differences they can actually make a massive difference to overall performance and that can be the difference between winning losing it can be the difference between not finishing and finishing so for me with the cycling being the weakest of my disciplines i knew that was where we start with marginal gains for years i've been riding oro bikes from the iride team based in brighton and they came up with an absolute beauty for me to ride in the norseman but a bike is just a machine getting it to fit for you and work for you that's a whole other science next up on my journey was to get my all-important race suit sorted and for that i'd nip up to derby to see the team at hoob this this suit we tried to combine aerodynamics which is the huge play right now because 80 of your drag in triathlon on a bike is your body so we're trying to put the aero benefits into a suit that's good it takes going for extreme conditions if you look at the shoulder this fabric has ribs in it you could be learning to believe in everything has to be really smooth to go through the air faster well this isn't we're tripping the air with turbulating it we're taking enemy vacuums away from behind the body so you're going faster for less effort and then when you look at the legs you know we're a company born in rubber and wetsuits and here we've got neoprene trips this does patent pen and it's cutting edge it's tripping the air it's turbulating it and again you're going faster for less effort you've heard of marginal gains this is significant gains next on my journey was a trip up to worcestershire to olympic legend chris boardman's training facility first off bianca broadbent had the unenviable task of examining the pressure of my undercarriage on the saddle with a new saddle sorted next bianca turned her attention to my feet the right shoes and crucially the right insoles could help create a far more balanced power output through the pedal more power means more speed more speed means i get to that finish line faster the plio has got some work to be done okay i would say no hope for the plie next it was my time in the wind tunnel this incredible facility is at the cutting edge of aerodynamics research and with my old mate jamie pushing the buttons i knew that if there were marginal gains to be found on the bike this would be the place to find them so that's interesting so the drag that greg is producing now just over 12 newtons of drag the force pushing back from that wind is actually just slightly higher than when we were looking at a human performance vehicle at 55 miles an hour it's very draggy we've got a lot of work to do so you say here he has a swimmer's shin yeah i've got wide shoulders um very straight back which is you know great one of those aspirational things for everyday life but it's not very area and it means that when you roll down and you've got to round it back it's great for going fast but it's probably losing about 30 in terms of aerodynamics but the whole event that he's approaching is a compromise you've got to be able to swim you've got to be able to run and the bike riding is just a portion of it and that's i think fascination of it is it is a combination of different things and you're trying to weigh up what's best to compromise well done really good session covered a lot of ground yeah yeah and you know in realistic terms in the time trial position we've found you just over a kilometer an hour improvements in speed yeah 20 watts saving in power yeah i'll take that though i mean that is you know 20 what you think about that is two months training try and push the pedals hard by 20 watts you soon know about it certainly over those hours out on the bike well greg it's been an absolute pleasure having you in thanks for having me good luck thanks i'm gonna need it you are i mean you asked me the other day about why i'm doing this and there's multiple reasons really but i think family is at the center of it i was really fortunate enough to have an incredible mum and dad who didn't push me they supported me through everything that i wanted to try and achieve you know my dad would regularly take me up and down the country to swim meets the track meets on a continual basis and my mum was the rock you know she was at home she was fueling me with some you know fantastic food to keep me going doing the washing doing everything for me on a continual basis and and sadly they're no longer with us um and i miss them every day but i think what what really matters to me is that i in their legacy is i want to honor that legacy by continuing to push myself by continuing to be as good as i can possibly be because it actually goes on and i think part of that as well is about showing that to my children is that i i'd love my children to think about me like i think about my mum and dad i want to be a positive role model for them i want them to watch what i do and be inspired by that and i think crucially as well is to remember that it's it's about giving your best it's about 100 effort i often say this to my kids it's not about winning if you cross the finish line and you've given it everything you've got that is all you can ever ask of yourself and i think it doesn't matter whether it's sport whether it's life whether it's business whether it's family if you're giving it your best that's all you can do i learned that from my mum and dad and what i hope is that my kids will learn that from me and will reflect on that after i've gone those 5 am starts for training are totally worth it when you come back home for this pancake saturday i always say that recovery is king and this is how i recover with my family penny yeah what's it like being married to a triathlete nutter tiring um it's good i've only ever known greg as a sports person so that's all i ever know and i do sort of get it because i've done some sports before and yeah it's a commitment that sounds a bit harsh but yeah so guys what do you think of um what do you think of daddy going off and doing all these crazy triathlons how do you feel about him going off to compete in the toughest triathlon on the planet nervous worried and sort of can't wait to get it over and done with because he goes out training for hours and hours on end you just want him to walk back through the front door and all to be okay and it's a bit like that with a race i just want it done and to get the phone call and for all all to be fine and dandy really to come back alive basically do you remember that time that you went out on your bike and he i literally got a knock on the back door and there's greg stood there with blood down his leg down his elbow where he'd come off his bike but he did come home i made it home though that was the main thing yeah but it is a bit worrying but [Music] i mean running along and all of a sudden you just feel a little tightness in the calf around the achilles and then all of a sudden it moves to the point where you have to stop and lots of things go through your mind at that point obviously the worst case scenario is that it's over that you've injured yourself so badly that you can't go on fortunately i knew it wasn't that because i'm experienced with with that sort of injury this is a reoccurring problem with with my uh both calves and both achilles and to some extent it's age related and also longevity i've been doing this this stuff for so long now that i do pick up injuries and of course as i get older they take longer to recover from and that's the real worry in the back of your mind because as soon as as soon as you feel that injury the first thing you're thinking is is it over and then thinking to yourself it's not over the next question is how long is it going to take to recover easing up on the cardio whilst you heal doesn't mean that you ease up on the training strength and conditioning training in the gym is vital particularly during rehabilitation keeping your body race ready and your mind focused on the job in hand what is always in the back of my mind is that success success is only driven by finishing and so the support team that you have with you is absolutely crucial and and for me we've got we've got that crew and that crew is brilliant and particularly as part of that crew is my old mate bali who is a lifelong friend of mine we used to compete internationally together he's a formidable athlete in his own right and and he he'll be supporting throughout but critically on the marathon he's actually allowed to come out with me and to run alongside me particularly on the mountain principally because he he carries my body down if it all goes badly wrong what do you think greg's chances are of successfully completing it's a tough one i mean for greg very high i mean there's nobody with better mental resilience than greg but it's going to be brutal it's going to be a really really hard day it is an extreme ironman triathlon so the the run leg and the bike legs are going to be extremely hard but if anybody can do it it'll be greg and i've got full faith that he will get through it but it's going to be tough i have given it everything i have left no stone unturned in training i have worked as hard as i possibly can i have optimized my marginal gains so i know that when i step onto that boat at four o'clock in the morning to jump off into that freezing cold field i have done everything i can i will do everything i can to win that norseman black and whatever the outcome is i know that i've done my best nothing can really prepare you for norway it's raw it's beautiful it feels like nature is winning the day before the race competitors get a chance to settle their nerves with a little taste of the fjord how you feeling about the water it's all right it seems very stable there's that little tang of salt in it nice it's brackish that mix of good words of just salty yes i mean look at it stunning absolutely stunning assembling the bike is such a nerve-wracking experience so many questions fill your mind has it survived the journey are all the bits there and most importantly can i put it all back together i'll pull you when we're going uphill if you can do this so i mean this is glorious dag is this usual for the norseman actually it isn't uh the west coast of norway is infamous for its uh wet weather uh but for this region aidshow is actually the driest place in the region it is race day tomorrow what can i expect if the weather conditions that are um forecasted now uh if it sticks to that you'll have a fantastic swim you will love the bike and you'll be quite warm on the run actually until you start getting up into elevation again yeah and it also need to take in consideration that that for every 100 meters of elevation uh the temperature will drop one degree celsius so even if it's 20 degrees celsius here in the morning when you go into t1 you will most likely have six seven eight degrees uh the plateau so uh which can be quite nice when you uh when you ride hard when you're working when you're working hard so i've got to work hard is on the boat is the point of no return you look around and you can see people are anxious about what's about to come because they're about to push themselves to their absolute limit for over 15 hours to jump into the fjord at 5 00 am to start a 2 and a half mile 3.8 kilometer swim you know for many the fear is palpable all of that training through the purgatory of a british winter is irrelevant unless you deliver on the day there is there is no shortage of adrenaline prior to the start of a massive challenge like this many of the other athletes had thought about the swim they were prepared for the swim what they weren't prepared for was what looked like a five meter jump into the darkness into the abyss for me it was the real point of excitement i mean i loved that it was it was the point at which when you left that ferry the race began getting to the start line is really quite something the rush of adrenaline is incredible and you've really got to control it you try and focus and then you hear it [Applause] [Music] it's chaos in the water arms and legs everywhere it's totally disorientating the only way through it is to push forward to sight as best you can and push on to that first transition second out of the water it was a great swim i was really pleased with that but we're into t1 transition zone one and for me it's the much forgotten element of triathlon it can be make or break to to to a triathlon itself that you can throw away months of training by being too slow by not having your kit where it should be ready to go but of course there's a whole host of things that you can't you can't predict and i think one of the key things here was for me was cramp going from this supine position in freezing cold waters all of a sudden into this change of position and then trying to get your shoes on etc and the hamstring cramped up and and that's a real worry because actually there's nothing you can do about creme per se once you get it you've got it and cramp can end the challenge [Music] [Music] i'm on the bike now and this is the point of greatest fear because this is my weakest event i am a swimmer on a bike and this is the norseman 55 kilometers of continuous uphill to the highest plateau in europe and it's only at that point that the real climbing starts [Music] second out of the water there's only one place to go and that is backwards from that point particularly as the cycle is my weakest element and now the strong cyclists start to come past me and i think what can happen at that point is you can panic and you deviate from the plan and the key is to stick to the plan they are going to come past me i know that and what i need to do is actually use them just to pull me along this imaginary rope that as they come past me i pop an imaginary rope around them to drag me along towards the finish [Music] it worked let's have some let's have some drip we're gonna give you another bottle at 90 and 10 k's time yeah how's your food going the support van came past and the shout came from the van 90 kilometers to go and immediately i'm thinking to myself three and a half hours already done three and a half hours of uphill purgatory done but i'm only halfway when it comes to the conditions the environmental conditions i spent nine months preparing for cold you know every every message every image every conversation was about how cold it was at the norseman and that hypothermia was the real damaging factor low body temperature was going to be the real problem but of course on this particular day the temperature was high it was the complete opposite of that it was the reverse of that hyperthermia overheating was the real problem and so managing that on on an ongoing basis was absolutely crucial i mean constantly climbing up and up and up and again as a swimmer on a bike it's not my natural territory and what goes through your mind you have to be very careful to control it but what's going through your mind when will this ever go downhill because we can't keep climbing constantly it must go downhill at some point but the norseman is such an event where it's just relentless i'm five hours in 100 kilometers down still 80 kilometers to go and the overwhelming sensation is of fatigue but it's exacerbated by the temperature it's just so hot unexpectedly hot and with the lack of acclimatization it really does make it incredibly tough and of course as well as losing fluid constantly through sweating what that also does it becomes abrasive in those areas you expect it to be abrasive in so at this point it's time to stop and reapply some more anti-chaff cream and as i stop nature called and i've got ruled answer when nature calls it's gonna be great in full paper but you know bali has seen it all so the fact that i was weeing on his shoes whilst he was applying anti-shape cream and pushing food into my mouth simultaneously i mean the glamour of ultra endurance exercise was personified at that point i never feel like stopping lots of emotions come over me about how difficult it is and how hard i'm working and how happy i'll be to finish and get off this bike i never think about stopping i run this principle of the happy bank what i think is the brain is a bank of happiness and training is investment into that bank so when it gets tough on the challenge when it gets to those really really tough points what i can do is i can withdraw happiness the more training you do the more happiness you've got to withdraw 130 kilometers in and now the real climbing starts having this incessant climbing up to this point i look ahead of me on the road and realize that we are going up and we are going up steep and still at this point people are passing me and in the back of my mind what i'm thinking is black t-shirt that's all that's it's all that's coming to mind and i'm thinking to myself where am i what position am i in am i in that top 160 and it's actually the fear of dropping out that top 160 which is driving me on despite the fact my legs are broken my will is close to breaking point it is arduous at this moment in time was still 50 kilometers of the cycle to do followed by a marathon 140 kilometers in the only way that i can describe it with a 180 degree hairpin bends climbing this mountain is alpine it's like being in the french alps no longer are these hills these are mountains at one point i looked down at my speedo and it read 1.5 miles an hour and so steep was the mountain but all i could think about was how am i staying upright on this bike it's at this point that it becomes really risky utterly fatigued going downhill and panic ensues because now i'm thinking to myself where am i in the race i've lost a lot of ground because cyclists have come past me and now i want to make up that ground and so at this point having spent 150 kilometers going uphill i am refusing to use the brakes and i top out going downhill at 48 miles an hour taking risks that you would never normally take but it's being driven by the black t-shirt this desire to get into the top 160. so i arrived at t2 and in the back of my mind i'm thinking it's over my weakest discipline the bike is done but the key question is at what cost the endless uphill and critically the heat which we hadn't predicted what toll had that taken and we're about to embark on a marathon run in incredible heat mid 30 degrees centigrade and all i can think about is how am i going to cope with this and on top of that the achilles on the right side had flared up as it had done throughout training and then on exiting the transition just that hamstring reminded me it tweaked again as it had done in transition it's one type of injuries that suddenly take over your mind and instead of it becoming a race it's actually a battle of survival [Music] into the run and it is brutal the environment is brutal we're in a valley in the shadow of this mountain that i hope to climb and temperatures soar above 30 degrees centigrade and it becomes oppressive not a wisp of wind coming down this valley nothing to call you as i'm running along and it's a battle of attrition against the environment so hot was it i remember bali coming alongside and pouring room temperature water on my head and it felt like ice cold water being poured over me [Music] [Music] deep into the run now and people continue to go past me and at this point i'm really starting to ask myself questions everything is screaming the achilles that i've tried to protect for months on end is starting to come back starting to really hurt the cramping which i'd experienced that t1 and t2 is now starting to re-emerge [Music] the heat is utterly oppressive i feel like i'm being boiled as i'm running along everything feels like it's starting to go wrong at this point the idea of the happy bank is starting to become a real issue is that you have almost exhausted all of the happiness all of the training that you've done and this now becomes a battle of wills you are now fighting yourself i dissected the run down into kilometers so instead of thinking about how far i had to go i just thought about the next kilometer and constantly in my mind saying just keep going come on push and drive and push and drive and keep pushing and if we keep pushing one foot in front of the other one kilometer at a time i'm gonna get to the finish motivation is so important particularly in the latter part of the race when when things start to get really really tough and i always draw on the things that are closest to me for motivation and that's my family and and what my family think and how they reflect on it really matters to me and what was great for this particular race was my my two young daughters actually painted my fingernails before i went out on the race they painted union jacks on my fingernails and every so often i would just get a glance of them out of the corner of my eye and actually see those painted fingernails and i think i think to myself i'm doing it to make them proud because they want me to achieve and if they want me to achieve i can achieve it [Music] 10 miles to go and looming large not only is the mountain but it's the race to the black t-shirt where am i what position am i in i've got seven kilometers to go to get to the cut-off point to be in that top 160 to race for the black t-shirt [Music] 25 kilometers into the run the vast majority of the race done and i take a left-hand turn and at that point baldi joins me which is an incredibly important respite at this point but ahead of me is 10 miles of climbing and we start the climb with this notorious zombie hill i joined my broken brothers and sisters climbing this unrunnable hill in this slow attrition upwards towards the summit at 1800 metres still with 10 miles to go on the climb i looked around and i saw other athletes starting to relax starting to take it easy starting to take their foot off the gas but for me that was the point where i thought to myself push on keep driving keep pushing the fear of the norseman black kept driving me on but there was no way at this point i was gonna give up any positions i was gonna make up positions to make sure that i was in that cut-off zone at the right point to continue up the mountain as the cutoff point got ever nearer all i could think to myself was have i done enough have i done enough i made it the cut-off zone top 160 and i had actually achieved the norseman black all of the work all of the effort from me my team my family had come to fruition we were going to achieve together a norseman black it was incredibly emotional because it was the relief almost of actually getting to that point between me and the finish though was six miles of mountain to climb and you only get a black t-shirt if you cross the finish line how difficult could it be the final climb was utterly relentless it just kept on going and going and in the back of my mind i'm thinking when will we ever get there and i'm reminded about my kids in the car who say are we nearly there yet daddy and that's what it felt like because every corner you looked up and it just continued on and the terrain was brutal i mean it was rocks and boulders it was ankle breaking territory it was not a place to make a mistake the final stage of that climb was truly magnificent it was exhilarating we were in norway in one of the most beautiful places on the planet but actually it wasn't the vista that came to me it was just the steps in front of me the near vertical climb these final meters to get to the finish but having driven so hard having worked so hard on this race and having been supported by such an incredible team it was just became emotional the final element was just it was it was the realization of a very long process a realization of a dream to get the black t-shirt and that's what kept driving me on and everything else faded into insignificance outside of the finish line which was in touching distance oh [Music] to cross the finish line was like no other experience anybody who's done an ultra endurance race will know that that point when you cross the finish line the the weight of the world is lifted from you and the reason you often fall to the ground is because all of a sudden it's a different place it's almost gravity is different crossing that line there's just a sense of euphoria that firstly it's over you don't have to take another step there is no way there's no more distance to do you've actually done it nothing good comes easy man and that is [Music] how you feeling i am too tired to be elated i just feel like this is proud what was great from the team as well that they knew exactly what to do for me so andy uh had bought beers at the top [Applause] a beer never tasted so good which was a positive because it was the most expensive beer in the world oh my god but let me tell you it was like an angel crying on your tongue just having finished the race was the first opportunity i had really to to look around and to actually take in the incredible beauty of norway absolutely stunning and actually to think that the norsemen delivered it was everything that everyone had told me it was it was everything that i expected it to be it was brutal from start to finish it but it was so incredibly well organized it was like a family that everyone said it would be as we were going along athletes supporters officials alike everybody was willing everybody else to the finish but it was a brutal assault physically mentally emotionally but to stand there and realize that i had achieved what i sound to do and i had had an experience that that can't be replicated anywhere else other than in the norsemen was just such a sense of excitement achievement and pride having successfully completed the toughest triathlon on the planet there was just a nagging voice in the back of my mind and that nagging voice was saying to me so what's next you

Channel: Professor Greg Whyte

Views: 210,657

Keywords: nxtri, Norseman, The Norseman, Triathlon, Professor Greg Whyte, Greg Whyte, Endurance, Norway, Open water swimming, swimming, cycling, marathon, running, distance running, HUUB, Training, athlete, Documentary, Oniros Film Awards, Lift Off Festival, Prisma Awards, Extreme Triathlon

Id: -8ofhruGbh4

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020