- 1 for Ryan Van Duzer
Don’t know about “fire me up” but the flip side of “Miracle on Ice” is the documentary “Of Miracles and Men” which tells the story from the Soviet side and the after events of the loss at the Lake Placid games. Found it very well told and well worth a watch.
“Boston” is a great documentary movie!
Narrated by Matt Damon, it goes through the entire history of the race (some real cool stories in there), while also following the preparation for the 2014 race the year after the bombings, and then that 2014 race with Meb’s historic win.
I personally love all the long YouTube videos from Billy Yang.
Western States 100 and others.
Super nice cinematography and narration.
Go find him on YouTube. You won’t regret it.
Senna
It’s long but easily one of the best documentaries ever made I think.
On the F1 side, *Rush *also never fails to impress me. Great movie and while slightly dramatized, it was overseen by the real Nikki Lauda so it’s pretty true to events.
…made you feel JUICED….
Icarus.
The early climbing and polar expeditions are the best reads imo. Shackleton’s disastrous Antarctica being particularly good. Annapurna by herzog is also good (although some suggestion it is a very bias/romanticised account - Herzog was the expedition leader).
I actually just watched the Tony hawk documentary “until the wheels fall off” which was a lot more inspiring than I expected.
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There was an excellent Shackleton doco showing on IMAX about 15 years ago. Has there ever been a greater story of survival against the odds?
As a flipside to Tony Hawk, check out All This Mayhem:
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4031425561/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1
Not sure if inspiring is the right descriptor, but a compelling story all the same.
I actually like the bodybuilding ones (generation iron) on Netflix plus there’s a good one about Ronnie Coleman on YouTube.
Senna
It’s long but easily one of the best documentaries ever made I think.
On the F1 side, *Rush *also never fails to impress me. Great movie and while slightly dramatized, it was overseen by the real Nikki Lauda so it’s pretty true to events.
Have you watched the fan made ‘Silver war’? A dude made a pretty awesome documentary about Nico Rosberg vs Lewis Hamilton and the 2016 season. I think he also made a follow up origin story and how the relationship between Rosberg and Hamilton soured.
I Dream of Sushi ðŸ£
Jiro Dreams of Sushi - yes
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Zabardast is my favourite ski documentary - but more about adventure and awesome skiing than physical challenge (although there is some). The “south lines” ski films are also good, and for something a bit shorter some good YouTube channels like cham lines and Nikolai Schirmer
Ya can’t go wrong with classic Warren Miller films either. Although they often DO look cheesy & dated, they’re good for a laugh #whysoserious
There is a Canadian TV show from a few years ago called Boundless that I absolutely loved. A couple well known adventure athletes compete in random adventure/endurance races around the world. Everything from ultra marathons to stage ski races to all-night bike adventures. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail miserably. But the show did a wonderful job showing the physical ability and heart that is needed to do these crazy races. It was a well-done show that really opened my eyes to the world beyond triathlon.
Ya can’t go wrong with classic Warren Miller films either. Although they often DO look cheesy & dated, they’re good for a laugh #whysoserious
Most fun ski film ever is G.N.A.R.
Even though we all know nothing tragic happened in Free Solo, I still get sweaty palms just thinking about it
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Riding Giants (big wave surfing movie)
Directed by Stacy Peralta - The Search for Animal Chin, Dogtown & Z-Boys
Bruce Brown’s son made a surf movie called* Step Into Liquid *released about the same time as Riding Giants, and - honestly - it wasn’t nearly as good
Jack Johnson started out making surf films; I can’t remember *which *I discovered first, his movies or his music?
Even though we all know nothing tragic happened in Free Solo, I still get sweaty palms just thinking about it
I agree and got the same impression from « The Alpinist » (now streaming on Netflix). What Andre Leclerc achieved in his short Mountaineering carrer is incredible.
Even though we all know nothing tragic happened in Free Solo, I still get sweaty palms just thinking about it
I watched that on a long run on the treadmill - my HR shot up so much on his actual attempt watching it. Even though I knew nothing happened, it was adrenaline-pumping.
Probably more reality TV than doco but the Ironman series - was it called Road to Kona? - was inspiring for me. Most of the people really stood no chance of getting to Kona but there were some incredible stories of regular people giving it their all.
So I just saw the Eliud Kipchoge doc about him going Sub-2 hours with the help of, if my math is correct, about seven hundred of the greatest minds in sport and an unlimited budget. Despite this, despite so many problems with “The Last Milestoneâ€, I found it incredibly moving, a joy to watch, AND IT MADE ME WANT TO RUN FASTER LONGER HARDER.
This got me to thinking:
What are some of the great (or maybe not even remotely great) docs you’ve seen that made you feel JUICED…. inspired… moved?
This is almost certainly a recipe for injury and/or burnout. IME, you need to approach your training a bit cautiously, increasing the miles very gradually, and increasing the frequency and length of your hard runs very gradually. If you swim and bike, you can increase these distances faster with less concern for injury (aside from bike crashes), but the run needs to be very carefully monitored.
Even though we all know nothing tragic happened in Free Solo, I still get sweaty palms just thinking about it
Yup. Just insane.