Joe Rogan Experience #1244 — Colin O'Brady Transcript

Transcript

0:00 four three two one all right we're live what's up man what's up dude what's hilarious folks i just just getting back actually still uh still practically have the snow on my shoes yeah i got It's actually circular. Exactly. Yeah. So you went to the center of the fucking earth, what you did this is how you there it is exactly really wanted to ask you how was the hole and i was like excuse me he was like you know the hole

2:40 at least I didn't see the edge Did you know that? views and it was all these guys debating like with people inspire others to do whatever they want to do and And I kept being like, well, I mean, he's not out there alone. He's taking pictures. So, basically, food and fuel was the main weight. Fuck, dude. So the whole math equation really was figuring out just how much food and fuel I could put in the sled.

5:30 And I'm like, babe, I think we named the project the right thing. and 54 days later, And there's an edge of that So when I call her on the phone, she's like, because she knows the route. all the excitement, but fears of the journey ahead and and 375 pounds on my back. When the sled's, you know, when the snow is deep too, and loose and realized I needed to be a bit bigger because I was going to lose so much weight.

7:52 So he did another 1,000? Wait a minute. Get this, too, just because I've got to big up my band for a second. Fuck. So anyways, my training, he was the guy. I went to him, trained out of this gym in Portland where he trains out of. But then he would hand me Legos. What a fucking savage this guy is. There's people that are just, they're just designed different.

10:21 Absolutely crazy. There's one other one. it up or i was gonna have to just keep walking i'm in the tent now hoping these tent poles hold so this is me struggling with my tent just trying to keep it up i've got it you know tied down to my No, this is the film crew, man, that was following me around. Even a full battery would be on zero battery by pretty quickly.

13:29 but mostly actually using a compass. imagine you can't see anything, can't see one step in front of you. I'm pulling a 300 pound sled 12, For me and you're looking at your compass and you're dragging this shit behind you. Are you doing anything in your mind? just tap into this like timeless space where, you know, maybe 30 minutes would go by in two minutes

16:04 water, getting out of my tent in those crazy conditions, packing my sled, dragging it for 13 hours, gas that you could refill the stove, but a stove with fuel. Basically, the way my tent was, you saw the outer layer of the tent there. very often but when it does it of course never melts and the south pole is at 9 300 feet so not before when i was racing triathlon many years ago a lot of people were starting to sleep in those

18:35 took about uh 17 liters of fuel so that's what i have six gallons or something like that wow how side of too much when you when you finally got to the end how much do you have left so my final food left. And so I woke up and I was like, all right, let's go for done this. No one in the world's ever done this. Applause. Nope. Audience of zero. equivalent of a Navy SEAL, British Special Forces. The living most experienced guy in Antarctica has

22:08 see him in the distance just like leaving me in the dust um but fortunately after day six i caught save weight so i could get as much food and fuel in my sled i brought no extra clothes no extra i'm cooking on but the other side where i'm still inside covered i dig a hole in there that was my They actually say you can't even leave your human waste in holes here.

24:26 Crazy assholes It just says And there's a few places and you're like human footprints haven't touched 98 of the continent something like that i mean do it because one other guy ran out of food? And so, when I was looking at this journey, innovation center around nutrition, like come in the lab with us. And so they'd never done this I was burning 10,000.

27:46 going to be burning while you're pulling this 300 pound sled was it dependent upon the conditions how efficiently does that burn your body how much can your stomach absorb so you're hungry the whole right i eat this big animals on the coast there are but like in the interior i didn't see any animals i didn't see a bird i didn't see you know nothing

30:27 like what burns well with you how do they like in terms of like how many cat what's the best food in terms of weight versus calories and is there some foods that are heavier but don't have as be about 40 or 45 percent fats because i needed high fat food you know um to stay alive out there Breaking teeth on cliff bars. I should have brought you one, man.

32:16 And so they actually intermix like probiotics and magnesium and like beet extract every 10 what i mean is uh life forms oh no no bugs no no no yeah so that yeah yeah sorry um climbing everest or this summit day or this push or whatever but anything that's this long duration and there are three or four times i can remember like i remember one time i flew to the philippines

34:41 shit some more basically so yeah one one bad burrito one bad this can ruin you know It sounds like you really did it wisely. lifted you know i've gotten strong and all this didn't want to wear myself out too much you know stressing my muscles because i was about to go after body shot but i uh yeah i was i was very lean um but it was honestly it was also scary

36:36 Yeah. But when I actually weighed myself afterwards, like 20 pounds, like we thought it could have way is a solo effort i mean i was out there by myself walking across this but this was a massive happened is it's christmas day when i start this push and so my whole family uh i'm actually i have So 12 hours into the day happens and they're like, okay, maybe he's going another hour.

39:14 it's Christmas dinner. I finally call and it's my mom, my sister, my wife, like everyone's on Wow, you're feeling so good. snow is blowing around everywhere but i was locked in such a deep flow state in my mind that even I trust you. Like, I believe you like go for it. She could just hear it in my voice. you know, 32 hours and 77 miles later, the final push to the end.

41:46 get your heart rate elevated enough to keep your body warm but not too warm that you were sweating suffer through all that but you can't have itchy clothes on little merino wool is gonna make me feel for that reason. Unfortunately for me, like I said, it just irritates my skin. It is so funny that you could suffer so I use a synthetic, was this Norwegian company

42:58 hood i think it's wolf yeah wolfer wolfer i thought you were saying wool and i was like it sounds like the idea was just to not get it wet so basically strip down as much as possible um but like I mean, it's just so much colder than when pulling the sled, And that's because I started getting tiny little bits of frostbite on the bottoms of my nose and

45:05 And I actually was pouring, putting super glue into all of those basically little micro Wow. It wasn't meant for this purpose, but I was like, frozen it is on the inside that is so crazy oh my god man there and then like this neoprene mask underneath so i had yeah what what thoughts were going through your head like were you thinking man i need to get

47:43 tuning into this project and using this as as an athlete and actually more of as an artist. And my canvas really is just endurance sports, That's awesome. And then, of course, you have a giant team that prepared and helped you. Like, those are the facts of the situation. I think that's what the difference is. saying i think for me there's a lot of this strength comes from a dark moment in my life

50:41 hitchhiked through new zealand i end up in Thailand. And you ever been to Thailand? Yeah. Yeah, of course. And so, you're familiar with how much burned. So, my clothes were on fire um but mostly we got running around my bed and across my chest and the doctors are literally saying to me you know I thought of myself as a physically active person. the doctors for good news like he's gonna be all right right he's gonna walk she's crying but every

53:47 myself crossing a triathlon finish line, which is not something I'd ever done before. Like I'd And so that's what I focused on. I literally have this photo of me with the thai doctor i'm you know my legs are bandaged to my waist and the thai doctor is like looking at me carried on and off the flight back to Portland, Oregon, land back home and, uh, you know, still,

55:29 I'm still staring at this chair and I finally work up the courage and strength to get out of this wheelchair think you know be a magazine walking around without being able to bend your knees or your know what i'm gonna sign up for the chicago triathlon i live here now join a local gym And to my complete and utter surprise, I didn't just finish the race, but I actually won the

57:36 Swam at Yale University. didn't know all these like carbon wheels and a helmet, you know, all these like fancy, but in a race like the Chicago triathlon, I swim, I bike, I run, it was Olympic distance triathlon, so it was a mile swim, 25 miles bike, and we wander over to like the scorers table and the guy's like i'm like oh you know i'm trying to at least in my journey was I was like, wow,

1:00:02 that can do these things. you won the Chicago triathlon today. Do you think you should maybe do something about that? And I for the US national team And I ultimately have been pretty all right. like you know not like normal skin because the scar tissue the scar tissue just is it's just carries the heat a little bit different for some done with my legs and body in the last 10 years, I think prove at least that my body's doing all

1:02:35 and the duration of the many different things know exactly what that ligament is that goes through um through there but um that was really So, yeah, for a long time. Massage. I'll tell you a funny story it's funny i haven't thought of the story in a long time um uh i've never told this story actually her name's Kate Boyer, she obviously was like, wow, this could have been my son just as he said

1:05:01 and I meet this guy and he's sitting there with a bucket of salt in front of him. like what's this bucket and he was like this is the salt bucket that takes the negative energy away from your foot and your leg and puts the negative energy But I will say this. I am into a lot of alternative modalities. unlock the uh the scar tissue and allow me to make a full recovery i mean it was a lot of hard work

1:07:34 Let's figure this out together. belief does does you know add up to that. We know that, right? days alone like i'm telling you i'm doing this for this bigger purpose. this larger outcome. There was moments when my body switched And that there's most people barely scratch the surface of that. And if you really firmly get into that zone and believe you can do things that people

1:11:04 potential inside of me because of the outcome, because of winning this triathlon. But what I realized is that this sort of stuff people get through those but oftentimes these tragedies have to be forced upon us for us to do Well, that's one of the weird things about people doing extraordinary things like what you did is that you absolutely will give other people fuel to accomplish things in their life. Inspiration is so critical for human beings. I

1:13:03 a hundred miles. Like I'll show you, I can you i can run 100 miles you know and he's pushing his body to extreme ways or you know i love what and like day 49 day 40 50 like I'm literally crying into my GoPro being like, I'm running out of food. But then the strongest, most amazing moment business idea, but immediately they're like, but I can't, like, I've got no money to start this

1:15:06 What's the first step to that? I mean, we are literally asking Google We should probably get a website. So the world record was or had it just been athletics? And to just break world records doing it. you know about 300 foot hole a crevasse uh on the other side of it that you have to go through to Listen to that click. section a couple of times it's a very dangerous section of the mountain um but yeah went about

1:18:29 days. I just come from the North Pole before that Kilimanjaro, before that, you know, Elbrus, And we get up into Camp 4. There's no way. So, we just survive the night, wake up the next morning, still get impounded by of mine if you if you somehow get back up there so sure enough pasang bodhi that's the name of have read about this or heard of this if you know much about Everest, but basically no one climbed

1:20:53 to be in a traffic jam possible. And if you stand there, wind chill minus 40 degrees, right i don't know what they're like and people are i mean you're on everest at 28 000 feet and people are walking i mean one step per minute So we're in a much better place than ever. And I look down and my right hand is black, You know, what's my family going to think?

1:23:15 Like this can of coffee? whole time i'm like oh my god i'm such an idiot like i'm gonna lose my hand my hands frostbitten this tiny little knife edge ridge. And of course I have to adjust my gloves again. That's Pasek Bodhi right there. about a lot of this this podcast has been about mindset which is one of my favorite topics and It's like, it's not like, oh, let me think about this.

1:25:45 frostbite so it's just like it's a weird thing where you can take your mind like a lot of this I think those people actually did get carried back down to their tents that night and then died in the tents that night. Wow. rescue somebody very easily up there. I mean, to carry a human body down and to rescue them is nearly impossible. And I kind of always thought in my mind, you know,

1:27:20 of the mountain. And I think to myself, I've got to pick her up. I've got to pick her up and somehow like, it's gonna be all right. And I was like, just kind of going through this intense moment, whole crazy part of that story but it was an interesting lesson for me in like you know you get like a large team of people to slowly lower people down and you know in a weird way it's

1:29:51 four and i'm thinking i'm gonna sleep for the night rest and come back down the mountain usually I made it, like I made it. no frostbite no injuries like I'm good and I was like well actually um I uh I burned my feet and there. I'm like, yeah. And she's like, well, I actually need you to put your boots back on. but like I'm on the summit of, And instead of having three weeks to climb Denali, you'll have three days.

1:32:32 climbing everest i would think that your body's must you had to be in some kind of state of shock So your body creates more red blood cells when you go up into the thinner air to allow but 20 000 feet my body can handle the rapid ascent a little bit better if i can muster the So even though I went to the poles, pushing my body, but, you know, the cycle of high performance is also knowing how to recover,

1:35:08 of us, a couple of world champions, a female Ironman world champion, a couple of Olympic And I'm starting out was just too much for me. to implementing things in my, so your question about what did I monitor, you know, resting heart is and did all my blood work. And so, we can have basically this longitudinal study of my blood work that you don't really think about too much,

1:37:41 So there's less nitrogen in there? body so what ends up happening is your muscles of course need oxygen to perform so normally if i'm day and for in my case for 139 days straight. kinds of food that you eat or supplements that you take? do that sustainably, um, in any way, shape or form. So in my training, when I'm training for you're not getting the nutrition absorbed properly. And I think we all in various states, you know, you deal with that, you know, the standard American diet for

1:41:09 yeah you have like a particular way of eating i'm uh i'm recently uh doing more of a pescatarian was an extra thousand calories. So was a company was alpine air co-op days of the natural foods movement which of course now with you know amazon owning whole alleviating soreness especially joint soreness and uh it also makes you feel good like the the

1:43:37 No. Right. curing the root cause of that inflammation or anxiety That will alleviate inflammation like when you see people that are anxious, they often look bloated to me. think a lot of that comes from that chronic inflammation and certainly just those elevated cortisol levels of just being so jacked up and redline like you I think those are really good

1:46:25 I take this all the time. Yes, 100%. I take it about an hour or so before I work out. For that They noticed that That's how they started Cordyceps mushrooms grown on caterpillars. That's fascinating. out of their heads or something like that. who's been on the podcast before and i can't wait to get him back on again but he's a mycologist and Yeah. So it's a protein powder, but instead of giving you that glucose spike like you would from a refined sugar or something like that, it's kind of a long burn, long chain glucose.

1:49:58 Now, what scares me about people like you is how old are you now? You were on the lawn. You know, it's an interesting question. terms right you know you're in the you're in the peak yeah the peak for endurance athletes and it's junkie. you know, Like I'm screwed. expeditions sure i haven't i haven't, they're not fully crystallized enough inspires me, what really fires me up is when, when I get emails or notes from people like, Hey man,

1:52:58 You know, I love the opportunity to do that. you don't make it to the end of a long life, unfortunately, you were whispering in the ear of your 33 year old self how about this you know you've you've had an It's not that it's just difficult. maybe it's um you know we take a page out of the bruce springsteen glory days song and just you there some other physical expressions that i want to have in the world for sure and i have some

1:56:37 it. It gives me confidence. Not that I can do some other crazy physical thing, but it gives me those in all of those other different ways of my life. And so, you know, for me, I think that the but like i'm not sitting here going like you know feats how about that like break some ultra marathon feet it feels a little bit safer yes yes enjoy that i love public speaking i do a lot of that corporations kids everything but that's too

1:59:10 But I actually have met you Way bigger venues now I was thinking about it I started training with this guy named Phil Claude who was training a couple of UFC fighters at the time. But I got in this gym. like hey man i'm going to this comedy show this guy named joe rogan's gonna be doing his comedy For sure. which was a story about Kevin Durant that was on ESPN.com this morning. And it's about him and his

2:01:48 with media, with content, with all the other ways we can share the insights, which isn't beyond just this athlete in this arena, because we have all these other ways to storytell, be the catalyst for growth in that way colinobrady.com. Got a list on there. Like I said, I'm working on a book. There's lots of juicy details that I haven't shared yet so if you're interested in that you know pop your email address in there we'll keep you posted