Carlos Tkacz returns and is joined by his partner Steph Letourneau for a sitdown here in Rocklands. We talked about their diet habits, lessons from their 7 trips to Rocklands, learning to try harder, comparison games, respecting the difficulty of climbing, being good at being consistent, balancing your carbon footprint, making the most of a climbing trip to South Africa, writing novels, and much more!
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Carlos's Previous Episode:
EP 58: Carlos Tkacz
Show Notes:
thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/carlos-and-steph
Nuggets:
0:03:36 – Breakfast and food habits
0:06:24 – Trading climbing days with your partner
0:08:48 – Resting more to climb harder
0:11:01 – 7 trips to Rocklands apiece, and how to make long flights better
0:13:12 – Teaching and going back to school
0:19:01 – Why Carlos and Steph keep coming back to Rocklands year after year
0:21:23 – Steph’s experience on her first trip to Rocklands, and why both of them prefer bouldering to trad climbing
0:28:01 – Describing Rocklands’ style, Carlos’ first 8B ‘Monkey Business', and learning to try harder
0:33:10 – Steph’s lesson in trying hard, practicing her yell in the car, and getting hyped on Adele
0:37:21 – Carlos' experience watching a guy yell in Thailand, Coach Carlos, and asking if people want feedback
0:39:50 – Steph’s send of ‘Ghost in the Darkness’ 7C/+, and trying ‘Caroline’ 7C+
0:43:02 – Carlos’ tick list from the trip, sending ‘Airstar’ 8B, and reconnecting with the joy of climbing
0:46:16 – What helped Carlos change his mindset, and sending ‘Into the Void’ 8B
0:50:01 – Sending ‘Airstar’, and drawing inspiration from “the kids”
0:52:36 – Favorite Rocklands films
0:57:21 – Struggling with comparison games, respecting the difficulty of climbing, and doing your best
1:07:35 – Climbing is centralizing, and mental energy as a finite resource
1:09:42 – Unpacking my feelings about not progressing quickly enough, and our American obsession with speed
1:12:21 – Being good at being consistent
1:14:12 – Dopamine hits vs. building relationships with climbs
1:19:22 – Growing as a climber in Rocklands, and the stories we tell ourselves
1:22:13 – My shift in mindset in Rocklands, and redefining a lifetime worth of climbing
1:24:47 – Steph talks about how every season in Rocklands is a completely different experience
1:27:02 – Getting the most out of the experience in South Africa, and learning about the place and its history and politics
1:35:27 – Taking breaks from climbing to have other experiences
1:41:53 – Planning the whole year around their Rocklands trips, and doing two 12-week training blocks
1:45:47 – Teaching
1:55:41 – Flying, carbon footprint, and how our brains make shortcuts
2:06:29 – Being a park person, and how we’ve impacted nature
2:09:26 – Steph’s thoughts on climate from a physics perspective, and trying to be carbon neutral on balance
2:16:59 – Offsetting CO2 emissions
2:20:44 – How they fit their 12-week training blocks into a school semester
2:23:27 – The Training Trip, and building a community in Vegas
2:28:59 – Nesting and baby fever
2:33:04 – Training Weight, and the commitment to family
2:36:16 – Carlos’ new book list
2:40:31 – Speculative fiction
2:42:09 – Carlos’ latest book projects, and Steph’s first novel
2:45:59 – Carlos’ horror film
2:48:19 – Steph’s new book project, and where to find her first book
2:49:54 – Publishing a book
2:53:04 – The feedback Steph got from her publisher
2:54:58 – The Day You Became A Better Writer by Scott Adams
2:56:23 – Having a family, ‘Sky’ as the final boss of the 8Bs, and making the horror movie
2:58:24 – Enjoying the process
2:59:40 – What’s next?
EP 225: Steven Gets His Dream Home Wall! | ft. Tony Bell and David Bress, Founders of Revival Climbing Coalition
EP 224: Jana Švecová — Pushing the Limits of Female Bouldering, Finding Silver Linings When Injured, and Chasing a Lifetime Goal
EP 223: Aidan Roberts — Navigating Pro Climbing, Establishing His Two Hardest Boulders, and Glimpsing Mastery
EP 222: Paul Houghoughi — How to Bulletproof Your Knees, Strengthen Your Shoulders, and Maintain a Happy Neck
EXTRA: Keenan Takahashi — Mustache Q&A, Highballing Near Misses, and Japanese Climbing Culture
EP 221: Keenan Takahashi — ‘The Gold Standard’, Learning From Limit Moves, and the Origin Story of ANTIGRAV
EP 220: Alannah Yip (Olympian) — Alopecia, Finding Power Beyond Hair Loss, and Her Fight Against Disordered Eating
EP 219: Fitz Cahall (The Dirtbag Diaries, Climbing Gold) — A Lifetime of Storytelling, Taking Authorship of Your Time, and Being Pro But Not Fancy
EP 218: Mat Wright — Sending One of the World's Hardest Trad Climbs, 'Rhapsody' E11
EP 217: A Masterclass in Relieving Stress, Sleeping Better, & Improving Focus Using Self-Hypnosis — Dr. David Spiegel (Stanford Psychiatrist)
EXTRA: Maddy Cope — A Masterclass in Endurance Training
EP 216: Maddy Cope — Erase Your Bucket List, Embrace Discomfort, and Discover the Joy of Missing Out
EP 215: Nathan Williams — Lessons From 100+ Days on a V17, the Simplest Way to Get Strong Fingers, and Static Shenanigans
EP 214: How to Find Contentment in Your Climbing, Banish Shame, and Send Harder Than Ever — Neely Quinn (TrainingBeta, Life Coach)
EP 213: Simon Lorenzi — Three V17s, the Fascinating Story Behind ‘Soudain Seul’, and Dream V18 Projects
EP 212: Filmmaker Carlos Mason on Creating SENDING — A Look Behind the Scenes at One of My Favorite Climbing Films
EP 211: Davis Ngo (dr.climb) — Blowing Up on Instagram, Why Pro Climbers Deserve to Get Paid, and Overcoming Fear After Injury
EP 210: Stefano Ghisolfi — Chasing the Impossible, Using Humor to Send, and Two Drills for Legendary Endurance
EP 209: Graham Zimmerman — Going to the Mountains to Learn, the 100-Year Plan, and Imperfect Advocacy
EP 208: Jesse Grupper — Optimistic Training, Last Place to Olympian, and Leveling Up His Bouldering
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