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 133: Neil Gresham — Using Ballet to Climb Harder, Developing Your Finishing Game, and Extensor Training for Stronger Fingers
EP 132: Rebecca Williams — A Deep Dive Into Fear of Falling, the Self-Soothing System, and Climbing Smarter
EP 131: Ryan Devlin — Life as a TV Actor, Progressing From 11b to 12c in a Year, and How Pro Climbers Relate to Struggle
EP 130: Stian Christophersen & Martin Mobråten — Writing The Climbing Bible, Finger Strength vs. General Strength, and Strategies for Improving Technique
Follow-Up: Matt Fultz — How to Train for the Hardest Crimp Boulders in the World (Teaser)
EP 129: Dorian Evers — How to Navigate Different Stoke Levels in Your Relationship, and Getting Vulnerable with Your Partner
EP 128: Callie Joy Black — Training During Pregnancy, Climbing Hard with Kids, and Being Your Own Project
Follow-Up: Steve Maisch — My Summer Training Plan, and How to Get Stronger on the Moonboard (Teaser)
EP 127: Jesse Firestone — Bouldering Tactics, Quantum Leaps, and Non-Physical Factors That Affect Our Performance
BONUS: Michelle LeBlanc — An Upcoming 2SLGBTQ+ Pride Event in Squamish
S1E2: The Great Equalizer (Repost from The American Climbing Project)
EP 126: Devin Dabney — Getting Uncomfortable, How Climbing Saved His Life, and How Competition Makes Us Better
Follow-Up: Alita Contreras — Sending Her First 5.14a, and Training With Lattice (Teaser)
EP 125: Zofia Reych — The Heritage of Climbing, Breaking Down Gender Roles, and What It’s Like to Be Autistic
EP 124: Karly Rager — Mental Strategies for Developing Focus, Learning vs. Performing, and Building a Coaching Business
EP 123: Magnus Midtbø — The Hard Work Behind Success, Go-To Climbing Workouts, and Takeaways from Training with Adam Ondra
Follow-Up: Chad Andrews — The Pros and Cons of Living on the Road to Climb, and Having a Healthier Relationship with Money (Teaser)
EP 122: Jared Vagy — How to Prevent Knee, Shoulder, Elbow, and Finger Injuries as Climbers
EP 121: Carol Simpson — Being a Girl in the South in the 1950s, Yoga as the Fountain of Youth, and Ageism in Climbing
EP 120: Lea Volpe — The World of Paraclimbing Competitions, How We Perceive Wheelchairs, and Empathy in Coaching
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