[laughs]. You’ve never had an injury?

Daniel Woods: No, I mean I’ve had subtle tweaks and stuff like that, but nothing where I’ve had to be like “I need to take a break from climbing for multiple months”. My worse injury was through skateboarding, and I had a catheter in for 12 days.

Neely Quinn: Oh, really?

[laughter]

Daniel Woods: Yeah.

Neely Quinn: Do we want to ask about that?

Daniel Woods: You can if you want, I don’t mind, I just rocked myself on a handrail at a skatepark, and was supposed to go to Australia the next day, and had to bail on that trip because I had to go see urologist instead [laughs].

Neely Quinn: Wow, that is intense. So that’s- I mean- that’s pretty amazing, that you haven’t ever had a serious climbing injury. That’s probably allowed you- because a lot of times, people will start to get strong, make progress, and then get an injury and are set back for months. But you’ve been able to just keep going and going and going.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I’m pretty good too, with listening to my body. If I feel like I’m crippled, then I’ll take a week or two off. I won’t push myself. Or if I’m not in the training mode, I won’t force myself to train anyway. I know that when I do things that are hard and I’m tired, then that’s when my body is more susceptible to failing.

Neely Quinn: Mmhm. So, I have heard stories about you, basically never taking rest days. Can you talk to me about that?

[laughter]

Daniel Woods: Crazy. Um, well, I guess that’s partially true, and false. I definitely have stints in my climbing where I just get really psyched at it’s hard for me to take rest days. I do things called active rest days, where if I climb, I’ll climb really easy, or I’ll go on a hike, or I’ll do something active, but knowing that it’s not going to push myself and make myself tired. I guess in the past, when I was younger, like from 19 in my mid-20s, I was definitely climbing a lot of days on. I feel like I’ve slowed down a little bit now. I’m not saying I’m old, but I definitely feel the repercussions of a hard bouldering. It’s starting to sink into my system. I’ve learned that rest is just as important as training [laughs].

Neely Quinn: That’s interesting. So you have felt a little bit of age over the past years?

Daniel Woods: Yes, I have [laughs].

Neely Quinn: So what does that actually translate to? How many days a week do you climb now?

Daniel Woods: Right now I’ve just been climbing around, I’d say 4 days a week, and then have 3 days off, which is still pretty high.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, well and especially for you. What kinds of things are you doing right now? You’re about to go to Ceuse, so you’re in a route climbing mode. What kinds of things are you doing?

Daniel Woods: Mostly in the gym, I’ve just been working on building my endurance and resistance and stuff like that. I’ve been doing a lot of up-downs in the bouldering cave, and that’s climbing up a boulder, down another boulder, up another boulder, just trying to build as much stamina as I can. I’m only dong that around 4 days a week now, and I just do one session a day, and the sessions usually last for about 3 hours.

Neely Quinn: So you’ve just been climbing in the gym, and just on boulders.

Daniel Woods: Mostly in the gym. I’ve gone out Rifle the last two weekends. I’m trying this route there called Fat Camp, that Joe [Kinder] bolted, then Jon Cardwell got the FA, and Matty [Hong] got the second. So it’s still up for a third ascent. I’m pretty close to that and I’d be psyched to finish that before I leave to Ceuse. But yeah, it’s nice to take a break and get outside. I’ve just been gym climbing for the last, like, 3 or 4 months.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, it can get really old and really boring.

Daniel Woods: Yeah it gets pretty monotonous after a while, and you’re like “What am I in here for?”. Usually for me I need to either do a competition or have an outdoor goal that I’m training for to stay psyched.

Neely Quinn: So going back a little bit, you said that a session in the gym lately is just up-down-ups. Can you explain what a session looks like and how long you go in for?

Daniel Woods: So a typical session for me lasts for about 3 hours. I do a 30 minute warm up, and warming up I’ll do some dynamic stretching, I’ll climb v0-v5, and just cruise around. Really get in tune with my body, and make sure everything is working properly, then I’ll usually break. Then I’ll do some harder boulders, and then after I session some harder boulders, I’ll rest again. That’s when I’ll go to the cave, and do the up-downs, which is climbing up a boulder, then down an easier boulder, then up another harder boulder. I found that doing this type of training is good, because it helps since you’re climbing on boulder problems, you can’t really chill and rest for long periods of time. You have to keep moving, and develop a good breathing rhythm, and also try and stay in the game with your head, because you’re constantly doing hard moves. Overall it’s just a good training tool.

Neely Quinn: And how many up-down-ups do you do?

Daniel Woods: Right now I’ve been doing about 5. Up-down-up is considered one set, and then I’ll do that 5 times. I’ll start out with a couple of easier ones, and then I’ll try to do three really hard ones, that I’m going to be really pushing myself on. Usually that adds up to about 200 moves, and then yeah, I’m done with my endurance portion of the training sesh.

Neely Quinn: And how long do you rest between those sets?

Daniel Woods: In between, I try to only rest for about… if it’s something hard, I’ll rest like 10 minutes. If it’s something- if I have a day where I’m not pushing myself as hard, then it’s usually 5 minutes.

Neely Quinn: Okay. And how long is that cave-  you’re at Movement in Boulder, right?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, so the cave, going up, is roughly around ten moves. Ten plus moves I’d say. Some of these lines that I’m doing probably average around 35-40 moves total.

Neely Quinn: Okay.

Daniel Woods: And then I’ll do that five times.

Neely Quinn: Why do you choose to do that instead of actually getting on a rope in the gym?

Daniel Woods: That’s a good question actually. I think, for one, you don’t need a climbing partner to do it, you can kind of go in and do it whenever. I don’t have to rely on someone else. And then I think the main reason I do it, is that I can actually set harder things for myself, doing it this way. If I go downstairs and I sport climb, I’m limited to what I can do, because the things they have set downstairs aren’t as hard as what I’m looking for. So I go into the cave, and I can find really hard boulder problems, and then just try to build endurance through that.

I guess my theory is that if I can recover on a v7 down climb, or I can feel super fit when I’m going up a v11 after doing 20 moves, that implants this thing into my head, knowing that I’m capable of climbing my project for sure. This is what I’m going to be looking at when I’m projecting outside.

Neely Quinn: How long are the routes in Ceuse?

Daniel Woods: The routes, at least the one I’m psyched to try, which is Realization, is around 100ft I’d say- maybe 120ft.

Neely Quinn: So Realization is a 15a, and you’ve tried it before, right?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I tried it when I was 19. It’s been around 8 years [laughs].

Neely Quinn: So, how do you feel now compared to 8 years ago in your fitness and strength?

Daniel Woods: I hope I feel better [laughs]. I’m about to find out. I mean, I know when I first saw Realization back then, it was still fresh. It hadn’t seen that many ascents, and it still had this aura behind it as being the world’s first 5.15. There’s still kind of a lot of hype about the route, so I think I felt a little intimidated when I first saw it, because I kind of assumed that I wasn’t at Chris’s level. I tried it for a day or two, and then found out fast that I wasn’t in shape at all for the route, and then went and did some other lines. But this time I feel- I don’t know. I still feel a little bit of anxiety about it, just because I don’t sport climb that much, but I’m more filled with pure psych than I was back then. Hopefully my psych will override my anxiety.

Neely Quinn: And now a lot of your friends have done it.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, exactly. And it’s seen more ascents over the years. Realization is still a phenomenal route and it’s groundbreaking, but the level in sport climbing has gone up dramatically since then, so there isn’t this crazy presence behind the route that I first felt when I was younger.

Neely Quinn: Do you feel pressure to send it? Can you tell me about how you deal with- because I mean you’re one of the most famous climbers in the world, and I wonder how you deal with that- the pressure to send.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely a lot of pressure, I guess. More so, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself, because I go into the gym, and I have an objective in mind that I want to complete, so I’m putting a lot of the upfront work in at the gym. So if I prepare myself the best I can, then go try the route and still fail, then that’s going to plant this thing into my head, like if maybe I was training wrong, or if I’m actually strong enough to do this route or not. I think that’s kind of what I feel kind of scared about. I feel like I’m in really good shape right now, but being in good shape kind of means nothing. You also have to be in a really good head place, and actually that’s the most important. If you’re in a good head place, and you feel psyched, and you feel good about yourself, all that will outweigh your actually ability. I’m hoping that my head will be good when I arrive there, and that’s probably what’s going to get me up the route.

Neely Quinn: Yeah- how is your head right now?

Daniel Woods: The head’s not bad. I don’t know. I’ve kind of just been stuck here doing some stuff, and figuring out some life stuff that I’ve not really had to deal with before, so that was kind of a challenge. But now, everything is wiped clean and I feel pretty good. I’m pretty excited to be able to go out and start fresh, and just do my thing.

Neely Quinn: Yeah. You know, it’s actually kind of- not nice- but you’re kind of people’s superhero, and the fact that you said that you had some life stuff going on, and t probably affected your climbing and your psych- am I right?

Daniel Woods: Totally. Especially if your life stuff deals with emotions and all that, then it’s hard to focus and try really hard when you’re like “Well, I actually have this other stuff that’s more important at the moment, and what I’m doing now is still important because it’s still my job, but for some reason it doesn’t seem as important”. It’s just a weird gamble. But now I’m psyched and it’ll be fun to just go for it.

Getting back to your pressure question, and like you just said, I’m people’s icon, or hero, or whatever, and they look up to me in climbing. That’s awesome, and that’s also where I can feel pressure from too. It’s like, well I have these people looking up to me, and I feel like it’s kind of my duty to perform and give them something to be inspired about. If I feel like I don’t perform at my best, then that’s when I put the pressure on myself, like, “Come on, climbing is fun for you but it’s also how you make your living”. I also want to see the sport grow, I want to show what do to people to make them psyched to go do it, because they think it’s cool, or they think it’s a good way to stay fit, or whatever they want.

Neely Quinn: You said that you want to see the sport grow. What do you mean by that, and what do you think is going to happen with the sport?

Daniel Woods: I guess what I mean by wanting to see the sport grow, is that I want to see more people fall in love with climbing like I did, and be able to experience their own journey through climbing, and have that. For me, at least, it’s definitely shaped me into the person I am today. It’s taught me a lot of good things about myself, about how to function in life, it’s helped me to live a healthy lifestyle. There’s a lot of positives. It takes you to amazing places around the world. I want people to also share that experience. If you’re lost and you’re looking for a purpose in life, then climbing is kind of a perfect option, because it’ll not just offer you a sport, but this overall lifestyle package.

Neely Quinn: That’s true. It’s brought me my whole life basically. Job, husband, city.

[laughter]

It’s pretty crazy.

Daniel Woods: Yeah it’s weird to think about, but it’s good. Climbing has already grown tremendously over the last decade, and I feel like it’s going to continue to grow, especially with the amount of gyms that are being built around the world. Climbing is in the olympics now, there’s this big- I mean, whenever a sport has made it to the olympics, there’s always this giant hype around it, and that intrigues people to see what it’s about. I think it will take off in the next few years, and become actually pretty popular.

Neely Quinn: So you’ve been a pretty competitive climber since the beginning.

Daniel Woods: Yeah.

Neely Quinn: I would love to talk to yo about that, but first I want to talk to you about- do you think you would ever want to be in the Olympics?

Daniel Woods: Hmm good question. I mean, obviously I would love to be in the Olympics. That goal- or not goal- what am I trying to say here. That opportunity would be incredible, because it’s one of the highest levels of competition in the world- or it is the highest. I mean, I would try out for it in my lower 30s, and definitely I’ve noticed my psych for competing has gone down compared to what it used to be. A few years ago I had this competition bug, where I just wanted to go in and win and do well. But I had this inner drive, when I was competing to do well. Now I’ve kind of had issues trying to find that again.

Neely Quinn: Yeah I was going to ask you about that.

Daniel Woods: But I think when I look back now, it’s like “You’ve done the Nationals for over a decade”, which is a long time. I’ve done a lot of World Cups, I’ve done Invitationals. When I was thinking about it, I was like “Wow, you’ve competed a lot, and the type of pressure you feel in competing is way different than in outdoor climbing”. In outdoor climbing, I’m just putting pressure on myself, and it’s usually just my friends watching me, whereas when you’re competing, you’re comparing yourself to 100 of the best athletes in the world. You’re having an audience watch you, and if you’re having an off day, it makes you feel like turds if you don’t do well.

Neely Quinn: Aw.

Daniel Woods: There’s just a lot more pressure and waiting that goes on in the competition world, and it’s just a lot more chill in the outdoor world. You can work at your own pace, which I’m kind of drawn to at the moment. But I still have a few more years left before I’ll totally give up competitions.

Neely Quinn: It was interesting watching you at Bouldering Nationals this year, and I commentated. We talked to you, and you know, people have these expectations of you. You’re a 9 time champion, then you go out, and you don’t make it to- was it semis or- sorry to bring up bad memories.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, semis. Oh no, it’s all good. It was a good learning experience.

Neely Quinn: Yeah- what did you learn, and how did you feel, and what did it make you do after?

Daniel Woods: It’s kind of funny, because before Nationals, my whole goal was to do the full World Cup Circuit, because I knew I was going to be in Colorado for a few months. I was like, this gives me a perfect opportunity to train in the gym and get ready for that competition world. I was like, I’ll use Dark Horse as a test, I’ll use Nationals as a test to see where I’m at and stuff like that. So I went into Dark Horse in really good gym shape- at least I thought- I was like, oh I feel amazing. But then I went in and took 9th, and I was like, huh, what’s going on here. But I thought maybe it was just a fluke. Then I went to Nationals, and I felt really good at Nationals. Better than at Dark Horse- I felt clear in the head. But for some reason, I was in qualifiers, and just wasn’t… Like I felt strong, but my head was somewhere else. I wasn’t in the zone at all. If I fell, even, I’d just be like “Huh, whatever, it’s not my style, this climb. I’m just going to move on”, whereas the inner competitor is always trying to figure out a way to make it to the top until their time is up, you know?

When I ended my qualifying round, I knew I probably didn’t make semis. I thought maybe there was a chance, but I knew I performed pretty bad, so my hopes of making semis just dwindled. It was kind of a wake up call. I really thought about- I was like, why am I competing right now? Am I competing just to prove something to the public, or am I competing because I really want to do it? Ultimately, now I’ve come to the conclusion that I definitely prefer the feeling that I get when I’m outside, and I prefer looking for boulders and putting up first ascents, or repeating other people’s climbs. I feel like too that I need a break from bouldering, that’s why I’m going to go to Ceuse and sport climb. I need to switch things up.

I don’t know. Ultimately you just need to follow what your true passion is, and go with that, and not force yourself to do something just because you know it’s going to help your resume or your image a little bit. I know I’m definitely psyched to still compete, but I’m going to compete when I have that feeling inside to go and try hard again.

Neely Quinn: Yeah. That’s really cool to hear you say all of that. Thanks for sharing that.

Daniel Woods: Yeah no worries.

Neely Quinn: Do you think that part of the reason your psych level wasn’t high at Nationals- would you attribute any of that to the emotional stuff that’s going on?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I mean, the stuff that I’ve gone through over the last couple of months has definitely made it hard to concentrate, and feel pure happiness in what I was doing. I was forcing myself to try and be happy, forcing myself to try and feel strong. It was better than feeling negative, so I was just telling myself one thing. I kind of knew as soon as all this stuff was wiped away that I would turn into my original person again and that I would have that weight lifted off my back and focus in on what I wanted to do after that. I’m sure you’ve experienced it, and everyone else has. If you have something always on your mind, it’s really hard to get it off your mind until you know it’s completely gone.

At the same time, even though I hated having this stuff happen, it was a good learning experience. I feel stronger now, because of it, and I feel a little more like I know what I want, too. I know what I need to do right now, and that’s maybe not being in a serious relationship and focusing on my climbing and myself, and learn myself before I can move on [laughs], and do other things.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, it’s a maturing moment, it sounds like.

Daniel Woods: Exactly.

Neely Quinn: Did any of these moments ever make you question climbing itself? Do you ever get bored or feel like you want to do something else?

Daniel Woods: That’s actually a good question. Umm… I’d say actually the thing that saved me the most through this situation was climbing, because it’s what I knew so well. I was having issues knowing who I truly was- I know myself as a climber, but who am I outside of the climbing world, you know? Having that self doubt is hard to go through, but I knew I could go back to climbing and be like “Oh, this is actually who you are. This is how you should feel”. Releasing those endorphins while climbing, and feeling happy afterwards, that definitely saved me. It’s kind of crazy- it’s really hard to… I tell myself that it would be a good idea to get some other interests in my life [laughs].

Neely Quinn: We all do.

Daniel Woods: Just because it’s good to be a well rounded person, I think. I just need to find that other outlet that will intrigue me to put energy and time into it, you know?

Neely Quinn: Yeah. You just haven’t found it yet.

Daniel Woods: Don’t think I’ve found it yet, but I think it’s hard for me right now to find it, because what I’m mostly just thinking “Okay, you’re 27, you’re kind of entering your prime as an athlete, you should be focused on finding new areas, developing new hard boulders, trying to go crazy and climb everything.” Putting out a bunch of media material, building, helping companies that I’m working with out, to increase what they’re producing. Kind of more just going into the business side of things. Figuring out how to take my name and what I’ve done and help exploit climbing to the general public to get them psyched, and have it grow so these companies that I’m working for can grow.

Neely Quinn: I was just going to ask you about your long term goals with climbing. Can you tell me more about that, for your climbing, and for your career?

Daniel Woods: My long term goals, I definitely would be psyched to climb at a high level for as long as I can. That will be dependent on injuries, and stuff like that, but I hope I can continue my streak of being injury-less.

Neely Quinn: Let’s knock on wood.

Daniel Woods: But I mean, no matter what, I know there is going to come a time where my focus is going to shift into something else. Since I don’t have a college degree to fall back on, my whole goal is the work within the industry, and take all the knowledge that I’ve learned through it over these years and help companies out that I’m working for at the moment at being an athlete, but help them in different ways. Event organization, creating websites that will produce online videos, just basic stuff to get people psyched and wanting to go check out what’s going on, you know? I’ve always thrown around ideas with my friends, being like, hey, we should get a website up and going, release a bunch of videos, make videos we can sell on the website, maybe make news pages that are a little bit more accurate than 8a.nu with what’s going on out there.

I feel like the thing that’s really lacked the most in the climbing world, to be honest, is the news. Having a good magazine, having something that you can go look at and you can read what’s going on with good photos, accurate information, and…

Neely Quinn: Ooh, Rock & Ice and Climbing aren’t going to be super happy about that.

Daniel Woods: I mean to be honest, I’ve looked at magazines, and if I were wandering around, I wouldn’t purchase the magazine because I would be like, it looks cool, but it’s a lot of articles about things you’ve never really heard of. This is coming from the veteran side of climbing. Maybe if you are a random person, you’d be like “Oh, that’s cool, they’re really high up and blah blah blah”.

Neely Quinn: Right.

Daniel Woods: It would be cool if there was a bouldering magazine, or you have Rock & Ice be your all around magazine. I think there needs to be like… Urban Climber sort of did it back in the day, but they failed obviously because they aren’t around anymore. But we kind of need another Urban Climber, but that’s going to hit more in the bouldering-sport climbing world. Sport climbing and bouldering, and especially bouldering is going to be the discipline that’s going to take off, because it’s easy, it’s pretty safe- you don’t need a lot of gear, there’s not a lot of technicalities behind it, you just need shoes, a pad, and some friends to chill with and session. It’s just kind funny that all of the magazines, primarily what they produce is big wall adventure climbing. Which I respect, and that’s awesome, but the amount of people that are going to get into that compared to bouldering, isn’t the same. You’re not going to go to LA and be like “Are you guys into mountain adventure climbing?”- they’re going to be like “No, we go to LA Boulders”.

Neely Quinn: That’s true.

Daniel Woods: I think the media side of climbing has a lot of room for improvement, and there’s just a lot of things that will need to be made, because climbing is going to grow, and a lot of people are going to be wanting something to get psyched on. It will probably be up to us to fill that void for them, you know?

Neely Quinn: Yeah, for real. Insiders, getting the job done. I hope that you do do that- it’s a good idea.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, but this is- I’ve always messed around with my friends about these ideas, even starting now. Seeds are being planted, and yeah, one day it would be cool to start launching a bunch of stuff and put the energy into something else rather than just finding a v15 out there to do.

Neely Quinn: To change the subject a little bit, when you say another v15 to do, do you have hopes of doing v17 or beyond?

Daniel Woods: Yeah for sure. I guess the realm of climbing that I’m the most professional in is bouldering. I’ve done hard sport climbs, but I don’t have the same level of experience with sport climbing as I do bouldering. With bouldering, I know that I can go out and really find something that would be next level for myself and the sport. My goal, ultimately, is to climb 9a. I might have even found one up in Eldo that I was shown to last month by my friends Chad and Dave.

Neely Quinn: Whoa. In Eldo? Just right in your backyard?

Daniel Woods: I know, it’s only 15 minutes away, it’s perfect. It’s sick- even climbing on something like that is eye opening. I put up and stand start that’s v14, and the sit into it will be v15, so the full connection is 15 or 14 with no rest. For me, that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever seen or tried. You have Nalle’s thing in Finland that he just put up, that I’ll go try in October.

Neely Quinn: That’s what I was going to ask.

Daniel Woods: Yeah [laughs]. I thought maybe you would ask this.

Neely Quinn: Next stop, Dawn Wall?

Daniel Woods: And then eventually the Dawn Wall [laughs]. No, it’s weird. The Dawn Wall seems amazing to climb, but I also know that my experience with that kind of stuff is not anywhere near where it needs to be, to be able to go do something like that. It’s just a completely different form of climbing. I think I would enjoy the crux pitches of the Dawn Wall, but all the other climbing in between would give me trouble. And Adam is just a beast. The climbing that maybe isn’t his style, he’s just so good when it comes to sport climbing and that’s why he floated up that. For me, it would take a long time [laughs]. I think I might just stick to bouldering and sport climbing and call it good.

Neely Quinn: What would your sport climbing goals be? Do you want to take it farther than you’ve taken it?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, kind of my ultimate goal has always been to climb at a really high end sport climbing, along with bouldering. I would love to climb 15c and stuff- like La Dura Dura looks incredible, and Change in Norway. I think if I were to climb 15c and be able to establish some hard routes of my own, then I would be totally stoked about that.

Neely Quinn: What if you go to Ceuse and just do Realization in a day?

Daniel Woods: If I do it in a day, luckily there’s like two 15a’s I can try at the cliff and a bunch of 14d’s and c’s.

Neely Quinn: Perfect.

Daniel Woods: I think I’ll have my hands full during this trip.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, we’ll see about that- we’ll see. Cool, so for the last twenty minutes or so, I would love to talk a little bit more about your training specifics.

Daniel Woods: Uh huh.

Neely Quinn: I’m sure a lot of people are listening and are like “I want to know how he got so strong!”. Can you tell me a little bit about, in general, first, what you do to train, besides the things we already talked about?

Daniel Woods: To start it off, I’m kind of in the works right now with designing a 12 week bouldering- right now it’s going to be mostly bouldering, but eventually I’ll do sport climbing as well- a 12 week training program guide. My ex can make apps and stuff like that, so she’s going to make an app for this program. So if you’re wondering about ultimate details, like soonish, next year, we’ll have a training app out. But for the time being, I guess kind of a rhythm that I’ve always followed was, I would start training a month and a half before a large competition or a trip outside. That month and a half would be pretty much dedicated to just indoor climbing. I’ve never really been into double sessions, I believe in quality over quantity. I played around with doing double sessions before, but I would always feel really out of it and crippled during the second session, and give up and be like “This is useless”. I usually stick to one 3 hour session.

Basically, if I’m training for a competition, I don’t really train max power, because I know none of the boulders are going to be that hard. I train more in a way where it’s more endurance oriented. Doing a bunch of boulder problems- for example, I’d pick out twenty boulder problems in the gym that were graded v7-v10 and I would have one minute to do each boulder. So you have a lot of volume with a short amount of time.

Neely Quinn: And how much time in between each boulder?

Daniel Woods: Each boulder you just get one minute.

Neely Quinn: Oh, and that includes your rest time.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, exactly.

Neely Quinn: Okay.

Daniel Woods: So if you flash the boulder, you have some time to chill, then you go on to the next. But if you give your last burn, with 10 seconds to go, and the time goes up, then it’s immediately into the next one. And you can rest, but you have a minute basically. Then I’ll do 4x4s on boulder problems, where I’ll climb one boulder four times in a row, I’ll rest for five minutes, then I’ll go onto the next boulder four times in a row, and you do that four times, so you do 16 climbs total within a 20 minute period. That’s mostly how I train for power endurance. Max power is just setting really hard boulders for myself, things that are double digits, setting moves that will work on my weaknesses and stuff like that.

Neely Quinn: What are your weaknesses?

Daniel Woods: My weaknesses are solving tricky problems [laughs], and I wouldn’t say I’m the best with standing on my feet. Like, doing delicate movements over volumes and trusting my feet on smears- technical climbing is for sure my weakness [laughs]. My strength is roof and crimps and pinches.

Neely Quinn: Right, definitely. I won’t bring up Bouldering- I just did bring up Bouldering Nationals, but yeah.

Daniel Woods: It’s all good.

Neely Quinn: We definitely saw you struggle on something like that.

Daniel Woods: Yeah [laughs].

Neely Quinn: So for comps you’ll work on those kinds of problems, like you’ll set them for yourself?

Daniel Woods: I think I totally trained wrong for Bouldering Nationals and the World Cup. I was training more in a power way, and I should have been training more by working on coordination, feeling confident standing on structures, and also have someone set me weird problems and trying to solve them within a five minute period. I think when I try competing again, I’ll totally revise how I was training. I won’t even train power.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, it seems like it’s either super gymnastic, like flying through the air, or it’s just standing on your feet.

Daniel Woods: Exactly. I think that’s been the hardest thing to get used to, is learning how to adapt to that. But it is how it is now. They have this formula of how they want to set for comps, so if you want to do them, you gotta know how to climb what they’re presenting to you. I think we’ll revise a few things for next time.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, especially if you want to do World Cups. It seems like they’re all like that too.

Daniel Woods: Exactly.

Neely Quinn: Ah, tricky tricky. You’re not in Hueco anymore, I guess.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, if they set like Hueco or the Park I’d be so psyched.

Neely Quinn: Right, and then you won the Hueco Rock Rodeo this year, so, like, you’re winning these comps.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I can win the outdoor comps [laughs]. That’s where I feel at home.

Neely Quinn: Okay, so for comps you do this 20 problems one minute. That probably trains- it’s helps your brain even train for a competition setting where you’re on a timer.

Daniel Woods: It’s pretty key if you’re training for comps to always time yourself and put yourself under this time pressure. That’s also a big part of doing well, is being able to stay calm in that comp environment and work well under pressure when you have a time limit presented to you.

Neely Quinn: Do you ever do mock comps in particular? Like give yourself 3 problems and 5 minutes each?

Daniel Woods: I’ve done that definitely before, in the past. I think what I want to do next time with that is do a mock comp where someone would set me a set of boulders. Like, set me four boulders and then I would do the comp that way. The issue doing it off of boulders that you’ve set for yourself is that you are usually going to set in your style of climbing, so it would be nice to get someone else’s perspective, and then try to do it that way.

Neely Quinn: Okay so that’s for competition training. So we talked about how you are training right now for routes. Can you tell me about how you train for bouldering outside for a project?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, so training for bouldering outside for me, is probably the most simple way to approach things. Usually I’ll observe the types of holds and moves that are on my project. Like if I am training for something in Bishop, it’s usually really crimpy and not super steep. I’ll do a lot of fingerboard work, I’ll set mostly all crimp problems in the gym, I’ll do everything to get my fingers as strong as possible, because I know the area is very finger intensive.

If I’m going to an area like Fontainebleau, where it’s all slopers and big muscle groups, then I’m not going to train my crimp strength, I’m going to climb on bigger slopes, pinches, train more full body power. Do workouts that would hit certain muscle groups and stuff like that. It all depends on the area I’m going to basically, and that depicts how I’ll train for it.

Neely Quinn: Okay, and in the same thing though, you’ll give yourself a month and a half in gym to prepare?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, exactly. And if I’m training for an outdoor climb or an outdoor trip, a lot of times I’ll climb outside here during the day, and then I’ll finish with a session in the evening. So I guess I’ll do somewhat of a double session, but for me it’s important to have really good skin before going on an outdoor trip. Making sure the skin is leather-like and just going to be super strong, you know?

Neely Quinn: Right, and going outside is going to help with that?

Daniel Woods: Yeah going outside just helps build that base, and then when you go inside you can fire off that volume, which is hard to get outside.

Neely Quinn: Can we talk about fingerboarding a little bit?

Daniel Woods: Sure.

Neely Quinn: So when you do fingerboarding, what kinds of things are you doing?

Daniel Woods: I do really basic stuff. What I’ve been doing mostly now, is on the BeastMaker. I’ll warm up on the full pad rung, I’ll probably do 3 sets of 10 second hangs, so it’s really basic. I’ll move to the really small ones, the 1/4 pad ones. I’ve been doing this thing where I hang for 10 seconds, rest for 5, hang for 10 more, and I go to 60 seconds with that, and I’ll do that about 5 times. It helps build that crimp resistance. Then I do a lot of one arm open hand deadhangs, on all different sizes of the rungs. When that becomes easy, I’ll start adding weight in one hand, and trying to use weight to make things harder.

Neely Quinn: So when you’re doing the two handed hangs, are you putting weight on you then too?

Daniel Woods: I do, yes. At first I don’t. I’ll usually within the first week of things, I do everything weightless. I build up my base, and then going into the second week, I start adding in weight for both two hands and one hand. I’ll start off with a low weight for a few days, and it’s all about feeling and how your body feels. If I notice my body getting stronger, then it’s like, okay I can step up the weight now. If my body feels weak, sometimes I’ll take away weight, or I’ll just maintain the same weight.

Neely Quinn: So are you only using the one grip then, the crimp?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I mostly just use the full pad rung, and the 1/4 pad rung.

Neely Quinn: And then are you doing half crimp, full crimp, open hand?

Daniel Woods: I train all open hand. I never train with my thumb over my index. I think naturally I feel strong when my thumb is over my index, and that’s an easier position for me to hold, and I feel weaker open hand, so that’s why I’m training open hand mostly.

Neely Quinn: So completely open hand, you’re not half crimped at all?

Daniel Woods: Let’s see… I’m mostly half crimped, sorry. I’m trying to visualize that. Mostly half crimp, so yeah, my fingers are definitely at a 90.

Neely Quinn: Can I ask how much weight you’re adding at the peak?

Daniel Woods: At my peak, I probably, right now I’m at like 25lbs. I can do that with one arm. I probably would push it to 35, but I wouldn’t go more than 35, for myself.

Neely Quinn: That’s one arm.

Daniel Woods: That’s one arm. For two arms, I actually haven’t done weight in a while with two arms, I’ve just mostly been doing one arm stuff.

Neely Quinn: That’s actually really surprising for me to hear. It’s just hard for you, or you’re just like “I don’t really care that much”?

Daniel Woods: For two arms?

Neely Quinn: Yeah.

Daniel Woods: I don’t know, for some reason I just feel cooler I guess doing it one arm, and by the time I’ve done one arm I’m, like, dead, and so there’s no need to go back and do two arms. What actually I might start doing now is, especially after my Ceuse trip, is doing maybe not as much weight, but adding a little bit of weight to the 10 seconds on 5 seconds off exercise, and just adding a little bit more for the resistance. I think the reason why I add weight to the one arm, s a view the one arm as my max power training days. I’m trying to make it as hard as possible, and I only use weight for max power days. If I’m just doing an endurance day on the fingerboard I use no weight. The endurance days are the extended hangs that I was talking to you about earlier.

Neely Quinn: Okay, alright. Now, so those are fnigerboarding days. And how many days a week do you fingerboard when you’re training?

Daniel Woods: When I’m training, I usually do it about three days a week. I’ll do it for around a 20-30 minute session on the fingerboard.

Neely Quinn: Do you lift at all?

Daniel Woods: I do not lift weights, no.

Neely Quinn: Is that something you’ve ever done?

Daniel Woods: No, I’ve never lifted. I’ve done TRX, and then I’ve ran and stuff on the treadmill, and that’s about it.

Neely Quinn: That’s the extent of outside of climbing training?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, and I don’t know, to be honest, the fingerboard I think is really good, I don’t campus that much at all, and then I mostly just climb. A lot of my training is just through climbing itself. I think I was lucky growing up, being able to live in Boulder and having a community of climbers who all climb really strong. Being surrounded by that, and getting to just climb on really hard boulders, and seeing them get done, inspired me to be like “Oh, maybe I can do that”. And what I tell people too, is that the best way to improve as a climber is just through climbing itself, and to learn through others and stuff like that.

Yeah, well that’s a departure from what a lot of my other interviewees say. There’s a lot of weightlifting going on, and a lot of campusing and all this. Do you think that not doing a lot of this stuff, especially the campusing has helped you stay injury free?

Daniel Woods: Yeah. I think limiting the amount of gym climbing that I’ve been able to do over the years has also helped me. Just because when you’re constantly training and in the gym a lot, you’re just doing a lot more volume than if you’re climbing outside. If I go outdoor climbing, I’m only climbing on maybe two or three things a day. If I go inside, I’m doing like 500 moves, you know? Which is crazy. So your body definitely takes more of a beating inside. I think that’s why I’ll have periods where I- like when I leave for Ceuse I probably won’t climb inside for the next 3-4 months. I’ll come back, go to Africa after that, then come back, and go on another trip outside.

Neely Quinn: You’re going to Africa to Rocklands or something?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, exactly.

Neely Quinn: Is that going to be hard for you to transition from having been sport climbing to going bouldering?

Daniel Woods: Oh yeah, it’s not easy. I think it’s easier to transition from bouldering to sport climbing, but it’s harder to go from sport climbing to bouldering, just because you have to brutalize your body in such a different way to do some of these boulder problems, so that’s kind of a painful process. If you already have that base in bouldering, the moves on sport routes are easier than on boulder problems, you just have to get through that forearm burn and then you’re good to go.

Neely Quinn: Which sometimes can only take a few weeks.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, exactly. I’d say like two weeks I feel good in sport climbing, and it takes me about a month and a half to feel good in bouldering again.

Neely Quinn: Wow.

Daniel Woods: Yeah, Rocklands might be a bit of a shock, especially going from climbing on pockets and crimps to slopers. Opposite style.

Neely Quinn: It totally is. Yeah, and it seems like it’s kind of a mental shift too, to be able to… like you go on routes, you have rests, you can breathe. Then when you’re on these hard boulders, you’re just trying hard and wrestling the whole time.

Daniel Woods: Exactly. You hold your breath a lot when you’re bouldering. Your goal is to just exert as much force to the rock as possible. Bouldering is like a completely different sport compared to sport climbing, which is also a completely different sport compared to trad climbing and alpine climbing. None of it is the same. The skills you need are different, your mental approach is different.

Neely Quinn: Yeah. Can you tell me some of the things that happened during the transition from routes to bouldering?

Daniel Woods: What do you mean?

Neely Quinn: Sorry- with your training. You’ll come home, and do this month and a half of training before you go to Rocklands, is that right?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, so when I get back from Ceuse, I’ll probably only have two weeks before I go to the Rocklands. My formula isn’t always the month and a half. Usually I’ll have a month and a half to train for an area during the fall/winter. Spring into summer I’m pretty much gone, but I will be back for two weeks. I’m going to see how I feel after the Ceuse trip, and to be honest, if I feel pretty beaten down, I’ll probably just rest for a week and recover, and then just ease into bouldering. I probably won’t train on the fingerboard, I won’t do any supplemental work, I’ll just climb when I get back, and then just go for it.

Neely Quinn: That sounds very reasonable, and it seems like a really good lesson for people to hear. Like, when you’re tired- because that was what I was going to say- you might be exhausted when you get back from Ceuse. So the fact that you’re willing to just rest, that’s really cool.

Daniel Woods: The things is too, what I’m learning as well, deep down I know how to boulder. I know how to do certain moves, and I can spend a good week or two in the Rocklands getting my base up before trying something hard, so there is really no rush into being like- oh I need to make sure I’m at my peak bouldering right before I go there. I know it’ll jus the better to hang out a recoup, and then go into Rocklands with more motivation,you know?

Neely Quinn: Yeah, yeah. So briefly though, if you did have a month and a half, what would your schedule look like?

Daniel Woods: If I did, I’d be in the gym probably 4-5 days a week, and I’d just be training raw power. Probably use the first week to ease into it, build up my base a little bit more, second week trying to up the level by climbing… usually if I’m training power, I’ll try to pick out 6-10 pretty hard, maybe v10-v12 for boulders, and try to knock those out.

Neely Quinn: And no time limit?

Daniel Woods: No time limit, just kind of have the session, you know? Sometimes v11 you can flash, or sometimes v11 will take five tries or six tries. I don’t really give myself a time limit to complete this boulder. I try to set boulders for myself that aren’t going to be flushable, and that are actually going to take me 30 minutes to an hour to actually have a chance at doing.

Neely Quinn: When you’re seasoning those, do you just sit down and wait until you’re ready to go again, or do you give yourself a certain amount of time where you have to rest?

Daniel Woods: I usually just hang out, if I’m alone in the gym I’ll listen to music, if friends are there I’ll chat with friends, but I just hang out until I feel like I’m psyched to go again. I don’t really work so well under time limits, so that’s why I don’t time myself or anything like that. Everyone is different- some people need that time to be like, okay, I’ve rested now for ten minutes, I can go. For me, I just kind of go off a feeling, and what I feel like in the moment.

Neely Quinn: So that would be your second week, and you have four more weeks to train. What would you do with those?

Daniel Woods: For the next few weeks I’d probably maintain what I was doing with climbing- a lot of circuiting in the gym, climbing on boulders that I’ve set already or that other friends have set, just trying hard things. But I would probably start doing more supplemental work upstairs, like TRX, doing pull-ups, a lot of push-ups, and then fingerboard workouts and stuff like that. Trying build more body power.

Neely Quinn: And when you do pull-ups, are you dong regular pull-ups with weight, or what are you doing?

Daniel Woods: I just do regular pull-ups. I’ve actually never done weighted pull-ups before. Kind of jokingly I was doing one arm weighted pull-ups a few months ago, but I wouldn’t say that I’m always doing one arm weighted pull-ups or always doing weighted pull-ups. A lot of the time I just work out using my own bodyweight.

Neely Quinn: And you’ll do push-ups. Are you doing anything to avoid shoulder injuries?

Daniel Woods: I guess, yeah I try to do push-ups because it helps balance out the body a little more more, because you’re always pulling when climbing. And to be honest, I don’t do too many pull-ups, because that’s what I’m doing downstairs when I’m sessioning all the time. I mostly do push-ups and stuff. That just helps too, with strengthening the muscles that you aren’t really using that much. I should probably even start doing other forms of pectoral exercises, other than push-ups, to help build that up more, but I get too lazy [laughs].

Neely Quinn: It’s so different talking to you than some of the other boulderers who are not even as strong as you, and they do so much more with training. So much more regimented training. I just wonder, how are you so frickin’ strong? Do you think it’s something about how hard you make yourself try? Because I think that can make you strong too.

Daniel Woods: Oh for sure. I mean, I think that’s honestly one of the most important things. I’ve always had this feeling in me, if I see something that’s really- especially if it’s outdoors- inspiring, I’ll do everything I can to make it happen, you know? But if I’m not feeling inspired in the moment, then I’m just like, there’s no need to brutalize my body for no reason. I think I just kind of know the moments where I’m psyched and that’s when I’ll train to make sure I can get the job done, and if I’m just not feeling it, I won’t push myself. I know a lot of people will keep pushing themselves because they’re worried that they’ll lose their shape.

There’s a ton of gym climbers that I’ve seen climb really hard in the gym, train super hard, and then they go outside and climb three grades below what they can climb in the gym. That just comes down to knowing how to read rock, knowing about hone your window is to burn your project, knowing conditions, and all these other factors that go into sending something hard, rather than just strength.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, so it seems like you have a really good balance of climbing indoors, and mostly climbing outdoors, so you can do what you really love.

Daniel Woods: Exactly, yeah.

Neely Quinn: Okay, I only have time for a few more questions, but one thing I’ve heard about you- do  you know how many Daniel myths there are out there? I mean…

Daniel Woods: No [laughs].

Neely Quinn: Well maybe it was in a video that you made. You would wear gloves in the shower, or just wouldn’t wash your hands all together in order to save your skin. Can you talk about that a little bit? How you save your skin?

[laughter]

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I mean, I do some weird stuff out there [laughs]. I don’t know. For some reason, I have this thing in me where I just don’t want to douse my hands- this is the thing though, I wash my hands, for one. My hands are clean, they’re not dirty.

Neely Quinn: Okay [laughs].

Daniel Woods: I just don’t like to- especially if I’m about to go session- I don’t do the dishes or do anything that involves having my hands submerged under water to make them soft. I just try to make sure my skin is as dry as possible. Because for me- everyone’s skin is different- but for me, when my skin is thick and hard and in good shape, I have the best friction on the holds, especially outdoors. So I think that’s why I’m weird about when I shower, and I just don’t want to douse my hands and stuff.

Neely Quinn: So when you’re in the shower you just kind of keep your hands out of the water?

Daniel Woods: Exactly [laughs].

Neely Quinn: Do you still wear gloves in the shower though?

Daniel Woods: I do.

Neely Quinn: You do! This is serious! That’s like, a big deal. Maybe we should all be doing that.

Daniel Woods: Okay, so I wear gloves, but then afterwards, like after I’m done showering, then I’ll wash my hands in cold water [laughs].

Neely Quinn: In cold water, not hot water.

Daniel Woods: Yeah.

Neely Quinn: Because the hot water makes it softer?

Daniel Woods: I don’t know, I mean, it probably doesn’t. I’ve done this rhythm for the last, like, decade of my life, so it’s just what I know [laughs].

Neely Quinn: Yeah I mean, keep doing it. It’s obviously working, and we’re all obviously not doing it right.

Daniel Woods: Oh man, maybe I could get sponsored by a glove company after this. That would be amazing- some rubber gloves [laughs].

Neely Quinn: This is actually a little mind-blowing for me. Before you started doing this, were you getting a lot of splits in your fingers?

Daniel Woods: No, actually. It’s pretty rare that I’ll split my tip, except this year I’ve already split it multiple times. I don’t really deal with too many splits. I don’t know why I do it. It’s just… I guess I have it in my head where it’s like “If I leave the shower and my hands aren’t prune-y looking, my skin is going to maintain this hard state”. But I mean, maybe it’s good to douse your hands in water and thoroughly clean all the oils off and stuff like like. Maybe I’m doing it completely wrong.

Neely Quinn: I have no idea.

Daniel Woods: I think it’s just a mental thing [laughs].

Neely Quinn: Whatever works for you, Daniel!

Daniel Woods: Whatever works for everyone out there. Some people need lotion on their hands before they climb, so…

Neely Quinn: Do you have really sweaty hands or not so much?

Daniel Woods: I wouldn’t say I have super hydrosis on my hands, but I’d say they’re- I don’t need lotion on them. If I put lotion on my hands they’re soft for 3 or 4 days.

Neely Quinn: Ugh.

Daniel Woods: So I don’t use lotion.

Neely Quinn: Okay, we can stop talking about hands and skin and we can be done with that. I have one other question for you. I always like to get an idea of people’s thoughts on nutrition and bodyweight. Can you talk to me about how you eat and why?

Daniel Woods: Yeah. I think for one, nutrition is probably the most important tool when training, or just to live in general, you know? Your body is your machine, and if you’re putting bad gas or oil into your car, your car is going to not be as functional and not be as healthy. It’s the same with your body. I’m big into eating whole foods, I primarily eat vegetables, simple grains, I eat a lot go Quinoa, brown rice, rice noodle pastas, I eat every vegetable out there. I do eat meat, but not a ton. I eat meat every once in a while- like sometimes I’ll go two weeks without eating meat. Sometime’s I’ll eat meat three days in a row. It  just depends on the types of workouts I’m doing and stuff like that.

Neely Quinn: Meaning if you’re doing harder workouts you’ll have more meat?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, I feel like if I’m training, like if I’m doing power training, max, if I’m trying to build muscle and stuff, that’s when I crave meat the most. I don’t know. This is another thing where everyone’s body is different, and everyone’s beliefs are different as to why they wouldn’t want to eat meat and stuff like that, but I believe if my body gets a craving and I feel like I need to eat meat, I just eat it. I feel good afterward. I’ve tried going two or three weeks just being vegetarian, and I just… I definitely felt weaker. But also, maybe I didn’t give my body long enough to adapt to not eating meat, you know?

Neely Quinn: How do you feel about sugar? Do you eat much sugar?

Daniel Woods: I try not to eat that much sugar. Especially refined sugar. I don’t eat candy that much, or cakes, or cookies and stuff like that.

Neely Quinn: Does it make you feel bad? Or why not?

Daniel Woods: It makes me feel… I don’t know. I feel my body completely spike, and I feel super energetic and crazy, and then all of a sudden I crash and feel tired. And I feel like my recovery isn’t as good with sugar, because my body just burns it all up, and then it has nothing else to work with, so then the body just starts relying on itself for energy, you know? Sometimes, if I’m working out and stuff, I’ll have a lot of natural sugar, like in fruit, but I rarely will eat a candy bar or something.

Neely Quinn: Would you say that you eat pretty regularly?

Daniel Woods: I try to, yeah. I try to eat three meals a day [laughs].

Neely Quinn: That’s good. Do you feel like that makes a difference in your climbing too?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, for sure. It’s hard too, because when you’re definitely getting into the rhythm, into the training rhythm especially, your body, I’ve noticed, it gets so tired that it’s not hungry, and you can just keep going. Then when you’re done with your session you still don’t feel hungry. But it’s super important, especially right after your session, to down something. That’s why the Gnarly stuff is so good, just because they have a whey supplement, a Feast supplement, and also a BCAA energy drink. If I’m at the gym and finish wth my workout, I can just pound a shake. That will help my muscles repair and rebuild, and then I can go home and make dinner. It eliminates that hangry factor.

Neely Quinn: That’s really good. Okay. Very last question- what about drinking and stuff like that? How do you feel about that?

Daniel Woods: And other substances?

Neely Quinn: Yes.

Daniel Woods: I definitely drink, I smoke weed and stuff like that. I think drinking affects my body a lot more than smoking weed does. Smoking obviously isn’t the best thing to do for your body, but if you were to eat edibles or whatever. There’s really no harm done, and it acts as a painkiller as well. But if I drink a lot, I’ll definitely wake up the next day and I’ll feel super achey, my recovery won’t be as quick. I try not to drink that much anymore. I used to drink a lot more when I was younger, but when I was younger I would also not really feel things as much as I do now [laughs]. I could drink a lot the night before, wake up, and feel perfect, and be like “I can go try and send my proj”. Now I’ll do that and be like “Oh my god, I need two days off”. But if I do any drinking, I’m into a glass of red wine at night with dinner and that’s the extent of my drinking [laughs].

Neely Quinn: Well that sounds pretty reasonable, and seems to keep you- like this way of eating and drinking and everything seems to keep you really lean and fit.

Daniel Woods: Exactly, yeah. That’s another thing about climbing, it’s all about your strength to weight ratio. It’s kind of a sport where it’s good to be lighter. You don’t want to put on mass- that’s why I don’t lift weights. You do kind of need to watch your diet and stuff. If you’re eating a lot of fatty foods, a lot of processed foods, a lot of refined sugars, that’s stuff that’s just going to add on weight to your body, and just slow down recovery time and all that kind of stuff. If you take good care of your body, if you eat well, you’re going to be able to last longer in your training sessions and perform better.

Neely Quinn: Nice, words of wisdom. Okay, who do we have to thank for your career in climbing, besides you- but who are your sponsors who keep you going?

Daniel Woods: My sponsors at the moment are The North Face, Evolv, Petzl, Organic, Climbing Friction Labs, and Go Gnarly. All these companies have allowed me to live this lifestyle, and be able to be at where I’m at today, so huge thanks goes out to them. They’re all good people, and make good products, and keep me safe and doing my thing.

Neely Quinn: Cool. That’s great. Thank you very much for being on the show, and being a continual inspiration to all of us, I really appreciate it.

Daniel Woods: No worries, thanks for the good questions, and yeah. Hope it gets people to get psyched, and yeah. Maybe answered some questions that they were wondering about in the past.

Neely Quinn: Yeah, some of my burning questions were answered, so thank you.

Daniel Woods: No worries.

Neely Quinn: Have a good one!

Daniel Woods: You too.

Neely Quinn: I hope you enjoyed that interview with Daniel Woods, I certainly did. It was really cool to hear more about him as a person, as opposed to just him as a climber. It was interesting to hear about how his struggles in life affect his climbing, just like our struggles in life affect our climbing. You can hear more from him at @dawoods89 on Instagram, and hopefully we’ll be hearing pretty soon that he sent Biographie- maybe’s he’s sending right now.

Anyway, coming up on the show I have Steve Bechtel again. This will be my third interview with him, and I’m sure I’ll have him on again and again. I was at his seminar last week- I was teaching nutrition there. It was a group of about fifteen coaches, trainers, and climbers who took this seminar, and they learned about a lot of stuff. Steve and I talked about what they learned, the future of training trainers for climbing, and just some interesting tidbits about climbing. He’s such an awesome speaker, it was like watching a stand up comedian perform the whole weekend- it was pretty fun.

If you want more help with your training, actually I’m going to be putting Steve Bechtel’s new book up on TrainingBeta for sale as e-book. You can also get a hard copy of it. We talk about that in the interview too.

If you need any other help and you want something that is super structured, a training program that tells you exactly what to do when you go in the gym, and you don’t have to think about the programming, that’s what we specialize in on TrainingBeta. If you go to trainingbeta.com, there are subscription programs for route climbers and boulderers, where you get three workouts every week, and they’re about two hours long, so it’s made for people who have busy lives. And they get you stronger- that’s what our people are saying. We’ve had thousands of people go through these programs, and they like them, and they work. So go to trainingbeta.com, and every time you purchase one of those you are definitely supporting the podcast, and me, and everything we do over here. Thanks for listening all the way to the end, and I will get that Steve Bechtel interview up next week. Until then, have a good one.