Road To V8 with Nate Drolet: Winter Training Plan

16 snips

Jan 29, 2025

Nate Drolet, a climbing coach from Power Company Climbing and a YouTube training expert, joins the discussion to enhance bouldering performance. He emphasizes building a strong foundation through pyramid training and developing endurance, even for pure boulderers. Drolet shares insights on assessing progress via benchmarks, the importance of tailored training metrics, and the '7 Try' rule. He also advises on the right approach to tackling challenging climbs without solely relying on strength, ensuring climbers maximize their training efficiency.

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ADVICE

Bouldering and Pyramid Building

Focus on bouldering to improve power and route-climbing tactics.
Build a route-climbing pyramid by sending many 5.12s of varying difficulty.

ANECDOTE

Bannister's 800 Strategy

Roger Bannister trained for the four-minute mile by racing the 800.
This improved his tactics, which helped him win the "Miracle Mile."

INSIGHT

Maintaining Strength and Power

Avoid sacrificing strength and power for endurance, especially at the Red River Gorge.
Maintain strength/power within striking range, enabling faster regain with dedicated training.

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In this episode, Coach Nate Drolet consults with me on my bouldering goals and beyond, including:

The importance of building a pyramid as a sport climber
The benefit of a developed endurance system even if you’re a pure boulderer
My test metrics and what they mean for my training plan and goals
How to improve one's bouldering grade without getting stronger
The diff between a sport climber who boulders, and a boulderer
How to try really hard every single go
How to craft gym bouldering sessions
Filming ‘baseline’ boulder problems to gauge progress
The value of lighting up improbable problems and grades
The "7 Try" rule
Route selection
Training legs for bouldering

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This show is produced and hosted by Ryan Devlin, and edited by Glen Walker. The Struggle is carbon-neutral in partnership with The Honnold Foundation and is a proud member of the Plug Tone Audio Collective, a diverse group of the best, most impactful podcasts in the outdoor industry.

And now here are some buzzwords to help the almighty algorithm get this show in front of people who love to climb: rock climbing, rock climber, climbing, climber, bouldering, sport climbing, gym climbing, how to rock climb, donuts are amazing. Okay, whew, that’s done. But hey, if you’re a human that’s actually reading this, and if you love this show (and love to climb) would you think about sharing this episode with a climber friend of yours? And shout it out on your socials? I’ll send you a sticker for doing it. Just shoot me a message on IG – thanks so much!