EP 183: Jenn DeBellis — Chasing Dream Boulders, Turning Small Wins Into Big Wins, and Sustaining a Full-Time Job on the Road

Jenn DeBellis is an elite-level boulderer and software engineer. We sat down in Rocklands and talked about her biggest lessons from childhood gymnastics and collegiate athletics, trying V13s in Magic Wood and Rocklands, getting comfortable with failure, learning to embrace her style, her elaborate warmup routine, how she plans her 6-week training cycles, her role with KAYA, tips for sustaining a full-time job on the road, and much more!

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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/jenn-debellis

Nuggets:

0:04:57 – Bugs and SAT words

0:06:39 – Jenn’s gymnastics background, and pole vaulting in college

0:11:12 – Paying attention to the best qualities in our friends

0:13:15 – Tough coaches, and learning to be tough on herself

0:15:00 – Being comfortable with failure, and Jenn’s Olympic aspirations in gymnastics

0:19:26 – Setting the scene

0:20:09 – Getting inspired by Ray of Light V13, and Jenn’s initial goals for her trip to Rocklands

0:22:24 – The breakdown of Ray of Light, and the standards in Rocklands

0:24:10 – V10 and 8A, and the decision to try really hard and inspiring things

0:26:30 – The 8a leaderboard, and shift her philosophy to chase dream boulders

0:30:50 – My new shoe mod for Black Shadow

0:34:08 – Getting excited about “sending” crux moves, and turning small wins into big wins

0:35:59 – Trying beyond limit boulders, and making tradeoffs

0:40:21 – Jenn and I compare our experiences with Black Shadow and Ray of Light, and share takeaways

0:48:00 – The climbers we’ve learned from, and the truth about people who climb hard

0:51:04 – Owning your style, not falling into the pitfall of trying to copy your peers, and trying Full Throttle V13 in Hueco

0:57:23 – How living on the road has changed my perception of climbing, and different ways you can express difficulty in climbing

0:59:06 – Working on her strengths and supplementing her weaknesses

1:01:20 – Thinking about her training in checkboxes

1:03:14 – Not knowing where home is, and having many homes on the road

1:08:28 – Jenn’s lifestyle, leaving her PhD program to live in a van

1:15:05 – How Jenn balances indoor training and outdoor performance

1:17:49 – How she plans her training cycles, and using autoregulation to ramp up after a trip

1:21:29 – “Injury is the enemy.”

1:22:12 – How Jenn balances her climbing life with a full-time remote job

1:23:46 – Life is 30% less efficient on the road

1:25:49 – Tips for finding cheap rent in cities

1:26:54 – The dirtbag mindset, how to make working on the road sustainable

1:31:13 – How Jenn structures a 6-week training block, and the key ingredients in her training

1:33:07 – Weight lifting, and cutting out accessory exercises

1:35:07 – Board climbing, and how to train for something like Full Throttle

1:36:46 – Jenn’s long-ass climbing warmup

1:40:21 – The different stages of Jenn’s warmup

1:41:28 – Keeping training and outdoor trips separate

1:43:45 – Improving year on year

1:44:54 – Upcoming trips and goals, and training 4x4s on her home wall

1:47:53 – KAYA, Jenn’s role on the engineering team, and her passion for her work

1:54:44 – Favorite rock type, and thinking better on granite

1:57:08 – Ultimate dream climbs, and meaningful first female ascents

1:59:34 – Joe’s Valley doughnuts

2:01:11 – Kodiak Cakes

2:02:06 – Go-to climbing shoes

2:02:17 – Jenn’s connection to Joe’s Valley, and how she became a software engineer

2:05:02 – Desert Island DVDs

2:06:31 – Hype music

2:08:27 – Best decision she’s ever made, and how long she sees herself living this lifestyle

2:11:42 – Thoughts about having a family and drawing inspiration from strong moms

2:12:42 – What Jenn wishes people spent less time thinking about

2:14:25 – Building out her van

2:17:36 – Toying with the idea of bringing back blogs

2:19:45 – Wrapping up in the dark