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Transcript

Neely Quinn: Welcome to the Training Beta podcast, where I talk with climbers and trainers about how we can get a little better at our favorite sport. I’m your host, Neely Quinn, and today we’re on episode 52, where I talked with Mathilde Becerra. I know that I just butchered her name and I’m really sorry. You may have actually heard her mentioned in my last episode with Sean McColl, because she is his girlfriend and has been for a really long time. They train together and climb together.

She is a super strong world cup climber. She’s actually top 10 in the world for lead and she competes in bouldering competitions as well. As a part of the French National team, she trains with them – with the French team – and she has her own coaches and trainers as well. She is a full-time rock climber.

I talked to her about her training, how she trains endurance, how she trains power, her thoughts on weight and eating, and all the good stuff. I really enjoyed this interview with her and I was also really impressed with her English. Enjoy that.

Before we get into the interview I want to let you know, as always, that my favorite chalk company is Friction Labs. They have some new stuff over at their website now. They have files for your skin, they have skin cream, they have chalk balls, they have liquid chalk. They have all kinds of stuff. It’s really awesome and you can go check them out at www.frictionlabs.com/trainingbeta .

A little update on me: I’m still just training and climbing a lot and having tons of fun. I’m about to go to Rifle for the week next week so I will not have an episode out for you. It’s my birthday week and I’m going to go have fun with my friend Steph. Wish me luck and I hope that it’s not seeping wet over there.

Alright, that’s about it for me. I’m gonna get right into this interview. I hope you enjoy it! Here’s Mathilde.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, welcome to the show, Mathilde. Thank you very much for being with me today.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Thank you.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes! So, my name is Mathilde Becerra. I’m 24 years old. I live in Chamonix, France, and I’m a professional rock climber.

 

Neely Quinn: Alright. How long have you been climbing?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I’ve been climbing for about 12 years now.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so you started when you were young.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, I was 13 years old.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay. How did you get into it?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It was kind of random. I actually started climbing with a friend of mine and I never really stopped. Right away, I was really into it, and I started training really fast, actually.

 

Neely Quinn: Oh, so you got really into it. Did you start competing really quickly, too?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah. I started competing maybe two years after I first climbed.

 

Neely Quinn: I actually want to back up for a bit. Before you found climbing, were you a super-athletic kid? Did you do a lot of sports?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah. When I was a kid I used to do lots of different sports. I couldn’t really find one that suited me too, too well. I used to do horseback riding for six years but I felt like it wasn’t enough for me. I had too much energy, so when I found climbing it was just perfect.

 

Neely Quinn: Alright, so when you found climbing did you realize you were really gifted at it right away, or did you just really like it and weren’t necessarily that good right away?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I think I was pretty good right away. It was a combination of both. I loved it and I’ve always been competitive, so I would give 100% right away but I think I was fit enough to be pretty good right at the start.

 

Neely Quinn: Tell me about the progression of you competing. How did you do in competitions and where are you now?

 

Mathilde Becerra: So, I started competing at about 15 years old. I entered the French team at 16 years old, the lead French team. I did many European Youth Cups and World Youth Championships, where I placed second at European Youth Cups a couple of times/a few times, and I was French National Champion as well in juniors. Now it’s been five years already that I’m in open category and I’m currently 10th at the world ranking.

 

Neely Quinn: That’s pretty impressive. Good job.

 

Mathilde Becerra:

[laughs] Thanks.

 

Neely Quinn: No big deal, there. Cool. So I’m really interested in what it’s like to be on the French team. That, compared with being on the USA team or even the Canadian team, because your boyfriend is Sean McColl, correct?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, he is.

 

Neely Quinn: So you have kind of a good idea of the differences between the two, I’m assuming. Tell me what it’s like to be on the French team. What do you get out of that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Being in the French team is definitely something that taught me a lot. You have to be really good, first. That’s the first thing, and then, because there are a lot of strong climbers in France, the French team teaches you to really train hard in order to be the best. When I say ‘train hard,’ it’s not what Canadians think about training hard. We had training camps when I was in youth and, to give you an example, we would climb for two or three days from 8:00 to 6:00 at night with maybe an hour break. I would get sore for a whole week after that.

 

Neely Quinn: Woah.

 

Mathilde Becerra: It was so intense.

 

Neely Quinn: You would do that three days in a row?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, 2-3 days and they would just wreck us. It was so physically hard but it was just to teach us how training is done in France and the expectations they had for us.

 

Neely Quinn: And has that continued? Do you still do that for them?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I still attend training camps but now that I’m in the open, it’s a bit different. Now we’re grown-ups and we know how to train so it’s a little bit lighter. It’s less intense, I would say, in quantities of climbing but the level is still really high. If we go there and we’re not motivated enough, they’ll kick us out, like, it’s really strict. When we go to the training camps, we have to give our best and if they think we’re not good enough, they’ll let us know for sure.

 

Neely Quinn: So who is the ‘they’ that you’re talking about?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It’s the coaches from the French team.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and how many coaches do you have?

 

Mathilde Becerra: My personal coach isn’t the coach from the French team. I personally have two coaches, plus Sean, that helps me a lot, just with climbing.

 

Neely Quinn: So one of your coaches isn’t even a part of the French team at all?

 

Mathilde Becerra: No, no, no. He only coaches the French team at comps. He doesn’t usually follow any of the climbers in the team.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, I thought you had said that one of them isn’t a coach for the French team.

 

Mathilde Becerra: So, there is one coach, one National coach for the French team that takes care of all of the World Cups and comps that we do as a team, but my coach, mine that train me everyday, are totally apart from the French team. They’re not linked at all.

 

Neely Quinn: So, what – you said that your coach is with you every day you train, so they’re right there in front of you telling you exactly what to do?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Actually, I wish, but no. He lives – my main coach, his name is Thomas Ferry. He’s a physical preparator. He lives an hour away from Chamonix so he tells me each week what to do in details and we try to see each other about once a month, just to make sure things are going well. I call him almost every day.

 

Neely Quinn: And what kinds of things are you asking him everyday?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I’m basically just giving him feedback on how I feel, if I have any doubts about the exercises or – but it’s mostly just to let him know how the training is going, if I’m really tired, if I feel really strong, just so that he knows the preparation is going well.

 

Neely Quinn: Who is he? I know that you just said his profession but I will admit that I didn’t understand what you said. Is he, like, a professional coach or what does he do?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, he’s a professional coach. He specializes in physical preparation…

 

Neely Quinn: Oh, physical preparation.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, so basically all exercises for the upper body, mostly, but also for the lower body, to make sure that I improve in strength and power and endurance. It’s a little bit different in that it’s not just climbing, it’s specific exercises for climbing.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and just out of curiousity, does he just work with climbers or does he work with all kinds of athletes?

 

Mathilde Becerra: He, I think right now, he only works with climbers but he would also like to work with some ski athletes.

 

Neely Quinn: It’s really interesting to me to see the difference between you, who seem to be – and I would love as many details as you’re willing to give me – you’re a professional athlete and it seems you have finances coming from your team or your country or something, whereas our American athletes don’t really have that unless they have sponsors. Can you explain your situation with that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, so basically my situation is that the French Federation, as long as I make the French team, pays for everything for competitions so I will not have to pay for travel, or hotel, or food, even. During the year, though, it’s my local gym that helps me and pays for my travel, for example, when I want to go train somewhere else. Finally, the government helps high-level athletes by giving them – it’s not scholarship – but it’s a small help just to help us travel and so all of that combined makes it so that I can actually climb right now. Also, prize monies from the competitions also help as well.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so that all – do you have sponsors?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I do have sponsors. I’m sponsored by Mammut, La Sportiva, and Skratch Labs.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so you’re able to put all of this money together and make a living so you don’t have to work. You’re working as an athlete but…

 

Mathilde Becerra: [laughs] I could actually work as an engineer. I have a master’s degree but I decided a few months ago that I didn’t really want to do that. I wanted to focus on my climbing career while I could. I’m going to be honest: it’s not easy. I don’t make a ton of money right now but it’s enough to live <unclear> I would say. I just love what I do so it’s worth everything to me, just being able to climb.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing. So you have a master’s degree?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, I do.

 

Neely Quinn: You must have just finished school.

 

Mathilde Becerra: I finished two years ago when I was 22.

 

Neely Quinn: Oh wow.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes.

 

Neely Quinn: So you were doing this, you were competing, throughout college. Was that difficult?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It was a little bit, but eventually I asked my school if it was possible to finish my two years of studies in three years, so I had just a little bit more time. They were totally okay with that so that was great, but it’s true that having to juggle between the two was definitely a challenge, but I think it made me who I am today. Thanks to that, I’m really organized and efficient and it just made me better; a better person and a better climber. Now that I have all my time to climb it’s even better.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, I get a lot of people saying they can’t relate with professional climbers or World Cup comp climbers because they must not have jobs, they must not have anything else going on, so they can’t really relate to them, but, I mean from what it sounds like, you’re either super-human and didn’t ever sleep or you just trained really efficiently. Can you tell me about your training schedule during school?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, so I would go to school, usually every morning or afternoon. Some days were a little heavier than that but basically it was more or less half-time. The rest of the day I would just go climbing. I didn’t really have any time for myself but any day I wasn’t climbing – that was maybe one day a week – I would just really enjoy it. It was my rest day so I really relaxed and made sure I was ready to start another week.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so you gave yourself one day a week to just do nothing, or to do fun things.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Depending on the season and how I felt, but it was 1-2 days max.

 

Neely Quinn: So you would train, actually, five days a week. Were you going in more than one time a day to train, or were you just going to the gym for hours at a time, just one block?

 

Mathilde Becerra: When I could, when my schedule would allow me to, I would try to go twice a day because I think it’s nice to train in the morning and then at night. When I couldn’t, I would just go at night for two or three hours.

 

Neely Quinn: Why do you think it’s nice to break it up like that, to have two sessions? What did you gain from that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I think, when you have two sessions in a day, you can definitely do more than if you just did everything in three hours because you actually have time to rest in between, which is really key, I think. Right now what I like to do is, I like to do my physical exercises in the morning, like pull-ups, front levers, everything that’s just not really climbing related and then I have a few hours’ rest and then at night, I go and actually climb. Because I’ve rested, my climbing is actually much better. It’s just more efficient.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so I would love to know a few more details about your training right now. Would you be willing to do that? Could you give me an overall picture of, sort of, your yearly cycles and then where you’re at right now?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I can try. I know it’s very complicated but it’s my coach, Thomas, that foresees everything, but I will try. Basically, from December to February, I do only conditioning. Lots of strength, power exercises, to just give my body the basis for the season. After that I start including a little bit of endurance cycles, like I have three-week cycles. I’m going to do, for example, one cycle of endurance at the beginning of March, then I’m going to do two weeks of strength, and then back to endurance for three weeks. I always take rests in between my endurance cycles. If not, it just doesn’t work out. I get too tired. During the season I actually don’t train that much, because the season is so dense. It’s usually just exercises to keep my level where it’s at and make sure I don’t get more tired.

 

Neely Quinn: Just to maintain.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, to maintain.

 

Neely Quinn: And then, you’ve climbed quite a bit outside. Where does that fit in?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I wish I could climb more outside. We actually don’t have that much time but usually we try to go outside right at the end of the season, which is in November/December.

 

Neely Quinn: November/December – okay. You’ve climbed, like, V12 or 8A, right? Oh wait – maybe 11, and .14a, or 8a+.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, I have.

 

Neely Quinn: I mean, those are big accomplishments. You know, when I talked to Sean, when I interviewed him, he said the same exact thing almost that you just said, that “I don’t have time to climb outside. I wish I could climb more outside.” My question is: why can’t you? Or why, like, it kinda sounds like you’re not allowed to and I’m wondering if it’s that you’re not allowing yourself or if your team just doesn’t/they’re not okay with that. What if you were to say, “I just want to focus on climbing outside this year?” What would they say?

 

Mathilde Becerra: They would say “too bad” for me [laughs]. It’s true. It’s definitely a personal choice. Both Sean and I want to focus on our comp career right now because we think we’ll have all the time in the world to climb outside after, when our careers are over. It’s a choice. We’re not forced at all. We could just go climbing when we have a week that’s a bit lighter away from comps, but we don’t because we just want to stay really, really focused and keep our goals in mind.

 

Neely Quinn: So your goals, your personal goals, are definitely in competitions, not necessarily outside.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, right now they are in competitions.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, what do you get out of competitions? Like, I know that they must be mentally difficult, and emotionally, probably difficult sometimes, but you’re working so hard to climb indoors. Tell me what you get out of it.

 

Mathilde Becerra: I think that what every comp athlete likes about comp is that it’s a challenge all the time. It gives you something to have in mind, like a line in your life, to follow. Just having a goal and training for something makes it really exciting. Once you get what you want, it’s just the best feeling ever. I think we are all very addicted to that. Personally, I love comps. I think you have to love it to do it because it is hard. I don’t know. I feel like it just makes me a better climber every year because I have to get stronger. It’s always a new challenge and pushing myself more ,and it’s definitely something very personal and very selfish.

 

Neely Quinn: Do you want to say more about that? Like, what do you mean ‘it’s selfish and personal?’

 

Mathilde Becerra: When I say it’s selfish and personal it’s because when you attain your goals and when you reach the top, it’s a pleasure that’s only for you. It’s not for your team. It’s for you, and only yourself knows how much you’ve trained and how much you’ve fought for this. That’s why I said it’s very personal. It’s the kind of reward that is just the best for me. I’ve never found anything like that before. It just drives me.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, it can be very addictive.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes.

 

Neely Quinn: No matter what level of climber you are, if you have a goal and attain it, you just want more.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh yeah.

 

Neely Quinn: So your goals here – I’m seeing on your website, in 2015 you were 7th in Lead World Cup in Kranj – I think that’s how you say it, 4th in Lead World Cup, and then 2nd at Arco. I’m wondering if those were your goals. Did you hope to just make top 10? Do you always want to be first? Do you always want to make top 20? What is it?

 

Mathilde Becerra: So my goal last year, my main goal, was to make finals once. It was the first time. I’d never done it before and I really needed to get that step done in my head because I was training so hard. I did make my first finals in Briancon and I actually came in 4th and it was amazing. That was already/the goal was totally fulfilled and I was over the moon with that, and for the rest of the season, I just tried to make more finals, which is hard. There are a lot of strong girls over there but in the end I managed to be twice in finals and 10th at the World rankings, so that was really good for this year. It was good. I was really happy with that.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so you reached your goal. Sometimes I think people reach their goal and they’re just, like, ‘Okay, well that’s done with now. I need a new goal now,’ and that wasn’t really that great after all. Do you feel like that, or can you really relish your accomplishments?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I don’t feel like that. I haven’t felt like that yet. I know it’s going to come eventually, Sean told me it’s going to come, but this year it was so important for me to make finals for the first time that I was really so happy that I actually didn’t sleep the whole night before finals. I was so excited and it was crazy. For this year, no – I was really happy with my performance. I wish I was a bit more regular like – how do I say that? Does that make sense?

 

Neely Quinn: Consistent?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Consistent, yes, that’s the word. Thank you. I just wish I was a bit more consistent throughout this season but I dealt with really big fatigue. I was really tired in the middle, so considering that – no. It was a great season. I was very happy.

 

Neely Quinn: So what are your goals for this season?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Okay, so for this season I definitely have more goals. [laughs] Higher goals. Now that I know that I can make finals I’ve been training a lot. I think I’m much stronger physically and I hope to make finals at all World Cups. I would like to be in the top five consistently, as well.

 

Neely Quinn: And what will happen if you end up, like, 20th one comp? What does that do to you?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh. Well, that’s really hard to handle. Twentieth hasn’t happened to me in a couple of years, I think? It would mean that I really messed up on something. That there was something wrong, like either I slipped or really didn’t understand a sequence. If it happened once, it would be okay. I think I would be able to say that it was just one mistake. I’ll just learn from it and forget about it. If it happens twice, that’s a different story. I think that would mean I have to change something.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and emotionally would that – I guess you really know what that would do to you.

 

Mathilde Becerra: It would wreck me for a bit, for sure. I put a lot of pressure on myself and I’m working on it right now, but I think I pay too much attention to the results, or at least I used to. I’m really trying to detach from that right now but yeah, 20th just hurts. [laughs]

 

Neely Quinn: Is there a cut-off that doesn’t hurt? Like 10th? Would that hurt?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Tenth is, I think, okay. That’s the cut-off. [laughs]

 

Neely Quinn: I’m just going to pause here for a moment. If you listen to this podcast, by now you must know I’m a fan of Friction Labs chalk. Not only do they help make this podcast possible through their sponsorship, they also make awesome chalk. To everybody who hasn’t at least tried it yet, you can get a sample for five bucks at any REI or MEC store, and at pretty much every gym in the US now, or just get it at their website, www.frictionlabs.com/trainingbeta. They have free shipping in the US, which is really nice.

My recommendation is that you use it for a few sessions and then go back to your old chalk and see if it makes a difference for you. For me, it definitely made a difference. I noticed it right away and I noticed that I get a more confident grip and have to chalk up way less often. I personally like the super fine blend, the Unicorn dust, the most, but there’s really no consensus except it works and it’s worth the extra investment. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Alright, back to the interview.

 

Neely Quinn: Do you think that there are any World Cup climbers who don’t put a ton of pressure on themselves? Also, do you think it’s possible to be a World Cup climber if you don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I don’t think so. I think you definitely need to have some pressure somewhere, but I think that some of them handle it really well. They just think about having fun and just climbing their best. If they make a mistake, well, it happens and they don’t make a big, big deal out of it but that’s not a lot of climbers when I say that. I think, obviously, about Sean and some other men as well, but for the women, I know that we are all under pressure.

 

Neely Quinn: What do you mean ‘for the women?’ Why is it different for the women?

 

Mathilde Becerra: For the women, it’s different. You know, women and men, they just don’t deal with comps the same way. Women are very competitive. They tend to kind of look at each other and just stare and think and compare themselves. I feel like they have a bigger emotional part that plays whereas men seem to be more detached from the results. And yeah, for women last year, I noticed it was all about confidence. Maybe the top 15 girls could make it into the finals but on that day, it only depended on confidence and if they felt like they were strong enough.

 

Neely Quinn: Do you get coaching on that part of things?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, I do.

 

Neely Quinn: What’s that coaching like?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It’s like mental preparation. It’s basically asking yourself what you think about yourself, how you see yourself on a scale of 1-10, how much would you grade your self-confidence or your strength or anything. It’s really having that look on yourself and trying to be as objective as possible. That’s what I’ve been doing and then working on just seeing myself with a lot more confidence.

 

Neely Quinn: So, is this during your training sessions? When you’re at a comp? When you’re making food for yourself? When does he have you practice that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: No. These happen also with my main coach, but they’re totally apart from everything else. It’s going to be in an afternoon at a cafe or at my place, but never at climbing or at comps. It’s always really detached from it.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so do you/how to you prepare yourself to be and exude that confidence when you’re at comps?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It comes with a lot of practice but I also do lots of visual preparation, where I try to associate a good memory with a feeling. This is where it gets pretty hard and I have to practice at home. Really, basically, what I have to try to realize when I see that image that brings me joy or whatever, I have to feel that I’m confident and I’m ready to climb. Once I get that, I have to do it again at comps, before I go climbing. It’s something in the brain that just gets used to it and then, when you can do it at comps, you’re in a much better state to climb.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so you use a memory that gives you confidence and positivity.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Basically. It can be just a picture or anything. For me, it was just the sun. I love the feeling of the sun on my skin so it’s just as simple as that. It has to be something that you personally like. Just that made me happy. I just want to smile and I associated that with self confidence and trust in my climbing.

 

Neely Quinn: And so you try to get that feeling right before you’re about to climb?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah.

 

Neely Quinn: That’s awesome. Is that something that’s common, do you think, among competitors?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I don’t think a lot of them do it but it’s getting a little bit more common now. I know a few French climbers that just do mental preparation. I don’t know if they use exactly the same method but yeah, it’s getting common.

 

Neely Quinn: So, do you have role models within the World Cup, like, women climbers?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I would say my only role model is Sean. Not just to throw him flowers or anything, but he is definitely a great inspiration for me. Among the female climbers I would say I look towards Jain Kim for sure, because she’s very tiny. She’s a small athlete but she’s really strong.

 

Neely Quinn: Speaking of tiny climbers, I was wondering how tall you are and what your ape index is.

 

Mathilde Becerra: I am 1m and 59cm, which is I think 5’3” US? I think so. You said my ape index? What was that?

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, ape index. Like, how long your arms are.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh, that’s a good question! I have no idea. I think I have long arms for my size so, yes. I’m okay.

 

Neely Quinn: You’re okay with that issue?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah. I will definitely figure that out, though, to see.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, that’s something I think Americans are pretty fixated on, like my/one of my friends is 5’6” and she has like a 6”+ on her arms so that helps her quite a bit.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Well you know, I could measure it right now if you want.

 

Neely Quinn: [laughs] No, it’s okay, but maybe afterwards.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah.

 

Neely Quinn: So being a kinda shorter climber, you must train to be pretty dynamic.

 

Mathilde Becerra: I do, yes.

 

Neely Quinn: What kinds of things do you do to train that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Well, I have been training/I have been starting a new training on my legs, specifically, here in the last few months, but before that I just used to, you know, do dynamic moves all the time. I used to be a very static climber, which cost me a lot of energy, especially in lead. Now I am able to take more risks and just go for it, although I find it always scary, but no – I’ve been training on my legs for a while because I also want to be very/I want to be better just at bouldering, and I’m also doing speed now.

 

Neely Quinn: Oh…

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes.

 

Neely Quinn: So you have to be very explosive for that.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, I do.

 

Neely Quinn: So you just do – I mean, there’s not any specific training, you just climb – well now, except with your legs, but you just climb dynamic moves?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah. It takes a lot of practice.

 

Neely Quinn: It does. It takes a lot of coordination and aim, it seems like.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, it’s definitely something you have to, you know, try/fall, try/fall, try/fall, until it’s just so you get, you know, the right thing until you understand how to do the moves. Here, I think I’m talking mostly about coordination and jumps, but it definitely – you have to include it in your training and it has to become like a habit almost to really engrain it in your climbing style.

 

Neely Quinn: And what do you consider your strengths to be, as a climber?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Physically speaking, I would say that I’m very good on crimps. I like small holds. I think I have good finger strength and right now, I think I have a pretty good, just, strength basis. I have a good core, I can do front lever and one-arm pull-ups, which definitely helps. I’m weaker, though, in everything that’s linked to coordination and big moves still, although I’ve been working on it.

 

Neely Quinn: And what about slopers and pinches?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It’s slowly getting better. It was definitely not my thing but, you know, I’ve been practicing, just like for everything else. Whenever you see a weakness, you want to try to just include it in your training a little bit every day so that you just eventually get better.

 

Neely Quinn: So if your weakness was pinches and slopers, how exactly would you incorporate that into your training?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I would just, when I’m doing bouldering, I would put one or two moves on pinches or I would just have different themes, like a couple themes I want to work on in a session, and just throw a pinch on a circuit or on a boulder or a toe-hook – anything, really, I want to work on. Just include it and, because I climb quite a lot in one session, it actually makes it pretty good to just train for either pinches and slopers. It works.

 

Neely Quinn: So basically just doing things that you don’t want to do for part of the session.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, exactly.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so I would like to get into some more details about your training right now, this week. Would you be willing to tell me your schedule and what you’ve been doing, and what you’re going to do for the rest of the week?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, absolutely. So, I just came back from a lead French Cup, actually, that I won, which was great. [laughs]

 

Neely Quinn: Congratulations.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Thank you. Then, after that I was at a lead training camp with the French team, so I just did onsight routes, really hard onsights. Not a lot of them but just quality climbing. I like to have that every once in awhile, like maybe once every two weeks. For this week, I am going to do three sessions of one-arm pullup exercises and then I’m going to do two sessions of bouldering, and next week I’ll go back to lead climbing as well, with physical exercises. It’s always like a mix of everything. I never really spend one week doing one thing.

 

Neely Quinn: So, you’ll route climb and boulder pretty much all the time?

 

Mathilde Becerra: All the time, yes. I’ve always had bouldering in my training.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and when you do routes, what is your session like?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It depends. When I’m doing an endurance cycle, I really want to break my muscles and the fibers, so I’m going to do nine routes with 2-5 minutes between each route, so I break – I do three routes, then 10 minutes, then three, then 10 minutes, then three. During the first three I usually just stay on the wall. I don’t really drop down, so I’m really, really pumped. That’s usually when I do my endurance cycle. That’s how I do it. I do that for about three weeks then I just lower the intensity throughout the cycle.

Then, when I want to train for onsights and just quality climbing, I just do, you know, 3-4 routes that are at my maximum level and that’s it, but I take lots of rest in between each route, to make sure I have all my capacities and I can just climb well, just like if I was in a comp.

 

Neely Quinn: So how much rest would you say you take between tries?

 

Mathilde Becerra: About 20-30 minutes, depending on how tired I am.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, so this sounds like it’s very belay-intensive. Who do you get to belay you?

 

Mathilde Becerra: [laughs] Sean mostly.

 

Neely Quinn: So he’ll go in and spend the time to do that with you?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Well, he actually sometimes does the same thing as me. He just steals a little bit from my training and sometimes he does it with me. If not, he’ll just, yes, for like an hour and a half belay me.

 

Neely Quinn: Can we go back to the endurance? I was a little confused. You said you would do the first three routes nonstop, back-to-back, and then you would do three routes at a time. Did you say in between each route that you would do 2-5 minutes of rest and then then 10 minutes between the set?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, sorry. I’m going to explain that again. So basically, they are called ‘sets.’ I have three sets of three routes to do, which is nine routes. My first set, which is the hardest, I’m going to do three routes where I’m not going to jump down. I’m just going to rest maybe two minutes on the wall, and then just do them right away. When I’m done with the three first routes I take 10 minutes and then I do three routes, but this time I’m allowed to be on the ground and take just two-minutes’ rest, but on the ground. Same for the last set, so it’s only just the first one that’s really, really hard, but it makes my muscles really tired so the two last sets are actually hard as well, because I’m just really wrecked from the first one.

 

Neely Quinn: How hard are those routes for you?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh, they’re really hard. They’re not really at my maximum but they definitely make me really pumped, so I would say anything from – I start usually with higher intensity routes like 8a+/8b, and then when I start getting pumped, because I know I’m just going to get more pumped, I lower a little bit. Sometime I finish with a 7c. What’s that? I’m sorry…

 

Neely Quinn: It’s .12c, I think.

 

Mathilde Becerra: The real difference is on how I feel, but usually after 6/7/8 runs you’re so tired that your hands just start to open. This is where it doesn’t really matter if the route is not too, too hard, you just have to finish it and just keep climbing.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and that’s your whole set?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yep.

 

Neely Quinn: And what about your pull-up sessions? You said that you would do three pull-up and one-arm sessions.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh yes. This week I’m going to do three, one-arm pull-up sessions. These are based on the same number of reps, basically. There are three sets and I do three repetitions of each arm, which makes – in the end, I think I counted it last time I did 18 repetitions of one-arm pull-ups followed by just normal pull-ups. It was something ridiculous <unclear>.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, that’s a lot of one-arms, and I’m assuming you worked up to that, using assistance.

 

Mathilde Becerra: I’m sorry?

 

Neely Quinn: I’m assuming you worked up to that, using assistance with your other arm.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, yeah, and throughout the sets, because I get tired, I just always have elastic or something because I just can’t do them anymore and I’ll just take weight off.

 

Neely Quinn: And do you do any weight training?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I do, only for my legs though anymore.

 

Neely Quinn: So squats or something.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, exactly. Squats, splits, some dead lifts, yeah, anything like that I do with an 8-kilo kettlebell, which is 12-pounds, I think?

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and how many times a week do you do that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I try to do that three times a week.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay, and then you were bouldering a couple times a week.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes.

 

Neely Quinn: So what do you do when you go bouldering?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I try to/I always try to work on my weaknesses, or some part of opposition. Basically, I always try hard boulders for me, so it doesn’t matter what the grade of the boulder is, as long as it’s hard for me and it makes me work on my weaknesses, that’s what I’m training for myself.

 

Neely Quinn: So how long are your sessions?

 

Mathilde Becerra: It really depends. Usually, bouldering are about two hours.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay. So, the last thing I wanted to ask you about is your diet and your weight, and how those things play into your climbing.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Okay, I definitely think that diet is a really, really important part in performance. I, personally, don’t really have a diet. I’ve just always eaten healthy and just all types of food. I don’t have any restrictions or anything like that. I really do think that eating a bit of everything, and just eating enough, is really important to climbing.

I’m actually pretty tiny. I’m only about 100-pounds, but I noticed that I wasn’t eating enough. I’ve seen a dietician and it made me really tired after big trainings, so I actually started eating a lot more carbs than before, as well as fruits and vegetables, and I feel so much better. I didn’t gain any weight, although I wouldn’t have cared. I think most climbers nowadays think that the lighter they are, the stronger they’ll be, but that’s to eat just totally raw. You might get stronger for a little bit but then your body is just going to come back to you and say, “Hey, I’m tired” and you’re going to start getting injured. It’s just too bad.

 

Neely Quinn: Have you seen that in other people?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh yeah, I have. Especially in France, a lot of climbers are pretty small and they want to be smaller. Sometimes they can’t do it. They don’t know how to do it, but I hear them saying, like, “Oh, I want to lose weight. I want to be fit,” and it’s really, to me, it’s ridiculous. It’s not how sports work. That’s not how performance works, so it gets really frustrating.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, it sounds like it. It sounds like you have some big opinions on this.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, I do.

 

Neely Quinn: I think that it’s really cool that you just said that you started eating more and it was better. I’m assuming it was easier then for you to recover after those big workouts.

 

Mathilde Becerra: For sure. It’s been a bit more than a month now. I mean, I haven’t changed a lot. You know you have to take it slowly, but I definitely tried to add a lot more carbs to my diet at each meal, even on the rest days, because on the rest days your muscles are recovering. You basically, as an athlete, always need to be recovering from something or preparing for something, so there’s never a day when you should eat only salad, but you see that all the time, especially with women, which is really too bad.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, I think a lot of people are walking around really, really tired, just because they’re not eating enough.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yes, I think so.

 

Neely Quinn: Have you noticed that if you eat more during certain times, like, do you do a pre-workout meal and then a post-workout recovery meal or anything like that? Or do you just eat normally?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, I try to make a pre-workout meal. I mean, I definitely try to respect the times between my meal and my training. I usually wait about two hours, because after that, I get hungry during my training, which is not good. I definitely try to eat the hour after my training, because that’s the window you have to recover the best. Usually, when I train in the afternoon, I’ll just have a snack – a pretty good snack, which <unclear> makes me recover until then.

 

Neely Quinn: What kinds of foods are you eating?

 

Mathilde Becerra: For example, before a training I’m going to eat carbs like pasta, rice, and bread…or bread, with meat, but more carbs than meat, and a little bit of vegetables but really not that much because I have a small appetite so I need to actually focus on eating more carbs than vegetables right now, which is a bit fun. Then after training, I try to get some protein back, and carbs, so I’m going to have, for example, like soy milk with bread and jam. Sometimes even peanut butter. Really, like, casual food but I really want to make sure that I eat enough and that I give everything to my body to recover properly.

 

Neely Quinn: Did you ever go through a phase of counting calories or carbs or protein?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh, definitely, we did. I don’t anymore, no. I used to do that when I was in the youth league’s team, because at the time – it was maybe, I’d say, seven years ago? It was a bit new, the whole thing with the weight and being lighter, and I got caught up in it a little bit. I wouldn’t eat nearly enough and I think because I was young, I was okay and lucky enough not to injure myself but it was really bad. I realized after that it was just really bad for me, especially with school going on, and I never did it again.

 

Neely Quinn: So it was really stressful on your body.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Oh yeah, and really frustrating, because I love eating, honestly. I love desserts and sweets and it was awful for me. I would just have a yogurt and I wouldn’t eat chocolate or anything. Instead, I would just drink tea so how bad is that? For your brain, it’s just…yeah. Never again. [laughs]

 

Neely Quinn: So, did you end up losing a bunch of weight at that point?

 

Mathilde Becerra: The funny thing is, not really. I lost fat, which I didn’t have a lot of, so it was just that my body fat index was really low, which is just bad, right away, for women. I was just tired, but I wasn’t even that much smaller. I think because I’m already pretty small, my body just managed to function and just not lose any weight, but I think it was just really bad for me.

 

Neely Quinn: Well, it’s good that you learned it early.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, for sure.

 

Neely Quinn: Unfortunately, you learned it the hard way, but…

 

Mathilde Becerra: Not too much the hard way, because I didn’t injure myself and that’s really lucky.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, it is. That’s good. This is a great, positive message for women, I think.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah.

 

Neely Quinn: What would happen, do you think, if you did end up gaining weight from eating more. You said that you wouldn’t care, but do you struggle emotionally with your self image?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I don’t struggle, but it’s definitely really important for me. I’m going to be very honest. I was ready to start this new diet but I was a little afraid of what it would be like, and if I would actually put on weight. Even though you know it’s better for you, when you weigh yourself and you’re heavier, there’s something weird happening in your head where you say, like, “Oh, I’m heavier.” It’s kind of like a battle between, “No, but it’s healthier,” – “But I’m heavier.” It’s a bit hard to handle and I was a bit scared of that, but in the end, I didn’t even gain weight, or maybe a pound, which is nothing. I feel so much better, so in the end, the good side won, I would say, and now it’s just so much better. I just enjoy eating my food and I never feel bad about it. Yeah, it’s great.

 

Neely Quinn: That’s good. You feel/can you see it in your performance and in your training?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I can definitely feel that I can train longer and also that, in between my sessions, I just recover a lot better. It wasn’t rare for me to come back from climbing and feel so tired that I was just nauseous, and that means that I was just way too low on carbs and sugar. That’s just really bad for your body, you know? That never happened again.

 

Neely Quinn: So, this is sort of a personal question. Do you – it’s often/it’s common with high level athletes that they stop getting their period, and I would love to know that there are high level competition climbers who still get their period. Would you be willing to talk about that?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah, no problem, that’s fine.

 

Neely Quinn: Is it something that you still have, or have you lost it?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I have never lost my period. I think my body’s handling it very well, although, like I said earlier, I used to not eat enough a few years ago. The doctors were actually surprised that I used to have – like, a month ago I was at 14% body fat index, which is really bad for you, and this is where I discovered that I wasn’t eating enough. I still had my period. I consider myself lucky right now. Now that I’m starting to eat more, I’m not worried about it anymore but I know that when you don’t eat enough and when you train a lot, this is the first thing that happens, usually, for women.

 

Neely Quinn: Yeah, and it’s unfortunate.

 

Mathilde Becerra: And it’s really bad.

 

Neely Quinn: We could talk about that for a really long time. Last question: do you take any supplements?

 

Mathilde Becerra: I don’t take any supplements on a regular basis. Sometimes, when I have a really tired cycle or, you know, after months of training or competing, sometimes you just hit the bottom, you know? You’re just really tired for a week or two and when I get that, I take papaya powder, made of papaya, and it’s a really good antioxidant that usually gets me back on my feet in a few days. That’s the only thing I take, and some magnesium sometimes, but nothing really that I take everyday.

 

Neely Quinn: Okay.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Just a healthy diet.

 

Neely Quinn: Are there any last words that you have for people about training and climbing in general?

 

Mathilde Becerra: Yeah. I think I’d like to say that climbing is definitely a very demanding sport. You have to love it to do it, and if you want to get stronger, you have to do it well. Just make sure you don’t go over your limits. That can be just dangerous, and just make sure that you eat properly, and respect the resting time, and respect your body.

 

Neely Quinn: Alright. Wise words. Thank you very much for being with me today.

 

Mathilde Becerra: Thank you. It was great.

 

Neely Quinn: I hope you enjoyed that interview with Mathilde. I certainly did. You can find out more about her at her website, which is www.mathildebecerra.com. I thought that she had some really wise things to say and I was really struck by how – not how little she trains, but how short some of her sessions are. It just shows that you can get super strong by doing only three sets of three in an endurance session, or an hour and a half of bouldering. It’s pretty awesome. You just have to be really efficient and targeted with what you’re doing. Thank you again, Mathilde.

Coming up on the show, I have two ice and mixed climbers, Ryan Vachon and Aaron Mulkey. Both were really great interviews and I took a lot away from them, because I don’t really know anything about ice or mixed climbing. Keep an eye out for those.

I just want to do a little update on me. I know I did a little update on my climbing in the beginning but I’ve been getting a ton of emails and comments from people about shoulders, and people wanting to know how my shoulder is now because they’re about to have shoulder surgery or they just had shoulder surgery and they’re kind of worried about how it goes, or people who have injuries and they’re facing maybe having to have shoulder surgery. I just wanted to let you guys know that it’s been about a year and a half since I had surgery on my left shoulder. I had a torn labrum and a bone spur and I had my – what’s it called? – my biceps tendon removed from the labrum and reattached to my arm bone. That’s called a tenodesis and it’s becoming pretty common, to have that happen. They didn’t actually repair my labrum, they just removed the problem, which was my biceps tendon pulling on it.

So anyway, since I had surgery, it’s/it was a long process in the beginning, but after about, I don’t know – six or eight months, it kind of became a non-issue for me. I don’t really notice my shoulder anymore and it’s pretty strong. At this point, there are certain moves that I do that sort of hurt it, but it’s a very quick pain and it goes away quickly. I think that my biceps is actually stronger than my right one, which is a big deal, because I’m right-handed and that was never the case before.

Overall, I’m doing really well and I wanted to tell you guys that because it seems like a lot of people are very hesitant to have surgery because they see all these terrible stories online and hear terrible things from their friends. I’m here to say that, so far, after a year and a half – I can’t speak for the long term issues – I’m good and I’m super happy with it, and I’m so happy that I had it done. I’m very tempted to have my other one done, just because I have some pain there, but anyway – so that’s my shoulder story.

If you guys have any other questions, you’re always welcome to email me at neely@trainingbeta.com. If you guys want more help with your training, know that we have training programs for you. You can go to www.trainingbeta.com and if you want to have a clear schedule laid out for you every week with what exactly to do in the gym, with climbing and with weights and with core and with shoulder stability (speaking of shoulders), go to our training programs site, or our ‘training programs’ page and you’ll find a lot of options for boulderers and for route climbers there.

That’s it for today. Thanks very much for listening. I appreciate it. If you want to give me a review on iTunes, I would love that, and I think that’s it. I will talk to you not next week, but the week after. Have a great couple weeks.

 

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