S12 EP29: Inside the Mind of an Endurance Athlete
The Thick Thighs Save Lives Podcast
Constantly Varied Gear
4.9 • 724 Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, pro climber and guide Kelly Fields joins us to explore how fear, discomfort, and confidence are built one deliberate step at a time. She’s slept on cliff faces, skied across sea ice, and still swears the toughest climb is mastering your own mind.
What if the very things you’re avoiding: the fear, the struggle, the unknown, are actually the keys to your freedom? In this episode Kelly proves that discomfort isn’t punishment, it’s growth in disguise. From Arctic expeditions to everyday confidence battles, we unpack how getting uncomfortable builds grit, self-trust, and joy you can’t find in the comfort zone.
(00:01:14) Meet Kelly Fields, professional climber leading an all-female guide team.
(00: 06:39) Turning life’s hardest moments into practice for the unknown.
(00:11:28) Women excel at rock climbing.
(00:16:00) Let’s oversell ourselves and do it scared
(00:17:25) The 42-Day Canadian Arctic Expedition and vertical camping.
(00:24:48) Kelly’s advice on the mindset needed to turn difficulties into opportunities.
(00:30:09) Endurance sports and why women get better with age.
(00:37:13) Unplugging and learning to trust your intuition, not the noise.
(00:40:40) The ongoing mental training for exploration and everyday courage.
(00:47:03) Kelly’s realizations about meditation.
(00:50:30) Kelly’s tangible challenge for you to stay grounded and present.
(00:55:00) Tune into yourself and fuel your soul.
(00:59:15) Where to find Kelly.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | men are used to being in these leadership roles. They're used to doing it scared. Like all these |
| 0:06.5 | women come to us and they really undersell themselves or like, oh, I'm not that experienced or this is |
| 0:11.7 | how difficult I climb. This is the grade that I climb. It's not that good. Blah, blah, blah. |
| 0:16.9 | And they're always underselling themselves and it's often the opposite with men. And I'm like, |
| 0:22.5 | you know, let's take a page out of the guy's book. Let's oversell ourselves. Let's do it scared. |
| 0:34.2 | Hey, everybody. We've had some of the most incredible guests coming to you these past couple |
| 0:40.0 | months. The amount of expertise and knowledge on these cutting edge topics is something we |
| 0:48.0 | really hope that you enjoy. And if you do, it would make a huge difference to us if you could rate, review and subscribe the podcast. |
| 0:56.4 | It helps us to get more guests, better experts, and talk about all of the things that are really important to you. |
| 1:04.4 | So give us a love. |
| 1:06.4 | Give us a lot of love. |
| 1:08.3 | And don't forget to subscribe so you get all our new episodes. |
| 1:12.9 | Hey guys and welcome to the Thic Thighs Save Lives podcast. |
| 1:15.6 | I'm Kelsey and I am very excited to welcome our guest on today. |
| 1:21.9 | Kelly Fields, Kelly, welcome to the podcast. |
| 1:24.9 | Hello. |
| 1:26.7 | I'm really excited for all of our listeners to hear your story, hear about climbing, |
| 1:31.8 | hear about some of the amazing feats that you have accomplished, |
| 1:35.8 | and to just kind of get a glimpse into your mindset preparing for some of these things. |
| 1:43.7 | So I just want to start with a little introduction. |
| 1:49.5 | How did you get into climbing? |
| 1:53.4 | Well, first I want to say, I'm just really excited to be here because I love your mission |
... |
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