Ageless Athlete — How to Stay Strong, Curious & Capable for Life

Amy Appelhans Gubsers (56) is a nurse at UCSF, a mom and grandma, and the first person to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands—nearly 30 miles and roughly 17 hours in cold Pacific water, in what many consider shark territory. 
This is more than an epic swim. It’s a practical conversation about how big goals actually get done: patience over years, calm under pressure, and the ability to keep moving when conditions stop cooperating.
In this episode:
 The long-game reality behind “overnight” achievements 
 The mental skill that mattered most during 17 hours 
 Cold-water decision-making + staying calm 
 Sharks: real risk, smart planning 
 Why goals like this are never truly solo 
Takeaway: Massive goals aren’t won by hype. They’re earned through durable process. 
From the vault: recorded + released ~1.5 years ago — still one of our clearest blueprints for pursuing a massive goal with real stakes.
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1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩
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If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete

Overhead motion is everywhere — in sport and in life. This episode is a practical deep dive on shoulder pain with Dr. Tyler Nelson, who works primarily with climbers but applies the same principles across overhead athletes and active adults: build tolerance with smart progressions, manage volume, and avoid getting trapped chasing “perfect fixes.”
What to expect
This is more technical than a typical Ageless Athlete episode — but it stays grounded. You’ll get:
 a clearer way to think about overhead shoulder pain (without spiraling into anatomy anxiety) 
 how to scale training while symptoms settle (instead of fully shutting down) 
 how to rebuild overhead strength and range over time with progression 
Practical takeaways
Overhead pain isn’t automatically “dangerous.” Often the move is: modify the dose, don’t panic. 
Capacity beats perfection. Many mechanics narratives become a distraction from what matters most: what your shoulder can tolerate week to week. 
Progress by angle before chasing full overhead volume. A simple ladder: horizontal pulling → angled pulling → true overhead (and for climbers: steeper angles → less steep → vertical over months). 
Every drill is still load. It’s easy to accidentally stack too much “rehab” on top of training. 
You don’t need a forever routine. Once things feel normal, the goal is a shoulder that holds up in real life — not a lifelong checklist of correctives. 
Watch the video version (recommended for this episode)
Many of the movements and drills Tyler references are easiest to understand visually. You can watch the full video episode here:
 https://www.youtube.com/@agelessathletepodcast
About Dr. Tyler Nelson
Tyler is a clinician and educator focused on upper-extremity injuries. He works mostly with climbers, but his framework translates cleanly to anyone training or working overhead. 
Connect with Tyler
 Camp4 Human Performance (C4HP): https://www.camp4humanperformance.com/
 About Tyler: https://www.camp4humanperformance.com/about
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c4hp/
References (optional further reading)
 Scapular dyskinesis and shoulder injury risk (systematic review/meta-analysis): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33211975/
 Rotator cuff–related shoulder pain framework (Lewis 2016): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27083390/
 Scapular dyskinesis clinical assessment reliability/limitations: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7646607/
Friendly note
This episode is educational and not medical advice. If you’ve had a major traumatic injury, dislocation, progressive neurologic symptoms (numbness/weakness), or severe loss of function, consider evaluation by a qualified clinician.
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩
🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete

What if staying athletic for life isn’t about doing one thing really well — but learning how to start over, again and again?
Susan Hunt has spent the last four decades doing exactly that.
She describes herself as “very average” — yet she’s completed Ironman triathlons, raced the Eco-Challenge in Borneo, run the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara, and summited Mount Everest at 53.
Now at 68, she’s still competing — recently winning her age group at a Half Ironman and qualifying for the World Championships.
What makes Susan different isn’t just what she’s done.
It’s how many times she’s started over.
In this conversation, we explore what it really takes to stay capable for decades — not just physically, but mentally.
We talk about reinvention as a skill, how to approach training across different disciplines, and why knowing when to turn back might matter more than pushing forward.
This is a conversation about building a body that lasts — and a mindset that keeps expanding.
👤 About Susan Hunt
Susan Hunt is an endurance athlete and adventurer whose career spans multiple disciplines and decades.
Her accomplishments include completing an Ironman triathlon, racing the Eco-Challenge in Borneo, running the Marathon des Sables, and summiting Mount Everest at age 53.
She continues to compete today, most recently winning her age group at a Half Ironman at 68.
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩
🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete

What does it take to stay capable through the years?
Jason Hardrath is one of the most creative endurance athletes in the mountains today.
An ultrarunner, climber, and mountain linkup specialist, Jason is known for massive single-push adventures that combine running, climbing, swimming, biking, and even paragliding. He has completed the Bulger List — the 100 highest peaks in Washington — in record time, along with numerous Fastest Known Times (FKTs) and ambitious multi-sport mountain projects.
But this conversation isn’t about the feats themselves.
It’s about how Jason is preparing for the long game.
At just 36 — younger than most guests on Ageless Athlete — Jason is already thinking carefully about how to train, recover, and fuel differently so he can keep exploring the mountains for decades to come.
In this episode, we explore three key shifts Jason is making now to stay strong and agile as he ages, along with the mindset that allows him to keep evolving as an athlete.
We also talk about:
• Why Jason began combining running, climbing, and flying in the mountains
 • The story behind some of his most ambitious mountain linkups
 • What COVID and injury taught him about identity as an athlete
 • How he approaches strength training and recovery differently now
 • Nutrition, inflammation, and the habits that help him stay durable
 • Why every athlete should think about the long game
This conversation is ultimately about something deeper than performance.
It’s about building a relationship with your body — and your passions — that can last a lifetime.
Connect with Jason
Website:
 https://www.jasonhardrath.com

Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/jasonhardrath

📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩
🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete

What happens when the thing that defines you is suddenly taken away?
For legendary American alpinist Jack Tackle, climbing wasn’t just a sport — it was identity.
For more than five decades, Jack has explored remote mountains across Alaska, the Himalaya, and the Karakoram. He spent decades guiding in the Tetons and helping shape an era of bold American alpinism built on patience, partnership, and resilience.
But in the year 2001, everything changed.
Jack was struck by Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system. Within days he lost the ability to walk and spent 53 days in the hospital, much of that time in intensive care. Doctors later told him that if treatment had come even a day later, he likely would not have survived.
For many climbers, that moment would have marked the end.
Nine months later, Jack guided a client across the Grand Traverse in the Tetons — one of the most demanding ridge climbs in the United States.
Now in his seventies, Jack is still climbing and still reflecting on the deeper question that many athletes eventually face:
What happens when your body changes… but the thing that defines you is still calling?
In this conversation, Jack shares lessons from a lifetime in the mountains — about resilience, identity, consistency, and the quiet discipline required to keep showing up decade after decade.
This episode isn’t just about climbing.
It’s about the deeper human question of what we fight to keep in our lives — and why it matters.
📰 Subscribe to the Ageless Athlete newsletter !
1-2x a month, no spam. We share behind-the-scenes reflections, longevity tips, and athlete wisdom you won’t find anywhere else. You can sign up at https://www.agelessathlete.co/newsletter/ 📩
🚀 Love the show? Here’s how to support it
If something you’ve heard here has stayed with you, made you smile, or helped you keep going, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show. 👉 https://buymeacoffee.com/agelessathlete