Howdy friends, welcome back for another Happy Hour chat with Graham. This week's guest is Chandler Short, a soccer player, and a passionate all-around athlete. Crack open your 3:00 drink and sit back for this Live on Instagram with Graham and Chandler.

G: So let's get right into it, we haven't really gone into depth about your sports background. tell us about that.

C: I've been playing soccer ever since I was four-years-old and I just had a lot of energy growing up. My parents tried throwing me into baseball and I quit quickly, just had to my energy,b basically just an energizer bunny. So Soccer turned out to be the perfect fit because I was just running my head off. SO gradually as I played more I turned into a midfield player just because I had such an engine inside of me. Then eventually played competitively in high school, playing at pretty much every club in San Diego it seems at this point. Essentially I got a few different college offers and I was looking for a D1 school but I went with this small school in upstate New York and it turned out to be a great fit for me. Being from San Diego, born and raised here, it was a huge culture shock for me but it turned out to be a great fit. I didn't actually graduate from the school though but we can talk more about that later if we want.

G: Yeah totally and I think that's a great point for anyone listing right now. Playing at the college level is great, but it's really important that you're playing. Going to a D1 school is fantastic but if you're just going to be the backup guy that's really not a great experience. You want to be somewhere you can play and develop as a player. Sometimes it's not til your later years where you really get to shine and develop all your skills.

C: Yeah you bring up a couple of great points. Especially with the age and for men, we don't mature as fast, I'm 24 now, and it's funny I feel like I'm ready to go now. So when I went into college I was 1 I weight 145 lbs and I was 6'1. Now I'm 175/180, those extra pounds of muscle really do make a difference. If I were to go back I would say take a gap year if you can, that extra year really makes a huge difference. Not only in your physicality but your mental attitude towards everything. You're a little bit more patient as you get older.

G: Yeah I'm asked all the time if I regret skipping college but physically I felt I was ready to go play professional baseball but maybe mentally I wasn't. That's a big thing. Now I love my career and I ended on a good note but I think that may have a good idea.

C: Totally right! This is happy hour, right? I've got my glass of whiskey here. Even though we're both healthy guys you can't take it too seriously you know.

G: Yes definitely. Which is another point, when I was playing ball I was so strict. I wouldn't go out or drink with the guys. There's a fine line where it's bad if you have destructive tendencies when you go out but there's also a healthy balance of going out and bonding with your teammates and being happy, that plays into how you perform on the field. Can you talk about that about playing in college?

C: Oh absolutely! With drinking in college, it was definitely a problem. Not necessarily for myself, I had a good balance but as I learned more as a personal trainer and more about the human body and health and wellness. It's amazing how bad alcohol is for recovery, fatigue, and all these things that lead to chronic inflammation, and it's such a disservice. But as a young guy, you think you can just drink on the weekends and show up to practice on Monday and be good to go. But no that's not the case as I'm learning.

G: Yeah it's tough. How much has that affected your fitness now?

C: I think it really comes down to an individual level. It's funny how everyone wants to be on the newest fad or diet but just speaking for myself I know what works well for me now and that's taken me years to figure out. When I did my first marathon 2 years ago I considered my time okay and decent for my first time but I know that if I went to try again I would do so much better. I think I could shave off 30 minutes or even more just because of how I would train and prepare my body for that. Also, your diet and nutrition are huge so I think as far as performance goes I know I would have been a better player if I knew more about my body and had the right tools to prepare. It all makes a huge difference.

G: Yeah and we'll get into the ultra-endurance stuff too, do you have any interest in that? I have a buddy who likes to do 24-hour races and that just does not sound like fun for me.

C: You know I think there's a special place for those people, I actually have a buddy who is in my running club, and on the weekends for fun, he'll do 8-hour runs. It's just like at that point, being by yourself for 8 hours doesn't really seem like that fun to me but some people must get a feeling for me. That's what I've learned so much about fitness and learning more about training people is that the look is one thing, how you look in terms of muscle or how skinny you are, we all have a specific image in mind that we may want for ourselves but at the end of the day it's feeling that we're trying to capture as you probably test to when you go out on your bike rides. It's not necessarily for your body its for that feeling.

G: Yeah I love that, I think you're absolutely right. I love the feeling, both the physical suffering and the mental aspect. Endurance sports make a lot of sense to me and training my brain.

C: Yeah could you imagine not being into fitness at all, it's a totally different mindset.

G: Totally it is, that's such a foreign idea to me. But to get back to get you, how quickly did you get back into running? Was it something you did before soccer?

C: My dad would actually sign me up for a lot of races when I was younger. Mainly little 1 mile races and even though I hated all the races I won pretty much every event I was in. Not to toot my own horn or anything like that but I was just really good and natural at running. I never stuck with it, I got into soccer that's what brought me here to where I am today but now that I'm done with soccer I think running has just provided me with the same thing but on an individual level. Just like any other sport it really teaches you to become a better person and keeps you healthy. I'm just chasing that feeling, that runners high.

G: That's what's so great about endurance sports, whether it's running or cycling. SO when did you do your first marathon?

C: My first one was almost 2 years ago. I did the Carlsbad Marathon for the first time. It's funny, I trained for 3 months for that one but would definitely train for 6 months if I do another marathon.

G: So with running a marathon, there's a couple of things I'd love to know about it but within the actual scope of the event, what's the toughest hurdle to get over? & how'd you do for the Carlsbad Marathon?

C: I think my time was 3 hours and 33 minutes, I could be wrong on that but I believe my pace was about an 8:33 pace. Yeah as far as what the hardest thing was about the run, I'd say really knowing your body's level on intake in terms of what you're consuming. Do you have enough water in your body, are you over hydrated, are you fueling during the race with gels or gummies. Figuring out what works best for you before the race took me a little bit, that's honestly where its more like a game of chess. I started running a 7:20 pace and then I hit mile 20 and I hit a wall. Then there were all these 40/50-year-old guys passing me and I was like what they were going to slow how did they pass me but it's not about speed it's the long-term game. That's something running has taught me in life is to slow down and not be in such a rush. Which is something for my entire life I've been a very fast-paced person but running has really slow me down. There's no rush really, it's going at your own pace.

G: You bring up something interesting, with longer endurance races like this, the pacing is so important. It can be really tricky if you've never tackled something like it. Did you pre-run that distance before you did the marathon?

C: I actually only did 20 miles so that's why. I only trained my body 20 miles, not 26.2. I think that if you're going to train for a marathon you have to hit at least 26.2 or even up it to 30 which is tough. I live in Leucadia which is north San Diego and I ran all the way to my parent's home in Ran Pensacidos which is really far so that requires over 2 hours of training and preparation which is a lot of energy out of your day, not to mention I was still working. It's not that easy when you're trying to maintain other parts of your life.

G: Yeah well do you have any advice for someone looking to take on a marathon?

C: I think anyone can do it but give yourself enough time, more than you think you'd need. And train slow and long. It really comes down to knowing your body and giving it time to adjust and learn with the training.

G: Yeah good to know. I wanted to get into your personal training, do you train athletes and average people who are just looking to get fit?

C: To be honest I see it as a springboard for me because I am still going to school. So while I love training people I don't necessarily see it as my ultimate path in life. I'm actually going to go to chiropractic school next fall to learn more about the human body. I'm fascinated with how our bodies function and get aligned, all that good stuff. As far as training people, I train anyone that's looking to stay healthy, active, or maybe they want to lose weight, seek overall health benefits. I work with elite athletes as well, I'm only training a couple of people right now on the side but I'm loving every second of it. It's very fulfilling actually, working with different personalities you get a different understanding of people who are more motivated or arent. It's a great side gig for me right now.

G: Nice! I think athletes have a knock for it because you've spent so much time being coached your whole life you sort of understand how to talk to people. Not everyone has that certain skill and some are great athletes and cant be great coaches too, I've seen that from playing ball long enough. What would you say, with quartine too, everyone is trying to stay or get fit while being at home, what would be your biggest tip as a trainer for those that are trying to keep consistent or make that life change?

C: With someone with less experience there's no shortage of videos and content out there so that's always a good starting step. Look at other experts who create home workouts and all that, we have the ability to find content from some of the worlds best trainers and almost treat it like they're you're one on one coach which is super awesome. I've done that a lot myself; I've looked at other fitness trainers, posts, videos, and see how I can make it my own to keep it fresh and new. That's half the battle for me is to keep it interesting from working out at home. There are only so many exercises you can do and you don't need a lot of equipment which is the beauty of it. If you're getting caught up in not having anything you're missing the point of fitness.

G: I love that. To add to that for a second, one of the most important things about training and staying motivated is to change up the workouts and think about new things to add to your routine. New challenges are really great for progression.

C: Like Strava, I think it's a great app. I'm not too good at the Strava game but I always record on my watch. It's a great tool to track my clients and keep them consistent, it helps me know how serious they are too about wanting to live healthier.

G: It's interesting too now that there's no excuse to not train with all these home workouts and fitness tracking apps. So to finish up, do you want to talk about where your van is at and what you plan to do with that guy?

C: It's going really well, I just got the walls up, I have the ceiling and fans in, I installed the windows myself. Just for anyone out there who is watching I have a Ram Promaster van which I sold my BMW, back when I thought I was a hotshot, and I realized I wanted to minimalize my life a bit back when COVID hit. So I've been working on it for the past 6 months and I'm finally starting to work on the interior. So the next thing challenge is to work on the cabinets. The focus with this is to take each thing one part at a time because I've realized there's a lot to learn and tools and a lot of money that goes into it.

G: Well it's looking great! Everyone can go check it out on your Instagram but you also have a fitness account right? Want to plug that for our friends that are listening?

C: Right now for my fitness account it's just @chandlershortfitness

G: Awesome well thanks for coming on Chandler.

C: Thank you for inviting me to the show!

G: I was stoked to have you on and hopefully everyone listening got some tips and tricks for fitness. For everyone, that's tuning in now or reading this later, thanks so much for joining us for this chat we love having you join us, and we'll see you guys next week.