Training videos for "Coach" Michael Shortino

Back by popular demand, here are some more videos from practice a few weeks ago. They're not bad, but I've had some of the biggest improvements of my time here in San Diego within the last two weeks.

Pole Vault- short run, small pole, 14 ft. bungee- a decent plant and rockback, but lacking full inversion and push off for finish, which I am now starting to do (and toying with a 16' bungee from short run)

Standing start hurdles, 39 inches (3 inches lower than race height) and 1 ft. closer. Things are looking good at medium speed. I had a decent go this week at full speed out of the blocks, but I'm still getting a little sloppy on form when I go all out. It's 10 times better than this month last year though, so that's exciting.



This is one of probably over a thousand rotational drills I've done this fall for discus. Something clicked last weekend and their's hope of this being a strength this year. I have yet to compete with confidence in the discus, so this is an exciting breakthrough. (though this vid. is before that breakthrough. Studying form in slow-mo is a definite help)



And here's some saturday morning "strong man" fitness training "fun". It's full of random creations of exhaustion blended in to a circuit. They're a nice break from the focused intensity of the week. The Easy Button is a new must have for our saturday circuits.

Gary & Joyce visit

Gary and Joyce came for a visit to San Diego before heading out on their first cruise!

We 'value' you guys so much.

Thank you for such a wonderfully pleasant visit.

Here is Gary driving Jonathan's motorcycle (his car was stolen)

Fall Training

This has been the best pre-season of my life. Times are fast, throws are far, and weights feel light compared to years past.

Here's a typical day at the office (last monday):

Session 1: Shot Put...
foot drills, arm throws, standing throws, full throws-slow; focusing on back leg body weight dependance (I'm still transfering too much to my front leg)

Jamie definitely keeps me humble in the shot. :) The throws are coming along strong this fall and promise to be a strength this year. I'm throwing in the mid to upper 40's (ft) and have hopes of hitting 50' in the spring.

Session #2: speed work...
Intervals on the track with the elite vaulters, (lane 1)

10 x 200 meters all at 27 sec. or faster with 3 min. rest between each. We do this workout quite a bit in the fall as it creates a great base for speed work through the winter. (you can see smoke from the firestorm lingering in the horizon north east of our track)

Session #3: weight room...

Here's a clip of a deadlift/pullup routine.

10 x 1 deadlift with 10 pullups between each lift. Starting weight was 225 and increase each lift until failure (similar to maxing, but different in that we are exhausted) I finished the day with a 400 lb. deadlift, which made me happy. (as seen in video)

Thanks to all those who continue in interest and support as we near the end of this chapter of my life. Olympic trials are in 7 months!

Spidey @ Qualcomm

Spiderman visits the evacuees at Qualcomm stadium during the fires.

Califire

Thank you all for your calls and concerns. Sandy and I are doing fine. We have not and probably will not be evacuated. I made a little map so you can see where we are in regards to the ever growing fires. Blue dot= our apartment (right next to Qualcomm/Chargers stadium)
Yellow dots= Sandy's boss's homes (She's an executive personal assistant and oversees management of both homes. Sadly, both homes are being threatened right now)
Black dot= my track
Our church and many of its members live near the southern yellow dot as well. Many of them have had to evacuate.

Sandy has had the past three days off as her boss is staying in a hotel on an island (smart move, eh?)

I trained lightly on monday and hit it hard in the weight room yesterday for a couple hours. I now know what smoking feels like. We are going to try to do some throwing today outdoors and then finish with whatever else we can do in the weight room. We had a low intensity week scheduled during Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we may be using up those rest days this week.

For some reason my picture loader is not working right now. Stay tuned for Spiderman's visit to the evacuees...

:)

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

At some time or another I have had conversations with most of you about this Biblical yet somehow deniable topic. I recently listened to a sermon from a pastor of a great church down here in San Diego. Whether or not you agree with him, his outline is clear and his teaching is balanced in presentation. Just thought I'd add this to your thoughts as you try to find an accurate perspective and encounter with God.

Scroll down to: "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" (sept. 16, 2007) -approx. 52 min.

Zest Adventure #1

About a year ago Jeremy wrote a little bio and entered me in an adventure contest. His entry won me/us a $15k adventure travel award from Zest Soap.





For our first dip into the winnings we decided that we would go to the Lofoten Islands of Norway. Every time I have seen a picture of that area my heart has stirred and Jeremy was very interested to check out the potential climbing of the the amazing granite rocks jumping out of the Norwegian Sea. Not to mention, it was my most desired place to visit on earth.


The scenery had us in constant awe and at times seemed fake. None of these shots have been edited and were all taken with your basic digital camera.






We kept ourselves plenty busy in the mid-40's, always rainy weather. (we had about 6 hours of sunshine in our 7 day stay)

Playing on fish racks, climbing on boulders, and making up workouts on random structures were just a few of the items on our daily checklist.




And as it turns out: camping + city = homelessness...
something you don't quite realize until you look at the pics. :)

*uggh, can't get shot to load*

Toss in some quality hitchhiking and before you know it, you're a bonafide bum travelling northern Europe...

Thus the coined phrase for the trip, "This is no more than irresponsibility... disguised as adventure."

But,

"Irresponsibility breeds adventure!"



But that's okay, the break, the beauty, and the bonding made everything all worth it.

For the Fam...

Enjoying our new scanner a little too much. I found these pictures while cleaning out my filing box. A tad humiliating, but I know you all will enjoy it!!

I saved the best for last....

Introducing, the Wonder Years! Sisters...be nice :)

Lots of new news....

Our church had the incredible privelage of having Lisa Bevere come and speak at our Women's Cherish Conference two weeks ago. If you've never heard of her, now's your chance.

She is carrying with her a very specific message for the women in the church today. I knew she was a powerful woman of God, but I was blown away at the specific and empowering word she had for the Daughters of God.

Today's your day ladies.

Don't let this one pass you by.

Jonathan's good friend and one of his groomsmen graced us with his presence this past week! Daniel Paris came down to San Diego from the bay area to attend a conference he had with work. While his short stay here, Daniel treated....and I MEAN treated us to some extraordinary desserts and tasty burgers! I felt like a little kid in a candy store- it was sooooo good. I want to take my mom and mom in law there when they visit next ;)
It'l knock your socks off.

Jonathan flew out this afternoon to speak at Pete Robinson's church in Reno, NV. I just spoke with him a couple hours ago and found out that he gets to spend tomorrow morning at Lake Tahoe!!

Upon returning from Reno this coming Saturday, Jonathan will then fly to Kansas City to meet up with his brother. Together they will board a plane and head straight on over to Norway!! Yes, the "Zest man of Adventure Funds" are being put to use for the first time.

As you can see, they don't really need much of anything to keep themselves entertained....

And Jonathan is taking notes on how to travel as a hitch hiker in Northern Europe.

And then...there's this.

Oh yes. He really cut his own hair, and he really walked all around downtown like this too. When I tried telling him that his 1982 popstar tuft was a little large and awkward, he denied any such accusation and needed proof.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think this is proof enough. I hid the clippers when we got home.

And they're off!!

Crossfit started yesterday for some of us.

In California, Sandy has her crew:

Audrey Williams, Yvette Bellamy,
Ali Berres, Kala Hubbard, and a few potentials.

In Kansas City:

Jeremy Collins (and his climbing crew), Ron Zimmerman, possibly the Shortinos?,

and the infamous American Gladiator-

Joyce Collins (a.k.a. "Storm")

Anybody else? Bend? Nampa? Co. Springs? Olathe?

Sandy and friends are doing alternative workouts to compensate the level of difficulty. For yesterday, instead of doing 7 snatches with increasingly difficult weight, I had them do:

Run

5x20 airsquats, 10 dumbbell presses

abs

Let me know how it's going or if you need ideas for alternative exercises due to difficulty or available facilities.

Workout Invitation, starting 8-5-07

Dear Scott L, Jeremy C, Ryan S, Michael S, Matthew S, Kevin B, Seth S, Caleb B, Seth B, Casey P, Corey P, Dan K, Tracee H, Rob M, Heather S, Audrey W, Pete R., Scott W, Jesse, Justin J, Danny S, Richard R, Tyler K, Emily C, Sandy C, Tyler Y, Bobby V, Randy S, John D, Brent E, and anyone else I forgot,

This is an open invitation for you guys to join me in a month of preseason training. Part of what we do in the late summer/early fall is a fitness program called "Crossfit". It would require you getting a one month membership to a fitness center ($30-$50; preferably one with olympic lifting, kettlebells and good pull up bars) and takes no more than one hour a day. There may even be a "Crossfit" gym in your city.

It's a lot of fun to do with a partner or two, and can be as relaxed or competitive as you want. My brother and I do it every chance we get. All the weights and exercises are adapted to your size and ability. Most every workout is for time, so it creates an incredible mix of strength and aerobic challenge.


If you are at all interested, let me know and I might make a new blog for it that we could all post on with our progress. I think it would be a ton of fun to have my friends involved for a month. Also, most of you have at some point come to me concerning fitness. I recommend this style of training more than any other for overall fitness.


I would want you to start on monday, august 5th. That gives you a week to find a gym, think it over, etc. Leading up to next week I HIGHLY recommend you run 10-30 minutes a day, do 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups daily (break it up with rest) and target a healthy diet. Toss in a couple of rest days this week, but don't go in to next week having done nothing.

I've done countless styles of exercise and I promise you this approach to training will have you more fit than you have ever been in your life.
Check it out at crossfit.com. It's three days on, one day rest. We will do whatever the workout of the day tells us to do.

Early summer summary

Seth and Heather Stimson came down to Texas to watch me compete in a decathlon in early June. It's always refreshing to spend time with these two great people. Seth and Heather have been a nonstop source of support, encouragement, and faith as Sandy and I continue our quest in the wild, wild west.

Thank you so much for making the trip down, guys. You are incredible!!

The track meet started off solid with the first day full of decathlon p.r.'s. I didn't do anything overly impressive, but it's nice to see that the steady progression has not yet slowed.

Problems arose somewhere between shot put and high jump. I don't know if I knocked a rib out of place or just strained my back, but by the middle of high jump I could hardly breath. Every jump in warm ups felt worse. I decided to come in low and managed to clear my first three heights on my first attempt. However, when the bar got to 6' I couldn't run without groaning. It was like trying to perform with the wind knocked out of me.

After high jump I went to lay down and massage my mid back to see if I could shake it out for the 400m which would start in less than an hour. My thought was, "At least get yourself to the starting line and see what happens from there." After a slow and painful reaction to the gun, I ended up running a 49.71, letting out grunts the whole way. It was miserable, especially after 8 hours on the track, but the time I ran made it enjoyable.

I felt worse at the start of day two. I could barely jog and had to pull out of the competition.

My training partner, Jon Takahashi, had a much better experience later that week down at the Olympic training center. He vaulted 18'8" and beat the silver medalist from the Athens games. Here's a shot of him clearing his new p.r. Way to go, man!

While I was on my mandatory time off from training, I went to church camp with the 5th and 6th graders at our church.

Sandy and I are the leaders of that age group at our church, so it worked out perfect that I was available to be with them for a week. They are a great group of kids.

Last week I was invited to a photo shoot for some photographers from London. They took various action shots of us out on the track. I was invited back the following day to do some modeling as a swimmer in La Jolla. Lucky for me, they didn't know that I swim like a dump truck. I had a great time with it and the extra income was needed for this month.

I invited Mike Marsh down from L.A. for the shoot. He is a fellow decathlete and the training partner of Bryan Clay, arguably the greatest athlete in the world. Mike is a solid guy who is in it for the right reasons. He's got 10 years of decathlon experience and is always doing what he can to help me improve. It was great to spend a couple of days hostin and hangin.

He also looks strikingly similar to Seth...

Well, there's more to report on, but this post is getting long. I head out for K.C. on Tuesday for Michael and Aubrey Shortino's wedding and will be there through next Monday. I haven't been home since Christmas, so I am really excited for the trip. Sandy will hold down the fort in San Diego, as she had an extended visit to K.C. a couple of months ago. See you soon.

The Whole Collins Family Comes to Visit

Jonathan speaking at a surf camp that Jeremy and Tricia helped with

Uncle Jonathan

Balboa Park Zion, Jeremy & Tricia

No sun for you little Zion

My favorite baby in the wholewide world

Gary's first time swimming in the ocean!!









Arboretum

Check out the flipper floppers! No wonder he was having trouble walking!!



Downtown San Diego, heading to dinner

Downtown San Diego heading to a coffee shop

Jonathan sure does love him!!

A little hike Jonathan and I love to go on

The fam...minus three