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Catching Up With: Andrew Short

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

When Andrew first secured his factory Honda ride back in 2005, he was plucked out of relative privateer obscurity.  Similar to the career of former Honda team member Jeff Stanton, Short had payed his dues on privateer and support teams for several years, with some notable rides and even a few wins along the way. Honda finally recognized the Colorado native’s concentrated work ethic and very pleasant demeanor, choosing him to ride West Coast Lites on their works CRF250.  Now Short finds himself entering his sixth season with Red Bull Honda after a strong 2009 season.  Andrew was one of only a handful of riders to have his contract ironed out well in advance and he is looking forward to the upcoming year.

So what have you been up to in the past few months?

Since Steel City I’ve been trying to get my health back up to the base line. It was a long season and I had some problems with my thyroid, but I kept racing through it even though I was hurting the whole time. I’ve been enjoying the time off and just riding the bike for fun, no motos or serious training. I’ve been riding on trails and making some play jumps to keep me occupied. I’m riding Supercross still, but it’s not really structured; if I want to do ten laps then I do ten laps. I haven’t done that in a long time because I always felt guilty that I should be making myself a better racer. I love riding and I know there is a day that I won’t be getting paid to race and I can do that as much as I want, but I needed to play for a little bit. Now we are back here and I’m getting serious for Anaheim and Supercross.

Thyroid problems are not something you hear too much about in racing.  What exactly were you dealing with?

There are about 20 million people in America that are dealing with a thyroid condition, so it’s a condition that a lot of people deal with. I’m what’s called “hyper thyroid”, which means my body depends on my thyroid more than normal. Basically your thyroid controls your glandular system, your pituitary gland, the hyper thalamus, it’s pretty complicated to explain, but it’s basically the gas and brakes to your hormones.

I was tired all of the time. I would sleep for fourteen hours, wake up and ride my bicycle for twenty minutes, and then feel like I needed to sleep again. I had no energy and I would be tired when I’d race, I’d be too tired to train, so it made it frustrating to come to the races knowing I wasn’t at one hundred percent. The bright side is I ended up second n points, but it was a challenge to be at them tired all the time.

When did you start to feel the effects and know that something wasn’t right with your body?

It started at Texas and it was in full swing by Red Bud. I was dealing with some other problems because of it, and it kept tearing down my body without building it back up. I’m just happy to have the time off and have a ride with good people and experience, so I know better days are ahead.

I wasn’t the only guy who had problems this year, because Chad was visibly sick and he came out on top at the end of it. As a professional athlete we deal with things like sickness or injuries, no matter if it’s a sprained ankle or something like this. This was the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this, because it wasn’t a bone on ligament that was the problem, it was my energy level and it had me confused.

What is you deal for 2010? You just got to California after being home in Texas since the Nationals and you’re getting ready for next year. Do you have most of the same details in your 2010 program as last year, or are you changing things up a bit?....

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