Andrew Short Talks KTM, Conditioning

Shan Moore | November 13, 2010

Perhaps the surprise of the off-season was the acquisition of Andrew Short by KTM. During a recent testing session at the KTM practice track, Shorty talked about his move to KTM and about his off-season training.”For me, going into the 2011 Supercross season on a new bike and a new team you don’t know what to expect… and I like that and I’m excited. With Honda, I kind of knew where I would finish and what my strengths were and what my weaknesses were. And now I think I have an opportunity to use this new situation with KTM to build on what I’ve done in the past but take me to a new level,” said Short.Short has been working with a new trainer, Sagi Ishi, and he’s currently putting in a lot of miles on a road bike in order to build his base conditioning level.”During the off-season, that’s where you make all your gains as far as conditioning and getting your base,” added Short. “Once you start the season it’s hard to make gains and get into shape because you’re always trying to recover and travel and race. There’s not a whole lot of time in the middle of the week to gain some fitness. So in the off-season each month has certain goals. Starting in November, it’s just a lot of motos on the motorcycle, just to get your body used to sitting a certain time. So for me I race 20 lap motos so I do a lot of 20 lappers in training. That simulates the finals. I also do eight lappers to simulate the heat races. So I’m getting my body used to sitting for those amounts of time, then I’m doing a lot of base training on a bicycle. It’s a lower heart rate and lower power but at a longer period of time. November is also a good time of year to build strength and work on maybe some of the injuries you’ve had in previous years, to build up that strength again. You have to get a good base going, and you’re not doing a lot of high-end stuff.”When it gets closer to start of the season then you’re working on speed on the track and you kind of back down that base training you’ve been doing. It’s always a transition period where you’re going from one phase to the next. You can’t just do one thing year-round otherwise you’re going to burn out or you’re not going to maximize you’re potential.”