Her.ie Caught up with Irish athletics star and current World Champion walker Rob Heffernan at the launch of Centra’s “Let’s Walk” initiative which aims to get thousands of people walking in their local community to raise much needed funds for the Irish Cancer Society’s Action Breast Cancer programme this October.
Here Rob talks about starting out in racewalking, how he maintains his fitness routine, staying focused during training and why you should pull on your runners and stretch those legs for a good cause…
Q: You won a running scholarship in school, so how did you move into racewalking?
A: I actually met Billy Morgan who was the Cork football manager in a hotel last night and he was saying the amount of county medals I could have won at this stage! I played football growing up, and I ran, and I was introduced to racewalking but it was just another race. And then I started excelling in it and by the time I got to Junior Championships I was moved onto European Juniors, and it just opened my eyes that there’s a world outside Ireland. I declined to go on the running scholarship and decided I was going to be good at this. It gave me a massive motivation.
Q: How did your family react to you turning down a running scholarship and turning to a relatively unknown sport in Ireland before your own success?
A: My family have always been so supportive of me, and I can see obviously when I train in Spain we’d always bring a hurley with us, and you’ll have people running away thinking they’re going to be attacked. It’s the same with walking. When you go out and see it, that’s when people start getting more of an awareness for the sport.
I always feel like if you’re good at your sport, and respect it, then people will start recognising that and will start paying attention to it.
Q: Congratulations on your World Title, you must still be revelling in it. How intense was your training in the run-up to it?
A: It’s very, very hard. I start back on the training programme months before the championship, like November. This week I ran 40 miles and I’m not in training. I always have to keep things ticking over and now we’re in October I’ll be building myself up in the gym.
Then in November, I’m training every day. It’s planned and progressive and then for the two months before the championship, we live in Spain up in the hills so you’re isolated from everything.
You’re isolated from what’s going on in Ireland. You’re just totally concentrating on your training and sleeping and training and sleeping. It’s intense, but if you need to stay focussed, that’s what has to be done.
Q: What’s the greatest training advice you’ve been given so far?
A: It’s all about your environment. You need to put yourself in a good environment with no distractions with like-minded people.
Like I wouldn’t be able to train at the intensity that I do if I stayed in Ireland. You could go out training every day and you’d be talking to people, just saluting people along the road.
You really need to put yourself in a good environment where you’re just totally concentrated.
Q: Obviously your wife is an athelete too. Do you feel a competition amongst one another or do you try to keep your athletic lives separate?
A: Well Marian helps coach me on the ground every day, and to be honest I couldn’t do it without Marian. Marian’s a volunteer but if she stepped back in the morning it’d be very hard for me to do my sport.
She has everything organised for me – my drinks, my video analysis, she does my massage. She could come out with me on the bike or in the evenings she could run with me with Regan in the buggy.
She’s just as involved as me, so when there’s a good result or a bad result, she feels it just the same.
Q: So you specialise in the 50km, but anyone who is training for a big race always feel the last few km are the hardest. What do you do to keep pushing yourself to the finish line? And what advice would you give to someone who feels like they always fall at the final hurdle?
A: No matter what you do, whatever distance, you can’t focus on anyone else. You need to focus on yourself and what you can do. The way I look at it, the race doesn’t start until 40k.
As I found out to my detriment in Zurich last month when I thought I was invincible, I didn’t think it out. Whether it’s a marathon or 50k, if you judge your pace wrong at the start, you’re going to suffer.
You need to be very reserved at the start. You need to be very calculated. Make sure that you’re fuelling right, make sure that you’re hydrated. Taking in your gels, taking in your carbs. It’s nearly transportation to 40k and then the race really starts.
If you start racing at 15 or 20k you’re going to fall apart.
I think it’s important though that you’re training in blocks. If you’re doing a 40k race, you’d want to be hitting 35k three weeks before to be comfortable. With that mixture of tiredness and adrenaline, your legs should be feeling rested enough that they can carry you through the last leg.
I don’t think in training you need to cover the entire distance. I think the accumulation of training will carry you through on the day.
Q: What kind of food do you eat to compliment your training? Do you have a secret food that you rely on?
A: No, I think people can get too caught up in that. Obviously I need to eat very well. I eat fish, and good meat and carbs, and lots of fruit and veg. I eat lots of berries for their anti-oxidant properties and I grow my own wheatgrass so I take a lot of that.
When you train so hard you can build up a lot of toxins in your body, and you constantly need to eliminate them to recover. If you don’t eat right you won’t get the benefit from your training, you’ll get sick.
Even without training, you really need to eat right, I just eat more of everything when I’m training hard. I’ve put on about 4 or 5kg since I raced last month, but I need to do that to keep my body fuelled.
Q: So, obviously you’re involved with Centra’s ‘Let’s Walk’ for Action Breast Cancer. What made you get involved in the ‘Let’s Walk’ project?
A: I’m obviously very passionate about high-performance sport, but I love that walking is for everyone. Your grandmother, your two-year old can do it, it’s just so important to be active.
When this initiative came up I was delighted to be involved ‘cause it’s just so positive and it’s something that’s starting up in every community. Centra can be active in every local community and it just means everyone can be a part of it.
Also, with the Breast Cancer Awareness with the Irish Cancer Society all the proceeds from the pink vests will go to that, and it was just something I was delighted to do.
I just know the benefits of not just a high-intensity sport but just exercise. People can get turned off by competition, but it’s so important for everyone to just get out and be active. I even say that to my kids. If they don’t end up in sports, I just want them to be active. They still need to be out for their health, their mental health.
Everyone can do this, there’s really no excuses. Just throw on your runners and head out the door.
Q: What is your advice to anyone who’s not sure about signing up for a walk?
A: I’d say just get out and try it. The first time you go out, bring a friend with you ‘cause that’ll make it easier. If you’re heading out, use that as your way of catching up with a friend. If you meet them out on a walk I find you’re always that bit relaxed and it’s all about changing your social patterns.
I’d say just go out and try it once, and you’ll feel the benefits of it straight away. You’re going to think it’s great and it’s just the start of you getting out walking and getting to know more people and make friends.
Over 250 Centra stores are hosting a local walk this October and Rob Heffernan is calling on the people of Ireland to get their walking shoes on for this great cause! Centra is also selling a limited edition pink reflective vest in-store for Breast Cancer Awareness month, retailing at €5 with all net proceeds going to the charity.
Join Rob on one of his two walks as part of the Centra ‘Let’s Walk’ campaign on Sunday 19th October at 3pm starting from Herlihy’s Centra Bishopstown Walk, or on Monday 27th October at 11am from Fisher’s Centra Baltinglass Walk. 
