ROB HEFFERNAN DOESN’T exactly look like a man who’s been piling on the pounds.
In boxing terminology he’s currently a lightweight, but when he’s in fighting shape he’s very much a featherweight.
Ireland’s leading athletics medal prospect at next year’s Rio Olympics is coming back off his well-earned annual month off and by the 37-year-old Corkman’s standards he’s all out of shape.
Although it looks as though he hasn’t got a pick on him, Heffernan is 6kg – nearly a stone – above his 50km race weight of 56kg, or 8st 7lb.
The road back to full fitness started last Monday, the day before The42 caught up with the former World Champion at Fota Island, which is near his Douglas home and where he does a lot of his training.
“I take a month off to completely switch off from the sport,” he explained. “It’s about family, all about family, for me in September – doing stuff with the kids, relaxing at home, eating and drinking what I want and putting on a few kgs!
“In the month of September I put on nearly 6kgs to what I raced in in Beijing. I’d feel it, I feel heavy and uncoordinated.
“I’ve gone up as high as 65kg other years but when you’re a bit older you’re chasing to cut the weight off so my break in September was a bit more active because I don’t want to put on any more weight.”
For the next few months Heffernan, who finished fifth at August’s World Championships in Beijing, will build up slowly towards his maximum capacity.
He is known for having one of the most gruelling training schedules of any sportsperson in this country, training and recovering eight hours a day.
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At the moment he says his three-to-four-hour a-day sessions are almost relaxed.
“Basically I’ll just run, do a little bit of walking – not much, just for technique – I’ll be on the bike, I’ll swim and I’ll do a bit of bikram yoga, get to the gym, prehab and get my body back into a bit of a routine,” he said.
It’ll take three or four hours in the morning, but it’s enjoyable because you’re not chasing times or anything like that and it’s just about being active. It’s a nice part of the year for me.
November and December will be about ‘construction’ – building a medal winning challenge in Rio.
By any standards Heffernan is a veteran athlete, even allowing for the fact that those in endurance sports can sustain longer careers than those in explosive events.
Even more unusual at elite level is that he’s a father of four.
Married to Marian, a member of the 4x400m relay team from the London 2012 Games, their family was planned around Olympic cycles.
Megan (12) and Cathal (10) came first and then Regan (nearly two) and Tara (not quite five months) arrived post-London.
“After London we had to sit down as a family. We wanted more kids and Marian was after ticking all of the boxes – what was going to be achieved if she went full-time again?” said Rob, who puts his disqualification from this year’s National Championships down to struggles with technique caused by injuries that are now behind him.
“She said that I had no support on board the next year and that she wanted to come on board to help me.
Peter Sweeney / The42
Peter Sweeney / The42 / The42
“Then I spoke to my kids after London. I was delighted with my performance, but distraught I didn’t win a medal.
We were away on holidays and I said to Cathal and Megan that maybe it was time to retire. They said ‘Dad, we don’t want you to’. I told them that we could be doing stuff like this all the time, that we could relax, but they genuinely didn’t want me to retire.
“That meant an awful lot to me because it meant I didn’t feel guilty that they were missing out. I was refreshed again.”
Heffernan finished fourth in the 50k walk in London, though he may well get a retrospective bronze with the strange case of winner Sergei Kirdyapkin soon due before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Russian Kirdyapkin won his gold in a four-month window between doping bans and there is a strong chance he’ll be free to walk again in Brazil. Russia’s once revered race walking programme is now disgraced following a string of bans.
Peter Sweeney / The42
Peter Sweeney / The42 / The42
Heffernan, who is gearing up for his fifth Olympic Games, would welcome the medal and feels like he deserves it, though he’s keen to look forward rather than back.
He’s training alongside Brendan Boyce and Alex Wright, who will compete in the 20k and 50k in Rio respectively.
Marian helps coach all three A standard athletes, yet doesn’t get a penny.
He said: “I’d love if someone like Marian, someone with her expertise, had a full-time role.
“It’s fine when everything goes well. But when I got disqualified in Zurich at the Euros last year I felt so bad because I was after letting her down and I had made her give up so much.
“If it was a paid position it’s her job and it might be different. It’s a vocation for Mar and I’d be lost without her.”
'When you’re a bit older, you’re chasing to cut the weight' - Rob Heffernan meets The42
ROB HEFFERNAN DOESN’T exactly look like a man who’s been piling on the pounds.
In boxing terminology he’s currently a lightweight, but when he’s in fighting shape he’s very much a featherweight.
Ireland’s leading athletics medal prospect at next year’s Rio Olympics is coming back off his well-earned annual month off and by the 37-year-old Corkman’s standards he’s all out of shape.
Although it looks as though he hasn’t got a pick on him, Heffernan is 6kg – nearly a stone – above his 50km race weight of 56kg, or 8st 7lb.
The road back to full fitness started last Monday, the day before The42 caught up with the former World Champion at Fota Island, which is near his Douglas home and where he does a lot of his training.
“I take a month off to completely switch off from the sport,” he explained. “It’s about family, all about family, for me in September – doing stuff with the kids, relaxing at home, eating and drinking what I want and putting on a few kgs!
“In the month of September I put on nearly 6kgs to what I raced in in Beijing. I’d feel it, I feel heavy and uncoordinated.
“I’ve gone up as high as 65kg other years but when you’re a bit older you’re chasing to cut the weight off so my break in September was a bit more active because I don’t want to put on any more weight.”
For the next few months Heffernan, who finished fifth at August’s World Championships in Beijing, will build up slowly towards his maximum capacity.
He is known for having one of the most gruelling training schedules of any sportsperson in this country, training and recovering eight hours a day.
At the moment he says his three-to-four-hour a-day sessions are almost relaxed.
“Basically I’ll just run, do a little bit of walking – not much, just for technique – I’ll be on the bike, I’ll swim and I’ll do a bit of bikram yoga, get to the gym, prehab and get my body back into a bit of a routine,” he said.
November and December will be about ‘construction’ – building a medal winning challenge in Rio.
By any standards Heffernan is a veteran athlete, even allowing for the fact that those in endurance sports can sustain longer careers than those in explosive events.
Even more unusual at elite level is that he’s a father of four.
Married to Marian, a member of the 4x400m relay team from the London 2012 Games, their family was planned around Olympic cycles.
Megan (12) and Cathal (10) came first and then Regan (nearly two) and Tara (not quite five months) arrived post-London.
“After London we had to sit down as a family. We wanted more kids and Marian was after ticking all of the boxes – what was going to be achieved if she went full-time again?” said Rob, who puts his disqualification from this year’s National Championships down to struggles with technique caused by injuries that are now behind him.
“She said that I had no support on board the next year and that she wanted to come on board to help me.
“Then I spoke to my kids after London. I was delighted with my performance, but distraught I didn’t win a medal.
“That meant an awful lot to me because it meant I didn’t feel guilty that they were missing out. I was refreshed again.”
Heffernan finished fourth in the 50k walk in London, though he may well get a retrospective bronze with the strange case of winner Sergei Kirdyapkin soon due before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Russian Kirdyapkin won his gold in a four-month window between doping bans and there is a strong chance he’ll be free to walk again in Brazil. Russia’s once revered race walking programme is now disgraced following a string of bans.
Heffernan, who is gearing up for his fifth Olympic Games, would welcome the medal and feels like he deserves it, though he’s keen to look forward rather than back.
He’s training alongside Brendan Boyce and Alex Wright, who will compete in the 20k and 50k in Rio respectively.
Marian helps coach all three A standard athletes, yet doesn’t get a penny.
He said: “I’d love if someone like Marian, someone with her expertise, had a full-time role.
“It’s fine when everything goes well. But when I got disqualified in Zurich at the Euros last year I felt so bad because I was after letting her down and I had made her give up so much.
“If it was a paid position it’s her job and it might be different. It’s a vocation for Mar and I’d be lost without her.”
Andy Lee says his fight against Billy Joe Saunders will go ahead in December
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2016 Olympic Games Editor's picks Olympic Games race walking Rio 2016 Rob Heffernan Walking Tall