This much I know: Rob Heffernan, Race walker

I try to keep a positive mental attitude and to stay around positive people.

I don’t feel there is anything I cannot achieve if I put my mind to it, combined with a desire to work hard. I use a sports psychologist before races.

When I won the gold medal at the World Athletic’s Championships last August the attention from the public and the media was unbelievable. I’d already got a taste of it after the London Olympics, but this time it was incredible. I suppose it was some good news in the midst of a recession.

I was very well prepared mentally for the event and I was very conscious of training harder. I’d been fourth in both the 20km and 50km walks at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona and again in the 2012 London Olympic 50km.

When I came into the stadium in Moscow it felt like an out of body experience. I really enjoyed the last lap.

Everybody was very good natured about my success and I’m grateful for any positive effects it might have had. In one case, I met a woman in the park who told me she had been depressed for weeks and hadn’t so much as strayed outside the door until she heard the news. Then she gave me a hug. That kind of reaction makes me proud and helps to motivate me.

I took a month off afterwards but I’ve been back in training since October.

I enjoyed my month off, although I still went out two days a week as it’s not good for your heart to stop completely. It’s humbling when you realise the work you have to do to get back to the top level again. Besides the physical work, I’m careful about my diet and make sure to eat good carbs, fish, vegetables and meat, along with my Kinetica supplements which are part of my training.

My wife Marian Andrews is national women’s 400 metres champion and after competing at the 2012 London Olympics, she put her own career on hold in order to focus on my dream.

We met when we were training in the same club. I was 21 and she was 17. After a bit of stalking — I kept surprising her by bumping into her at training sessions — she eventually gave in and agreed to go out with me.

Growing up in Cork, I played a lot of football. The goal was to get onto the school football team — I used go to the gym to do weights — but I was tiny.

I planned to leave school after my Junior Certificate, get an apprenticeship and become a plasterer, like my father.

I’d tried race walking at Coláiste Chríost Rí. By chance Brother Dooley of the North Mon spotted me and said I was scholarship material so I went back to school there and did my Leaving Certificate.

I was offered a US sports scholarship but decided to stay in Ireland. I’d just qualified for the European Juniors and once I’d got a taste of international competition, I was hooked.

My mother Maureen passed away in 2011 from a heart attack. She was only 63 but we later found out she’d a lot of blockages and things that could have been prevented, had we known about them. I was set to compete in the World Championships in Dageu but I returned home immediately. Her death came as I complete blow. I thought about her as I crossed the line in Moscow.

At my level, race-walking is a full-time job. The early days were tough. We were living in a house in the country and money was tight. I’m already training for the Olympics in Rio. My entire year is planned with goals and targets all along way. And that is how it will be until 2016.

We have a tradition of race walking in places. I’m in talks about setting up a race walking academy in Cork to help more Irish athletes get to international level.