Kona Bound – Steve Robbo at Ironman’s pinnacle
May 22: Steve with wife and fellow Ironman Bernadette relaxing at Port Macquarie after securing his Kona slot
Hi Members and Friends of OTC,
Orange’s Steve Robinson qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona and will race on 08 Oct after a stunning performance in the Male 60-64 category of the Australian Ironman at Port Macquarie on 01 May 2022. We caught up with Steve to hear how it was all going before he flies out on Fri:
Qualification
You qualified at Port Mac Ironman in May 2022…how many false starts had you had before that…it had been COVID – cancelled a few times right?
The race was cancelled 4 times, May 20, Sept 20, May 21, and Sept 21, 3 were due to COVID, 1 due to flooding.
Were there times when motivation was low with those reschedules / cancellations? Or you remain with good mojo throughout?
Training was going exceptionally well for the May 20 race and was looking good for a really decent time, motivation was pretty good after a 2nd place at Husky long course especially as it was only half way into the training for IM at Port and we weren’t focusing on the shorter distance. We (training partner and wife Bernadette) were never keen on training for either of the September races, long rides and runs outside in winter are always tough and just wear you down, as do all the early and cold mornings in the dark. By May 21 we were starting to think we just wanted to get the race done and training over with and this only got worse after the Sept 21 cancellation, we were now training for the same race for the fifth time. The lack of other accessible races also didn’t help.
Had Kona been on your radar for a few years, or a more recent dream?
Just doing an Ironman had always been a bucket list thing for me and I didn’t get to do the first until I was 55, Kona was always top of the bucket list as far as races go but seemed like an almost impossible dream.
Current Training
So you have about 5 months between qualification at Port and the race at Kona…how has your training in the Orange winter gone in your build up to the race?
To be honest training commitment for this has been less than ideal. I did purposely reduce some of the training just to keep going through the 3rd winter and 6th training block in a row. Motivation at times has been very low but you need to keep visualizing that finish line and realize that lots of other people have it worse than me. Had a bit of disrupted schedule recently with a calf tear (only minor) and followed up a week later with COVID.
It could be +35 degrees and 100% humidity in the lava fields…do you do any heat specific preps…saunas…bike trainer with the heater on?
I don’t worry too much about this I have done some hot races in the past mostly impacts the run for me. There’s not much you can do for those long outside sessions anyway, I don’t use a heater but don’t run a fan for trainer rides or treadmill runs. I’ll just deal with it on the day.
You’re coached by Matt Koorey – tell us how having a coach has helped you?
We bought a pre-built plan from Matt and that also gives you access to him via a private Facebook group. There is a huge amount of info on that in the form of videos, regular posts and documents. Anything you can’t find or need feedback on you just ask, in fact he encourages the group to share so that all may benefit. Biggest thing for me was the explanation of training paces and the importance of perceived effort.
You have your awesome wife and fellow triathlete Bernadette in support and how has she helped during this campaign?
It was always challenging juggling family, home and work life when both of us were training. Thankfully Bernadette has greatly reduced her training to keep things at home better under control, meals especially are much easier when one cooks and one trains.
Logistics for Race
You fly over on 30 Sep: what are your plans when you get there?
We managed to join TriTravel for their Kona tour, so almost everything is taken care of including the last few training sessions and course recon.
With a backlog from previous qualifying events and COVID, the Pro fields and the age groupers do not all race on the same day for the first time – it will be held on the 06 Oct and 08 Oct…were you able to get flights and accommodation and hire car with double the number of athletes?
We booked flights and original accommodation a day or 2 after Port Macq and even then accommodation was hard to get, we were 10km south originally until a spot became available with TriTravel and now 600m from start, Also booked a vehicle early on. 4554 athletes competing not including Pro athletes, 1123 women 3431 men.
Tips for OTC
What one training or nutrition or recovery tip would you give to your mates in Orange?
The most important things I find when doing IM volume of training is sleep and nutrition, nutrition both during and after training. If you can’t get these sorted you just don’t recover backup for next session and things get pretty miserable.
So there you have the ever humble Robbo. A model of resilience on his 6th training build, a calf tear and COVID, just about to fly out for his event. And for those new to the club, Steve and Dette are terrific supporters of our Club and the Interclub series through their Orange Clothing Company.
All the Piranhas wish you and Dette a wonderful trip and a wonderful race experience.