A day in the life: Olympic competitors have to wake up early and hit the ground running. Here, we show you an average day for above-average athletes

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, August, 2004 by Dimity McDowell

ADMIT IT: Watching a gold medalist, tears falling down her cheeks, sing her national anthem elicits a tear from you, but it also brings on a serious case of the "What ifs." As in, What if I hadn't quit softball at age 12? Or, What if I had an undiscovered talent for synchronized swimming? Or, What if I hadn't sold my road bike to go on that spring break trip? Could I be the one standing up there? Before you retrace and second-guess every athletic step in your personal history, check out how Deena Kastor, an Olympic marathoner, trains for the Games (by running about 26 miles a day) or how Ericka Lorenz, a water polo player, is wiped out by 9:25 a.m., before her two pool practices even begin. This vicarious look into how six Olympians prepare, on a daily basis, for a shot at the podium will not only make you realize that it's actually OK that your school didn't have a women's wrestling team, it will make you appreciate the upcoming medal-winning moments even more.

Ericka Lorenz 23 years old, Water Polo

Lives: With two teammates, one teammate's boyfriend and a cat named Lucy in San Diego, CA

6:25 The alarm goes off. I hit snooze.

6:30 Alarm goes off again. I count my resting heart rate; it usually hovers around 53. If it's really high, it means I'm fatigued. I get out of bed, grab some clothes off the floor and put them on--no use putting on clean ones if I'm just going to get sweaty. I shove a towel and suit into a bag, brush my teeth and make a cup of Irish breakfast tea. Gotta have caffeine--I'm not a morning person. Stuff a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey in my mouth as I head out the door.

7:30 Time for weights; we lift four days a week, two for upper body and two for lower. We currently don't have a trainer supervising us, so we keep an eye on each other.

9:00 After weights, a strength circuit; we use stability balls, medicine balls, a slide board, a Spinning bike and wooden boxes to jump on and off of. It's usually about seven exercises, and it's never the same thing twice: My coach is really creative and will try anything to get us an advantage. By the end of this session, I'm already tired--and we haven't even gotten in the pool yet.

9:25 In the pool for a freestyle workout. Through a mix of sprints and longer-distance swims, we cover between 3,000 and 4,000 meters.

10:30 We bust out the stretch cords and medicine ball to do a leg circuit in the water. Final drill: Drag a teammate, who is dead weight, across the pool.

10:50 Done with first workout. Grab a Fuji apple to sustain me until I get home.

11:30 Lunch, which begins with something like tuna with cottage cheese on tortillas, or turkey chili. I'm constantly grazing the whole time I'm home. With our workouts, putting on weight isn't an issue; I'm more worried about losing it. I usually don't nap, because it's hard enough for me to get out of bed once a day--twice would be torture.

1:00 Brew a pot of coffee.

1:30 Out the door for second practice.

2:00 Warm up: Do some laps, throw the ball a bit.

2:30 Technique-oriented practice, which sounds easy, but it isn't. If we're working on counter-attacking skills, we'll be swimming back and forth for 90 minutes straight.

5:00 Done for the day. I may or may not shower; after being in the water for more than three hours. I'm sick of being wet.

7:00 Dinner. I'm in a cooking rotation with my roommates and two other teammates, so I only have to cook every sixth night (and every night is a big party). Afterward, we watch television. Our favorite shows include Survivor, American Idol, CSI and The Bachelorette (not so much The Bachelor--can't stand the female contestants' catfighting).

10:00 Check e-mail, get ready for bed. I'm not sure what I do at night, but I always find something to keep me up. Sometimes I read, but usually my eyes are so worked from the chlorine--we don't wear goggles when we play--I just want to close them.

11:30 Lights out.

Tina George 25 years old, Wrestling

Lives: By herself in Colorado Springs, CO

5:30 Wake up. The alarm gradually gets louder, so I can take my time waking up. After I log my resting heart rate, I do some easy stretches while in bed.

5:45 Boil three eggs on medium-low heat, which gives me enough time to do some yoga postures and meditate. I play a CD that somebody made for me, and it goes through progressive relaxation, and then plays empowering affirmations--"I will excel" and "I'll be strong in all conditions." My day is always better when I make time to meditate.

6:10 Eat a bagel and drink some OJ and a small cup of coffee with the eggs, and then take a multivitamin, vitamin C, a fiber pill, glucosamine and chondroitin for my joints, and glutamine to promote muscular recovery. Then I hit the shower--the first of my daily five. My teammates don't know how often I shower, but I guess they will now.

7:00 First practice of the day is strength and conditioning at Fort Carson Military Base--I'm a sergeant in the U.S. Army, and I'm currently in their world-class athlete program. After a 20-minute warm-up, I lift for an hour, doing exercises that focus on full-body power, like squat jumps, power cleans and pull-ups. (I can do 15 pull-ups in a row, wearing 55 extra pounds.) Second shower.