It's the end of a two-a-day practice.
UNM swimmers take laps in the pool for two hours at 6:30 a.m., and they're finishing up afternoon practice with a run after lifting weights. Their tired bodies might prefer to slowly cruise the few miles, but one force is pushing them harder: Their 33-year-old coach is beating them.
Fourth-year head swim coach Tracy Ljone coaches - and leads - by example.
She warms up with her athletes in the pool, lifts weights and runs with them. And though team members have at least a decade of youth on her, Ljone often beats them.
"If I'm asking them to do it, then if I can do it, that'll be more of a motivation," she said. "I think the majority of them don't want to get beat by their coach. So, I think it gives them an extra push."
Sophomore team member Nan Wittenberg agrees.
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"It helps us to know she's doing it too," Wittenberg said. "She's not just a coach who is sitting and watching and yelling at you to make you do stuff. She even beats us a lot of the time, and we're always very impressed by it. It's awesome."
But Ljone doesn't do it to impress anyone. As a four-year letterman swimmer at South Carolina and now in her second head coaching job, Ljone knows establishing a bond between an athlete and a coach is important. So, training alongside her athletes means taking advantage of rare time to connect with her team.
"It's a chance to talk to them and connect on different levels," Ljone said. "When we go for runs, we chat about our day and homework and everything. That's something you can't do during swim practice when your head is underwater."
Ljone's run-chats about homework with her athletes seem to be working, too. The swimming and diving team was recognized this spring by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America for recording the ninth-highest GPA in the country for Division-I programs. The team has averaged at least a 3.45 since fall 2006.
And even in the classroom, if Lobo swimmers need extra motivation in their academics, they can look to the example of their coach.
Ljone completed her Ph.D. in sports administration at UNM, with a minor in health education in June 2008. The degree took her about six years of balancing coaching, school and training for her own competitions.
Ljone has run three marathons, including the Boston Marathon and one on the Great Wall of China. In June, Ljone is competing in the acclaimed Ironman triathlon - a 2 1/2-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and full marathon. Ljone is hoping to finish in 13 hours.
But the 13-hour race is hardly anything compared to the day-in and day-out balancing of her busy life. Ljone says the multiple personal workouts a day and multiple coaching sessions a day topped with school has been an enjoyable challenge.
"I'm pretty good with time management, and I'm a very disciplined person," she said. "Everything I do is enjoyable to me. So, it's not hard to get it all done. I make time for working out, for working out the team and for school work. It definitely makes for long days."
But those days are worth it when they make a difference in the lives of her athletes. Wittenberg said most of the team would love to be in half the shape Ljone is at her age and that seeing their coach go through everything they do is inspiring.
"She'd never say, 'If I am doing it, you should be able to do it,' because she's just not like that," Wittenberg said. "But she does show us that it can be - and is - done."
