Skilled athlete

Annie Warner’s lithe frame smoothly glides back and forth in the Spokane Valley YMCA pool. On an early Friday morning, when some people are still hitting the snooze button, Warner has already done a hundred laps and she’s going strong, occasionally picking up speed between her well-paced strokes. After the 7 a.m. swim, Warner plans to throw in a long bike ride before she makes it to work at 10.

Maybe she’s the “fitness fanatic” that’s emblazoned on her bright pink swim cap or maybe she’s just a devoted athlete working on her game.

Warner, 25, doesn’t just swim and bike, she runs too. The budding triathlete is training to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

While she’s been an accomplished swimmer and competed at Northern Arizona University, the Central Valley High School graduate started on the triple-sport track only about four years ago when she decided to enter the Coeur d’Alene Triathlon.

“I was looking for a way to stay in shape,” she said. “I kind of knew I’d have potential if I kept at it.”

Since then things have gotten more serious: She hired a coach a year and a half ago and entered the professional circuit at the beginning of the year.

She is usually up by 5:30 a.m. and swims five mornings a week, runs four times a week between six to 12 miles at a time, and can bike as many as 175 miles weekly.”The biking is kind of new to me so I’m really enjoying learning,” she said.

Part of the training involves taking part in different competitions, such as a recent bike race in Seattle riding six miles uphill.

“I’m kind of curious to see how I compare with other women in Washington,” she said. “You always work harder in a race than you do in practice.”

In fact, Warner has been competing almost every weekend this summer. She recently won the Valley Girl Triathlon, as well as the Coeur d’Alene Triathlon for the second year in a row and she’s been taking part in national events on the Olympic-distance circuit to help her gain points to qualify for the 2008 games.

The training can be arduous and as with all sports, there are the injuries to deal with. Warner said sometimes it’s hard to know when to back off and not make it worse.

While she has no special rituals for her competitions, Warner said she still likes to strategize her races.

“I like to get to the transition area really early,” she said. “I’m pretty nervous when I’m rushed.”

Saving time is really important in a triathlon, she said. That’s why she lays out all her equipment exactly where she needs it in the transition zone, straps her shoes on to the bicycle so she can put them on as she’s riding and skips wearing socks because they take time to put on.

“I’m pretty disciplined,” she said. “I kind of have to do it or I’ll be disappointed.”

She’s come a long way since that first race in Coeur d’Alene.

“I knew I was in shape enough to do it, but I wasn’t sure how I’d put it together,” she said of the race. “I was a pretty bad biker back then. It was great riding even though I knew I wasn’t going to win.”

As she struggled to finish the run in that race, she remembers a man telling her, “Good job, you’re doing great, the girl ahead is just a swimmer.”

“I thought, ‘Great, that’s what I am.’ The run was pretty hard, I thought I was never going to make it,” she said.

Overall, she said, she’s improved and done better sooner than she had expected.

“She’s good at all three events … she’s got that going for her,” said Marla Emde, Warner’s coach.

She said the triathlete is very open to new ideas and very realistic about her goals.

“In your first year as pro, you’re not going to start at the top,” Emde said. “She knows that it’s going to take some work … you’re not just going to be a contender.”

She added that Warner has “good mental strength” and uses the athletic challenges as motivation rather than letting them get her down.

When Warner first started on the professional circuit, she would place in the top 25 during races and now she’s coming in at the top 12. She is currently ranked 185 in the world.

“I know what it’s like to finish last or barely finish,” Warner said. During one race in Tempe, Ariz., it was 113 degrees out, she said. “It was just so hot that I got really bad cramps. I walked a lot of the way.”

When she’s not training, Warner splits her time between working at Fitness Fanatics and coaching kids in the Spokane Area Swimming Team club.

“It’s really neat to see the kids improve over the year,” Warner said. “It’s good because they remind me of things I need to do.”

Warner got married at the end of July to Pete Fisch, also a triathlete, and they sometimes train together. In fact, many members of Warner’s family are athletic and take part in triathlons.

Robin DeRuwe, the owner of Fitness Fanatics where Warner works, said despite Warner being an incredible athlete, she never brags about it.

“She is the most modest athlete you’ll ever meet,” DeRuwe said. “She’s got a lot of potential that she hasn’t even reached yet … she’s just really started to peak in the last year.”

Emde said to succeed in triathlons, one not only needs to have a good support network and a positive environment, but talent and complete dedication, which Warner definitely has.

“You live, eat and sleep triathlon,” Emde said.