Here’s the Workout Routine Natalie Grabow, an 80-Year-Old Triathlete, Used to Break an Ironman Record

Outside of training, Grabow also had other commitments, including caring for her husband, who is “not doing that well physically.” “That’s part of my routine, to get him up, get him dressed, showered, breakfast and his meals and that type of thing,” she says. Then, of course, there are her two daughters and her grandchildren. But she didn’t have a problem managing her time: “I’m very organized and I don’t watch a lot of television, so it works out,” she says.

Swimming up to 3,800 yards

For her swims, Grabow returned to the place where she took her first tentative strokes all those years ago: the pool of her local YMCA. “My swims were three times a week, 3,300 to 3,600, 3,800 yards at a time,” she says. Since she came to swimming later in life, she only knows one stroke: the freestyle. When she reaches the opposite wall in the pool, she doesn’t do the classic flip turn, either. Instead, “I just touch the wall and go back,” she says. Describing herself as a “little slow” in the water, she estimates her swims took her around an hour and twenty minutes to an hour and a half on average.

Biking up to six hours

Grabow did her bike workouts in an indoor workout room at home, blasting fans and the AC unit to create the cool training conditions she prefers. “I have a power meter on my bike and my coach gives me a specific workout so that I do a certain interval of time at a certain power and then change that up,” she says. While biking, she listens to music on the radio, though the specific song doesn’t matter as long as “it’s got a good beat and it’s not rap or something.” “I don’t really pay attention to what I’m listening to,” she admits. “I’m really working very hard, hitting these power goals that my coach gives me.” If anything, “working very hard” is an understatement: Her bike workouts could stretch as long as five and half to six hours.

Running up to two hours and 20 minutes

Grabow likes to run outside, mainly on the soft, flat, forgiving surface of her local high school track. “I do two or three shorter runs during the week, 35 to 40 minutes, 45 minutes,” she says. Over the weekend, by contrast, she’d do a longer run interspersed with walking breaks. “I run maybe a mile and walk a minute and repeat that for up to two hours and 20 minutes,” she explains. Despite the hefty time commitment, her weekly run mileage never exceeded 20 miles, which she describes as “pretty low.” (Relatively speaking, of course.)