Condi Rice workout: No treadmill

by Andrew Malcolm

Recently, we're published a few items about Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice maybe running for the vice presidential nomination on a Republican White House ticket with Arizona Sen. John McCain.

All the signs are there. She denies it. Whatever.

We'll believe it when we don't see it.

Meanwhile, right now Rice is running for something else: Her own health. Shari Roan, our Los Angeles Times.com colleague over at the new Booster Shots blog, has scored an inside look at a Condi Rice workout at the gym.

Trained as a figure skater and concert pianist, Rice is up at 4:30 a.m. daily to work out, watches the news and ESPN and sweats like a globe-trotting secretary of state working out in the early morning hours. She even has a personal trainer and feels really good about herself, she says, now that the Californian has passed the big 5-0.

She feels especially good running up stairs: "I like the fact that I can run up the stairs and not huff and puff, and that I'm still able to do that even though I've crossed the big 5-0."

Or, being in top shape for a 53-year-old, maybe doing a different kind of running someday soon with a 71-year-old? Shari's got the full report below:

(Andrew Malcolm writes for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times political blog.)

(Photo by David Y. Lee / courtesy of Fitness magazine)

Fitness magazine scores this month with its exclusive look at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's workout routine.

Complete with photos of the sweaty secretary, the story describes her dedication to exercise: Awake by 4:30 a.m. to work out; deadlifts 85 lbs. and squats 65 lbs.; watches news and SportsCenter on the treadmill. A lifelong jock, Rice says she took up golf two years ago and has fallen in love with the sport. She also hired a personal trainer a year ago after hitting a plateau. Exercise is clearly a priority in her life.

"I like the fact that I can run up the stairs and not huff and puff, and that I'm still able to do that even though I've crossed the big 5-0."

Rice says she worries about obesity in kids and would like to see kids enjoy sports rather than feeling it's work. There is talk, of course, of Rice as a running mate for John McCain. Maybe if that doesn't pan out she could become the nation's exercise czar.

-- Shari Roan for the L.A. Times' Booster Shots blog.