WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she realizes few other people are willing to rise at 4:30 a.m. to get in a daily workout.

"That's my own particular strangeness," the diplomat said.

Some days, it's 4 a.m., and she considers 40 minutes on an elliptical exercise machine a "light cardio" day. She adds a tough regimen with weights on those wimpy days, under the tutelage of a trainer.

"Like everybody, I get up some mornings and think, 'I can't do it.' And then I think, 'Sure you can, because you won't feel as alert if you don't,' " Rice said in an interview with Fitness magazine.

Tennis player Billie Jean King was an early sports hero, she said, and basketball legend Michael Jordan was "probably the most beautiful athlete of all time."

Rice gave the muscle magazine a glimpse of her weekly weight session in the State Department gym, including photographs of the top-ranked woman in the Bush administration grimacing under a weight bar and doing crunches while her trainer stands on her feet.

Known for a keen fashion sense that runs to Armani and Ferragamo, she is pictured wearing lavender gym shorts and sneakers.