When most teenagers are procrastinating about dragging their carcasses out of bed for school Ruby Adsett is wolfing down her nourishing brekky.
That's well after the perked-up 14-year-old has spent some quality time in the pool with the Napier Aquahawks Swim Club coach Mike Lee before making a beeline for school.
"You have to put in the hard work," says the Napier Girls' High School pupil who will compete at the Aquahawk-hosted East Coast Swimming Championship this weekend.
Asked if she misses sleeping in after waking at 5.30am, Adsett replies: "That's what weekends are for. You get used to it."
The Year 10 pupil, who rests on Wednesdays and Sundays, holds the New Zealand age-group record in 200m freestyle, stopping the clock at 2min 7.11sec.
She will be among 350 competitors at Onekawa Pool this weekend, the biggest annual swim meet staged in Hawke's Bay, luring competitors from as far as Wellington and Auckland.
It will start at 8am on Saturday, take a recess from 1pm before resuming at 4pm and finishing in the evening.
The finals will be held on Sunday from 8.30am to 1pm with time out for a 30-minute junior prizegiving ceremony from 10.30am.
Swimming is a natural progression for Adsett because her father, Trevor, competed at the age-group nationals in Gisborne and her sister, Lily, 17, a NGHS pupil, was a 200m backstroker.
Lily stopped swimming last year to focus on her studies.
While coach Lee wants club members to train, something they do, Adsett says they also refine their socialising skills.
Before and after sessions, the youngsters mingle.
"You get to know people really well," she says, adding she, Maddie Mason (200m freestyle/individual medley/breaststroke) and Annika Brennan have become good friends.
The former Napier Central pupil has been swimming since she was 8 and also is a backstroker.
She finds the training regime, including 5pm-6.30pm sessions, aids in maintaining a degree of alertness at school as well as sleeping soundly at night.
At school, high-flier Bobbi Gichard, of Greendale club, is her classmate so they have built another level of rapport.
"We talk about things. We have a language of our own," says Adsett of Gichard, gleefully picking up any tidbits the latter may offer on any insight on existing at the elite level.
Fleecing study habits from an older Mason and Brennan is handy for managing her time.
Adsett hopes to compete at a Commonwealth Games so watching the Glasgow Games from today is high on the agenda for the Adsetts.
Honing in on Kiwi swimmer Lauren Boyle competing in some similar events, is vital.
"I saw her in April in Auckland where we were competing," she reveals, scrutinising her technique in starting and finishing races.
The 2018 Gold Coast Games seems a realistic goal and chalking in an Olympics will be the next step but she isn't getting too far ahead of herself just yet.
She harboured Games ambitions soon after winning national age-group medals in 2011.
"I thought if I keep working hard and put in the effort then why should I stop there?"
Lee has been her coach from the outset and someone who wants them all to do well.
"He seems to know everything," says Adsett, pointing out how his perception of peripheral matters, such as injury, is equally commendable.
She has accumulated 700 Fina points and reaching 880 by 2018 will do the trick although she doesn't understand how the system works.
Her parents help the club by keeping a tab on the Fina points accrued.
"They are like team managers who not only help me but also the club."
This year Adsett will attend a national age-group camp in Rotorua.
She is also part of the Aqua Knights team (Central NZ region) jetting to Melbourne for the Victoria State Championship in December.