A typical Ironman triathlete dedicates a significant amount of hours in a pool, on a bicycle and in a pair of running shoes. It sounds good in theory, but can enough practice lead to perfection in swimming, biking and running simultaneously?

The overwhelming answer: highly unlikely.

On Sunday, Sept. 7, more than 2,000 triathletes will partake in the 2008 Ironman Wisconsin, a 2.4-mile open-water swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run. Although many will win the war, it's unlikely any will hit his or her peak in all three battles.

There's no shame in that, said physical therapist and distinguished Ironman competitor Stacey Brickson, who believes that triathletes should not be compared to those who excel in individual sporting events.

"Michael Phelps could blow everyone out of the water during the swimming portion of an Ironman and still not even be close to the top finisher of the overall race," said Brickson, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin with a doctorate in excercise physiology. "You're not trying to win a swim meet or a marathon; you have to think of a triathlon as a single, cohesive sport, and the requirements are much different."

Lauren Birkel, an established triathlete and trainer at Orange Shoe Gym in Fitchburg, agrees with Brickson. She said success is found through balance, rather than peaking in one particular discipline.

"Physiologically, research suggests that if you're going to peak in one sport, you're probably not going to peak in another sport at the same time," Birkel said. "Triathlons require you to put three sports together, and find a balance between your abilities and the time you can dedicate to training."

Birkel works with Marlo Foltz, 41, who will compete in her first Ironman race on Sunday. The Verona resident has competed in a half-dozen triathlons and said she started out "as your typical 10K runner" but has steadily emerged as an Ironman competitor through Birkel's diverse and regimented workout program.

"I initially took to triathlons because you can partake in several sports and don't have to dominate in any of them to be successful," said Foltz. "Lauren created a strength training program for me that focuses on building my core so I can become a faster biker and runner, in addition to preventing injury."

Frequently, triathletes come from a background of long-distance running or cycling before transitioning to the three-sport event. Swimming is what most commonly deters individual athletes from competing in triathlons; however, the swim stage comprises about 10 percent of the overall time and less than 2 percent of the overall distance.

"The swimming is more of a mental obstacle, but when you aren't acclimated to it, it can be a daunting couple of miles in the water -- especially when you have a couple other thousand people swimming next to, under and over you," said two-time world triathlon age-group champion Jim Bruskewitz, 56, a UW kinesiology lecturer who began triathlon training as a dominant swimmer. "One doesn't have to excel in the swimming. They just have to be able to get it done."

At first, Dotty Ricker, 56, despised getting up at 5:30 a.m. with her husband, Charlie, 62, for a cold swim. But after completing her first Ironman race in 2007, the Verona resident found the swim to be her favorite element of the competition.

"I'm mediocre in all three areas, but I get them done the best way I know how," said Ricker. "If I had to choose, I'd pick swimming as my favorite, but if I had to wake up and do the same thing every morning, I couldn't do it."

Cross training is one of the few perks to a typically strenuous triathlon workout schedule. Madison Multisport trainer and three-time USA Triathlon All-American Cindi Bannink will guide 10 Ironman participants this year, including the Rickers.

"For runners, at some point your body just can't handle running five or six days a week," Bannink said. "So training for triathlons, it's basically cross training all the time, and the toll it takes on your body is not as severe as training in one sport.

"All that can be irrelevant, however, because Ironman participants are counterbalancing cross training's protectiveness with the brutality of an ultra-distance event."

For many participants, peaking in all three sports is inconsequential; finishing the grueling course becomes the ultimate goal.

"I'm not going for speed. I'm just going to get the job done," said Dotty Ricker, whose son Michael will fly in from New Jersey to watch his parents compete. "I hear a lot of people say that, and I'm not ashamed because it's an Ironman race!"