"On Manhattan Beach, Calif., is something called the sand dune. It is 100 yards long and 50 feet wide, and it rises at a 45-degree angle.

Walking to the top with legs churning and burning through soft sand takes about five minutes and pushes the heart rate to 160 beats per minute, Southern California fitness guru Scot Prohaska said.

"There are only a few guys who can run to the top without stopping," he said. "Dwayne Roloson is one of them."

He means the Lightning goalie, who at 41 years, 3 months, is the NHL's second-oldest player, behind the Bruins' Mark Recchi, 42, and one of only five 40-year-olds in the league.

Tampa Bay on Jan. 1 acquired Roloson from the Islanders to carry its goaltending load into what seems a certain playoff run. In other words, it is hitching its wagon to an old man in a young man's game.

But Roloson, of Simcoe, Ontario, is one of the league's best-conditioned athletes. He is such a workout freak, he exercises his eyes; yes, his eyes. He works out his mind before games with visualization exercises.

He stretches, lifts weights, uses resistance bands, pulls weighted sleds. Between major workouts, he does calisthenics wearing a vest weighted up to 60 pounds.

"He's a guy who can go all day long," said Prohaska, who runs a gym called Ekawa ("awake" spelled backward) in Huntington Beach, Calif., and is Roloson's longtime personal trainer.

"When he would bring me into town to work with him, every three hours he'd want to hit the track, hit the weight room. He has an unbelievable drive matched with endurance.""