16 month layoff, but still bringin’ it…..

Dara Torres is all about being fast — in the water, during workouts, when she talks and even when she is hanging out.

The sprinter who turns 45 next month is finding it slower going these days as she attempts yet another comeback in pursuit of making her sixth Olympic swim team this summer.

Torres took 16 months off for major surgery on her left knee after winning three silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Games. That would seem to be a blip compared to the seven years she was retired between the 1992 and 2000 Olympics. But the added years and additional wear and tear on her body have taken a toll.

“I am middle-aged so that makes it more difficult,” she said in a rare concession to the passage of time. “When I had this knee surgery, having to do all the rehab the year I had it put me behind training this time. You have to make sure it doesn’t mess with your head because this is taking much longer to come back from than in the past.”

Torres is doing some of the same things she did to prepare for Beijing. But she has made changes, too, working with a naturopathic doctor who specializes in science-based natural medicine. She eats more throughout the day and consumes natural supplements such as black licorice root.

“I can’t do all out in the morning. I can’t recover,” she said this week by phone from her home in Florida. “Everything is about pacing but going fast enough to get into the next round. I get three-quarters through the race and my body just shuts down.”

Torres is focusing on making the United States team in the 50-meter freestyle, a chaotic one-lap event. She will have to finish first or second at the trials in late June to qualify for London, and she thinks it will take a time of 24 seconds to do so.

In November, she swam the 50 in 25.30 seconds, good for third at the Minneapolis Grand Prix. In December, she lowered her time to 25.24 at the winter nationals and finished second.