刘阳

This is Sanya Richards-Ross.

Shes 31 years old， lives in Austin， Texas， and is a world champion sprinter who trains hard to be very fast. Also， she loves ice cream， cheese pizza， and Skittles. But more on that later.

She is training to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Shes already won four Olympic medals： Two golds in the 4×400 relay and one gold and one bronze in the 400-meter sprint. She was previously ranked the best 400-meter sprinter in the world.

So how does someone run 400 meters（a quarter mile） in 48.7 seconds？

Even though her sport is running， about 40% of Richards-Rosss training is strength-based — she lifts weights three to four days per week.

Olympic lifting is an important part of Richards-Rosss weight training， and also one of her favorite ways to work out. It needs the lifter to move a barbell from the floor to overhead using speed， precision， and explosive power.

And of course she runs five days a week.

Richards-Ross spends about two hours per day doing sprint workouts at distances from 200 meters to 800 meters， but says that anything over 500 meters is “too long”.“I like my workouts short and fast，” she says. Her most amazing running workout： five minutes of running and five minutes of rest for 30 long minutes.

She also does 1，000 sit-ups every night.

And cross-trains by cycling and running on an underwater treadmill.

Another important part of her training is 100% mental.

“Mental preparation is the toughest part for players，” she says. “I imagine myself on start line so when I go out on the track it feels like Ive been here before. When Im standing there I tell myself， ‘Im prepared. I already won this race.”

She also watches videos both of her own great performances on the track and of players who have done amazing things in her events.

Richards-Ross only takes six weeks off of training a year.

This means shes working hard.

Vocabulary

Skittle n. 彩虹糖

precision n. 精确度

sprint n. 短距离快速奔跑