Athletic Training

CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING 73 has not been training for some months it will " require at least eight weeks in which to get in condition for a race of this length. At the outset it should be remembered that the cross– country stride is different from that of the mile runner in that it is much more loose and usu– ally shorter. A boy of nineteen or twenty years of age ought to be able, in condition, to cover the course at the rate of a mile in 6 minutes. Nearly any person with 01~dinary endurance can learn to jog a mile in 6 minutes. Dur– ing the first week the runner should be care– ful not to overtax his endurance or put an u~due strain upon the legs. Sore shins or muscles are not easily cured, and one will make better time by taking care of them at the start. The first week's work should be a combination of easy jogs and walking. A three-mile jog should be the limit for the first week, though it may be supplemented by continuing at a walk over the remainder of the course. I would caution runners not to train more than four or five times a week, and one of these days may be devoted to a cross-country walk of from 4 to 8 miles, according to the way the athlete feels.