Athletic Training

74 ATHLETIC . TRAINING This course of training may be gradually in– creased in hardship, lengthening the distance run and increasing the speed. By the end of the fifth week the athlete. should be able to go the entire distance at a pretty good pace, though I would not advise an attempt to make good time more than once a week, nor would I advise running the full distance in a trial more than once a week. Before a cross-country race, the runner should not have trained within two days, and he need · not be worried if he has been unable to run a trial over the full course, for if he is in moder– ately good condition he will find that the ex– citement of the race will carry him through. I have often been asked if cross-country running slows up a man for the half-mile and mile runs. I invariably answer no. As a rule, it will be found that cross-country running improves a miler and does not reduce his speed, which seems to be the thing most feared. The history of the Inter-Collegiate A. A. A. A. and cross-country championships will show that the best cross-country runners have nearly always been the best half-mile and mile runners. Conspicuous examples of this truth