Athletics and Football (extract)

RUNNING AND RUNNERS 101 forced bya better man that both, we believe,finished the dis­ tance well within i min. 59 sec. Neither Baker nor Holman, however, wasin our opinion so good at half a mile as William Birkett, the champion of 1883, who wasa veritable half-miler, being too heavy in build to be as successfulat a mile. Birkett wasa tall, broad-shouldered man with much stay and strength, and was probably better than any of the half-milers who have run during the last few years, with the possible exception of George, whose semi-professional training even while he was an amateur made him too good even at the shorter distance for any other amateur under ordinary circumstances. Had Elborough, Courtney, and Birkett been trained to the pitch that Georgeattained, we have no doubt they would have been capable of better performances at this distance. In training for long-distance races, in which categorywe should place those at a mileand upwards,improvementof speed is of course the object of attainment as in everyother race, but the improvement is that entirelywhich comes from increased stayingpowers and wind; and for the purposes of training it is these latter alone which must be cultivated. The system of training, therefore, is substantially the same in kind as that we have recommended for the half-mile runners ; and as the miler is necessarily one who is possessed of natural stamina, he is able to bear the increased amount of exercise and longer spin, which he must necessarily get through to acquire the requisite strength of muscle and lungs. The system for all training for long distances, to describe it shortly, is to take continual and dailyspins of half a mile and upwards, the pace being gradually increased as the man finds he can stand it. If the runner takes a long spin or a veryfast spin one day and finds upon turning out the next day that he feels slack from the previousday's exercise, he will do well to take an easier day's work on that occasion. The same system in the main will apply whateverthe distance to be run, only if it be a very long distance the daily spins must be lengthened correspondingly. One runner may of course be at his best at one mile, another