Bredin on Running & Training

MY CAREER AS AN ATHLETE. 163 Leaving London, accompanied by Fritty, I commenced training in the beginning of October at Reading. I was completely out of all running condition, and not enjoying the best of health at that time. A weighing machine proved that I was some four pounds under proper weight, therefore for the first few weeks exercise, both running and walking, was restricted, and a diet of meat or poultry for three daily meals, with a liberal quan– tity of both beer and port wine, very shortly had the effect of adding weight and strength, appetite returning with regular hours and abstinence from all forms of smoking. After a steady six weeks' work,we paid a visit to Stam– ford Bridge, when I ran a trial over a quarter-mile, having resolved to discontinue training if it proved a bad per– formance, and, on the other hand, to issue a public chal– lenge should it be sufficiently promising. The day was not a good one, but the watch denoted so~ sees., which, considering that I always allowed at least ten weeks to get into really first-class form, I thought satisfactory. Sam Fritty, who knew Mills by sight, argued that business was more likely to accrue from a personal meeting than by letters either privately or in print; so shortly after my trial he journeyed to Rochdale and with some difficulty found the holder of the British quarter-mile championship, driving round the adjoining country with a van-load of blankets. During the con– versation, in which Mills pointed out that he was "champion of the world, thou know'st," and at the same time not a man of wealth, so that it would be necessary for him to find a backer, Sam strongly urged him to do so, and at once sell the horse, van, and its contents, so that he might possess something to O"amble with :'on M2