Bredin on Running & Training

TRAINING. and after, on account of its interference with digestion. I am quite aware that this latter point may be disputed; but at any rate such is the effect it produces in my case, so that presumably some other runners may find it so in theirs. In leaving this subject, I think the more a man depends on his stamina and wind the greater amount of care he should bestow on all details in regard to his training. A sprinter, on the other hand, need not be quite so particular ; therefore smoking in his case is less likely to prove harmful. In regard to the length of time an athlete who is fit may expect to remain in fair running condition without practising on the track, I may mention that from the A. A. A. championship, held on July 7th, r894, to the r6th of the following August, when I ran half a mile at Fenner's Ground, Cambridge, in r min. 56~ sees., I did no training of any description, and, in fact, took no exercise other than lawn tennis, although I competed at three athletic meetings between those dates, which no doubt helped to keep the muscles only used in running from becoming stiff and out of condition through disuse. Having made my first appearance in open athletic meetings some fifteen years ago, and since then devoted a considerable part of eleven years to running, it no doubt follows that I must have experienced a fair share of strains and breakdowns. The most common, and frequently the worst, of these evils takes place in the back of the thigh, sometimes evincing its presence, in addition to the pain it causes, by what appears to be a black bruise, but in reality is blood making its way R.T. F