Coaching and Care of Athletes

THE MILE AND rsoo METRES fices and the drudgery which are inseparable from the making of a distance-running champion. Strangely enough only three men in the long history of fifty and more years of distance running have run the second half of the mile faster than the first, a method of racing which present-day coaches consider to offer the best chance of the 4 mins. mile becoming an accomplished fact. They are all Americans- T. P. Coi:meff, who in r895 made a world's mile record of 4 mins. r8 secs.; 1 J. P. Jones, who ran the mile in 4 mins. 14·4 secs. in 1913; and G. Cunningham (Plate XXIV, Figs. 70 and 71), who in 1934 returned 4 mins. 6·8 secs. for a new record. Conneff ran his second 88o yds. 2 secs. faster than the first, J ones his second 88o yds. 4'4 secs. faster than his first, and Cunningham his second 88o yds. 4·2 secs. faster than his initial half-mile. When Cunningham made his world's indoor mile record of 4 mins. 4"4 secs. in 1938, running on a track of 6! laps to the mile, he covered the first half-mile in 2 mins. 2·5 secs., and the second in 2 mins. r·g secs. The second half-mile, therefore, was ·6 sec. faster than the first. Conneff exemplified also another great principle of modern roiling when in his record-breaking race his times , for his four quarter-mile laps were 65, 65, 64, and 64 secs. respectively. Apart from Conneff's performance of eve:n-time lap running, with the second ,half of the race run faster than the first, the accepted strategyup to about 1919 had been for a man to run the first lap fast, hold his optimum speed in the second, lay off in the third, -and finish the fourth lap as fast as he was able. Hence we find W. G. George, of Great Britain, running a mile in r886 in 4 mins. r2! secs ., with his four laps taking 58l, 63!, 66, and 65 secs. respectively: The second half-mile was 9"25 secs. slower than the first. Again, in 1915 Norman S. Taber, U .S.A., returned 4 mins. 12·6 secs., with lap times of 58, 67, 68, and 59·6 secs. re– spectively. The second half-mile was run 2·6 secs. slower than the first. In 1919 when training A. G. Hill, Great Britain, Sam Mussabini declared that Taber's world's record of 4 mins. 12·6 secs. did not represent anything like the limit .of man's capacity in running a mile, that th,e 4 mins. mile was a good deal more than a possibility, but that it would not be accomplished until a man could master his natural temperament sufficiently to stick to a level-pace schedule against an ·opposition. 1 Later in the same year Conneff lowered the record to 4 mins. I 5·6 secs. 239