Running Recollections and How to Train

CHAPTER IX. TRAINING FOR BOYS. ( B:/ (''iiilnh.) EVERY school, nowadays, hasits athletic sports, and the boy who wishes to shinein these contests should begin to train at least amonth beforehand. Schoolboys shouldbe more or less fit all the year round, even in the summer holidays, when cricket does not impose restrictions as to the number of ices, etc., eaten between meals, and loafing is the order of the day. Any boy who trains carefully for the school sports, between the ages of 12 and 10, will reap the benefit of it in after years. He should be very careful not to strain himself,or to do too much, for he must remember that he is growing all the time j his limbs and body are not fully developed, and all training, until the body is fully grown, should be looked upon year by year as a gradual preparation for something better to come. Before we begin talking of the work itself, let us chat for a moment onthe question of diet. Do not eat between meals, and do not drink more than half-a-pint of milk, water, or cocoa at each meal. I consider thesethree liquids the best drinks for a boy to train on. The boy who drinks anything in the way of alcohol, or smokes, is simply handicapping himself for the present andthe future. Although this book has been entirely confined to pedestrians, I have the editor's per­ mission to include in this article a few hints onthe other branches of athletic sports. Running we will, naturally, deal with first, and, at any rate to beginwith, for boys, I do not believe in any attempt to train being made before