The Modern Method of Training for Running, Walking, Rowing & Boxing

10 PEDESTRIAN!,"-il. to be more or loss indispensable to the man 6 undergoingpreparation,from its liealtliful and beneficial effect upon the human frame, is ot most vital importancein keeping the required equable balance which should exist in every constitntioK, whether robust or otherwise. A work placing forward a fewof the hints most necessary to the pedestrian,whether amateur or professional, has long been required, the more especially as during the last few years the systemof training men,whether for a foot race in any of its branches, for an encounter in the ring, or for a trial of skill in a boat race, has undergonea complete change. And that this change has been for the better, the faster time invariablymade in all branches or the manly sports and exercisesin which time is any criterion, gives us positive proof. Good training is as requisiteto any man who wishes to excel, as it is to the thorough-bred straining for victory in the national contest for the Blue Riband of the Turf, in which race every competitor has had the advantage of having been under the watch and ward of the most valued trainers in England, and consequently of the wholeworld. A man who is fleshy and obese might as well attempt to competewith a well-trainedman as the race-horsethat has been ffi for a prize-show to again enter the lists with his highly-prepared and well-trained contem­ poraries. A man may be endowed with every requisite in health, strength, muscle, length, courage, bone, and all other qualifica­ INTEODUCTION. 11 tions; but if untrained, these qualifications are of no value,as, in every instance, a man or horse, well trained, of much inferior endow­ ments, has always under the circumstances proved the victor. Good condition, which is the term used by trainers to indicate the perfect state of physical power to which the athlete has arrived,is oneof the greatest safe­ guards to his health; as, in many instances, severe and long -continued exertion when un­ prepared has had an injurious and continuous effect on the constitution,and, in somefew but fortunately almost isolated cases, produced almost sudden death. These few words are not alone intended for the man who has to compete, but for the trainer, and also for the eyes of his backer or backers, to whom the successor lossoftheir man is the sourceofloss or gain; and more particularly to the greater portionof mankind,whogothrough the regular routine of life day after day, their business almost always being performed with apathy, and the remainder of their time passed in pxcessive smoking, eating, drinking, sleeping, sitting, or any small pet vice to which they may be addicted. That such a man can under­ go the same process of training as the pro­ fessionalwho has an engagement to perform pome arduous task against time or a fleet an­ tagonist, we do not ask or expect—his occu­ pation would not allow the same time; but the assertion that he wouldperformhis allotted dutieswith more pleasure to himself and more \