Pedestrianism, from its being the basis and principal agent in securing a thorough and perfect training to all who may have, from choice or necessity, to undergo a great amount of physical exertion, may be considered the chief feature in the preparation of men for all contests in which great strength, speed, and wind may be required. From this point of view the science of walking will be treated in the present work; for whether a man may have entered in an engagement to run, walk, jump, swim, row, or box, no training can be thoroughly accomplished until the athlete has undergone a certain amount of exercise on foot, and reduced his superfluous weight to such an extent that he can follow up his peculiar forte with fair chance of improvement, or at least so that he may not have to stop short from sheer want of wind or strength.
Pedestrianism, which has before been stated to be more or less indispensable to the man undergoing preparation, from its healthful and beneficial effect upon the human frame, is of most vital importance in keeping the required equable balance which should exist in every constitution, whether robust or otherwise. Good training is as requisite to any man who wishes to excel, as it is to the thoroughbred race-horse. A man who is fleshy and obese might as well attempt to compete with a well-trained man as the race-horse that has been fed for a prize-show to again enter the lists with his highly-prepared and well-trained contemporaries. A man may be endowed with every requisite in health, strength, muscle, length, courage, bone, and all other qualifications; but if untrained, these qualifications are of no value, as, in every instance, a man or horse, well-trained, of much inferior endowments, 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 one of the greatest safeguards to his health; as, in many instances, severe and long-continued exertion when unprepared has had an injurious and continuous effect on the constitution, and, in some few but fortunately almost isolated cases, produced almost instant death. These few words are not alone intended for the man who has to compete, but for a great portion of mankind, who go through the regular routine of life day after day, their business being sometimes performed with apathy, and the remainder of their time passed in excessive smoking, eating, drinking, sleeping, sitting, or any small pet vice to which they may be addicted. That such a man can undergo the same process of training as the professional who has an engagement to perform some arduous task against time or a fleet antagonist, we do not ask or expect—his occupation would not allow the same time; but the assertion that he would perform his allotted duties with more pleasure to himself and more satisfaction to all concerned if he were to submit to undergo a partial training, is a truth that ought to be tested by all who have any regard for continued good health. Were this system carried out to even a small extent, the physician would have cause to lament the decline of his practice, and the advertising quack become a nonentity. As a proof how necessary training is considered by the professional, it is only requisite to ask any pedestrian of note for his candid opinion to satisfy the most incredulous. The higher in the pedestrian grade the man may be to whom the question may be put the better, in consequence of his having gone through the whole performance, from novicehood upwards; and, in every instance, it will be found that more than one of his defeats will be attributed to want of condition (proper training) arising from neglect of work or other causes, such as carelessness in diet, want of practice, and, in some instances, from the neglect of the precepts attempted to be inculcated by his trainer. Most of the above mistakes have arisen from overweening confidence in his own powers, or from underrating his adversaries’ abilities. However willing and thoughtful he may have been, these contretemps have almost invariably been the fate of all our leading athletes, not only in the pedestrian circle, but in the ring, on the water, and in all sports in which a great lead has ever been taken by man. He will inform the querist that he will require from a month to two months for his preparation, and if he has been out of practice for some time, even more—thus showing to the dullest intellect the requisite time and attention needed; for if a man who has shone pre-eminent in the sphere he has chosen for his exertions, and has had the benefit of previous trainings, must again undergo the same ordeal as heretofore, a man totally untrained must at least require the same preparation, as well as a greater amount of practice, to fully develop his particular forte as a pedestrian. To sum up in a few words, training is a complete system of diet and exercise duly carried out and strenuously adhered to. From the mode of life which almost all lead, the health becomes impaired, and the only remedy will be discovered by him who follows the principle of training in some form or other, the more simple the better. That the same system of training will suit all constitutions, it would be absurd folly to advance; or that the same amount of work and strictness of diet is requisite for a man about to run a race of one hundred and twenty yards, as for a struggle of an hour’s duration, would be equally preposterous. Nevertheless, the groundwork of training arises from the benefits derived from regular diet and steady exercise. Training will bring out all the hitherto latent powers of the athlete, raising the man who has previously been considered almost a nonentity into public notice, the one of mediocre calibre into the first rank, and thoroughly develop the excellencies, etc., of the first-class proficient to an extent that will not only surprise himself, but his associates and long-tried friends and backers.
CHARLES ROWELL, Champion Long-distance Pedestrian of the World.
WILLIAM GALE, who walked 4,000 quarter miles in 4,000 consecutive 10 minutes.
Training is the process of getting a man who has to perform any muscular feat from a state of obesity and almost total incapability into a perfect state of health, which is shown by the great increase of strength, activity, wind, and power to continue great exertion and pace to the extent of his endowments. It is this acquired power which enables the pedestrian to persevere in his arduous task, apparently in despite of nature, which, but for his thorough preparation, would have long before been utterly prostrate. So much is depending on, and so many results accruing to the efficiency of the trainer, that a few words of friendly advice to that official will not be out of place; for although the veteran has learned the precepts given below by heart, yet there is always a beginning to all occupations. As a rule, a great pedestrian is not qualified at the outset of his career as a trainer to undertake the care of most men, in consequence of there being a leaven of the remembrance of the manner in which he went through his work, etc., which will in most instances render him less tolerant than is requisite to the man of mediocre talent. Another difficulty is to find one with sufficient education and forethought to be able to study the different constitutions of the men under his rule. The above are only a few of the objections; but all are of consequence, so much depending upon the treatment of the man independent of his daily routine of exercise and diet. The man who goes first into training is like an unbroken colt, and requires as much delicate treatment. The temper of the biped ought to be studied as carefully as that of the quadruped, so that his mind can be carefully prepared for his arduous situation, which is one of abstinence, and in some cases total deprivation, which always tries the patience and frequently the temper of the competitor, who in these cases should be encouraged by word and example, showing that the inconveniences he is undergoing are but the preliminary steps to the attainment of that health, strength, and elasticity of muscle which have caused so many before him to accomplish almost apparent impossibilities. Such a trainer is worth a hundred of those who have no judgment in the regulation of the work which a man may take without in any way making him anxious to shun his duty or to turn sullen. Let the trainer bear in mind and always remember that a fit of ill-temper is as injurious to the man in training as any other excess. In many instances, from a supposed well-founded cause of complaint, a continued civil war has arisen in the cabinet, which has not been quelled, perhaps, until the dissension has had a very serious effect in destroying the pedestrian’s confidence in his trainer’s capabilities and temper, as well as throwing back the trained man most materially in his advance towards condition. Nevertheless, the mentor should be firm in his manner, intelligible in his explanations, and by no means bigoted in his favorite notions respecting the use of any particular medicine or “nostrum” which he may think may be requisite to the welfare of his man. The trainer, of course, is known or supposed to be of sterling integrity, and having the welfare of his man as his first aim; and on this in a great measure depends the monetary interests of the man and his backers. We are sorry to have to mention that such a man is requisite as a trainer, but consider it necessary to mention it, as, if the trainer is not honest, and has not his heart in the well-doing of his man, all the pains taken by the pedestrian would be nullified and rendered of no avail. The trainer must be vigilant night and day, never leave his man, and must act according to his preaching, and be as abstemious, or nearly so, as his man, whom it is his duty to encourage in improvement, to cheer when despondent, and to check if there are at any time symptoms of a break-out from the rules laid down—but at all times he must, by anecdote, etc., keep the mind of his man amused, so that he may not brood over the privations he is undergoing. Let the trainer not forget that cleanliness is one of the first rules to be attended to, and that the bath can hardly hurt his man in any season if only due precautions be observed, always bearing in mind that it is a preventive instead of a provocative to colds, catarrhs, and the long list of ills attendant upon a sudden chill. The duration of the bath is, of course, to be limited, and a brisk rubbing with coarse linen cloths until the surface is in a glow will always be found sufficient to insure perfect safety from danger. Of course, the amount of medicine required by any man will depend upon his constitution as well as the lowness of his nervous system, in some cases there being no occasion to administer even a purgative. But these are the times when the skill of the trainer is brought into requisition, and if he knows his business he will in these instances give his man stimulating and generous diet, until he is enabled to undergo the necessary privations to get him into a proper state to be called upon to work to get into condition. In no instance ought he to allow his man to sweat during the days on which he has taken a purgative, as in many instances men have been thrown back in their preparation, or, as it is professionally termed, “trained off.” The best test when all the superfluous flesh has been trained off by sweating, by long walks or runs, as the case may be, is taken from the fairness and brightness of the skin, which is a certain criterion of good health. The quickness with which perspiration is dried on rubbing with towels, sufficient leanness and hardness of the muscles, is also the right test that reducing has been carried to the proper extent.