Topeka, Kansas, USA
1891 - Training the Young - The Science of Running

TRAINING THE YOUNG
Mortimer Remington on the Science of Running

Only a small percentage of the boys of the present day make any effort to develop their athletic ability.

There are some boys who never attempted to run who, if they would try, could best some of the best runners on the track. Even if a boy does not prove to be as successful as that, he will have just as much fun out of it and more, for when a man finds himself on top, with every ambition satisfied, he loses his interest and is apt to retire and rest on his laurels.

I am going to recount some of my first experiences in athletics and hope to prevent others from making some of the mistakes which I did through sheer ignorance of how much and what kind of exercise I should take.

In the first place, being very ambitious, I tried to do too much. I did not understand that I could not endure the same amount of hard exercise as a boy could who had been engaged in athletics for several years. I ran my first race, which was 100 yards, without any practice or training - in fact I had never seen a race before. When I had found myself victorious at the finish it gave me courage to enter in other races and ambition to train. But not knowing anything about training that that I must exercise, I would go day after day and run until I was thoroughly exhausted to the severe exercise and became sore.

Soon after I met my present trainer, Mr. James Robinson. I asked his advice and told him what I had been doing. He told me I was doing too much, and advised me to take a rest of a few weeks and then start in gradually, only running three or four times a week and never to exercise vigorously in practice, but to stop when I felt fresh. I followed his advice and in a short time felt myself much improved.

Ease of motion is a very necessary requirement for men who run distances over 200 yards, for the man who has an easy, graceful style of running uses less energy and therefore, can go the furthest...

The Topeka Daily Capital
Topeka, Kansas
Wed, September 23, 1891

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