Races and Training

Arthur Newton was an amazing man altogether: having taken up running to gain publicity for a political campaign that he was involved in, he became one of the greatest ultra long distance runners in the world.  He kept on writing about the sport and training for it, many of his notions have been discredited but by no means all of them.   After the War he contributed articles on training and racing to many publications including the ‘Scots Athlete’ magazine published by Walter Ross.   The story of Newton and his training and racing partner Pete  Gavuzzi is an absorbing story of an age of running that is gone.   “Running For Their Lives: The Extraordinary Story of Britain’s Greatest Ever Distance Runners”  by Mark Whitaker is well worth a read.   We have here one of his books – Races and Training (pub. 1949) – which was scanned in by Alex Wilson.  The first half of the book is all about his racing career while the second half contains his training theories.   For instance he has sections on Marathon training, on the best age to tackle the event, on the cult of speed, on diet, on tactics and many other aspects.   Some chapters are quite short, a couple of pages, some are much longer and they can be accessed from the table of contents below.

Chapter 1 My first big race Chapter 2 My first Record Chapter 3 Ten Miles cross-country
Chapter 4 Man versus horse Chapter 5 Extending the Distance Chapter 6 Running up a mountain
Chapter 7 I ran in Scotland Chapter 8 When everything comes unstuck Chapter 9 A cheap record
Chapter 10 I earned my defeat Chapter 11 Horses versus men Chapter 12 An indoor marathon race
Chapter 13 My longest run Chapter 14 My last race Chapter 15 The way to start
Chapter 16 Mere Empty Theory or …? Chapter 17 Wha is the best athletic age? Chapter 18 Long Walks – No
Chapter 19 Genuine breathing exercises Chapter 20 Training by thermometer Chapter 21: When are you at your best?
Chapter 22 Tactics Chapter 23 Food or Fads Chapter 24 Marathon Merchants
Chapter 25 Age and the Marathon Chapter 26 All Work and no play Chapter 27 The cult of speed
Chapter 28 South Africa led the way