This is performed gently and in equal time, and may be extended to a
considerable space. In practising this pace, it is necessary to fix
the distance to be run; and this should always be proportioned to the
age and strength of the runners. This exercise, more than all others,
requires to be proceeded with in a progressive manner. If, at the first
trial, you run too fast or too long a time, it may produce spitting of
blood and headache, or aneurisms of the heart and principal vessels,
especially if the weather be dry and cold.
A moderately cool day may accordingly be chosen, a distance of three
hundred feet measured, and the runners placed in a line at one end.
They may then start, trot at the rate of about seven feet in a second
to the opposite end, turn, and continue until they reach the spot
whence they started. Frequent repetition of this is sufficient at
first. Afterwards, they may run over this space, two, three, or four
times without stopping; and the exercise may then be limited to this.
It may, on subsequent days, be extended to five, six, and seven times
the distance.
Fatigue is then generally quite removed; and the run may either be
continued farther, or the runners, if neither heated nor winded, may
accelerate their pace. They may next attempt a mile in ten minutes;
and repeat this, till, being gradually less and less heated, they can
either extend the distance, or diminish the time, in any measured
proportion. At this pace, six miles may afterwards be run in an hour.