Article, reprinted from Bicycling News. Warns of the dangers of overtraining for long-distance bicycle racing

Bicycling News

Stark Center E-Archive

42 PHYSICAL 
be scrupulously avoided by persons 
of advanced age."—Dr. Holbrook, 
in Omega. 
O V E R D O I N G IT. 
It 's a grea t pity tha t some cyclists 
who are gifted with more pluck 
than wisdom have not a far-seeing 
friend at hand to warn them of the 
dangers of overtraining. The men 
who thus run the risk of an early 
grave are those who invariably 
make hard work of cycling. They 
never know what it is to have an 
easy t ime on a bicycle. Year in, 
year out, their one absorbing 
though t is speed, and their one 
idea is to train, train, train, so tha t 
they may be able to hold their own 
with men far their superiors in mus-
cular and organic s t rength. Cycling 
is one of the finest aids to health 
when pursued to tha t end, but , on 
the other hand, it is a rock on which 
many a weakl ing has wrecked his 
consti tution. We are not seeking 
to pose as an admoni tor of the usual 
alarmist order ; we simply speak as 
we find ; and we could name, within 
our own little sphere of observa-
tion, a couple of young fellows, two 
brothers , who will one day regret 
tha t they ever crossed a wheel. 
They are wear ing themselves away 
—absolutely reducing themselves 
to peregr ina t ing shadows. They 
are always in the saddle, and are 
always r iding hard ; and to one 
who, like ourselves, is accustomed 
to reckon up a man's internal con-
dition as a horse dealer would the 
points of a horse, it is easy to see 
that it cannot last long. The col-
CULTURE. 
lapse will come, and it will be a 
case of '' touch and go " perhaps 
" g o , " and cycling will be con-
demned by their circle of friends 
as a dangerous sport. To the man 
with a perfect physique, who trains 
carefully and always allows himself 
plenty of rest, racing is a safe diver-
sion, but in cases similar to those 
we have quoted, hard and continu-
ous riding, even with systematic 
training, cannot be too s t rongly 
condemned, and one's health is 
more precious than all the long-
distance medals in the world.— 
Bicycling News. 
" Tak ing body and mind and soul 
together, Mr. Glads tone was the 
finest specimen of the human race 
I ever met, and as for political 
work, or indeed any kind of work, 
injuring his health, it never ex-
hausted him in the least. In his 
eighty-sixth year he told me tha t 
except for his failing eyesight and 
hear ing he had no excuse, as he pu t 
it, for leaving Par l iament . ' I t is very 
awkward, ' he observed, ' to reply in 
debate to a speech you haven ' t 
heard a word of.' "—Mr. G. W. E. 
Russell in the Saturday Journal. 
Sleep starvation is a common 
fault, especially of the young. 
Dancing all n ight two or three 
times a week and working all day 
is possible for a time, bu t there is 
harm in it. In general , it may be 
said that any one who has to be 
alarm-clocked out of bed every 
morning isn't ge t t ing sleep. 
PHYSICAL C U L T U R E . 43 
W H Y G I R L S A R E S O M U C H 
M O R E A T T R A C T I V E 
N O W A D A Y S . 
After all, the reason is a very 
simple one; for never were our 
girls so active or so varied in their 
pastimes as they are to-day. Un-
doubtedly beauty is not always an 
accident; it can easily be cultivated, 
and we have been cul t ivat ing it by 
a variety of methods, more or less 
unconsciously, for a long time past. 
This age, in comparison with ear-
lier ones, may fairly be described 
as hygienic in the extreme. 
There are more good looks now 
than ever before, and there are rea-
sons for it, and because there is 
more beauty than ever there is, per-
haps, not qui te so much enthusiasm 
about it. 
Girls of the present day are good 
at the oar, they are grea t at cy-
cling, they are not easily beaten on 
the tennis-court, they are s t rong at 
golf, and they begin to be skilled 
at the wicket. 
The s tudy of beauty has no 
doub t had its influence, but heal thy 
exercise is undoubtedly the real 
cause and secret of this increase of 
good looks. Our girls should be 
encouraged to take some form of 
healthy out of door exercise as a 
regular thing, and the good result 
will not be long in making itself 
evident. 
There is no doubt that one of the 
greates t beautifiers is happiness, 
and that the girls of to-day lead a 
happy, healthy life is apparen t 
th roughout the length and breadth 
of our land. 
O u r g randmothe r s and great-
g randmothers would be positively 
shocked at the l iberty enjoyed by 
the young folk of this generat ion, 
bu t it is an undeniable fact tha t the 
vapors and nervous at tacks enjoyed 
by them are practically unknown 
by their descendants —London Even-
ing News. 
F O R T H E FACE. 
A lady law s tudent of Washing-
ton—and there are so few of us tha t 
we can be easily picked out—de-
sires to give two recipes of ten 
years ' test. For the face: Rub on 
with the fingers, massaging gently, 
pure olive oil. Then with a clean 
linen cloth wipe off the entire face. 
Dust, blackheads and other impur i -
ties will show up on the cloth, leav-
ing the skin clear, smooth and pink. 
I have found it invaluable in ob-
l i terat ing wrinkles, as it supplies 
the skin food denied by nature in 
the natural oils as we grow older. 
For softening and whi tening the 
hands, the effects of which can be 
seen in a single night, use four ta-
blespoonfuls of glycerine, four ta-
blespoonfuls of lemon juice 
(strained), four tablespoonfuls of 
rose water. R u b gently over the 
hands on going to bed. There is 
no need of gloves, as there is no 
disagreeable stickiness about this 
preparation.— The Journal. 
Dr. W. T. Francis , of St Louis , 
recommends common salt as a puri-
fier of the air in the house. Simply 
keep a little moist salt in the room 
in an open dish. 


Overdoing It.

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Overdoing It.

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