Anybody know the details of his training in '74. I don't think he was much faster than 3:50s 1500 and 29:4x 10K and yet won in convincing fashion the Commonwealth Games and Euro championships.
Anybody know the details of his training in '74. I don't think he was much faster than 3:50s 1500 and 29:4x 10K and yet won in convincing fashion the Commonwealth Games and Euro championships.
140 miles per week. Often a 30 miler for the long run. Often 3 runs per day. Some sort of speed work 3-5 days per week.
Who is this?
I read a profile of his training in Athletics Weekly but have no idea where that issue is. As I recall he did a 30 mile run on weekends and had "big" days on Tuesday and Thursday with some sort of reps and a good number of miles. He also had maybe three days each week where he did a couple of five mile runs and nothing more.
Mopak and HRE thanks for your replies. Are you sure that wasn't later when he started running the Brighton race. I thought I recall an small piece in track and field news stating he was a club runner that was running 70 - 80 miles a week. The issue was sometime in '74. Can't look it up as all mine burned in a garage fire.
who is Ian Thompson wrote:
Who is this?
An early inspiration of mine. Gave lots of Average Joes hope because he was a 30min 10K club runner who out of the blue won the (prestigious at the time) AAA Marathon in about 2:12 and later '74 Commonwealth in 2:09. Quiet unassuming nice guy.
I remember reading that he would jump quickly from about 80 miles per week up to his 140 miles when getting ready for marathons. I can't tell you if he was doing that before his first few marathons but it is the impression I took from the articles I read.
The AW piece was about his training after the Euro Championship marathon as I recall. Prior to thathe'd been a club runner who raced the 5,000 as his primary event and got talked into running the AAA Marathon to fill out his club team. I'd guess that he wasn't doing 30s for his 5,000 training but the only thing I actually saw was the profile with the 30s which worked out to around 100-110 a week with everything else thrown in. But it's been a long time since I read this and am notbetting my life on what I wrote.
me thinks...maybe a short course of nearly 800 - 1000 meters?
At 24, Thompson, would been an average club runner completed his first marathon in an astounding 2:12:40. At that time, the fastest debut. Earning him a berth on the British team for the Commonwealth Games team where he sensationally ran away with a 2:09:12 victory. He followed this with a major win in Athens (2:13:50) and finally captured the European title in 2:13:19. In less than a year he went from novice to one of the best in the world.
From Thompson himself:
"For a marathon runner, I've got rather stubby legs, short levers which stand the pounding...Pain is anaesthetised by the euphoria of running. There's a part in every marathon where you lose a sense of identity in yourself. You become running itself."
At 17 Ian ran 70 miles/week.
At 22 he was up to 100 and by the European's 140.
He ate a high-carbohydrate diet.
After the '74 Euro's he dedicated a year to preparing for the Montreal Olympics. He ran a sole win in 2:24:30 as a training run. Handicapped by a cramp he only finished 7th in his country's trials. It was won by Barry Watson in 2:15:08. Thompson was left off the Olympic team.
4 months after the Olympics, he ran second in Fukuoka in 2:12:54, 19 seconds behind Jerome Drayton and 2 minutes in front of Cierpinski.
Info taken from Marathon Kings by Norman Giller. Found it in a delete bin in the early '80's in a mall.
And why would you think that? He had run the fastest ever debut marathon at that time, 2:13 I think at the AAA race and that caused quite a stir. Thompson's time at Christchurch was not out of line, i.e, he wasn't a guy who'd spent years stuck at 2:13 who suddenly had a massive improvement. And really no one else's who finished near the top there was either, e.g. Jack Foster was a 2:12 going in and a 2:11 guy coming out, Don MacGregor had a 2:14 best prior to Christchurch and ran the same time there.
A short course is going to produce all sorts of impressive PRs, not just from one or two guys. I suspect that some of these sorts of questions come up because the procedures we have today for course certification didn't exist then but by 1974 we'd put men on the moon. Measuring out an accurate 26.2 mile stretch of road was not that hard to do and marathoners in those days were very clear about wanting to run accurate courses. I've never heard anyone question the accuracy of that course before.
Right, 2:12 in the debut. I think 2:13 was his time at the Euros. Thanks.
The pleasure is all mine,
Thompson was one of the first to pursue glycogen depletion/loading.
He said he felt bloated and sluggish in the early miles of his 2:09 race and felt better as the race progressed.
mopak wrote:
140 miles per week. Often a 30 miler for the long run. Often 3 runs per day. Some sort of speed work 3-5 days per week.
That's what I remember - very high volume regimen.
Christchurch course is legit, its probably one of the fastest courses in the world... very much like a chicago or Berlin, but because it is a smaller race you won't here people raving about it.
tumeke wrote:
Christchurch course is legit, its probably one of the fastest courses in the world... very much like a chicago or Berlin, but because it is a smaller race you won't here people raving about it.
Very true. And a much 'nicer' course in terms of scenery. I think our marathon here in L.A. has some of the worst scenery, but that's because I know the area very well and am aware of what a lot of the neighborhoods are really like, lol.
Didn't know that Christchurch was a fast course, but wasn't that race Jack Foster's marathon PR?
The short course argument:He ran 2:09:12. Every other marathon he ran was a 2:12:40+. Or pretty much what you would expect from a 14 min 5k guy who specialized in marathons.And as far as coursing being accurate in the 70s, from Ians marathon listAuckland Marathon[8] 2:03:31 13 November 1977 Auckland 3rdI would be pissed if I broke the world record by 4+ mins and came in 3rd. Or the Salazar NYC debate. I don't know if this was a one time thing (championship course far more likely to be short) or something run regularly (likely to be measured more often).Now I have no direct evidence that the course was short but is a reasonable question. As far as Jack, whenever a 41 year old guy cuts a min off his PR after running seriously for years, I am a bit suspicious:)
HRE wrote:
And why would you think that? He had run the fastest ever debut marathon at that time, 2:13 I think at the AAA race and that caused quite a stir. Thompson's time at Christchurch was not out of line, i.e, he wasn't a guy who'd spent years stuck at 2:13 who suddenly had a massive improvement. And really no one else's who finished near the top there was either, e.g. Jack Foster was a 2:12 going in and a 2:11 guy coming out, Don MacGregor had a 2:14 best prior to Christchurch and ran the same time there.
A short course is going to produce all sorts of impressive PRs, not just from one or two guys. I suspect that some of these sorts of questions come up because the procedures we have today for course certification didn't exist then but by 1974 we'd put men on the moon. Measuring out an accurate 26.2 mile stretch of road was not that hard to do and marathoners in those days were very clear about wanting to run accurate courses. I've never heard anyone question the accuracy of that course before.
The Choysa -Auckland short course (won by 2.10 man Dave Chettle in 2.02) occurred because of on the day management issues. Thompson's pace on that day worked out to 2.11+ pace.
Jack Foster didn't start running until 32 and had run a series of fast marathons and a 20 mile WR (1.39) in his late 30s. He ran 2.15 at 45 and 2.20 at 50 (off minimal training).
He was running in a MAJOR championship marathon in his own country. Conditions were cool, the course flat, fast and smooth.
John Farrington, who had run 2.11 in 73 (world leader) and 2.12 in 72 and 2.13 in 71 ran 2.14 in the 74 CG finishing 4th.