Following on from admin's
introductory post I've included a brief biog below along with excerpts from my running log, there will be more entires coming soon!
Name: Gavin Thompson
Date Of Birth: 9th of April 1980
Born: Cuckfield
Residency: Uckfield (Sussex)
University: Eastern Michigan
Masters: Sports Administration
Personal Bests: Mile (3.59.05) 3000m (8.01) 5000m (14.00) 10,000m (28.40).
Achievements:
- 97, 98, 99 World Junior Cross Country Championships
- 1997 National Cross Country Championships 1st Havent
- 5 Mar CAU Cross Country Champs (Reebok 7 & World Trials) XC12K 39:02 3 Nottingham
- 11 Jun AAA 10000 meters Championship 10k 28:40.58 (1AAA) Watford
I was Britain’s first finisher at the 1998 World Junior cross-country. Third in the Under-17s in 1997 and second in the Juniors in 1998, I then finish fifth place in 1999 to ensure my place in the team for the Worlds. I won the U20 Reebok Cross Challenge series. On the track I was runner-up in the AAA Under 17 1500m and 3000m in 1996.
After my first year at Eastern Michigan University in the USA, I came back home to finish third in the AAA U23 5000m in 2002, back in the USA I was 13th in the NCAA cross-country at the end of 2002. In 2003 for the indoor season I brought my times down to 4:00.41 for 1M and 14:08.71 for 5000m. Outdoors I improved my best to 14:03.75 and at the end of the year I had one of my best races to date when I was third in the NCAA CC. In 2004 I made a big improvement at 10,000m to 29:07.0 and later was 8th in the NCAAs; I then came home to finish 6th in the AAA 5000m.
Christmas 2004 I had good runs over the country in Belfast and Edinburgh, returned to the USA where I ran 14:00.24 indoors for 5000m. Then March of 2005 back in Britain, took third in the CAU/UK Trials cross-country to make my first senior international debut at the World CC, but suffered from stomach problems to have a disappointing finish.
In the summer of 2005 I was able to make up a lot of ground to beat Keith Cullen on the line to take the AAA 10,000m title in a time of 28:40.58, a 26.42 sec improvement on my pb.
Running Log - December 2005:
Christmas time I started to focus my training and all my energy on the Commonwealth Games to be held in Melbourne on march 15th to the 26th. I decided that to give myself the best chance of running well I had to make some sacrifices and this started with not going home for Christmas but instead to train through the Christmas period with a stint of warm weather training in Florida in order to start my sessions in warmer climates. I was in Florida from December 19th to December 31st this period went well and started me off on a good note.
Running Log - January 2006: (Back in Michigan, Eastern Michigan University)
The first week of January went really well for me I got in two very good sessions probably two of the best sessions of my life. On top of this I started to see a very good physio (Pete Kitto), I saw Kitto three times this week. He is helping to work on my flexibility, range of motion, and giving me massages (mainly flush outs to help me speed up recovery and prevent injury).
The second week I got in another very good session early in the week. I then saw Kitto the next day. There is a track meeting to be held at my university (Eastern Michigan) and one of my training partners (Boaz Chebiowoi, a 7.35 3k runner which is the nineth fastest in the world ever) wants to run 4 minute for the mile. Coach (John Goodridge) and I both decided that this would be a good indication of my fitness level as well as proving my fitness to the Commonwealth Games selectors. We had a pace maker in the race but he went out too slow (62, for the first 400m = too slow!) I ended up finishing 2nd in 4.04. I was happy with this considering I have not done any mile sessions yet.
The third week didn’t start so well my knee popped out at the start of the week by doing a stretch. I saw Kitto every day this week as I had planned to run a fast 3k at the end of the week again to prove my fitness to the Commonwealth selectors. But I was finding it hard to run after my knee popped so I took a couple of days off and got Kitto to work on me for the next few days. I did a short run the day before my 3k just to give my knee a little test, it seemed ok. I ended up finish 3rd in the race with a PB of 8.01 (not bad considering I have been training for a 10k.).
The last week of January saw me getting back to doing sessions and they went well after a bit of a hiccup last week.
Running Log - February 2006:
The first week of February continued to go well with two sessions as well as continuing to see Kitto. I feel the stretching and flush out messages that Kitto gives me is definitely helping.
The second week was pretty much the same as usual…two sessions and ending the week on 102 miles for the week.
The third week we did two sessions but the second of the two sessions was done a little faster more like a 1500m session which I haven’t done for a while and I did find this a little harder!
The fourth week I flew home to the UK. Before I flew home I got another session done of mile reps. Two days after getting back to the UK I got a 6 mile tempo in which went well.
February 28th was my last session (300m reps, on the new Crawley track) before going to meet up with the England team and flying out to Australia.
Running Log - March 2006:
March 2nd I met up with the England Team at Heathrow. After queuing up for over an hour and a half to get through security we got onto our 20-hour flight! We had a short lay over in Singapore before arriving in Melbourne on March 4th (around 8.30am Australian time). I tried to go for an hour run easy as a shake out from the flight but my legs just wouldn’t move. I ran down to a park, which is about two miles from the holding camp after running a mile in the park. I decided to give up and go back to the camp as there was no need for me to kill myself. I have to respect that jet lag and my body clock is going to need a little time to get over and back to normal.
All the best,
Gavin
