Look at when he ran them. He had a histoy of running significantly slower at LSU and then, in a span of 1-2 months, dropping significant time.
College
2005 SB: 10.66 (10.61w) – ran under 6.9 in the 60m only twice (which fits his 100m times).
2006: Ran under 10.5x one time during the collegiate season. Ran 10.2 a bit after when he returned home.
2007: Forget collegiate time, but dropped significant time between collegiate season and “home season” and went 10.09 after going home.
2008: Broke 10 while at LSU. First year things make sense and there are no big jumps within 1-2 months of leaving school.
Speculate as you want.
First thing is the workload- big work yields results later when less work is done- like at home.
at the risk of getting hit again, the move from ext tempo to intensive tempo might or might not really be the case because the relative differentials move with improvements. Even though I harp constantly about staying out of the middle zone- Ben ran rep 200s 10x 28-30sec on grass inside lane one with 100m walk across without any issue. The really slow tempo tends to come in the late stages and taper period, but even that can be mixed with push-ups and sit ups to keep the work level reasonable.
I also don’t see the 2000m per week speed levels as being out of the ordinary for the very top people, especially when max is mixed with sub-max. Look at the charts on the Vanc Download for my examples.
Very interesting…!
Does this not point to the extensive collegiate schedule and how once they are rested from that times blow up?
Is this any different than what some noticed with Dix?
Thompson only ran the 60m indoors for basically every meet. One round. He did few 200s, even outdoors (until his senior year). For this season (the one posted), his schedule was very light.
Dix won indoor titles and multiple outdoor titles in college, along with setting records at his conference meets and regional meets. I don’t see how that is really similar to dropping .4 off your 100m in two months, when you were healthy the entire time. Dix was injured for the majority of this year, but besides that, I don’t see how it is very similar at all.
Yeah it isn’t similar then is it.
I am referencing the season of workouts posted, obviously.
RT’s senior year was much different results wise, as noted.
Anything and everything works for talented guys. I run 10.6 so I should be 9.8s soon with intensive tempo with big work volumes.
A native of the tiny Caribbean nation of Trinidad & Tobago, Thompson shopped his talents to many of the elite collegiate sprinting programs in the United States, but few were willing to take a chance on an unproven sprinter with a personal best of 10.65.
But there was one coach who saw enough untapped potential in Thompson to offer the future star a full scholarship to continue his training in the States.
That coach was LSU’s Dennis Shaver.
“I don’t think there’s any question that we took a chance when we signed Richard four years ago, but it’s something that has certainly paid off for both Richard and LSU,” Shaver said. “This was a guy who came to us with a few tools to work with, and we felt he might be able to slowly develop into a solid contributor at the SEC and NCAA level.
“I don’t think anybody, including Richard, could have imagined that he would reach this level of performance in four years. It’s remarkable.”
Thompson knew the road to glory would be long after running a 10.80 in his very first 100-meter race at the collegiate level before finishing 25th in the event at the SEC Championships and failing to qualify for the NCAA Championships as a freshman.
But under Shaver’s guidance, Thompson saw a drastic improvement in his performance with each passing season.
He cut his personal best to 10.43 during the collegiate season in 2006 before earning his first All-America honor in the 100 meters with a top mark of 10.23 at the NCAA Championships in 2007. Thompson gave a glimpse of what was to come during his senior season when he clocked a legal 10.09 at the 2007 Sagicor National Open Track and Field Championships in his native country.
Don’t bother with this study for a number of reasons…
Now you run 10.6 instead of 10.4. Well now I run 9.5 instead of 15 flat or whatever you all think I run. And since no one else has to give their real name…mine is now Boston Bolt…Usains long lost cousin. It’s hand time, but I was walking on my hands when I did it so I think I could have gone faster.
Ok so if we put Bolt on mileage running (30 miles per week) and his speed work was repeat 200s at whatever speed 
and his lifting was bicep curls and leg extensions, would he still have ran 9.72 in May? 
If so…then we all might as well just do whatever and sit around and wake up random days and show up to meets and run fast times then ? I’m sure Bolt would love a year of nothing but eating nuggets and dancing and still running 9.6
Not stupid stuff but many methodics (he he) will work but nothing that is too bro.