Sam Takes on the Camp Workout

Last week, Steve ran Chris Camp's workout, which consisted of three sets of 1600, 800, 800, 400, 200, 200; a total of 7.5 miles of work. I was away in North Dakota when he did it, so I decided to get it in this week. (It works out well since Steve's racing the Shamrock Run tomorrow; whereas I'm visiting my sister for the weekend.)

Although yesterday's temperature hovered around 60 degrees for a good part of the day, I made the intelligent decision to run Camp's workout today. It was a balmy 34 outside, with light snow coming down from the southwest. Wind was about a 4 out of 10: not horrible but it did flair up at various points, making some intervals harder than they should have been.

You may ask why I didn't run the workout indoors, which would be a completely valid question. The answer is that OCC scammed us into buying YMCA memberships, only to fill up the track with an endless number of concerts, flower shows, college fairs, and necrophiliac conventions. We haven't been able to run on the indoor track the last five times we've wanted to. Steve and I are seriously considering asking for refunds.

OK, so onto the workout. I ran to the SU track, spikes in hand. I had decided beforehand that the "real workout" was going to be the last 1600-800-800, so my plan was to whip the spikes out for the last set. (For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read Camp's description of the workout here in the comments section. You can also check out Steve's crack at it here.)

The first set was no problem at all. The pace felt very slow and comfortable, really a lot like a tempo run. The one change I made was in the first set. I decided to run the last few intervals at the same pace as the mile, since I didn't see the need to run 4's or 2's slower than 5:30 pace. For the second set, I slowed the 400 and 200's down, as described. After the first set, I was ready to start the second set right away, but gave myself three minutes anyway.

The second set was mildly harder, but still not bad at all. After it was done, I took off my warmups to run the last set in shorts and a long sleeve. I also spiked up.

True to my preconceptions going in, the 1600 at 4:45 was tough. I ran pretty evenly to hit 4:50, which I wasn't thrilled with. The big holdup was that my legs were tired. Aerobically I felt fine, but I think I was feeling the five miles of tempo+ pace at this point.

The 800's were about the same pace, essentially ending the workout. I wish I had run the last set on pace, but it really was a function of just not feeling fast. We probably need to work in more faster stuff going forward. The 400 and 2's were no big deal. Here are my final splits with the difference from my goal time going in following each.

Set 1: 1:30 rest between intervals
1600 - 5:29 -1
800 - 2:45
800 - 2:47 +2
400 - 1:22
200 - 40
200 - 42 +2

Set 2: 1:45 rest between intervals
5:10
2:31 +1
2:30
1:20
39 -1
38 -1

Set 3: 2:00 rest between intervals
4:50 +5
2:26 +6
2:22 +2
1:10
34 -1
33 -2