Please can someone help me with running intervals?

[anchovies]

Started running in January and did my first 10km race last week in 58 minutes. Don't really have a plan as to what to do next but absolutely loved the race And would like to do more and am now thinking I will do one long run at the weekend (getting longer each time) a couple of shorter runs for fun and one run where I do intervals.

So borrowed dhs fancy garmin watch thing this morning and set it to do a warm up then 8x 200m with 200m recovery each time. Had no idea how hard this would be and flat out sprinted the first 3 then nearly died doing the last 5 then did a very slow 3km back to home.

Can someone tell me whether this is the right kind of interval starting place or whether I should be doing something else? It was ridiculously hard work (didn't help that it was chucking it down and every time the watch said go I was at the bottom of a hill!)

Sorry about the odd capitals and long sentences, wrote it on my phone!

Hmm. I hate intervals, they make me feel like I'm going to be sick; which is probably pretty much the point of it. I tend not to do them so may be talking rubbish anyway.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say you flat out spinted the first 3. You need to be working hard but probably not quite that hard. You need to raise your heart rate to (I can't remember (?) 90% of max?) but over 200m you have to go very hard initially to get it up to that before you have to slow again. Maybe try 400m with the same recovery but not absolutely flat out. An do 4 or 5 not 8.

Ooh didn't realise I had a reply!

My exact problem was the whole wondering whether I was actually going to be sick thing - not much fun! Makes a lot of sense that I was going too fast though, especially as there was no way I could keep it up for all the repeats. To be honest the thought of 400m fills me with dread though! Do you know whether I am meant to do it in the middle of a longer run? I did a mile or 2 either side but not sure if that was right?