UKC

I've been running for nearly 2 years now and last Thursday did a proper interval session for the first time. It was a pyramid of 200m intervals from 1 to 6 and back down with a minute rest between each. I did give it just about everything I had.
My legs have felt pretty dead since. Did a hilly 10k road run yesterday, struggled all the way and my legs properly hurt afterwards - especially my quads.
Is this normal after intervals?
For context, I've been running pretty much every other day for the last month or so and averaging about 25 miles per week. Most runs are between 4-6 miles and I try to do them fairly fast but by no means flat out

In reply to Alex@home:

Intervals put a massive strain on your legs especially when you are not used to them. Allow a little bit more recovery time than you normally would until you are used to them.

And never skip on warm downs and stretching after a hard session.

In reply to chrisa87:

thanks. thought that was probably the case but wanted to check.

Out of interest how often do you do intervals of one form or another?
I don't have any specific targets in mind, but I'd like to improve my mid-long distance speed. For me that means anything over 10k

In reply to Alex@home:

I only do them once a week. I've been advised the coach at my old running club that they shouldn't be done more than twice in a week and never on consecutive days.

In reply to Alex@home:
I think it's difficult for most people to do more than 2 tho' some can, and you can helprecovery along.
For what you want to do i would advise looking online at some of the 5k sessions. Load of 200's is hard on the legs and rather irrelevant. Sessions for more than 5k at this time will be a bit long/ draggy for you (novice to be harsh) and you need a good 5k to run a good 10k

In reply to wbo:

thanks for the tips. i don't expect to ever run often enough to be doing 2 sessions like that a week so finding the right type will be important.
i'm guessing that like most things a bit of variety will be necessary to keep seeing improvements?