how do I do this?

I now realise that I know so little about developing a training programme....

Back from another good run this evening. Just 3 weeks ago, a week after starting to run a little, my ankle started hurting.... I had simply run too far too fast, and my body couldn't cope.... so after a fortnight of rest, i've been easing back in. I'm determined this time to not go too mad, so have been restricting myself to specific durations in my runs... and am slowly incrementing them (using the well reported 10% increase a week rule)... that means that Saturday was a 25min run, Sunday 30 mins, and today 30 mins...

Not that far for some of you honed athletes, but plenty for me... what I have noticed is that my calfs are sore this evening... not as in muscular damage, but more as in muscular tiredness... my programme calls for a day off tomorrow, which I suspect is a good thing.. it would be easy to overdo it again, and end up with another fortnight of enforced rest...

The other element that demonstrates to me just how little I really know about training routines is one of speed... my first few runs those 4 weeks back, while very short were at a blistering pace... and as I increased the distance beyond 1 mile it became very obvious very quickly that the pace was unsustainable for me... and I had one of those eureka moments, where the good advice freely available on line all suddenly made sense.... this needing doing at a slow pace!

I ran the next few runs at a slower rate, perhaps average around 10min 30s per mile

However, what I am finding is that my pace has naturally crept up over the intervening weeks.... tonights run was comfortable, at 3.25miles and at 9mins 05s per mile pace....

But will this be too fast for a longer run, and should I therefore slow down, or does it make sense to maintain what feels like a comfortable pace?....

To add to it, i've bought a heart rate monitor (HRM), and this shows that after just a few weeks, my faster pace is at a heart rate just slightly lower than my slow paced runs of a fortnight ago.... a sign of better fitness?...

I'll just have to suck it and see I guess.... this may seem trivial to an experienced runner or triathlete, but these are the little things that twist training runs between great and ugly...

I guess the bottom line though is that it is still fun!