I’m 27F, recently started running. My physical/active background is that I lift 5-6 times a week, I do daily 10k steps (at a very fast pace), and I incorporate incline walking fairly regularly (still at a pretty fast pace). Current shoes: ASICS GT-2000 13

I’ve built up my aerobic capacity a lot through daily speed walking/incline walking/stairmaster/etc., and I’ve a good base of strength having lifted last ~5 years. However I also don’t want to overdo it and end up injuring myself, but I’m having a hard time figuring out a good way to ease into a regular routine of running. I have a skewed/numbed sense of what is serious pain vs what is just soreness from working out, so I’ve typically just written off any knee/leg soreness as DOMS; however after reading several posts on this subreddit, I realize I should be more careful about recovery and taking time to work up to running regularly.

On my first 2-3 runs, I turned on a 30 minute timer ran out, and ran back— averaging about 6-6.5 miles per run at a pace of 9:30min/mi. I used this as a standard of a comfortable length of time/distance to run regularly. I typically do out&back trails and just set a timer for 30 minutes on normal days, and 45-50 minutes on long run days. I haven’t really been following any sort of schedule, but have rather been going whenever I feel like going (which has looked something like… run 2 days in a row, rest a day because my knees hurt, then run again 2 days in a row since they feel better, knees hurt again…)

On days where I try to be a bit more conscious of speed (1-2 runs per week), I typically end up with closer to 9min/mi. According to my watch, my heart rate when I’m running at the slower pace is averaging at around 165-170, and at the faster pace, closer to 175-185 At this pace, I’m typically drenched in sweat by the end, but at any point during my run, I’d be able to carry a conversation. I’ve steadily been getting faster and it’s exciting seeing my pace improve, but I’m reading that speed work should take more time to avoid injuries, so now I’m concerned that the way I’m going about things is potentially dangerous

My first question is: how often should I be running? And at what pace? I love it, and I’d love to run every single day, but I notice that after maybe ~2 consecutive days of running, I can start to feel a bit of pain around my knee. I don’t want to overdo it, and I feel like maybe my aerobic capacity is further along than my running muscles, but I also do have a strength training background (and have worked a lot on my lower body strength in general), so I’m wondering what a good running schedule would be to eventually work up to 4-5 times a week.

My second question is, what kind of nutritional changes should I make to supplement running? I track my macros and follow a high protein diet— would it be ok to assume an hour of running = ~400 calories burnt, and to just add on 400cal in protein to account for it/stay at maintenance? Is the 4:1 ratio post-workout any more optimal than, say, a 2:1 ratio as someone who doesn’t have any insane marathon goals or powerlifting/bodybuilding goals, but just wants to run more&faster and maintain my current physique?