sore calves....ouch!!

this week, the lightbulb finally went off and instead of sitting at my desk for 8 full hours, i decided that i'd hit the stairs and add that to my workout regiment.  well, there are nine steps per flight and 2 flights per floor.  i've been doing about 9-10 floors 3x for the last few days.  i was expecting my glutes and hamstrings to burn but not my calves.  my calves are SUPER sore this morning.  am i doing too much too soon...working too hard?  any advice on how to ease the discomfort of this soreness?  any advice on how to minimize the soreness in the future?  i do stretch for about 5-10 minutes every morning before I do 15-20 min of calisthenics (push-ups, kickbacks, hydrants, sit-ups, jumping jacks)

 When you're starting any workout regime, 3 weekly sessions is recommended; there's a marginal improvement in results with 5 but a non-marginal improvement in injury rates as your fatigue overloads your body's adaptive capacity. So I think you're probably doing too much; you'd probably be best off by 'borrowing' the general training schedule from Couch25K to have a sensible training schedule that won't overload you ;)

Stretching before and after any exercise helps me immensely.  I never thought it would, or that it mattered, until my physical therapist friend yelled at me.  Now I stretch for a few minutes before and after any exercise, and the pain is minimal if at all.  If it's really bad, put ice on it for 15 min at a time, once every two hours, for the first 48hrs.  Then heat after two days if it still hurts.