I think slower and conservative is always the best way for your first time. I still vividly remember my first cut and buff. I HATE doing it, btw, so I'm curious to try Don's method on a truck I'm doing this summer.
I don't think you want to start lower than 1000 because it gets progressively harder to cancel the grit out. If the peel is bad, you might start at 1000. If it's moderate, maybe 1200. I go 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 trizact (on an DA polisher). This is not for the faint of heart and is Shine's way of doing it, but it works.
I use Meguiar Unigrit paper for cutting. It lasts a long time and has a uniform grit.
When you are cutting, do not try to remove all the peel on the first pass, you still have a lot more grits you're moving through. Try to remove about half to a third of it, so it's just disappearing by your last several grits; this ensures you are keeping as much of your clear on as possible.
Keep your paper wet with constant flushing of water. Cleanliness is the most important part. Your water must be impeccably clean, your paper too. If you drop your paper on the ground then get new paper. Getting the slightest piece of something gritty under your paper will leave huge scratches that will be tough to fix. This is also why you it helps to be constantly rinsing the panel. I use a spray bottle or a huge sponge above the area I'm sanding. I just keep pressing the sponge very lightly against the panel and it squeezes the water out and provides a constant trickle over the area I'm sanding. If you feel or hear something gritty, then STOP.
I use one of the thin softblocks from my durablock set as a squeegee and squeegee the water off the panel and look at it an an angle. Water will squeegee off the surface but not out of deep scratches, so if you have big scratches remaining still, this will reveal them. Do not go to your next grit if you still have rogue scratches. Or, until your tolerance level allows you to move to the next grit
For repairing runs, my preferred method is to take something like EZ Sand body putty and thinly smear it over the run. After it dries, sand with 800 grit and work up. You will see the high spot of the run start to sand down first while the putty protects the clear on the lower spots. As you sand down the high spot of the run, the rest of the filler will sand off too. I sand all runs first, and finish with whatever grit I will be starting my cutting with.
I'm not a professional either. I went through some paint and body courses 13 years ago and then have had a lot of practice and continual learning. Most of my most valuable edumacations have happened in my conversations with Barry.
For your first time, you don't have to cut and buff EVERYTHING. Stay out of areas you can't get into easily (remember if you sand it, you will have to buff it). Stay away from edges of panels, stay off body lines.
When you are buffing at the edge of a panel, your buffer should be held at an angle on the panel so the rotation of the buffing pad is rotating off the edge of the panel but not back on it. In other words, the toe of the buffing pad is down on the panel and you're holding it such that the heel of the pad is up.