I suggest that taking it as slow as you want to is fine. I think you will reach a point where you know you can increase more without much risk.
As for the race, I have had to make the decision a few times to wear my running mocs due to rough roads. I was always glad I did, even though I much prefer bare feet and been doing most of my training without footwear. The main trick is to make sure you wear footwear just enough so that when you do wear it, there are not blisters from not being used to it.
Congrats on your 3.2 mile time!
Thanks for the good advice. Yeah I'm with you on that. I think its better to be safe than sorry and plan to wear the VFF's. Might put them on this afternoon and walk the schnauzers after their morning haircuts. Havent worn them since the weather was quite cold. Temps Saturday morning are to be around 50 which would have been good to run it BF. Darn glass!
While hardly an expert, I do think it's always better to go a bit slower than you feel you're capable of. I suffered from over-exuberance last year, and am just now getting back to where I was nine months ago. If I had gone slower, I'd probably be a lot further along now.
I do feel that I could probably increase my mileage more but dont want to spend most of my weeks recouping like last summer. Think I'll stick with the slow mileage increase and continue to take it slow for a month or two yet just to play it safe. Would hate to ruin a good thing!