Regarding the running, while I was careful to increase the mileage super slowly, I think I increased my pace too much in those miles too soon. My intensity of my runs was frankly too hard, too often.
Yeah, this is super tricky.
I always have issues with my heart rate. I've only been wearing a HR monitor for a year. Turns out, when I push it (on a regular run or an uphill run, where I feel like I'm pushing it), my HR gets to 190+, easily.
Which, ya know, probably not the best.
Last year I trained for the half marathon in May without a HR monitor. I was running my long runs probably "too fast", when you consider your long run should be slow, as in not at race pace (1-2 min/mile off is fine). As a result, my race was only 15 sec/mile faster than training runs. I figured this out because I was usually able to keep up with 2 other women on the long run, but race day their finish times for the half were...about 25-28 minutes faster than mine.
So this year, I feel like I'm dragging a bit, but I'm also trying to keep my slow runs...slower. I was conducting the struggle train on Sat, with a 9 mile run (last mile at "race pace", where HR got high again). 12:00 miles on average. I guess maybe that's 1:00 off my goal pace? Or 45 sec anyway.
I'm trying to be careful to not increase pace AND distance concurrently. I know, intellectually, that I'm not going to continuously PR. I also know, in my heart, that nobody really gives a shit if I beat last year's time for this race (2:28) or my most recent half (2:20). I tell myself that it's supposed to be fun, and if I feel like dying for the last 3 miles (which is what "race pace" feels like), what's the actual point? But then again, I'm type A.
Hey, well, I tell myself in less than 2 years I'll be 50, and I can start chasing "over-50" PRs.