Greetings, ladies!

I am wondering if someone can provide me guidance on how high to inflate my tires. I never really thought about it and just inflated to around 100psi but I recently had a big tire failure and it got me thinking about it. My tire failure may have had little to do with inflation(I think) as I have a nice clean 3" slice through my brand new tires and tube. After reading reviews on the tires I have, I opted to purchase a whole new set and after dropping that $$ I'd like to properly inflate them to a level that avoids puncture as much as possible.

So, I'm no featherweight rider . I weight in at around 170-180lbs and ride on 23cm tires. I purchased some vittoria rubino pro tires after reading their many praises for a cheapo tire and they have a max inflate rate of 120psi. Should I have gone with a higher max rate?

How high should I inflate them to? I know the higher psi, the faster, but at my weight how high is high? And how high makes them too puncture prone?

Thanks so much!