@MHR: wow! great post!
however, a lot of us out here are probably gonna feel a little intimidated and meager reading your schedule...
i would just like to point out to chris (because i think he and his wife are on a much more novice level than you) that rest and recovery is just as important as training.
for MHR a 5, 10k run or even a half marathon is basically booked as training, at some points i'm sure even as a "recovery" run with him going "only" 70-80% (or do you actually ALWAYS go 100%??)