I'm not gonna offer any advice re: training, but as far as figuring out how to get the miles in, well...you have to compromise somewhere. I have kids too, although not as young as yours, and I run early in the morning before anyone else is up during the week. That is the only way I can get it done. If I wait until the evening, I will either have too much going on or be too tired from the rest of the day's activities. Really, all you need is an hour or so to get in a solid run. It is TOUGH to get out of bed that early, but it is always worth it. Good luck.

+1 - I was quite happy with 5k and 10k until my DS went and qualified for Boston.  Made me want to do the same.  Have one more marathon that I signed up for in a weak moment, and then Boston in 2014.  After that, I'm quite happy with the middle distances.

BQing and running 3 marathons + whatever you do in the future (because i don't believe you'll quit after that)  is a great body of achievement, and more power to you my friend, but honestly, if i ever run a sub 20 5k i will feel like the champion of the world.  And I believe that will take me the equivalent effort to BQing.  I feel the goal of the sub 20 5k is actually farther away for me than being in shape enough to run a marathon and BQ.

you run 2 am?

If I have to, yes. I've become quite flexible since the birth of my DS and will run whenever I can. DH had to head to Wichita, KS Friday afternoon and my mother wasn't getting off work until late late so I had to make a decision quick to ensure that I would get my run in Friday. I rarely do it, but it can be exciting and if I do have a stalker out there, my runs are too unpredictable for them to figure me out. Sometimes I run around 5 p.m, sometimes 10 p.m, sometimes 8 a.m or 2 a.m and never on the same route.

 

 

Mr. N.  I hear you.  My likelihood of ever running a sub 20 5K again is approaching the “when pigs fly” stage.  And each year that passes it becomes less likely.  At this point I would be happy to get close to the age grading percents that I enjoyed in my younger days;  which at this point would be a sub 21 5K.  And that won’t happen until I stop this marathon nonsense and start more 5K and 10K specific training.  I look forward to that starting in April.

 

Back to our OP – your list of planned races for 2013 is impressive.  If you can do all of that (which implies the training to complete 3 HM), then I think your concerns of running a full at Indy in Nov 2013 will melt away by the end of the summer.

And back to your original question regarding increasing your mileage.  The plan you have outlined looks very doable.  You said in one of your posts “If I feel any pain or discomfort that extends past the first mile or 5 minutes of each run (if at all) or the day or 2 after an increase in my long run, I plan to drop back and maybe take 2 or 3 days of rest with some strength training which always seems to help.”  That is exactly the approach that will help to keep you healthy.  You only mention the one injury last year, and it seems to have a specific relational cause.  So assuming that you are not prone to injury, and you have the recuperative powers of the young, just pay attention to what your body says and give it rest when it needs it.

That was my only injury in 2012 I did injure my IT band in 2010 when I started running and training for my first HM, and it was from increasing too soon and running too often. I got overzealous in July, my training team ran Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays but I would also go to the gym and run an extra 30 minutes on the TM on Mondays and Wednesday feeling invincible.............. a  month later and I realized that was not the case. By September I was feeling like a knife was going straight down from my right hip to my knee (all on the outside) so I stopped and took about a month off, I started back slowly in late October at 1 mile and doing run/walking splits by music: during one song (2-4 minutes long) I'd run, two songs I'd walk, I'd increase my running and decrease my walking only when I could go 3 weeks without any pain during the run and by Spring of 2011 I was comfortably running 3 miles no problem though I was slower out of caution and fear. 2011 saw no injuries, just a pregnancy which did kind of slow me down too and my mileage did drop a lot. Though 2012 saw an injury, after dropping my mileage back in October and slowly beginning at 2 miles 2 weeks after the HM (10/7/12), once I was running 3 miles with no pain, I would increase one run out of 3 a week by a mile, my LR first, then the run after that (the following week), and then the 3rd run the following week after that. For example:

Week 1: Tuesday: 3 / Thursday: 3 / Saturday: 4

Week 2: Monday: 4 / Wednesday: 3 / Friday: 4

Week 3:  Sunday: 4 / Tuesday: 4 / Thursday: 4, Saturday: 4

Week 4: Monday: 4 / Wednesday: 4 / Friday: 4

Week 5: Sunday: 5 /  Tuesday: 4 / Thursday: 4 and so on

Since the beginning of December I've stayed at 5 miles on my weekly runs except for some 6 mile runs here and there. My LR is up to 8 this weekend (if I am able to get out there... lack of sleep sucks) and I'll probably either increase one of my weekly runs to 6 or add another day in there if possible, having it semi-long like wcrunner2 said, and try and put it between my 2 easy runs. I think.............. we'll just see how things go

Can you get yourself a treadmill, so you don't have to go out in the middle of the night in mid-winter?  I can see where it might be fun in summer, but not so much when it's icy.

 

Alternately, do you have a gym nearby that has daycare?

 I am looking through Craigslist for TMs............... BUT I hate them and would rather not. Call me paranoid but I only trust 2 people with my little boy, his father or my mother, I will not trust another soul with him until  he can either run like h*ll or climb a tree. I don't mind it so much though, night time running.... and if I have to switch running days then that is fine, I am not as stuck to a schedule as I used to be.