EJF- right now I'm in maintenance phase. Just running four days a week for the most part, and 2 of those days are already slow jogs. No problem in taking days off, but at this point I'm trying to not skip more than a day off at a time. Just starting to get ready for a 5k in early Nov, so will ad another day this next week, and then a 6th day in early Oct.
Have found that 2 hard runs of any kind per week is my limit, and the rest is easy, so for me, there is less return and more risk, to jog 8 or 10 slow miles as opposed to 4-6 on the other days. I have friends that do very, very well with much higher mileage...I just can't get away with it.
Hope this answers your question.
Rich