The long run vs. every other run in training

Today before work I had a short run of 1.57 miles. This is a picture from one of the entrances to San Gabriel Park.
This week's workouts so far:
Monday- 1.42 miles at Lake Pflugerville
.64 open water swim
Tuesday- 1.57 miles- (early morning route)

So, I noticed I tend to do a good job with slowly increasing my distance for my long runs when training. For example, for our last half-marathon, we had a 17 week training plan where we did long runs like such:
A- long run
B- little bit longer
C- little bit longer than B
D- rest week- easy runs, all shorter then the 3 previous weeks.
then repeat x times however

In the 17 weeks, we didn't really miss any of our scheduled long runs.
However, other then the long runs, we didn't really stick to any plan. Sure, I had pipe dreams of speed runs, hill repeats, mid-length runs and easy runs. But consistently, I just did a lot of short runs with a sprinkle of hill repeats, short/faster runs and occasional mid-length runs.
To get to my point sometime this century, I guess what I am saying is that I need to figure out a way to increase my distance of my runs during the week. I feel like on Sunday ( the day we usually do long runs) distance is the main event. I look forward and appreciate going further. I think the solution is to wake up earlier but does anyone else suffer from this during the week? I know that when preparing for a marathon, it is important to establish a good base, but I don't know the best way to do this when I feel like I'm not really  (yet) in enough shape to run a lot of miles during the week and during the weekend, and manage to have rest days.
Also, I really enjoy swimming as it makes my body feel better after a run and I don't want to sacrifice it that much but does that conflict with becoming a better runner? I feel like I hear so many mix messages on time advantage of cross-training vs. running more miles.