Not following plan; still use recovery week?

I would listen to your body.  If you're still feeling strong and still building with few issues, I think you're fine.

The whole idea of not following a schedule is to get away from the "science" of these programs and just listen to your body and fit what you can into your own calendar.

This is how I train.  No schedule...my heavy weeks are ones that are lighter in other parts of my life, ones when weather permits good workouts, etc.  My light weeks are ones that are busy at work, etc.  Beyond that, I listen to my body and back off if I think I need rest, or keep building if I'm feeling strong.

Eventually I'm sure you'll have to back off a bit...you can't increase your times forever.

Agree with Johnny...there is no need to take a rest/recovery/easy week unless you actually feel the need to.  Recovery happens anytime you are not training...so even if you train 2 hours everyday, you're still getting about 22 hours of recovery between workouts.

As you get more experience with your training, you can start to anticipate when you will need additional recovery.  So there is nothing wrong with planning a recovery period around that...but I see no reason to take a recovery week/day just because it falls on the calandar as every 2, 3, 4th week. 

My wife is always less motivated and energized at the time of her month.

So this is her natural rest week.

I normally go along with her "plan".

Personally a "rest week" means that my long run is a bit shorter...