My training schedule

Three days on, one day off. I alternate recovery workouts and hard workouts.

So a full eight-day cycle is something like this:
Day 1: Swim hard
Day 2: Bike light, swim light
Day 3: Run hard
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Swim light, run light
Day 6: Bike hard
Day 7: Run light, bike light
Day 8: Off

Repeat.

The light workouts are very light. About five minutes of drills or easy exercise at low heart rate, just enough to get the blood flowing and flush any lactic acid buildup from the hard workout. For instance, today I did light swim/bike. I did four laps in the pool with a couple of lengths of drills, and then did the spinner for four minutes.

The light workouts are great: they energize me and are useful for working on form in swimming.

In my next post I'll write about the swim drills I use. I am not a very good swimmer, and that is going to be my focus. While bike times are the leg of the race that is most highly correlated with overall time (hence bike is really really important), I am sick of getting out of the water exhausted and near last place. I am tall (6'4") and have a long torso so I should be a strong swimmer. This year that's going to be my focus.

But don't forget the bike: as I said, it is the best predictor of overall place in the race. This makes sense, since it is the longest leg of the race.