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Rest Days
With this year's OS, I am finding that I am carrying a high level of fatigue and often need a day of recovery - getting old sucks! As I start my IM build for Canada, I'm seeking advice on how to incorporate a rest day or possibly change the cycle... have reviewed the Joe Friel book on Fast After 50, but with a full time job (M-F), I can't seem to find a means to get a 10 day cycle to work. Any suggestions? Looking forward to retirement 
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Deciding when to take off is usually done for me by my body. My knee might be swollen; my weight might be going down; I might be getting grumpy, losing sleep, sleeping too much, getting early cold symptoms, whatever. Your body will tell every you time when you need to back off, as long as you are willing to both listen to, and act on the message.
The trickier thing becomes deciding how to adjust the schedule. There are some workouts which absolutely, positively must be done, IMO. But only two: the race rehearsals. Everything else is fungible, malleable, disposable. There is however a hierarchy when training for an Ironman. I want to make sure if at all possible, that I do all the long rides, long runs, and long swims that are prescribed. Also, at least once a week, I like to make sure I get in some high intensity in each sport. Though, as I get past age 64, I'm finding that does not apply so much to running; for running, consistency at LP/TRP is more important, at the expense of both intensity and volume.
It's also possible to downgrade, as opposed to skip, workouts, which is why I put days *off * in " " above. Eg, only doing weight training for half an hour on a given day. Or keeping the time, while decreasing the effort/pace/power. Or doing one workout early on, say, Tuesday, then the next one late on Wednesday, getting 30+ hours of rest, instead of trying to do two in one day eight hours apart.
I've found the absolute hardest part of this is not the knowing when it's time to take a rest of some sort. That part is almost always pretty obvious. The harder part is actually doing it, and the hardest part is dealing mentally with feeling like you are cheating on the program somehow. You are not. We do not build ourselves up *while* we are working out; that happens while we are *resting*. I still haven't quite convinced myself that resting is an integral part of training, but it may be the most important discipline of all.
PS...one of the early things I learned (credit to Gordo Byrne) is that one should never, ever "make-up" a skipped workout. Once it's missed, its gone, let it go, forget about it. Trying to "catch-up" will only get you farther and farther behind, and probably lead to more fatigue or injury. Another early lesson in EN was, Extra Credit (above and beyond the training plan) workouts are also a bad idea in the end. If you think the plan is not hard enough, go up a level. And if Level 3 is still not enough, turn pro...
Deep in IM training, I have been known to skip many Mondays, and just adding some easy swim time to the 2 other swims, and 5 mins @ Zone 1 to the other runs. It works for me.
BTW, Coach P prescribed it to me when I was in a deep hole once (TSB = -45)
Quality sleep and attitude have been the most reliable markers of need for rest. When I am grumpier then my usual I need to skip a workout. It is definitely hard to do. It's easier know then when in the last 8-10 weeks till an IM. This year I remind myself that being sick for a week now is way worse then a day off. I know Turby schedules days off but I feel you take them when you need them. I also try to look at some weeks as slight decreased TSS/recovery weeks.