every other week periodization?

Define "hard" and "easy".

In my mind, "periodization" is not a week-to-week sort of thing. A period lasts several weeks, even months. With that in mind, I prefer to have most weeks of the year be "easy" weeks, in that the effort level is kept at a lower overall level. This easier effort is coupled with higher volume ("Train lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard"). The hard stuff is in a specific period, and still represents a small percentage of total training.

But that's my thought on things. Your reality is your reality, and you have to make do with what you have available. Based on my reading of your statements, I think the harder stuff should wait until you are prepping for an actual race, say about 12-8 weeks out. The rest should be a focus on easy-medium efforts, with as much volume as you can do.

Because of age, I have adjusted my training to 1 hard - 1 moderate.  It works fine as I can increase milage, intensity and stay injury free.   It just takes longer to increase mileage than a 2-1 or 3-1 periodization.

My take on periodization is not so much a hard easy question but more of going from general prep to race specific prep.

For lack of better terms more like Base to build to peak to taper.
I would guess that you do not see any programs with a weeklly periodization because it takes a number of weeks to get the training effect of the period you are in. Periods can generally be any length of time but 6 week sseems to be a pretty common number from 1 phase to the next.

Consistent training will bring improvements.  If your easy weeks still consist of a decent amount of training, you're likely to see results with the every other week strategy.

That being said, if you can't get steady work in two weeks in a row, it sound like you're going too hard on your "on" weeks.  You should be able to sustain the training load for 5-6 weeks without needing a week "off".

I agree with what others have said re: periodization being a more long-term thing. Week to week, building fitness is all about managing your training load. There are various ways to increase your training load. One is by increasing your volume (more time & distance) and another is by increasing your intensity. You might consider, given your schedule, doing something like:

week 1 - higher volume training (mostly at an easy pace)
week 2 - lower volume, but with a couple of higher intensity sessions
week 3 - higher volume/easy pace
week 4 - recovery (or, if you can handle it, make this another high intensity week)

If I read this right, you can go 1 week "hard", 1 week "not as hard" due to your personal schedule.  In that case, do that.  It's unlikely you will want to follow a canned program that tries to do 3 weeks on/1 week off.  Most of those are written with only a vague sense of what periodization is anyway (and I am likely being generous there).  Consistently, but gradually, build your load (volume + intensity) as you go--this is for both youer "hard" and "not as hard" weeks.  You may never need a "recovery" week.  But don't be afriad to either take one or plateau at a given load for a few cycles if that's what it takes for your body to adapt.

I am curious as to what goes on every other week. Out of town? Or something else? If it is a matter of less time available, there ways ways to maintain a training load with less duration. If you are out of town with no access to a pool or a bike there are things you can do.

Training load is a product of frequency, duration and intensity. When one suffers the others can be tweaked to compensate.

If you don't mind sharing some of the specifics of what makes every other week so tricky, you might find some more valuable info on this thread.

Periodization is nothing more than setting a training program progressing from general training to specific training, anything else is just a personal interpretation of what periodization means or misunderstanding about this concept.

Of course, there are many ways one can set up a periodirized program based on the specific needs of athletes, their goals and the type of competition at hand. What matters is how your training load progresses in such a way it allows you to target specific adaptations to grow fitter while at the same time adapting within your limits avoiding among other things, injuries. The reason you add some unload periods (of lower training load) is to allow your body to recover before pushing it again.

When the unload period is such that the duration allows your body to recover almost 100% (like during taper), it also causes you to lose some of the hard earned adaptations. For that reason, in a periodirized program you rest 'enough' to allow the body to recover, without losing much fitness, so you can keep pushing and pushing. IOW, more often than not your body is just rested 'enough' to keep pushing it to adapt. Ideally the progression will move from general adaptations not particular to your main event but important nevertheless, and as it moves one and you get closer to the race it progresses to specific training to meet the particular demands of your main event.

With that in mind, you can set up the right planning to meet your needs. For instance, some of my athletes are on a schedule training with an increasing load for 14-17 days and then unload for 2-4 days. Others on a 21-25 day load increase with 4-7 unload. Yet, some others just don't have such a demanding load that they need much unload periods. A simple active recovery day every week and proper planning alternating intense/easy sessions every day is enough hence unload weeks are rare.

Summary:
1. set up your plan from general to specific
2. try progressing your load in a way you push your body to adapt within your own limits
3. set up unload periods as needed based on how much load you can handle and how much rest it requires your body to recover/adapt
4. make your training efficient; the more consistent it is the more you will improve

I hope that helps!

So far a lot of sound advice. There is no scientific basis behind 3 weeks on, 1 week of. That's a byproduct of tradition. One explanation I've heard for it's origins were that in European countries where kids would be sent off to train for athletics for 3 weeks, then be sent home for a week to see their family...3 weeks hard, 1 week recovery. It's one recipe that allows for a build in training load and a short recovery.

However, building training load more slowly by managing total training stress (managing volume, frequency, intensity) can allow many if not most people to have continously building training loads with out requiring "off" weeks. There are mathematical ways to model and track this type of training load, notably WKO power training software, which includes some charting elemets to track your "CTL" (chronic training load).

Other power training sofware have similar methods (Golden cheeta, raceday) which is well suited to cycling due to the power files generated making the mathematical modeling fairly straightforward. Raceday is triathlon specific and will allow you to track trianing load for all 3 sports (as long as you input the training).

But you can do all of this with pencil & paper or your regular training log as long as you have an idea of what you are looking for.

With your schedule of 1 on/1 off, which is mandated by work, I wouldn't be too eager to make yoru weeks "hard" & "easy", but rather find a sustainable level of training that you can do which allows you to progressively build over the long run...over a period of 3-9 months for example.

i'd offer more specific suggestions, but there are an infinate number of ways that you can manage this sort of a plan depending on number of factors.