I just have to comment on the going slower to get faster thing. (This is just off the top of my head, so please excuse any errors.) Apparently, people find this counterintuitive. From an exercise physiology perspective, it makes total sense. I discovered this years ago after experimenting unsuccessfully with different versions of high intensity training. The reason it works, and works so well, is because training at an aerobic intensity trains the aerobic system. That's worth repeating, because that's the bottom line. Training the aerobic system results in a more effective aerobic system. The aerobic system burns fat for energy. And there is a lot more energy in fat than there is in carbohydrate. And the supply of fat is relatively unlimited. There are a couple of concepts worth noting.
First, no matter what the intensity, some of the energy is coming from carbohydrate. That is not optional. It's a sliding scale, not simply on or off. The limited carbohydrate stored in the muscle (glucose in the form of glycogen) is preferred, and therefore gets used up first. Not optional. When that's gone, power output will drop. So, conservation of glycogen is key to maintaining steady power output and fat-based power and feeling fresh. This means staying as aerobic as possible while competing, which is helped by building a large glycogen store through anaerobic (yes an-aerobic) training. And by having a large aerobic capacity during competition by building a large aerobic system beforehand through training the aerobic system. The key concept is that you will still use up precious glycogen even when glycogen usage is minimized and when getting energy from fat, so build a big store of glycogen, build a huge aerobic system, and conserve glycogen during competition.
Second, what is an aerobic system? The aerobic system is composed of many components that work together to cleanly burn fat and carbohydrate. This involves getting oxygen and fat together so adenosine triphosphate can be changed to adenosine diphosphate and energy. It includes the slipperyness of blood, the number of red blood cells, the ability to get blood to the muscle, capillarity, the ability to get oxygen to the mitochondria, the number and size of mitochondria, the amount of enzymes in the mitochondria, and other factors. The aerobic system produces a great amount of energy cleanly. The anaerobic production of energy produces waste products and uses up glycogen stores quickly. You don't need to understand the details to make it work for you. The key concept, which you need to know, is that training the aerobic system builds the aerobic system. Pretty straight forward.
