Well technically nobody did such a thing 
meter is the standard and kilometre is just using the unit prefixes defined by the standard.
I am suggesting that the metric system is not “the standard.” Standards for one tribe or country are not the same as for others.
I am joking in the sense that I wish the world would standardize to the metric system. I remember when the US tried to switch. It was painful and obviously did not work, I am mostly converted personally.
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Well the “I” in SI stands for International, so that would make your “tribe” a minority?
To give some input to this discussion apart from unit bashing 
:
I currently only do rides around one hour and while I do bring a bottle of water, at temperatures between -5 and +15 degrees Celsius (SCNR - see below) I usually don’t even touch that bottle.
For my last 70.3 I ate Clif BLOKS during the ride, along with water in one bottle and some provided sports drink in the other bottle. On the run just water and one of the provided gels every 5ish km (I know)
Celsius - one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale.
Hmmm 70.3 
sounds like your tribe has minority “standards” as well.
Also, I don’t drink much water on short efforts myself. I like Tim Nokes water logged book. He essentially created and then disputed the need for excessive liquids in sports.
Yes, back on track Alex 
I have problems drinking. I’ve set my Garmin to remind me to drink, but to be honest, like most things I think it is a personal thing, some need more hydration than others and that we should learn to “listen” to our own bodies more. Hence my original question about fuelling. I think we get indoctrinated by all the verbage we read, whether we think so or not.
Listening to a friend on a ride on Sunday, he was saying he doesn’t like Palitinosa because it has little taste and wants something sweet, whilst I’m the opposite I don’t like sweet. Yet another friend I was discussing this topic with also made a good point which I admittedly hadn’t understood 100%. And that was that energy drinks and bars, as far as he was concerned, don’t give an immediate energy buzz but just enable him to carry on for longer without too much excess fatigue.
Good to be able to discuss cycling subjects.
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Interesting. Norway is a beautiful country, but cycling in the winter months might be even more of a challenge that here in Belgium The most important part I believe is that you feel it didn’t work. One person is not the other. What does trigger me however is you say “my FTP dropped”. I did some research into FTP as well recently and found out is a bit of a funny story as well. Defining a power measure that you can keep up for an hour. So far so good. The big question is : how do you measure it, if you don’t have access to a lab environment with lactate tests ? A 20 min effort for “us mere mortals” is not really a solid measurement. But a ramp test, like I wrote in another topic, is even worse. It just doesn’t make sense. I understand “it’s the best we have”, but it’s like using the temperature of your car engine to measure you speed. After I did base training for a couple of months, I started adding anaerobe efforts. omg, my FTP in a ramp test “sky rocketed” in 4 weeks time. Which is obviously total rubbish. My anaerobe capacity increased extremely fast (to my pleasure). I scheduled for a lab test in a couple of weeks time. I wonder what they will come up with as an FTP number
FTP is a highly overestimated metric when it comes to defining training zones. Physiological metrics like AeT and AT are much more important. But probably more difficult to measure without a lactate meter.
You do need an FTP in the ‘ballpark’ to judge training load. But if you are within +/- 3-5% you will be perfectly OK for that.
Good (enough) estimates can be made with the 20min test, a ramp test or simply take the result of an app like Xert ‘What’s my FTP’ (a free Garmin IQ field). If you don’t have a Garmin IQ field compatible device, you can use the eFTP calculation from Intervals.icu.
It is normal that after a disciplined Low Intensity aerobic base period, your FTP somewhat dropped. And it is equally normal that after such a period, it will raise very quickly. That’s because you’ve put in the work to enlarge your aerobic base. You will find that you recover much quicker from HIT work after such an aerobic base, and recovering quicker means that you will adapt faster to higher intensity work.
Typically, LIT aerobic work will raise your floor and HIT work will raise your ceiling. Elite athletes have values for AeT and AT that are surprisingly close to each other, and it’s not because they have a low ceiling ;-). It’s because they have a high floor!
Anaerobic power is the fastest to develop. In a couple of weeks you can have significant increase. The muscles adapt much quicker then your cardiovascular fitness. That’s why a good training plan always starts with the development of an aerobic base and then evolves to short high effort workouts, when you’re getting closer to your peak period.
My advice when you go for your lab test: Make sure you get the values for AeT and AT, they are much more important then the FTP value.
People tend to give a lot of attention to an ‘exact’ FTP value, thinking that this will allow to pinpoint their zones much more precise. And then they follow a plan where they always target the high border of the prescribed zone because they are convinced that working at top of the zone is better. Think again, FTP is not a fixed value, it changes daily because your work/rest balance changes daily. The result is that they are almost constantly training in a zone above what they should be doing according to plan. And then…the plan doesn’t work ;-), or they become overly fatigued, resulting in a downward trend.
Especially for the lower zones, take the habit of wandering around in that zone, from top to bottom. When it comes to defining intensity for HIT efforts, don’t use % FTP. In stead, check your PDC curve and use a % of your best result for a lap time to define intensity for the HIT intervals. Judging progress becomes very easy, because when you are able to finish the workout with that intensity, it is time to add intensity or even better, first add a couple more intervals to develop more capacity at that intensity.
So you see, FTP is absolutely not the holy grain to define training. It has its value to follow up on Training Load and also to compare yourself to others or to yourself last year, or the year before.
Pff, quick answer became a long post. Hope it’s useful to some.
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Amen to that. 100% agree. It’s probably the shortest way to summarize this rather complex topic
Wow, that is really good. I guess I could add to that and say studies have shown that on a very minimal number of hours a week HIIT can raise the floor faster than strictly below AeT but that number might be < 3 hours a week in total for example. Overall for any “normal” cyclists I fully agree with what you stated here. Need chatGPT to summarize it I am trying currently trying one or two 10 minute workouts a week of 4 second max effort sprints which in intensity time is more like 1 minute a week. I am doing before an after ramp test for 6 to 8 weeks and a occasional other random fun rides.
I also know Andrea is 65kg (and 188cm tall) and got his FTP up to 230 on 1 hour a week (including warmup, cool down and rests) of HIIT including some blood flow restriction, to get himself read for a 1-week bike trip with friends.
Yes, I’m with you on this. I’ve been using my Lactic thresholds as a guide but keeping an eye on the FTP just to see what was happening.
Now, I’m just all over the place riding with friends in Spain, Garmin telling me the ride was “unproductive” one day then “over reaching” the next. Once I get back to Norway in 10 days, I’ll start focusing again.
Enjoy Spain and after that Norway, whatever Garmin tell you 
Am doing. Just done a solo ride head wind all the way even though Garmin told me not to 
Hard going today though.
Not that you need to watch this because you understand it perfectly from my perspective. I said almost the exact same thing in this video.
“Stop Doing Hard Cycling Intervals at the Wrong Intensities”
FTP is over valued.
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I’m totally convinced about this Alex. Todays ride was more of a test to see where I am and do a route I love, in addition to some videoing of it. I use my LT1 and LT2 rather than power, but to be honest I was in Z3 most of the time, partially do to terrain and wind. But its given me some answers.
Yes I was not trying to convince anyone (you) just thought it was funny how close his message was to mine
I think when outdoors there are times to just enjoy yourself or in a headwind just suffer less. Below AeT can be very hard at times. As long as you just keep a practicing Z2, it gets reasonably fast.
Here’s an hour video of my ride yesterday to bore you Alex.
Basically I was just experimenting with a new GoPro planning to use the video when I have to come back inside on the turbo again:-
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at 5:45… you turned off your Garmin? and at 11:24 it turned itself back on? How does that work… Doesn’t seems like you touched it at all.
You were stationary at this point and the on-screen overlaid said you were at 30kmh :-p
Looks v sunny… what’s the temp like?
Garmin is on “battery saver” mode. Can be irritating at times because you can’t adjust screen brightness in that mode so can be difficult to see at times. But on the positive side does stop you from staring at the screen too much. Temps are around 10 degrees at night and up between 20-30 during the day. Sometimes a cool wind, like yesterday. Nice riding conditions though.
20-30c is NICE temperature to ride, although is sunny.
I’m usually seeing up to 30++C depending on the time… by 10am it would be close to 32+. Have seen my garmin record up to 40+ C
Didn’t know Garmin has a “batery saver” mode. Well, i don’t have an EDGE unit but couple hours ride should be good to turn it off?