Max Seated Power

Might be a dumb question but how is 1156 watts for a seated max output? I am doing my initial tests with my powertap and have been training for about 3 weeks seriously. I am assuming people are doing their max tests while standing and sprinting but I can't do that on my cycleops for fear of tipping over. I was able to get 1156 seated and wanted to see if that is pretty good. My 20 min test was 207 avg and I weight 192lbs...I obviously have a way to go to be able to sit in on a crit.
30 yr old beach volleyball player that started to have knee issues and decided to take cycling back up seriously as I used to love watching the Longmont Crit in Colorado was is my home town.

Thanks guys.

Max power may look good on a piece of paper but it doesn't mean much; even more so because it depends on exactly how each power meter measures. For example, the PT averages over each 1.26-second interval so you can occasionally get artifactually high max.

Focus on your FTP.

I'm guessing that all you're looking for is a good ego stroking. I'll do it for you, it ain't bad. Like you said though, you have a ways to go. For a 192lb rider, it isn't anything impressive, but a good place to start.

So what margin of error could you expect from a 5-second average?

I'm kinda new to this power business, (just got my PT a week ago) but that wattage seems high for being seated and on a trainer. The avg for the 20 minutes was rather low though.

With a PT? Purely from the standpoint of fixed interval sampling, repeated 5-second maxes would probably fall within a 5% band, possibly less.

Thanks for the comments. Don't need any ego stroking, although after a 207avg 20min number something to make me feel better about my performance couldn't hurt. Should be interesting to see what happens since I just started riding again and that was my first 20 min test I have ever done. I am interested to see how fast my performance improves as I am a pretty good athlete, 30+ vertical and used to hang clean 250lbs w/ a body weight of 184. I am thinking maybe a decent crit rider after a lot of training.

Do you live near a track?

Yeah, live in Denver so Colorado Springs is about 45 minutes away.

Based on the numbers and the athletic background you've posted here, I'd look into getting a cheap track bike, and checking out the racing schedule down in the Springs.

I'm not saying don't train for and race on the road too, I'm just saying that on the surface you would appear to be more gifted in the explosive, short-term power side of the sport.

Try it all and see what you like!

You're fortunate, CO Springs is one of the better, more active tracks in the US. I'm 4.5 hours from the nearest track!

Yeah, you need to try it out on the road, standing. My best 5s power (1491W) didn't contain my best max power (1622W). I have seen very consistent results in testing though, especially with 5s power, using a PowerTap. I've never tried a seated max.

I hear you on the Long's Peak Crit in Longmont -- I've done that one a few times (live in Austin now though). That was a very fun race though. Man, makes me drool thinking about it.

Anyway, I'm new to power training (3wks), and this is my first post here (I usually hang out at bikeforums). In testing, I've found that my relative performance falls off after the 5s number (303W FTP) -- I'm a sprinter (80.9kg), and I've started doing more longer intervals to manage that condition.

I wish I'd have gone down to the OTC velodrome back in the day though. I'm thinking about heading to Houston or Dallas velodromes now (fairly strong 1m power at 691W -- and I'll be a Cat 5 on the track I guess).

Needless to say, on the road I do well in bunch sprints, have a tough time sticking it out in a break, but no trouble catching a young break. Long climbs: forget it. Ugh.

So, "hi everyone," I'll mostly be lurking and learning here.

Thats what I was thinking. If you background included hanging cleans , you might be more fast twitch oriented. That FT training will make you fit, but your peak power for sprinting wil not improve much unless you train it. Look more towards 30 sec power for a good measure of your sprint capacity. 5 secs is good too. FWIW my peak seated is 1565 @180 lbs .....about 1000 for 30 secs. My 20 min power is 250 on my best day.(usually 220-230)

30+ vertical jump?

What units?

Inches. I am 6'1" and could jump straight up with no approach and hang on a basketball rim. With the issues I have been having with my knee I have not been doing any training that puts too much pressure on my femur. I ended up stress fracturing the head of my femur as a result of olympic lifting, plyometrics, beach volleyball. The result was overtraining as I get fanatical about performing at my best. Less impact with cycling should let it continue to heal, plus I have always wanted to try racing. Need some work though. Oh, BTW I am able to spin up to 180rpm as a max cadence so far when doing my spin up training.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_%28cycling%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirin

Get thee to a velodrome! You may need to rehab your femur before you get into intensive sprint training, which may include weights and hard standing starts, but under guidance of a good coach and physical therapist/medical professional I'm sure that's manageable. It sounds like you could achieve a great deal on the track, or be a mediocre road rider. What should you do? Depends what you love.