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Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not?

 
   
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lightheir

Aug 5, 12 19:08

Post #1 of 7 (473 views)
Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? Quote | Reply
I've been ramping up training a lot for my first HIM. In the past 7 weeks, I've ridden about 120-140 miles per week, on both a road bike and a TT bike.

While I've fortunately not developed any saddle sores (I used to get them regularly), I still have issues with skin soreness in the saddle area. In fact, at the tail end of this past weekend's 3hr40min ride, it was more of an issue than fatigue from the distance/speed. It's fine for training now since in tri, it's usually alternating B/R, but I'd imaging this skin soreness would be THE limiting factor for me if I were a pure cycling doing all riding. A double century sounds impossibly hard to me - not because of leg fatigue or even back discomfort, but from skin soreness down there.

I'm not new to to cycling (have been doing it in tri for past 4 years) but this has always been an issue for me. Wondering how your IM/HIM folks feel your saddle areas during peak training. Is it always an issue, or is it something I should be worrying about?


Philosoraptor

Aug 5, 12 19:27

Post #2 of 7 (451 views)
Re: Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? [lightheir] [In reply to] Quote | Reply
Using chamois cream? Do your knicks fit correctly? Does the chamois in your knicks suit you? Are you ALWAYS riding fresh/clean knicks? Is your saddle height and position correct?


lightheir

Aug 5, 12 19:32

Post #3 of 7 (442 views)
Re: Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? [Philosoraptor] [In reply to] Quote | Reply
Philosoraptor wrote:
Using chamois cream? Do your knicks fit correctly? Does the chamois in your knicks suit you? Are you ALWAYS riding fresh/clean knicks? Is your saddle height and position correct?

No cream.

Bibs fit great, and are quality. Assos F1Uno and Performance Ultra. Same skin soreness on both.

Fresh brand-new clean bibs/shorts. Didn't want to risk getting an infection down under.

Not sure my saddle height/position is optimal, but I've played with it from 'too low' to 'too high' and currently is somewhere comfortably between those two ranges, but in all cases, I get the saddle soreness. Not in the same spot, but diffusely.


Philosoraptor

Aug 5, 12 19:35

Post #4 of 7 (438 views)
Re: Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? [lightheir] [In reply to] Quote | Reply
lightheir wrote:
Philosoraptor wrote:
Using chamois cream? Do your knicks fit correctly? Does the chamois in your knicks suit you? Are you ALWAYS riding fresh/clean knicks? Is your saddle height and position correct?


No cream.

Fix that and your surface skin soreness will largely disappear.


lightheir

Aug 5, 12 20:15

Post #5 of 7 (399 views)
Re: Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? [Philosoraptor] [In reply to] Quote | Reply
Philosoraptor wrote:
lightheir wrote:
Philosoraptor wrote:
Using chamois cream? Do your knicks fit correctly? Does the chamois in your knicks suit you? Are you ALWAYS riding fresh/clean knicks? Is your saddle height and position correct?


No cream.


Fix that and your surface skin soreness will largely disappear.

I'll give that a try, but it's not just the superficial skin - it's the pressure on the sitbones that also gives a deeper ache. The deeper ache is more of the problem - after 2.5hrs, I'm constantly shifting up and out of the saddle to move the weight around (which is obviously not so great for holding aero.)


Philosoraptor

Aug 5, 12 20:20

Post #6 of 7 (390 views)
Re: Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? [lightheir] [In reply to] Quote | Reply
lightheir wrote:
Philosoraptor wrote:
lightheir wrote:
Philosoraptor wrote:
Using chamois cream? Do your knicks fit correctly? Does the chamois in your knicks suit you? Are you ALWAYS riding fresh/clean knicks? Is your saddle height and position correct?


No cream.


Fix that and your surface skin soreness will largely disappear.


I'll give that a try, but it's not just the superficial skin - it's the pressure on the sitbones that also gives a deeper ache. The deeper ache is more of the problem - after 2.5hrs, I'm constantly shifting up and out of the saddle to move the weight around (which is obviously not so great for holding aero.)

Cream may help that to some small degree because your skin will slide on the saddle instead of being stretched slightly.
You may need to experiment with different saddles and different saddle positions. Every 10 or 15 minutes I like to spend a few seconds kind of standing up in the saddle (whilst still in the aro position) just to take some pressure off that region and get some blood flow happening. Also I think you need to accept that there will be some degree of discomfort when spending that much time in an aero position, it just needs to be minimized.


Joosse

Aug 5, 12 21:24

Post #7 of 7 (349 views)
Re: Skin soreness on bike saddle area - normal or not? [Philosoraptor] [In reply to] Quote | Reply
Philosoraptor wrote:
Every 10 or 15 minutes I like to spend a few seconds kind of standing up in the saddle (whilst still in the aro position) just to take some pressure off that region and get some blood flow happening. Also I think you need to accept that there will be some degree of discomfort when spending that much time in an aero position, it just needs to be minimized.

About that perineal blood flow stoppage- it's a serious deal, don't take it lightly. Once I switched to an ISM Adamo Racing saddle, I stopped having blood flow issues there, full stop. I can now spend hours in aero without losing sensation. Don't tolerate numbness, it's completely unnecessary. You're totally right about the cream- it does make a huge difference.

To the OP:
It's possible that your saddle isn't a good fit for you. Any good shop will have a soft foam pad you can sit on to capture the divots made by your sitzbones- this makes it easy to measure how wide your sitzbones are. If the wide bit of your saddle is narrower than your sitzbones, it will put pressure on the inside corners of those sitzbones, which is going to be uncomfortable- the good news is that there are a lot of options out there. A saddle that fits you makes a whole lot of difference! Also, as you get down into aero, often you're not on your sitzbones and instead you could be rolling forward onto your perineum. If this is the case, look at saddles that have a groove at the nose (Cobb, ISM) that will let you put that weight on your ischium (the part of the pelvis on either side of your perineum), which will let you put weight on the saddle while leaning forward, but without occluding perineal blood flow.

That said, some amount of discomfort is to be expected if you haven't been logging a lot of hours in the saddle, and are just getting back into it. I've found that even good shorts and cream won't prevent the normal sort of soreness (from pressure on your sitzbones or on your ischium) that happens when you start riding a lot, but haven't been. This sort of soreness is to be expected and unfortunately, the prescription is good shorts, plenty of cream, and time in the saddle so you can HTFU. Time in the saddle (if it doesn't result in sores and swelling) will get your saddle bits used to being in the saddle.