I’ve developed boil/cyst type of saddle sore—I’ve done some research on here and am treating it as best I can–
My question is for a few days I’m going to stay off my bike and let it heal–is the recumbent bike like at a gym a decent alternative? It doesn’t hurt at all to ride this and doesn’t seem to irritate it either. 10 weeks out to Chattanooga and I don’t want to miss too much riding as my endurance will be a limiter anyway. I may even ride this weeks 5 hour ride on the recumbent if I have to. Thoughts?
IME: You should not ride, you should stay off the bike until it’s healed. Sometimes it takes antibiotics, and not just time off, for it to heal.
My doctor (also a cyclist) prescribed Doxcycline Hyclate, the topical Mupirocin to kill bacteria and Lidicaine topical so that I could apply an hour before training to numb the area to discomfort while it was healing. I would do a doctor’s visit and see if antibiotics would help clear it up faster. I am not sure about continuing training. Most doctors would probably say no. Mine was more like “harden up buttercup” put some lidicaine on it and keep rolling. Fortunately it did heal rather fast once the medication started working. YMMV
The recumbent at the gym shouldn’t bother you at all since you won’t have that seat-to-sore friction. You can come up with a really good interval workout to do on those things. Will use slightly different muscles but you won’t lose fitness.
ETA - good luck!