Saddle sore - do you continue to ride

Triathlon Forum
1

I ride about 1,000 miles per month on average. I almost never get saddle sores but for some reason i just got one i think from too much time on the trainer not changing positions and sweating too much.

My question is when you have a saddle sore what do you do?

  1. stop riding until it goes away
  2. ride less and shift positions more
  3. continue to ride and just hope it goes away eventually
  4. ?

What is the consensus or best advice?

Thanks

2

I had one starting on the left cheek after several big weeks of preparation for my 260 mile challenge ride yesterday. For the first time I put one of those blister bandages on it right after the morning shower and then followed that with a heavy application of Gold Bond Friction defense stick. I was in the saddle yesterday over 12 hours (only made 210) and my ass never felt better in all my years of riding. It was a little uncomfortable removing it as I don’t shave but If I get another one that will be my go to solution!

3

For me, ignoring it made it worse because it kept irritating it, but the irritation eventually platueued. But eventually it got so bad that I had to go on antibiotics to get rid of it.

I tried cleaning it, pricking it, basically everything I found on every forum on the internet and could not get rid of it. I would take a couple days off (2-3) and try treating it.

4

I was a crew chief at RAAM where the riders are on the bike 20+ hours/day and saddles sores are almost inevitable.

Of course, if you can take a few days off and remove the friction, that is recommended. However, during RAAM there are no days off, so we treated with lidocaine cream ( preparation H has as much as prescription, so that is a good hack) and Brave Soldier triple antibiotic. Key to effectiveness was having someone else apply it - unless you are unusually flexible it is difficult to ensure proper and thorough application with self application.

I forget exactly what chamois cream we used, because that is also very key, but it was mass market. We tried some Assos, Rapha and I think we settled on Brave Soldier as most effective

5

I ride about 2000 miles per month. I almost never ride WITHOUT a saddle sore of some type. I did a 180 mile ride last weekend and I believe at that time had about 5 saddle sores…to start the ride. TMI? Maybe. I’ve never found the perfect seat or perfect chamois cream…but I’ve also never had one get infected. That could certainly change my outlook.

6

Best chamois cream that I have used is Queen Helene recommended to me by a doctor/cyclist that I saw years ago about a saddle sore. (Amazon) It seems to continue to work much later into a ride than a lot of the cycling branded creams and it is cheap. I’ve had a number of sores and trained through a pressure sore a couple weeks ago. After about 3 or 4 days the swelling went down on its own with no treatment or ointments. I like the idea of the Preparation H noted above. I may use that for future treatment.

7

How many miles do you average a day? Or does this come from multiple big rides a week?

Holy wow

8

~3 hours is a normal day during the week. Usually one bigger ride. Mostly a ~rest day Sunday.

I’ve average +500 / week since the first weekend of March. Going to have well over 5K in 10 weeks. :slight_smile: #ridebikes