My Butt Hurts.

I can't believe I just typed that in as the title of this post. Oh well, moving on ...

I took yesterday as a rest day since my normal rest day (Sunday) was spent racing, but when I woke up this morning, I was ITCHING to get out and do something physical (other than drain all the water off the pool cover from that crazy storm last night). My legs were still a little achey, so I turned to my family's collection of bikes.

My Banana Seat Beauty, a 4th birthday present.

First, a little background. Crap, this could get lengthy ... and I promise to attempt to make this sound as not-whiney as possible ... I have had 1 brand new bike in my entire life (not counting my rockin' red tricycle). Every other bike that I have owned has come out of someone's trash. Yep, you read that right. Granted, that's only 3 out of 4 bikes, but that's beside the point. My dad drove the delivery trucks before he moved up to semis and he'd always see bikes sitting out with the trash. Most were still in pretty good condition and just needed a little TLC and elbow grease to be awesome again. My first bike was this great (light) Barbie pink banana-seat stunner. I LOVED that thing. Oh, I could tell you so many stories about my adventures on that baby. When I outgrew that, I got my only brand spankin' new bike ... my gorgeous purple, sparkly "mountain bike". Around the time I outgrew that, dad found a nice road bike on the side of the road that really only needed a good cleaning and some new tires. I worked on that bike for a couple years, but it was just never a comfortable bike. And I felt like I could never get the rust under control no matter how much time I spent on it. So, when dad and I found another road bike in the garbage in excellent condition - and with BRAND NEW tires - I was estatic. We even went up and knocked on the door to make sure the guy was throwing it away since it was in such great shape. I never heard WHY he was getting rid of it, but he gave us his blessing to take it. I was SO excited. It still has it's issues (need to tape up the grips, needs a bottle holder, and some other small things), but I love it. The reason I don't ride it more often is that the tires always seem to go flat. We've put new tubes in multiple times, and it always happens within a couple weeks. I've tried checking the inside of the metal frame to see if it's cutting the tubes, but I've never found anything. My next step is to take it either to Cycle Werks (which is literally less than a mile from my house now that they've opened a shop in Whitehouse) or up to Wersell's in Toledo (literally less than a mile from the University campus). I also want to get some different pedals and quick-change wheels and seat stand (and a different seat, which I'll get to). So, I've been riding other bikes of ours until it's taken care of.

My road bike. I added the rack a couple years ago when I was carrying my backpack AND
laptop case back and forth to campus.

My brother, on the other hand, has always had brand new bikes. I never resented him this, I loved my bikes. He's even ridden my bikes (the ones I've fixed up) on occasion when his mountain bike would just be too clunky and heavy. Oh, and he has multiple bikes right now. So, when I decided to start trail riding again last summer, the only mountain bike we had at the house close to my size was his newer (and nicer) Huffy. He had no problem with me buying a little cyclocomputer and installing it on the bike and using it whenever I wanted to go out (he had his older bike at his apartment for getting around campus).

So, today when I decided to go out, bro's white Huffy was the choice. It was the first time off the ceiling hooks for this season, so I cleaned it good and checked the tire pressure and everything. Seriously, I take better care of bro's bikes than he does. Anyway, I wanted to get off the pavement. I knew Oak Opening's "multi-purpose" trail would be nice and wet and muddy after last night's storm, so I headed up that direction. Oh, MAN was it fun! I was probably grinning like a crazy person the entire time. The same parts of the trail that I shy away from as a runner (basically any place that floods ... the whole west and north sides of the loop), I blasted through on the bike and enjoyed every second of it. My poor shoes and socks were soaked from one particular area by the dunes where the water across the trail was deep enough to come up over the pedals and I had a lovely mud stripe going up my back. I kind of giggled every time I saw someone heading the other direction because I KNEW they'd turn around and come back the way they came once they saw how deep some of the water was. I was almost sad when the trail changed back to pavement and I got back on the road to head home.

My attempt at photographing my mud-speckle-stripe. Would have been better if I left my
muddy shirt on to ... and hadn't been such a weird angle. lol

After I got home, I texted my brother "Good news. Your bike loves mud and pedal-deep water. Haha." His reaction surprised the crap out of me. He basically spazzed that I had taken the "good" bike out when his older mountain bike (which has no shocks) was hanging from the ceiling of the back garage (more like a small barn). I fired back pretty quick, annoyed at his reaction. First of all, our back garage is somewhere around 2 stories tall and all the bikes we don't ride on a regular basis are hanging from hooks on the support beams. And it usually takes AT LEAST 2 of us and a basic winch system out of rope to move them. How was I, alone, supposed to get out one of dad's big ladders, position it right in the middle of a shelf unit currently storing motorcycle parts (which are actually for bro's harley. Dad is paying to rebuild the darn thing after bro crashed it last summer. And dad paid for it originally too.), set up the rope winch system, lift the bike OFF the hooks, and lower it down safely? Not possible. I sent him a text saying "#1, you know damn well I'd kill myself trying to get your old bike down alone. #2, the Huffy already had my cyclocomputer on it from last year. #3, It's a mountain bike. It's meant for that crap. #4, When was the last time YOU rode it anyway? #5, Kiss my backside. It's already cleaned and put back away, which is more than you ever do for ANY of your bikes." I think I got to him because about 10 minutes later, I got an "ok" text. *rolls eyes*

The Huffy in question ... BEFORE the mud bath.

I hate that my family (myself included) snap at each other so easily, but it's just how we communicate. I seem to be the only one who takes those interactions to heart and over-analyzes them. I can be a completely different person with the rest of the world, but I turn into "that person" when it comes to dealing with my family. We do love each other, we're just loud about it.

And I finally come to the title of this post. As much as I love riding, IT HURTS MY BUTT! I've been told my entire life that even though I have plenty of "padding" in my posterior, I have a seriously boney butt. On every bike I've ridden, I have 1 or 2 of those nice gel or foam cushions, and those help some, but it STILL kills! Dad jokes about buying one of those wide seats you see on the cruiser bikes, but I don't want to believe that is my only option. Can you imagine one of those things on a road or mountain bike?

So, someone help me out here .... any ideas? Seats or cushions you'd recommend? Anything?

- - -
Update: My butt may have been sore yesterday, but I swear it feels bruised today. I actually YELPED when I sat in the car this morning (first time I had sat down today). A cohort has already made a joke about buying a hemorrhoid pillow for my desk chair in the lab. NOT amused. >:-(