Morimorimori

Hi everybody.

Previously I already asked for some advices on the best strategy for my first 400 and 600kms brevets this year. I thought it would be useful to share some thoughts now, and also may be find a solution to another issue I bumped into while riding them.

To provide some context: I had zero experience with any kind of sports until I strated cycling 4 years ago. I rode my first brevet last year, and this year I've successfully completed Super Randonneur series (200, 300, 400 and 600kms in one year) in my country. I also tried to overcome 1200km distance last month, but it ended in a total failure..

If somebody recall my previous topics, I was mainly concerned about nutrition and sleeping question. The later is still a big problem for me - it seems I just can't recover fast enough to maintain sufficient physical fitness for more that a couple days without at least 5-6 hours of sleep per day. I just can't understand how people are able to sleep for a couple of hours, then continue riding with an average speed of 20-22kph; my leg muscles get incredibly stiff and sore, I lose strength dramatically and become overly-fatigued. That happens at about 500-600kms mark, and that's where I had to end my ride during the failed 1200km ultramarathon (though it was only a part of a problem, see below).

But the worst issue I encountered is - quite embarrassing - extreme soreness in my butt after about first 30-35 hours on the road. I had certain issues in that department before, even in much shorter training sessions when I rode for 2-3 hours without stopping and sitting in my saddle all that time. But back then it was more like a numbness of sort, and was "cured" easily by riding out of saddle for a couple of minutes per each 15-20 minutes of riding. That wasn't a big issue in training rides, as normally you stand in pedals often there. But when it came to really long distances (200+kms), I found out that it gets worse and worse with time. Usually I tried to be out of saddle on descends, to get my butt a so needed rest; I don't pedal in such cases, also giving a rest to my legs. But it's not always an option (depends on how much steep descends you have on this segment of route), and as my butt gets more and more sore and numb, I have to do it more and more often - so I end up pedaling out of saddle for a significant amount of time. This really tires my legs quickly, and probably is part of the reason I can't continue riding past 600kms.

I observed other riders on these events, and it seemed to me that almost all of them almost never ride out of saddle. They just sit in their saddles and spin their legs for hours after hours, without any issues like mine. So something has to be wrong with me.

I tried to find out the cause. I've tried both stiff and soft saddles, tried wearing cycling shorts with padding, and a regular running underwear. I even tried applying zinc cream and dexpanthenol cream to the affected areas, both preemptively and before going to sleep during the ride - that doesn't change much, about 600kms my butt is on fire, and I lose any motivation to continue riding while enduring this hell (worsened by the overall accumulated fatigue).

I'm really out of ideas here. Are there somebody who was dealing with something like this?