recurring UTIs

UTIs have been an issue for me, once the weather warmed up in the spring and through the summer, prior to my accident. Still an issue, now and then, during my recovery because I walk, everyday, and do a workout on the indoor trainer.

I know this solution I've found will cause some to gasp in disbelief, but one thing I found that has helped is to ... stop wearing padded bike shorts. For me, that hot and sweaty environment caused by the padding and no ventilation of the typical bike short was my undoing. Really hard to fight off an infection with that working against me. My solution has been to use well-ventilated, light and loose polyester exercise shorts I found at Walnut-mart. I know wearing bike shorts is a scared cow among the faithful, but I absolutely don't miss padded bike shorts tor need them. Too constricting, anyway. Maybe I've just spent so many hours on a bike that I am now immune to being sore from riding, kind of like a cowgirl who has spent a lifetime in a saddle. Have also been riding long enough to know what is and what is not proper seat adjustment, so I can avoid chaffing and sores. No, I'm not recommending anyone ditch their expensive bike shorts, but it's now one less thing I need for my bicycling and I don't miss them at all. My padded bike shorts are now in mothballs, right along with all my fancy SPD bike shoes. Yeah, old rebel without a clue, me. :)

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Originally Posted by north woods gal

I know this solution I've found will cause some to gasp in disbelief, but one thing I found that has helped is to ... stop wearing padded bike shorts. For me, that hot and sweaty environment caused by the padding and no ventilation of the typical bike short was my undoing. Really hard to fight off an infection with that working against me. My solution has been to use well-ventilated, light and loose polyester exercise shorts I found at Walnut-mart.

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I like tri-shorts for rides 200k and under, but eventually I think I want a little padding. I'll have to try a 300k that isn't an important one in tri-shorts some time. It hasn't bothered me (at least not to this extent) before.

Anyone have any recommendations for shorts that have more than just fleece but breathe? (I'll look into the Castellis, although IIRC their XL is a little too snug on me. (Terry XL fits me great.) I've also had leather saddles recommended, but I really try to avoid leather. (Though I might be playing saddle roulette anyway; the underside edge of my saddle was annoying me as well, although that might have been because I was sitting differently to keep pressure on my bladder down.)

I would also consider the saddle/shorts combo. You have to get both right. I had constant pressure, an increase in UTIs, and an actual lesion in the soft tissue from a saddle that I thought was great, but wasn't. When my doctor was puzzled about the lesion (she said "it's not cancer, but I can't figure it out"), I knew immediately it was cycling related. When I got the saddle I have now, I was skeptical, as the weight was much more on my sit bones, which took about 2 weeks to get used to. The LBS owner/fitter told me my butt would hurt, but eventually I would get used to it, and he was right. I have had no burning, pressure, or any other discomfort since. It took me 8-9 years after the lesion to make this change, so I was used to having issues all of the time.
I recently got a pair of Terry Chill shorts. They have the "light Flex Air" chamois. I do not like too much padding, and while I wouldn't use this for a longer ride (40-50 miles+), it's more than a tri chamois, so you might find this to be happy medium. They are expensive, though.

Couldn't agree on the saddle part of the equation. I switched to the wide old lady comfort style saddles for my snow biking, this last winter, because it is essential to get planted on the seat, instantly and perfectly, as you hit the pedals to get rolling in the snow. That's when I discovered just how wide my sit bones really are and how all my life I had been riding saddles too narrow. I'm a big gal, anyway and now I'm also an old gal, if that has anything to do with it, but if you're saddle is not properly supporting your sit bones, you are setting yourself up for all kinds of issues, not just UTIs. Then, too, if your saddle is too narrow for your sit bones, you are not getting the max leverage out of your legs when you pedal. Only problem I have, now is finding a wide enough saddle in a performance saddle, instead of the big clunky comfort saddles. Wide AND light is a tough combination to find.

Yeah, the thing is, I've ridden this distance (400k) in these shorts with this saddle several times and been fine; on this ride I felt pretty bad fairly early on -- like less than 100k in, when that's a distance I do in this setup all the time. Part of the issue is it's not an every-time thing, so I'm not sure what all the factors in play are. Like, this is a three times in 5 years of randonneuring thing, but this time it derailed a ride I was really excited about.

Saddle is definitely under my sit bones, and is generally really comfortable, and my shorts all have the Terry flex air or fleet air, which I think is plenty or even more padding than I need -- my tri-shorts are literally just some fleece, and that's OK for 125 miles, but not more. I'm thinking maybe I should try the Desoto 400 mile shorts, which are a 4mm pad, but they're $160, which is a lot for an experiment.