Quote Originally Posted by cherinyc
Here's the rundown: Gloves were wedging into my finger webs which stung. My fingers kept getting numb.
My lower back was KILLING me. Stopped and stretched a couple of times, and I kept trying to flatten my back out, but.....it kept hurting. I think this may be a fit issue, but I am not sure.
My pubic area was really....hot? I think?...I don't even know what to call the feeling - my crotch was just hurting me. Not chafing - just pain. The saddle seems to press on my labia (i think that's what it's called).
Lastly, my big toes were hurting me. The shoes aren't too small, maybe my foot was sliding?
I'm relatively new to cycling (started last year) and I have felt ALL of your woes in the process of extending my rides. I'm now up to a comfy 75 miles, so I can safely say that I think I've figured out most of these thing for myself (may be different for others). This is what I've learned:

1) hands - move them around. Don't stay on the hoods all the time, use the bar and the drops. I also periodically just shake out my hands to keep the blood moving around.

2) lower back - some of this just comes with more saddle time and increased distances and some of it may be due to fit. In my case, my bike was too big for me and the handlebars were too wide, so I had all kinds of pains. Even on a well fit bike, I found that my first ride at a longer distance included some lower back pain (increasing by too much to fast) but that it subsided over time. Increase slowly and get in that saddle time and it'll help (assuming that the bike fits).

3) Hot pubes... yeah, been there! Three things helped me on this. First, get some chamois cream. This helps immedately. In fact, I didn't use any last night for my commute (figured it was short compared to most of my rides) and I felt the heat! Wore the cream this morning for the same ride and it was great. Secondly, make sure you've got the best saddle for your anatomy (and this is party a trial and error process). Thirdly, and I still have to work on this, it helps to periodically check that you are sitting on your sit bones and not your girly-bits. For me, that means rotating my pelvis so that i'm off the front of my saddle. Hard to do if the bike/saddle isn't fit well. A slight tilt down of the saddle nose might help, but that could also cost you on hand/wrist/elbow/shoulder pain if it causes you to be sliding forward and supporting too much weight on the hands, so be wary of this option.

4) Toes - it does sound like your shoes might be too big and your toes slid to the front. Perhaps try tightening them a bit for the next ride to see if that helps?

Good luck with it all...and trust me...it can be comfortable to ride long distances...it just takes time and tweaking!