That tight feeling is good! It's one of my fav parts of cycling (and working out in general). Nothing beats the feeling of muscles after a long hard day of work. The tightness is just your muscles tell you they worked. It's what I call 'good pain'.

Very different from the bad pain that signifies injury, to me.

And on the topic of muscles... a girl can't have too many! (Well, okay, some of those extreme heavyweight bodybuilders do get a bit scary...) but I looove my muscles, even though they don't make me the slimmest girl out there. I like the fact that when I lift at the gym I can see the grunty-men peer at me in the mirror and check out my guns. I also like the fact that I don't have to ask the people at the grocery store to carry my heavy bags, and the fact that I and my 5'5" boyfriend can lift and carry a 52" tv up 2 floors without dying, and that I can shovel a whole big driveway in about 25 minutes without feeling like I've done any physical activity.

Muscles are the poop.