Hi Tahoe! I'm late getting here but wanted to say welcome too... which area are you in? My brother used to have a cabin on the south shore by the grade (just down from Heavenly)... lovely area! If I lived there I'd ride with ya!!

Part of the butt pain MAY be due to wearing regular clothes... bike shorts are made with padding which you mentioned but equally important is the lack of SEAMS that rub, rub, rub!!! If you can get a pair of shorts do it! It really will help some!

My brother is a cycling success story... 3 yrs ago he weighed 458 lbs and was going to have gastric bypass... went thru the whole process, chickened out and got a bike... Feb of this year found him at 320lbs and completing his first century!!! SINCE then he has completed a century a month and on June 18 he was down 200lbs and completed his first DOUBLE century in 11 hours 59 minutes! We ride centuries together regularly.

I'm sure there are "bike snobs" out there that laughed when he rode by, but there are far more that went by with words of encouragement!!! Any snobs he can now keep up with easily and some he drops!

Do whatever climbing you can and increase it slowly every week! You WILL do a century in no time! Looking forward to hearing about your progress...