Ladies -

Thank you ALL for your replies! I really love the support and help I get from these forums - its really invaluable.

Let me see if I can add some more detail. I don't have any numbness or chafing, which is good. Its really more like a pressure thing. For a while there, I was riding in my biking shorts while using with undergarments...I was later told that wasn't the best idea. Taking that out of the equation, I'm still left with the same result of the pressure which later turns into a sharp pain. If I hop off of the bike and move around, I'll be ok. But usually after 7-9 miles, I have to take a break.

I was wondering if the seat was the issue. I know there are women's saddles out there, but being a newbie that has a $450 bike, I don't want to dump $150 into a saddle. That being said, if I'm going to do a 150 at the end of the summer, I'm sure it will be money well spent. Does anyone have any suggestions on brands/models? I'm 5'6", about 120lbs, so I don't need something with a lot of surface area.

As far as the fitting - I ran that same line past another cycling friend of mine and he agreed that wasn't right. "You don't need a full road biking work-up, but something more than what you got. Asking you the question, 'can your feet touch the ground' is NOT a professional fitting." And with that, he had me jump on my trainer-mounted bike and began to fiddle away. We squared up my knee to ball-of-foot measurement after fixing the leg extension angle. HA! In a full extension, my leg was still at about a 30-25º angle. Kind of sad. Afterwards we did a quick 13 mile trip. Things felt better, and I began to understand how shoes/clips would help with the efficiency of the process. So I suppose, in "short", I did get the basics of a proper fitting and we'll see how that works out.

Thank you again for all the insight and advice!