St. Ischial, Patron Saint of Bicylists

I've done lots of biking in my life:  one century (100 mi) ride and many many many rides in the 50-75 mile range.  And, I've done a lot of praying to St. Ischial.   St. Ischial determines if one has a good ride or not, how much pain or not, and how long one can tolerate being in the saddle (bicyclists do not use the term seat BTW).   There really isn't a Saint Ischial but the Ischial Tuberosities or sitting bones or sitz bones can make or break bike riding and intensive training.  I found this on the internet and it really illustrates how important the sitting bones are:

Lots of people think they are going to buy a comfortable saddle and purchase a wide, cushy one.  Those, in fact, are awful and are only good on beach bikes that you ride two blocks to buy a six pack of beer on your beach vacation.   The gel stuff they sell is worthless too.     There is no co-incidence that the racers and long distance bicyclists use skinny, hard saddles.  They are designed to take the pressure off the sitting bones so that weight is distributed down into the legs where the power of biking is derived.
Here is a news flash:  girls and boys are built differently!   Girls sitting bones are wider apart generally than boys, so males should use a slightly more narrow saddle than females.   One can buy saddles tailored for men and women.   I found a good web site that describes the choices about comfortable bike saddles: sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html if you are interested in knowing more.

Here is my road bike (I also have hybrid for around the neighborhood that has a cool basket and back bracket  and we used to have ancient mountain bikes but having six bikes in the garage was a bit much).    I love this bike and LOVE the saddle which is kind to my ischial tuberosities.

It is a Raleigh and is extremely lightweight with parts made of carbon composite.  I can easily lift it above my head---getting it up on this wall bracket high in the garage.
Here is my bike saddle, made for a girl and kind to my sitting bones.  The shape and cutout is important for body mechanics too.

I learned about St. Ischial the hard way and here is the story.   One of the first long road bike trips Joe and I took was part of the nationwide MS 150 bike tour, raising money for MS,  riding 75 miles out one day, spending the night and riding back 75 miles the next day back home.  We did quite a number of MS Bike Tours when we lived in Cleveland.  The group, numbering thousands, left the Berea fairgrounds and rode to Sandusky OH.   The young people got cleaned up and went to Cedar Point (which has a a roller coaster in the top 10 in the country that people come worldwide to ride), and then camped overnight in tents before riding the 75 miles back to Berea.   Us older folks were too tired to go to Cedar Point and stayed in a very comfy Hampton Inn before riding the 75 miles back to Berea.   On this first Tour,  I did not have the correct saddle for 150 miles.   By the time I reached the initial 25 mile mark,  I had blisters on the pressure points where the sitting bones and the saddle come together.   By mile 50 the blisters had broken.  By mile 75 in Sandusky I had bleeding raw skin.  Think hamburger meat.   And,  I was wearing bike shorts with a good chamois.     I can tell you that no hot bath or bandaids can solve this problem.   So,  I had to ride back the next day, 75 miles,  with gaping wounds constantly rubbing with the pressure of my saddle.   I swore to St. Ischial that this would never happen again.  After that I learned a lot about saddles and sitting bones.

Here is one more incredible biking story and a testament to how far a good saddle can take you.  We just saw our friend Terry in Florida.  We biked in Europe from Vienna to Budapest and in the US (along the entire C&O Canal to DC) with Kay and Terry and have done many 50 mile recreational rides with them.  Terry has lost his mind and is doing ultra-endurance biking.  He just finished a 12 hour ride, covering 230 miles, with a broken arm that wife Kay who is an Occupational Therapist made a special splint for him.   Terry is about 64 years old and this is quite an accomplishment!

I'll end here with the very good news that the Iron Girl in Lake Lanier only has a 19 mile bike component.
I have a good bike and St. Ischial is looking favorably down on me.