Going Commando and Popcorn

I have discussed, ad nauseum, about my butt issues on the bicycle. I switched back to an old seat; I used chamois butter by the bucketful; I tried every brand of shorts on the market, but nothing seemed to help.

Jerry and I carted the tandem over to Mike's Bikes the other night and had Jessica, one of the salespeople and a cycling enthusiast, look at my fit. We had had a fit, but the last time we saw Jessica, she told us to bring the bike in and she'd have a look.

Jessica didn't see anything wrong with the fit, but she did have some ideas. First, she suggested I do a short ride with padless shorts. Second, she asked me to put a pad in the shoe of my shorter leg.

So far, I have acted on her first suggestion. Yesterday, Jerry and I did a short 22-mile ride, part of the AIDS Lifecycle kickoff. Even though I'm not riding ALC 10, I'll still do the training rides on the tandem with Jerry. He works even harder on the tandem than on his half-bike, so he figures the training will be really great, and I get to ride.

First thing I noticed was, hmm, yeah, I feel the seat, but it doesn't really feel that bad. At red lights and when we coasted I stood as much as possible, and by the end of the ride I was a little sore, but no real irritation on those spots that get so irritated.

What I'll do on longer rides is still a question. I might try taking the seams out of the pads because maybe it's the thread doing the irritation. I may look for wider or narrower pads. I may try longer rides in padless shorts and see how I do. In any case it was surely wonderful to ride and not want to cry because of the blisters on my butt.

After the ride we had snacks at Sports Basement, I bought a pair of Sugoi padless longs that match my shorts, and we gave our raffle tickets to our friend Gabo, and wished him luck.

We got home and Jerry talked to his mother's husband about her condition. Judy has been very ill and in the hospital. Things continued to be not so great, so we decided that we should partake in our usual Sunday evening activity of popcorn for dinner at the movies.

We saw "Social Network" and enjoyed it more than we thought we would. Who knows if those folks are really such big jerks in real life, and who cares. We got our mind off of troubles for a couple of hours and ate the entire large bag of popcorn.

We did get better news today about Jerry's mom. She's much better and may go home from the hospital in the next couple of days. Made us both much happier.

And in my quest to get back on my single, I'm taking yet another riding class next weekend, this time with the Marin Bicycling Coalition. Maybe the third time's the charm.