My Butt Hurts!!!
 

First, I'm not a super-serious cyclist or anything, I just like to bike to add some variety to my exercise routine of jogging and inlining. Maybe an hour at a time, usually a hilly 10-ish miles in my area.

I live in the Great Lakes area so colder winters prevent much biking between Oct and April, but I've been doing it regularly for the last few summers.

More background: several years ago (I think 9?) I broke my tailbone (I'm early 30s, so I would have been early 20s) - a fracture that seemed to heal up pretty quickly as the pain went away within a couple of months.

I've had no problems until the past month, and it seems to be coinciding with my seasonal return to biking.

Now my tailbone hurts after sitting at work or after jogging too. It's not horrible stabbing pain, but it's nagging seeming to get worse.

Does anyone have experience with this? Do you think my pain is related to the old injury or is this something new? Should I stop biking altogether? Will anything help this (besides ibuprofen), like padded shorts or a different bike?

With the type of injury you sustained, it's possible the damage may be permanent. You can spend a lot of money trying to figure a solution but the best one can be described in one word. RECUMBENT.

I guess you can try a Brooks saddle, suspension seat post or a dual suspension mountain bike but these may not work in the end. I really think you should look at a recumbent as this bike was designed with you in mind.

You have coccydynia

see link http://www.coccyx.org/whatisit/index.htm

Probably from your old injury causing some traumatic arthritis. Hard to heal, but I agree with a recumbant. The web site refers to injections in that area but they have a high incidence of complications so alot of docs who used to do it are now gunshy.

An after ride solution: Talk someone you like a lot into giving you a butt massage. :)

I think CB nailed it. Just a wild guess but ultra-sound might be used on a injury like that, although it would be cutting edge stuff, hard to say....

Thanks so much for the feedback. The medical info was helpful; I haven't got to the point where the pain is stabbing, but I'm afraid if I continue going to way I'm going it might. I'm seeing my doctor in a couple of weeks for my annual, I'll ask her if I'm doomed.

On the recumbent: I'm not totally opposed to the idea, but a) they're damn expensive, b) I like my Trek and c) I can't help it, it looks goofy! (lol)

But I've decided to force my boyfriend to rent a pair with me this weekend so we can try it out. What the hell, I'd rather look goofy than not be able to sit.

Speaking of said boyfriend, I'll ask him about the massage!

Thanks again!

I'd get into the recumbent forum and ask the questions, but the Chicago Park Tools representative is a big recumbent fan, and we tried some of the recumbent bikes. He said that you can get a good recumbent for under $1000, so they can be affordable. I also met a guy on the bike path back in April, and he told me that he saw some good recumbents going for as little as $400. So hang in there. Maybe you can alternate between the recumbents for most rides and ride your Trek for shorter rides a couple of times a week.