Brief Discomfort Peeing After Long Rides

fatdaz

Hi folks

I know the best answer to this is probably "consult your GP" and I may well do this but I just want to see if anybody else has experienced it.

I get discomfort when I pee after rides of 4+ hours. This doesn't happen every long ride but it happens more often than not. I am as comfortable as if expect to be during the ride and have no discomfort during the ride but I do have this discomfort the first couple of times I pee after the ride. It's not strong enough to be called painful and it disappears pretty quickly so I've been inclined to ignore it but as I'm fast approaching 50 the waterworks probably needs all the TLC it can get

ugo.santalucia

Probably your urine is very concentrated and gives you a slight burning sensation as it passes through... no big deal, I would say, as long as it doesn't persist... try drinking more

bigmitch41

Are you peeing clear? could be dehydration.

fatdaz

Cheers for both replies. I would expect that I am pretty dehydrated after long rides as I'm a massive sweater. I'll have a look at my "output" next time. I do various endurance events (running, hiking, kyaking) and I've not experienced this with anything but cycling though

ugo.santalucia

fatdaz wrote:

Cheers for both replies. I would expect that I am pretty dehydrated after long rides as I'm a massive sweater. I'll have a look at my "output" next time. I do various endurance events (running, hiking, kyaking) and I've not experienced this with anything but cycling though

If you go in the red, you produce lactic acid, which needs to be expelled... it lowers the pH of urine and you might get a slight burning sensation... the important point is that it goes away rapidly, so it's not inflammation or infection, so nothing to worry about

wishitwasallflat

I get this too always put it down to dehydration as when it happens it's with a small wee immediately after a ride - I then drink plenty and when next wee it's gone.

insanefred

Probably a bit of mild urethral or perineal irritation as well due to prolonged pressure of the saddle on your nether regions. Pee tubes can be quite sensitive to prolonged pressure. Could try making your urine more alkaline as well, try some potassium citrate from the chemist (Cystopurin, for example), seems to help the ladies with cystitis.

mugensi

I used to get this too but started upping my water/fluid intake during rides and it disappeared. I also noticed when it did happen that urine was darker in color and had a stronger 'piss' smell to it. I now drinks loads on spins and haven't had a problem since.

CHRISNOIR

I used to occasionally get this and would drink a pint of water with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in it - I think it neutralises the acid. The missus used to have it when she had cystitis.

fatdaz

If anybody is interested it turned out to be that my saddle was inclined ever do slightly upwards. I did a long ride on aerobars as practice for a triathlon and the peeing pain stuck with me for 2 days after that so I reasoned that it obviously wasn't dehydration. I checked the saddle and it was really slightly inclined up so I inclined it very slightly down. A few more practice rides and a 180km Ironman ride later and no sign of the problem

nuclearred955

Saddle would have been my suggestion (if I'd noticed the thread when it was current! :roll: ) - I went through 7 or 8 different saddles before finding one I got on with, and found that types without a cutout tended to give me this same problem.

Good that you didn't need to change saddles to sort it.

fatdaz

I did check the saddle early on but the upward incline was tiny and it was a bike and saddle I've ridden over 20,000km on so I just assumed it was OK. After my 2 day experience I reasoned there had to be something wrong with me or the saddle /fit so I thought I'd tweak a couple of things and then go to the doctor if it didn't sort it. Saddle angle was the first thing I tried. As it was noticeable worse after long periods on aerobars I thought saddle angle first