I'm still not clear on whether you have a saddle sore or another irritation.
"Irritated skin sort of welted up but not oozing or really broken skin -- discolored though."
A saddle sore will be a like a zit that feels like it's trying to inflame into the skin surface instead of pop out. It will be a bit red and domed on the skin surface. If you continue to ride on it, it's like jabbing at a zit on your cheekbone with you thumb for a couple hours. It turns from a simple zit to a welt. The problem with topical treatments is that a true saddle sore is too far beneath the skin for them to have any affect. Creams and powders do well for preventing them, but not so well for treating them. Unless you can complete all your training rides while pedaling standing up, you simply must not ride until it heals. The tough part is telling just when it has healed to the point where it won't simply pop up again after 15 minutes of sadde time. If you just discovered it, and it's still small, a couple days at least. If you discovered it and rode on it anyways and it got bigger, then maybe a full week is the time it will take.
Some people are more suseptible to them than others, even though they follow the same cleaning and sanitary practices. Sometimes it's switching the saddle or the position. Sometimes it's simply a too-long ride on a too-hot day with too much in-the-saddle pedaling. Sometimes it's ill-fitting chamois. Sometimes it's an infected hair. I found a pubic hair snared into the fabric of my chamois. The chamois has all these small holes, perforations in the fabric, probably for ventilation. While pedaling, a pubic hair can worm it's way into the hole, get stuck, then when you're pedaling you're constantly pulling on the hair. Bingo, it turns into a sore.
The single best and safest way to deal with it is to stay off the saddle until it heals on it's own. Three days won't kill you. It won't shatter your training schedule. If you love riding, it takes discipline and patience to not ride especially if you feel great otherwise. But the consequences of riding on a sore will keep you off the bike for a MUCH longer time. Just ask Oscar Frierer.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2005/aug05/aug10news
Freire out of Vuelta & world's
World champion Oscar Freire looks extremely unlikely to ride the Vuelta a España (August 27-September 18) and the world championships (Madrid, Spain, September 21-25) as he has only just been pronounced fit to ride again after an operation earlier this year. Freire was operated on in June to fix an injury to his saddle area that was making it all but impossible for his to sit on a bike, but the surgery has taken an unexpectedly long time to heal, leaving him unable to train in the meantime.
"If [Freire] sat on a saddle it felt like he was sitting on sharp stones," team manager Erik Breukink told the ANP news agency.
Freire was examined by doctors in Amstelveen yesterday and was pronounced sufficiently healed to be able to resume training. "But it is impossible for him to ride the Vuelta," said Breukink, who added that he did not think it would be possible for Freire to ride in enough races to be ready for the world championships.
Freire himself has also ruled out an appearance at the world's. "I'm still unable to train and it will be impossible for me to go to Madrid," he told Spanish sports newspaper AS. "I'm really annoyed to be missing out because it was a great opportunity for me. I'm sure a lot of people would have come to see me riding at home."
The Spaniard, who was expected to defend his third world championship on his home roads, explained that his injury problems are not yet over. "The wound has healed but the problem is with the bone," he said. "It is a very delicate area, with a lot of nerve connections and tendons. When I support the weight of my body on the saddle I get a lot of pain."
