Cycling to work - 30 mile return I have recently made the decision to commute to work via bike. It’s about 14 miles each way (so just under 30 miles return). I initially started on my old bike but it clearly wasn’t really appropriate for what I consider a fairly long commute, so I purchased an Ebike (a Cube Acid). I love the bike; it’s really opened the possibility of commuting 5 days a week whilst still giving me a decent work out with reasonable heart rate pushes.

I’m now 1 month in, have cycled every day (rain or shine) &amp; am generally really enjoying it.

However, after nearly 500 miles saddle time I’m experiencing quite uncomfortable saddle pains &amp; really sore / numb thighs / legs. I also feel quite tired at points during the day &amp; in the evening.

A lot of the above seems obvious, I am after all putting in nearly 150 miles a week. I also like to push myself some days using Strava to set new Personal Bests (PBs) etc.

My questions are:


Is it normal to feel such pain on the saddle, and is this possibly the cause of numbness in my legs?
Is it possible a bad saddle position is causing a pinched nerve like effect down my legs?


I do wear padded cycling bottoms (although they are cheap Decathlon ones).

Another thing, due to the nature of an Ebike you tend to sit and ride the whole journey, no standing up to push up hills, etc. Is this bad?

I know a lot of people will mock the Ebike, and I know this makes life easier, but although it is making life easier I’m still pushing hard and averaging fairly high heart rates over a 50 min commute each way (better than driving a car, right).

Hopefully a few experienced rider / regular commuter might be able to offer some words of wisdom here.
Even with an e-bike going to 150 miles a week is a big jump. Likely you just need to have a few rest days to allow your body to adapt and recover. 3 weeks is the range in where you start run into problem with long term recovery. 

I'd suggest switching down to 3 days a week until you feel completely recovered every day. Also lay off the strava, going for Personal Bests (PBs) is something you should keep to a minimum in daily rides. Focus on a pace that allows you to arrive at work w/o feeling stressed at all. This will help with the leg soreness/tiredness during the day. 

The saddle problem is a completely different one that every bike rider has to figure out. Some of it is just that you are spending a lot more time in the saddle, but most of it is finding the right saddle that works for you and your position on the bike. Unfortunately, there are no simple fixes. There are various saddle fitting guides out there, but nothing works for everybody and almost every saddle works for somebody. The best solution would be to find a local bike shop with a saddle demo program that will let you try different saddles until you find the one that works for you.