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Recently had that conversation about not pushing limits with some friends. Emphasizing how I'm in it for the long haul, and hope that they buy into that too. I'd rather be riding slow with them in ten or fifteen years than any of us be missing from the picture. It is tough for them to not play "chase the rabbit" when they ride. I'm glad you found out before having a blow-out. Because knowledge is power, there's no reason to be depressed. It is merely an opportunity to review your priorities now that you have new data. I think you will like an e-bike. It fits nicely into the plan to avoid breaking stuff internally that we will need to carry on, while riding at the pace that tickles our fancy.

Well after 3 weeks out of the hospital and back on Eliquis, more bad news. My cardiologist informed me this week that there was an incidental finding on the echocardiogram that was taken during my hospitalization. Turns out I have an early-stage aortic aneurysm that will require some "watchful waiting". I'm now wishing I would have listened to @Ridenfool's wisdom a couple of years ago, about not pushing ourselves too hard in our later stages of life. Instead, I adopted the approach of invisibility. I ignored the danger signs of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, OSA, etc, simply because none of it was affecting my physical performance. My resting heart rate was incredibly low and my max heart rate was incredibly high - healthy heart, right? Even with a healthy heart though, the supporting systems have to keep up, and when they don't, the results can be fatal. I suppose I could consider myself lucky to know about the aneurysm early on, as many people's first symptom is their last symptom. Still, I'm downright depressed knowing that I will no longer be able to push the upper limits of my physical ability. Perhaps a shiny new e-Bike will cheer me up though. 😁

For 23 years I only rode. I lifted a bit in high school, but not at all since. So I found out pretty early in Austin that I can do whatever at my company and keep getting great reviews. So I can take an hour and a half or more for lunch with no consequences... because subject matter expert yada yada with a limited scope. In Austin I lived right by work, so during this time, I went home and did whatever. But in Tulsa, work is 25 minutes from home. So I mostly used that time long-sitting at restaurants or freakin' napping. In August it occurred to that I could better utilize this time. So yeah, I joined a gym near work and go about 3-4 times a week. I power through 3setof10 on about 9-12 machines. No machine more than 3 minutes. And I'm done up in 30ish minutes. Quick shower and out in about 40 minutes total. I'm riding WAY less. But I'm having absolutely no problem maintaining my weight now.

Another hard lesson learned about listening to your body, and another lucky outcome. Earlier this month I started experiencing a dull pain in my chest that got slightly worse when I exercised. I sort of wrote it off to aging and angina, since I wasn't feeling any other symptoms, such as shortness of breath, lightheadedness, weakness, etc. The one real oddity was a ride on Jan 7, where I was having to stop after every climb to catch my breath and where my max HR far exceeded the norm for me (and for any 65yr old dude for that matter) at 190. I wrote that off too, to lack of sleep and alcohol consumption the day prior, aka "low body battery". Still, I did make an appointment with my Cardiologist but the earliest available was in mid-Feb. Fast forward to Jan 28 (this past Sun) - woke up excited to pick up my buddy and head out to RPR for some much needed riding before settling in for an afternoon / evening of NFL action. I started feeling some sharper pains in my chest though, that would come and go as I was just going through my morning routine. Finally my better judgement kicked in and I let my friend know what was going on and that I didn't want to chance it, especially knowing the medical response at RPR would be less than ideal for anything life threatening. I woke up my wife and let her know that I was going to just run over to the BS&W Emergency Hospital in Cedar Park so that I could get checked out and back home for the NFL games. The EKG was perfectly normal, but given my past history of pulmonary embolism, they did a CT Scan, even though my D-Dimer (blood indicator of clotting) was only slightly elevated. Good thing they did as multiple clots were discovered across both lungs. Needless to say, instead of enjoying some ice-cold beer that afternoon, I was treated to a steady drip of Heparin while watching football on a hospital-grade (small) flatscreen TV. They found no DVT this time, and surmised that the clots may be the residual effect of stuff that's been going on for the past few weeks. In any case, I'll be on Eliquis indefinitely now given this second episode of pulmonary emboli. Moral of story, listen to your body and don't fear the dreaded "false alarm at the ER", as I've had a few of those myself as well. In retrospect, I should have gone much earlier and just got lucky this time, again. SIMILAR MTB RIDES DEC 30-JAN 13