As I have for eight previous times since 2000, I planned to ride the Chico (California) Wildflower Century this past Sunday. However, I had a fairly seroius heart attack – 100% blockage of the left coronary ("widow maker") artery, a little under two months ago. That heart attack seemed to put the ride out of reach.

As I started to ride again, I decided I should travel to Chico, anyway. It's my college town, and I have an inordinate fondness for the place. At first, I thought I could ride the alternate "Flatflower 15" miles ride, then upped that to the "Flatflower 30" miler.

Finally, I decided I cold complete the "Mildflower" version of the Wildflower, about 60 miles. While I didn't have a lot of training days, I knew I had enough miles under my belt to give the ride a try, and not give myself another heart attack.

I've got several photographs and a fuller story about the ride on my blog, here. And I wrote about something that happened after the ride might interest the 50+ crowd.

In fact, I'm confident I could have completed the century, too, although it would have taken me a long time to do that, and I don't think I would have enjoyed the experience (or at least my rear end wouldn't have had much fun).

The Mildflower proved a nice challenge. It was a beautiful day for the ride, which led up and down the southern edge of the Cascade Range, and over the flatlands of the Great Central Valley. The air was clear enough to see Mt. Shasta, 14,000+ feet above sea level, sticking up over the horizon, 100 miles to the north.

While I may have pushed myself a little beyond what I should have, I seem none the worse for wear.

By the way, I see another good write-up of the ride on this forum, here.