Originally Posted by
Richard Cranium
Well Mickey - you can say that again..... and again and again ...
The original post asks if you are worrying about your heart. But, to be a little more precise you may need to reword the question to include vascular health as well.
I am only guessing, but I would suggest that coronary blood vessel health is a major factor in "active sudden death" scenarios. Many other heart diseases are considerably more "self-limiting" is as much that they cause fatigue or shortness of breath before the subject can exercise to death.
How many of the previous posters have undergone cardiac catheterization and are reasonably sure of healthy heart vessels? If not - then you have some cause for concern when you start maxing out, especially at an older age, or a history of smoking or obesity.
We have a very large bike club here, currently over 13,000 members, It offers many group rides, every day, for all abilities.
AFAIK, there have been 2 cardiac-related deaths on one of these group rides in the past 20 years. One was on a very steep though shortish hill immediately after a ferry ride, the other was over a guardrail, post attack. I would worry a heckuva lot more about pickup trucks with trailer mirrors. That is, if I worried at all. Instead, I concentrate on avoiding the obvious dangers on the bike. That takes up the space which worry might occupy.