Fell in love with cycling when I was 13 and the romance is still alive 59 years later. Oh there have been periods when I've been off the bike for years at a time. Life, including work, family, and other interests sometimes got in the way, and every single time, it had lead to a significant degradation of my health. One of those times was when I started working for NASA and the work and associated pressure totally consumed me. After the first 12 years, I resembled a marine mammal and was according to my doctor a disaster waiting to happen. Didn't have to wait long. The MI I have blocked off my main right coronary artery and took two stents to revascularize. That, my friends was quire the wake up call. Cleaned up my diet, quit smoking, and made time to to ride again. Took me 6 months to get my weight back down under 190 and develop enough strength and endurance to start riding with a group of 50+ guys that were pretty hard core. Another 6 months, and I could easily stay with the guys even on hammerfest rides up Mount Diablo (3800+ feet up) My weight was down to 160 by that time, all my blood work, particularly my lipid panels, was perfect, and my B/P was 110-120/60/75. So imagine everyone's surprise when while waiting to meet my posse in front of a Peet's Coffee, I quietly dropped dead. Yeah, that's right... no pulse, no respiration, nothing. Luckily, there were bystanders witjh CPR skills who thumped on me until EMS showed up. Took 2 jolts with a defibrillator to get me back, but they did. After a angiogram, the cardiologist told me that I should be well and truly dead. Seems I had the well known "widow maker", a complete blockage of the left anterior descending coronary artery, which typically kills 97% of the people it happens to. I was also told flat out that the ONLY thing that saved my ass. Long story short, 2 months later I was back on the bike, riding with my Old Farts group, and feeling as strong as ever. That was 8 years ago, and I'm still fit. The lesson I learned from all of this is riding is essential to my continued life and health. If I spend a little more time smelling the flowers on a ride, it's only because I've developed a better appreciation for the beauty of life. So ride on....