Yesterday just news on an older boomer woman who I do know well. She is a grandmother (who divorced in her early ‘30s) and long-time Vancouver cycling activist.

She is 67 (or 68 yrs). This month, cut short her group bike trip in Montana (with other 50+ yr old cyclists.) because her irregular heart condition suddenly started again. Resulted in necessary heart defibrillation, where the physican/paramedic shocks the heart back into regular beats with machinery. She returned to Canada to look after herself. Before retirement, she was a nurse…her last job a nurse in geriatric medicine where she ran exercise programs for nursing home folks in their 80’s and 90’s.

She’s had this known heart condition for past 20 years. But in past 2 years, incidents like this has flared up more frequently.

Despite this, at 65 to kickstart her retirement, she cycled solo across Canada with her gear and did a lot of camping. That’s over 5,000 kms. in about 4 months. She doesn’t own a car but uses light commuter train near her home (less than a 20 min. walk), bus and cycling.

In her younger years she did do randoneeuring, which is serious endurance cycling meaning, cycling ie. 400 kms. for 2-3 consecutive days with very little sleep, etc.

Lesson: Never delay fulfilling your dreams and making the best of your abilities to give to yourself and others. And never delay looking after your health. If this woman was sedentary, she would have had a host of more different health problems