Just purchased a Sigma Sport PC7 heart rate monitor. The local bike store rotated its sale-o-ray on this product (it always has something on blowout, but not always something I need. Always something I want, to SpouseKitty's chagrin...) I picked it up for $25, $5 less than Amazon's current sale price.

Cardiologist told me to I could do anything I wanted, so long as I kept my heart rate under 130. My resting is as low as 60, and usually 65 in the doctors' offices. Then again, they take a while to hook up all the monitors, so I have a chance to calm down.

I figure 130 bpm is twice that, so I'd have to be sweating and panting, right? Wrong. I took a ride up a slight incline (it'd be overstating things to call that a hill) with two panniers full of groceries, at most 30 pounds. 145.

Oh, and this watch allows you to set a upper threshold, beyond which it alerts you. It was flashing like a bad neon sign. (But it has no audible alert. Prolly why it was only $25.)

I was breathing heavy, yes. But no more so that taking the six flights of stairs at work from my office to my acting lead's meeting. We hold lots of meetings at work, so the conference rooms are always booked. A third-floor conference room is better than having to walk over to another building.

Better to know, fix and be alive than risk suddenly being stabbed in the chest (that's what I've read cardiac arrest feels like) and just falling over. Or, wishing SpouseKitty and Kitten good night and really, really ruining their morning.

But it still feels like one of the few joys I have in life have been taken from me...