Well this has been my week of total funk. I am a 72 m, 6'2",207 and been chasing the "pain cave" for 50 years. Any run, bike, or lifting that didn't finish on a hill or grinding out one last rep was wasted. My Total Chol is mid high but my HDL's and triglycerides (77,63) are rock star level and so are my ratios. To prove to my PCP I'm good to go he convinced me to have a CAC. So, boom it's high and to boot my ascending aorta was 5.2.

Yeah, I'm devasted and a complete paradox. My resting HR is 43, my two minute HRR is 45 (and can hit 60 with a real hard finish). VO2 max is 39. Can incline 135 x 8, RDLs 205x10 etc.Bio age is 45-50. So much for immunity. Some literature is leaning towards sheer stress(pain cave long term) can remodel your heart, make it and the aorta bigger but the pump volume can still stretch out the lining. So who knew?

My height and cardiac efficiency give me some hope, but I'm definetely in the go/no go for a graft. Sucks. My PCP's for decades gave me solid info that my normal slight high chol and BP were ok, athletic norms and being super fit was all that counted. Well, maybe not so much. Trying to avoid monday morning mind set of why not statins and BP meds. Which I hate.

So with lots of research I'm treading water of sad/depressed and scaling back all my workouts to hit 110-115 HR for slow and steady aerobics and all lifting is 12-15 reps dropping at least one weight stack or weght. That keeps me in no valsalva (which I never have done) and HR steady at 85. Unless a miracle, follow up labs will confirm size and then it's debate the if/when to have surgery. If it gets the worst off the table, then hard to say no.

Thanks for listening.