Fitness Victory/Goal Achieved

I have been near my goal weight for months now, so my focus has switched to increasing my overall fitness and performance.

One metric I use to measure fitness is resting heart rate. I measured a new low this morning, and I'm excited about it. My RHR is now 38 as of this morning. My previous low that I had measured was 43. *WOOT*

I measure my relative fitness and performance in several ways, and I track them just like I track my body weight.
These are: 1) VO2 Max, 2) Resting Heart Rate, 3) mm measurement of skin folds at 7 sites on my body, 4) cycling times (or average speed) over a set course, and 5) Power to Heart Rate ratio.

My Polar HRM has a fitness test feature that estimates a VO2 max equivalent. I time myself on my bicycle and compare times over the same course/route. I periodically do a power test on a stationary bike that reports average power over a set time and resistance. I have access to a company nurse trained in body fat measurement by use of a 7 site skin-fold caliper test. I measure resting heart rate.

The resting heart rate (HRrest) is a person's heart rate when they are at rest, that is lying down but awake, and not having recently exerted themselves. The typical resting heart rate in adults is 60-90 bpm, with rates below 60 bpm referred to as bradycardia, and rates above 100 bpm referred to as tachycardia. Conditioned athletes often have resting heart rates below 60 bpm, with values of below 40 bpm not unheard of. For instance, cyclist Lance Armstrong has been known to have resting heart rates to as low as around 32 bpm, cyclist Miguel Indurain had a resting heart rate of 28 bpm. The low pulse in conditioned athletes is due to hypertrophy of the cardiac muscles, therefore enabling a higher volume of blood being pumped at each beat (i.e. higher stroke volume).