Today’s weight: 196.8 lbs. 
This week’s target weight was 197.0 lbs.
I am .2 lbs. ahead of schedule.

Starting weight on 10/15/06: 200.0 lbs.
End goal, on 12/31/06: 185 lbs.
Since 5/23, I have lost 17.8 lbs.

My goals: To lose one pound per week for 15 weeks, and to lower my resting heart rate to below 50 beats per minute.*

* (Heart rate goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong’s is said to be 32. George W’s was reported to be 47 beats per minute. Out of shape, mine is in the 70s. My best was 52 many years ago.)

* * *

I am managing to lose weight. I have started eating salads for my evening meal. This is working well for me as long as I control snacking and stay on my exercise program. I am able to lose extra weight when I exercise at a low rate for 90 minutes and avoid eating more than normal.

But I am not making good progress on my other goal, which is lowering my resting heart rate.

On 5/23, my resting heart rate was 65 beats/minute. Today it’s 59. That’s only six beats better than May 23.

My goal is to get it below 50. I need to face the fact that I have not been training intensively enough. I need to start riding my mountain bike up Banana Hill again.

My average training heart rate of 125 beats for 30 minutes is higher than before, when it was 108. But my interval training heart rate, now at 145, is lower than it should be. I need to get it up over 155 for three or more intervals during a 30-minute session.