8 months of riding, it's "interesting" that i haven't made too much progress on the shorter-duration parts of the curve. i'm guessing this is entirely the result of my heart condition, but i would have thought the <5 minute efforts would be easy to improve through generally better strength, balance, comfort with the bike and my/it's limits, etc. instead, i've seen a pretty decent jump in what i can comfortably sustain for one hour (200 to 230), two hours (180 to 225), two and half hours (165 to 215) etc.
on the other hand, for one minute i only went from 325 to 355, and five minutes from 255 to 270, which considering that the initial numbers were within weeks of riding a road bike for the first time EVER, is pretty disappointing. i am almost 10% lighter (200lb to 183lb) and the bike is lighter and faster too (hahah) so it's not like i'm not going faster... but still, this pretty clearly illustrates that although short intense bursts require strong muscles, they also require big cardiac output, which at 120BPM and 45% LVEF isn't happening for me.
still having a TON of fun on the bike though!
