One of the easiest ways to know if your cardiovascular health is improving is to check your resting heart rate. It will get lower as your heart gets in better shape.
Your heart is a muscle thats gets stronger the more you work it. As your heart gets stronger, it pumps more blood with each stroke. This is called stroke volume (SV). As your stroke volume increases, fewer heart beats (HR) are required to achieve the cardiac output (CO) needed to meet your body's demands. The formula is as follows: SV x HR = CO
For instance, if you are dehydrated, your blood volume is lower and therefore your stroke volume is lower. Your heart rate needs to increase to keep your cardiac output stable.
All this is to say, check your resting heart rate when you have been sitting or resting for awhile. Count your heart rate for a full minute. This is your resting heart rate. Check it periodically to see if it is going down. If it is (and you're not on any medications that lower heart rate, i.e. beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and others), your cardiovascular health is improving.
I was checking mine last night and it was the lowest I've ever had--42 bpm. It tends to vary and at times is over 50, depending on different factors (caffeine, stress, and who knows what). I'm sure my husband thinks it goes up when he's around. We'll let him hang on to that thought.
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