I will tell you that the biggest impact on cardio fitness is low intensity, long duration workouts. It's building the base. It takes time, but this is where most of one's effort should be imo (and more importantly in the opinion of most, if not all, trainers of endurance athletes).
I think it is important to mix some high intensity stuff in (as well as strength training), but the vast majority of time should be spent in lower intensity, longer duration stuff.
Obviously to build a solid base, the workouts have to be consistent.
If you can find a copy, check out Training for the Uphill Athlete- you don't need to be an athlete to benefit form the wisdom of several of the top trainer/athletes in the world.
Thanks for the info MTW, I like the sound of a lower speed long burn, working up to 8 or 10% incline at 3.5 to 4 mph for an hour beats the hell out of the idea of me running on the treadmill, my Wife is on it now, she will pound out 6 or 8 miles this morning, iirc she averages about a 6.5 miles per hour.
I did 1.35 miles last night in about 22 minutes with a couple minute cool down walk, do have free weights, a bench and exercise cable? machine here too, there's really no excuse for my laziness, she's the best 'motivator' in the world, Thanks again.
Edit to add, the heart monitor is built into the grips on her treadmill.
Gunner, I use the ones built into the grips too. I'm 62 and for me anyway, around 130-135 bpm is the top of my aerobic (base) level. I like a higher base level than most people FWIW. A lot of people peg the base level as an intensity where you can still have a conversation but I like to press that a little to where it's difficult to have any kind of conversation more than a few words. When I do higher intensity intervals (30 second intervals every 2 minutes) I get up in the 165-170 bpm range.
