NOVELTY - A visual gauge of fitness progress is provided to a user of a cardiovascular exercise machine, by displaying a graphical representation of an instantaneous sensed data juxtaposed with a historical data on a display, so the progress toward a desired fitness level can be gauged.    USE - The invention is for provision of a visual gauge of fitness progress to a user of a cardiovascular exercise machine (claimed), including e.g. fitness bikes, treadmills, step machines, stair machines, rowing machines, and/or cross country skiing machines.    ADVANTAGE - The invention allows the user to view graphs showing continuously changing variables (such as pulse rate), in real-time from the initiation. This allows a user to continuously monitor and gauge relative effort, intensity, and duration as well as progress and self-improvement.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Provision of a visual gauge of fitness progress to a user of a cardiovascular exercise machine, comprises receiving instantaneous sensed data during a workout, the instantaneous data sensed by sensor(s) and representative of workout parameter(s); storing the instantaneous sensed data as a function of time; receiving stored historical data from previous workout(s), the historical data representative of the workout parameter as a function of time; and displaying a graphical representation of the instantaneous sensed data juxtaposed with the historical data on a display, so the progress toward a desired fitness level can be gauged.    INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are also included for:    (1) a visual gauge provision system for providing a visual gauge of fitness level progress to a user of a cardiovascular exercise machine, comprising a sensor(s) to sense an instantaneous value of a workout parameter(s); first mechanism for storing historical data from the previous workout(s), the historical data representative of the workout parameter(s) as a function of time; second mechanism for storing instantaneous sensed data as a function of time; a processor responsive to the instantaneous sensed data and the historical data for rendering a real-time graphical representation; and a display device to display the rendered real-time graphical representation of the instantaneous sensed data juxtaposed with the historical data, so the progress toward a desired fitness level can be gauged; and    (2) a cardiovascular exercise machine comprising a mechanism for increasing cardiovascular activity of a user of the exercise machine; and a visual gauge provision system.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure is a block diagram of client software architecture in relation to network architecture, for provision of visual gauge of fitness progress to user of cardiovascular exercise machine.