I dig this! The one thing I wish I could (or maybe it's there and I couldn't figure it out) is be able to set in advance how long I want the player to repeat the cycle before they come up. :)
EDIT: One other thing: right now, the enemies don't feel like a victory as much as a speed bump or a road block. It'd be cool to get a smaller reward for every enemy you defeat, so even fighting feels like it's productive.