Heart Rate

Etc

Hi all,

I've been running since January, 44 year old male, making steady progress on couch to 5k and now bridge to 10k. I'm on week two of the B210k which is taking me to 7k. I've just downloaded my stats from my garmin for todays ru which shows that at one point today my heart rate hit 211 ! I actually stopped running at this point today for 3 minutes, I wasn't aware of the hr at the time just I was putting in too much effort.

My normal avg hr is 176 and my max goes up as far as 189 so I guess I'm one of those people with a higher than avg rate. I had a full check up form the doctor in March and everything is ok, I was out for a meal and a couple of drinks last night, I'm wondering did this have an effect ?

Anyone else have a spike like this, it freaked me out a bit !

Krusty_Clown

Can you post a link to your activity in Garmin Connect? Obviously the only one who can give you medical advice is your GP, but the Garmin heart rate monitors are notorious for false spikes, so if you can send on a link, we'll take a look and see if it looks like erroneous data. If there's a gradual rise towards 211, then that wouldn't indicate erroneous data. How did you feel at the time? 176 as an average HR is incredibly high. Are you carrying much weight?

Etc

Hi Krusty,

Thanks for the reply, not sure how to post a link to garmin connect, I can try to do a screen cap, but my readings have been consistent since I've started back in January. First part of the run normally takes me up into 150's in my first 10 minutes, then up into the 170's. Last 15 minutes or so are usually 180 - 189, this has been consistent since I begun back in January. As I used to use a hrm quite a bit when I cycled a few years ago it has concerned me as I understand intervals etc.

I had a full check up in March, bloods, 24 hour blood pressure monitor (because I had a feeling of indigestion during one run, luckily that's all it was !!)

I felt like I was over exerting at the time, heavy breathing, good legs and no light headedness or dizziness and no residual sensations. Weight wise I'm approximately 10 lbs over my optimum weight. It was a spike on the reading, I ran a further 2k after the rest stopping .5k less that I would normally have.

corny

My highest HR is 209 so if you were all out or close to it you might just be made that way. Shouldn't be anything to worry about if you felt fine during and after and you had a GP check up.

Krusty_Clown

The thing is, if your heart rate is running at 210, even with an abnormally high HR, you'd know all about it, as it would feel like your heart was trying to escape from your chest. So if you just feel like you were over-exerting, rather than at the very limits of your capabilities, something's not right (biology or technology!).

menoscemo

Etc wrote: »

Hi Krusty,

Thanks for the reply, not sure how to post a link to garmin connect,

Copy the web address and post it here e.g. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192212015
Garmin HRM's are prone to dodgy readings. Today I had an average HR of 179 and a max of 233 while pacing a half marathon (my actual max is 187) so the HR readings are not to be relied on. The HR line should be smooth, not spiky.

rom

menoscemo wrote: »

Copy the web address and post it here e.g. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192212015
Garmin HRM's are prone to dodgy readings. Today I had an average HR of 179 and a max of 233 while pacing a half marathon (my actual max is 187) so the HR readings are not to be relied on. The HR line should be smooth, not spiky.

Make sure the activity privacy is set to public also as we won't be able to see it otherwise.

tunney

Garmin HR data cannot be trusted!

rom

tunney wrote: »

Garmin HR data cannot be trusted!

Agreed but if you know where your HR should be and the garmin says its close enough to that then you can. Of course I start off ever run with a 180 HR and its drops to 80 then climbs back up 140 ish and settles there in the first 10 mins even with wet contacts. I think say it can't but trusted totally ain't true. But I know what your saying like was in a race recently and half way through HR dropped to 40 and stayed there.

tunney

rom wrote: »

Agreed but if you know where your HR should be and the garmin says its close enough to that then you can. Of course I start off ever run with a 180 HR and its drops to 80 then climbs back up 140 ish and settles there in the first 10 mins even with wet contacts. I think say it can't but trusted totally ain't true. But I know what your saying like was in a race recently and half way through HR dropped to 40 and stayed there.

During the summer people forget*how* bad it is, fast forward a few months and we are all wearing multiple layers and the static sends the garmins nuts.

opus

tunney wrote: »

Garmin HR data cannot be trusted!

Definitely! Was quite surprised to see my HR jump from ~130 to high 180's during the last 2k of an 8k recovery run I did this evening