wackypawn

I got this heart rate monitor for Christmas.

https://www.amazon.com/Timex-T5H911-D...pd_sbs_watch_3

I did the Carmichael's test for lactate threshold heart rate (two max 8min efforts) two days ago and the average HR was 176 with a max 186. Then yesterday I went on my regular short ride that includes a 1.6 mile/10min hill. On the hill my avg HR was 197 with a max of 212! The perceived effort was about the same on both days but the HR was (much) higher.


Here are my questions:

1.Is such high HR rate even possible? Or this monitor is just a piece of junk?
2.If yes, what does this sharp increase in avg and max HR rate mean? Was I just tired for my second ride? Or maybe I did not push hard enough on Monday?

Any comments from the knowledgeable BF crowd greatly appreciated!

Happy holidays!

SalsaPodio

1. Yes, it is possible. Here is a ride where I hit 217.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/45501673

2. Hard to say. Were you getting sporadic readings either of the days? If you were you might not have had good contact between the strap and your skin.

jmX

Sounds high to me, but you need more data points to find the outliers. Also, heart rate monitors sometimes read incorrect until you've worked up a good sweat. My garmin is totally useless until 10-15 minutes into a ride. Before then it tells me I'm at 220-240bpm during my casual warmup.

gregf83 

Do yourself a favour and ignore MaxHR, it means nothing.

jsutkeepspining

Did you do the 8 min rides on the indoor trainer, if so then you have found your lthr for indoor use. Most people find that their heart rate indoors is much lower than if they were outside doing the same output.

achoo

If I'm reading your post correctly, you did your test indoors and the hill climb was obviously outdoors.

The wind outdoors can cause your jersey or jacket to flap against your HRM sensor and screw up your readings some. Or as another poster said, maybe you didn't get a good warmup and sweat going.

FWIW, I always try to remember to wet my HRM sensor and chest area where the sensors sits before I ride. If I forget, I get 210+ bpm readings until I get sweaty.

wackypawn

1.How was your effort on that ride? I see that going over 210 bpm is quite possible but on my second ride I was not really killing myself or breaking records.

2. I don't think it was losing connection, the only discontinuity that I noticed that HR wold sometimes go up or down by 10-15bpm in 1 second - I thought thats normal.

I am trying to do intervals at lactate threshold, but now I don't know if I can trust the 176 figure. As I said apparently I was was going at 197 bpm for 10 minutes or so and I was not blacking out or something.

wackypawn

Yeah Max Hr does not mean anything but I was trying to get my LTHR and it seems it may be anywhere between 176 and 197

wackypawn

@ jsutkeepspining and achoo

No, both efforts were outside and for both I warmed up for at least 45 mins. I think by the time of the intervals/hill I was sweating quite a bit already but maybe the jersey flapping may explain the difference

achoo

IME, my heart rate doesn't change anywhere near that quickly. Sounds like a sensor issue.

SalsaPodio

The effort wasn't that high for the majority of the race. But the end was pretty hard. This race was much harder for the entire time: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/45736525

jsutkeepspining

Here, next time you want to test you're LTHR, try a 30 min time trial, after the first ten minutes, hit lap and then the averege heart rate for the last 20 minutes is your LTHR. Also, before you start your ride, lick your finger and rub the sensor. do this for both sides, this will help give you more accurate readings.

wackypawn

Thanks guys for the responses, I'll make sure the sensors are wet, do a couple more test rides and see how it goes.

If this skipping of 10 bpm in a second maybe I'll also contact Timex for trouble shooting.

psuaero

I can tell you it's possible to have higher HRs. After multiple HRMs and a PowerTap my max. HR has consistently been 204. My LTHR is 183 or so. After looking at my HR traces from the PowerTap for 2+ years I don't believe it should ever change by +-10 in a second. Maybe 1 or 2 in a single second/update at most.

I too recently had problems with unreliable readings in the first 5-10 minutes of a ride. Since then I've been wetting my chest strap when I put it on and it's cured the problem 100%. No licking... just a few drops of water when I'm getting dressed. Doesn't seem to matter that I'm now riding in freezing temperatures and not sweating a whole lot.