Heart rate concern

[Dangerscouse]

I admit it is a less expensive chest strap called CooSpo. As I only wanted it to connect to my PM5 and phone Apps it does the job. It has ANT+ and bluetooth. I was concerned that cheaper meant no good so did a lot of checking the number on the screen against 2 fingers on my neck and am happy that it is accurate - up to 150-160 at least.

I have recently got that HRM too, as my Wahoo Tickr was playing up and giving strange readings, and so far I have been impressed with it and have found the readings reliable

[flatbread]

If you're over 40, you've got years of endurance training behind you, and you see weird crap on your HR graph after the workout, just see a cardiologist and get the ekg and eco. if the sinus node is getting funky, it will just continue to get funkier. better caught and managed early.

as for svt, yes you can have those and feel fine in the workout/race. I had one during a race when I'd had a caffeined gel a few minutes earlier, and the key move went. caffeine, adrenaline, and bam, hr went over the max I'd seen in the previous years. I didn't notice a thing (and I don't look at HR during races), rode up the mountain in the lead group of three (I'll brag a bit here -- two former national champs, and me, on a 12k mountain climb).

I had another one earlier this year during a VO2/transport interval session. felt great, killed the intervals, but HR was 10 beats over my regular max for three of the intervals -- and not a spike, just a flat high line. the pacemaker flagged it as svt -- not quite enough water, and a couple of cups of coffee a few hours before the workout (I've since avoided any caffeine prior to training -- and no svt issues since).

short of it, just see a cardiologist. anything with the heart is nothing to screw with.

[paulduncan1]

Hi Tony,

I have similar issues to you regarding the step change in HR. Mine was diagnosed as supraventricular tachycardia and is benign. What happens with me is that the upper Chambers of the heart get out of sync with the bottom resulting in in inefficient blood flow and heart rate leaps well in excess of where they should. I have at times had HR of on excess of 220. And I am approaching 60.

I would suggest you follow this through with your Cardiologist. I still struggle to control my HR at times when training but it is more likely to occur with harder sessions such as TT's.


It is quite common amongst endurance athletes and rowers in particular

Cheers

Paul

[danpow]

Sounds like a device failure. I'm a late-20's athlete in pretty solid shape and after tracking heart rate on quite a few hard workouts this year I don't think I ever got above 203. ind you, this was a lot of short distance track workouts that got my heart going!

[Nomath]

I remember long time ago when riding amidst a bunch of cyclists that my heart rate display could go up to 220 (or 230?). I took that as a sign of overload of the device by too many HR signals. That was at the time when few chest sensors were coded. The same happened sometimes near railroads, e.g. in a popular cycling event called Alpenchallenge in Switserland that I used to ride almost every year when we came close to the Albula Railway. Also in my local cycling circuit, I passed a particular farm where my HR would go up to 220. Although I didn't know the cause, I suspected electro-magnetic interference from plant-grow lighting, possibly canabis-growths for which this region is well known, although I was not so confident about my hypothesis to tip the police.

So my suggestion is: such high, unlikely value may be the default setting in case of overload from the ambient. Especially if the same value occurs many times and you do not observe a gradual built-up to that high value or a gradual climb-down, I would not take it too serious.

[Nomath]

At the time I used a Polar S720i watch. Here is what the user manual says about when the heart rate reading becomes erratic or extremely high :
You may have come within a range of strong electromagnetic signals which cause erratic readings. Check your surroundings and move further away from the source of disturbance.

I have never experienced such disturbances indoors.
For diagnostics, you could stop your exercise briefly, lift the chest sensor from your skin and see what the reading does.