Triathlon - OK...someone explain this to me...

Last night I went for a run...I'm currently in Cleveland on business. The temperature was about 75 degrees and it was prett humid. So, I start running with the goal of just staying relaxed...for those of you who don't know me, I'm about 5'8" 230 so running isn't my bag even though I ran cross country in high school. These days I tend to more run/walks.

Anyway...I'm running, staying relaxed, iPod going...I look down at my Garmin 201 and I've gone about a half mile...still feeling good. I approach what I think will be a good place to turn around...still relaxed...feeling strong...having a good time...Garmin says I'm at 1.1 mi. I look at my other wrist and Polar tells me that my HR is 182. WHAT THE F**K?!?!?!?!?!? OK, I'm 38 years old...if my HR is at 182, I should be seeing spots in front of my eyes but I'm not even breathing that hard...even though my pace was probably about the fastest I've run in quite a while.

I figure the answer is one of three things...I wonder what y'all think.
1) My mental state was such that I somehow got into a zone where I didn't realize how much I was pushing myself.

2) There were some power lines or something interfering with my HRM...I almost always run with my Garmin and my Polar on so I don't think they are conflicting.

3) The Nike dri-fit shirt I was wearing caused some sort of static electricty while I was running by rubbing up against my chest strap...This is probably it and I just thought of it while I was typing this post. In fact, if I thought of it earlier, I probably wouldn't have started typing...but what the heck, I was nearly done.

By the way, if any of you find it amusing that I'm out there with a $150 GPS device on my left wrist, a $150 HRM on my right wrist, and a $300 MP3 player on my arm...I don't blame you. It cracks me up every time I do it and I feel like a total geek. Whatever, I don't really want to give up any of the equipment so I'll live with it.

Please let me know what you think...maybe there's another possibility I haven't considered.

Cheers.
-CJ

Is that abnormally high for YOU? Age and weight aside it would be possible to really only be 70-80% max heart rate, did you you watch it for the rest of the run and the cooldown? If so did it level out and start reading normal? As for the dork factor, I suppose its their but rest assured if I could afford it I would use the same shiat while I run ;)

cjbruin: Did you forget to leave out the part that you were running behind a group of absolutely beautiful women? :)

Seriously though, any chance you just zoned out for 6/10 of a mile and were running faster than you had planned?

Depending on which HRM I'm wearing, I see #2 (interference) pretty reliably at some spots on my running and bike routes. It's easy to check if this is it - just go back to the spot where it happened and walk, so pace can't be a factor. If it happens again, it's the location; if not, it's something else but at least you have ruled out one possible cause.

Better yet, did you take your own pulse to confirm the HRM? Maybe it was wrong.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the dri-fit/coolmax shirt I was wearing was causing some sort of static by rubbing up against the chest strap.

Zack, did you not read the part that said I was in Cleveland? "group of absolutely beautiful women" sheesh.