Originally Posted by
urbanknight
But keep the heart rate monitor so you know if you should keep riding or call an ambulance.
A few years ago, I stopped at the bottom of a half-hour climb to strip off arm warmers, take a drink, etc. I glanced at my HRM - 244 bpm! I almost had a heart attack from that! What the.......!?!
But I checked my pulse, which was running around 100, so I figured it must be radio frequency interference. Next time I stopped there, same thing.
Then there was another time when I looked over my data from a ride and found that my HR had risen steadily during a descent, peaking at 170 bpm. That worried me, too, till I remembered I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary then, and later I read that HRMs sometimes do that as the wet clothing around them dries out.
So, as Reagan said, "Trust, but verify!"