Hi all,

Went for a ride today 25 miles...nothing huge, but it has a few good hills in it. Was riding with my brother so it was a little competitive. When I checked my Polar at the end of the ride I had an average HR of 155 and a MAX HR of 223! Usually I have a max of 195 or so.

I am a 30 yo male, moderatly fit, can run 5 km in just under 20 mins, can comfortably average the above ride at 14-15mph...nothing huge but not unfit...about 16% body fat...resting pulse around 55bpm.

I thought my HR MAX should have been somewhere around 190 or so...certainly not 223. Am I broken?? I did not feel as though I busted my hump, certainly nothing hurt....I don't even know exactly when it occurred.

Any comments??? Any body elses HR experiences welcome......Thanks...

Cheers

No you are not broken. Your HRM is not reading things properly. Most often happens when you have speend and/or cadence meters and riding near high voltage lines or strap not placed properly.

It's a real pain in the A, especially when the strap's batteries are running low.

I anticipate the batteries are OK as the Polar is only 4 months old....but I guess it may have sat on the shelf for a while??

Thanks

Polar also recommend moistening the sensor pads before use, but they don't tell you to keep the patch between the pads free of moisture.

Even with fresh batteries they can get a little confused once in a while. Mine read 228 the other day and when I put fingers to my neck before deciding if I should just fall over there was no way I was ticking over above the 160's. A few seconds later the HRM started reading sensibly again.

Polar reading outrageously high heart rate happens way too often. The two major culprits are electrical interference and flapping jersey. You can't do much about the interference, but getting a tighter fitting jersey helps a lot. I took in my jersies across the chest, and now I have much less problem with the crazy high heart rate readings.

Thanks guys...will check out your suggestions...much appreciated....

Cheers

The flapping jersey is the problem. Especially when you get in the drops down hill.

I'm having trouble understanding the flapping jersey effect. Can anyone clear this up for me?

as you ride along at pace you will "create a headwind" for yourself. This causes the front of your jersey to flap and ripple, especially when you get down low.

How that affects the transmitter I dunno. Maybe polar have some answers

FWIW, my Cardiosport HRM does the same thing on occasion. First time it happened it freaked me out a bit. Lick the contact points before straping it on (yikes!! that came out wrong!).

Mark

If you download your excercise data onto the Polar Precision Performance program and observe if there is any spikes of your heartrate which would indicate there was some kind of interference.But if the heartrate was increased gradually then it could possibly be your highest heartrate ever.

Synthetic jersey material rubbing against a plastic chest strap. The Polar site explains it best.

You're right, but it's a better practice to work out whether the HRM is showing faulty readings straight away. Atrial Fibrillation or Heart Attack are not conditions you want to mess with. Just take your pulse and watch the monitor at the same time. On Polar HRM's you should see the little heart filled each time you feel a heartbeat on your pulse.

But, but, but... I'm doing all this riding to make my jersey LOOSER.

My Polar HRM has picked up others Polar signals and combined the count. This really alarmed me the first couple of times it happened. I have to be in close for this to happen - most often is when in spinning sessions. Now I try to set up away from other Polar wearers.

i had a 280 hr once, after a 20km/h (treadmill) sprint, measured it by hand so it's real, funny thing is i think it actually increased once i realised how dangerously high it was lol

At 5 beats a second your heart's not exactly pumping much blood around. More like flapping in the breeze. Any lightheadedness? Tingly fingers or toes?

HAH!
Ya, ok. First of all you wouldn't be able to count it by hand that fast as it is practically 5 beats/ second.
Second, you would probably be dead by now if you didn't go to a cardiologist right after.

yes, yes, and yes, i don't think it was the time i fainted, no that was the flexed arm hang a year or two before that, i did many a stupid things when i was a teenager. and i swear i'm not making this up, i usualy count 6 seconds then multiply by 10, or 12, the /2 x10

ah-ha! static electricity effects...makes sense now!

I dont have the polar program and I dont think mine will download. The polar has that idividual thing where it only picks up the one strap so wasn't reading anyone elses. I always wet the sensor before putting it on...then the sweat takes over! I imagine it must have been the jersey thing, but will keep an eye on it.

I did an ECG and some bloods on myself at work last night....no issues....as healthy as can be. I had no symptoms that would indicate anything untoward.

Thanks for your help....

280 would be very hard to count and it is easily mis-estimated if using a short (e.g. 5 second) interval because of start/stop bias errors; 12 or 15 seconds is a more reliable interval. Although my max now has really fallen down (160s typically), when I was running/racing I did get high rates in one workout in particular: 3 x 3000m (1.86mi) on a rolling course, with 10min jogging in between, run at 10,000 "goal pace". I got 200-210 after the first, 210-215 after the second and 225-235 after the third.