27 replies to this topic

[FitzCameron]

hi all,

during a training session this mornign - my heart spiked at 231 BPM - when I saw it i nearly sent out the brown distress signal and stopped immediately - my HR took a long time to come down and averaged 130+ BPM for the next 30+ minutes.

As I type is a sedate (and perfectly normal) 45 BPM (at my desk, post coffee) - I'm keeping this sucker on all day....

I'm 40 so my peak HR should be in the region of 180 BPM - when I exercise is am pretty much always in the 150 - 160 BPM range. Today was a complete aberattion and to be honest it is kinda freakin me out...

Here's Garmin HRM output for review.

 HRM.JPG   44.86K   78 downloads



I have never had anything like this before. The work at the 2Km mark was hill work so was more strenuous than the 4Km mark which was on a flat oval - when it peaked.


One off?

FC

[chrisso]

Did it actually feel like your heart was beating that fast?

Any other signs like feeling faint/dizzy?

[chilliman]

FitzCameron, on Oct 29 2009, 12:05 PM, said:

.... my heart spiked at 231 BPM - when I saw it i nearly sent out the brown distress signal and stopped immediately -
HRM.JPG

As chrisso said did you feel as if your heart was pumping that fast ? What made you look at your hrm at that time, just a casual glance or you felt something was wrong ?

My complete uninformed guess would either be a case of AF where I would get it checked out by an expert, or in the case of you don't think your heart was pumping that high then maybe use some electrode gel or kyjelly on your hrm strap.

Good luck with it though FC, but if it doubt get it checked out.

[kb]

My advice would be not to rely on a gadget to tell you your HR.

Sit down and count it.

Pounds to peanuts it was a gadget error.

As the others said: were you symptomatic? Dizzy, unusually short of breath (more than just normally running SOB), did you have chest pain/tightness?

If your palpated HR matched the reading on your gadget and/or you had any of the above symptoms then get yourself to a doctor pronto.

kb

Edited by kb, 29 October 2009 - 12:03 PM.

[TheHulk]

Don't worry - its due to poor contact with the monitor. My 305 monitor worked perfectly for quite a while when new . Then I notice the same thing as yourself - not uncommon to get spikes of 220 + . And the bizzare thing was that as soon as I'd stop running , it would immediately come back to normal when comparing pulse at the wrist to the reading on the screen. I think the movement from running was affecting the electrodes contact .When the contact on the chest is poor , somehow other bio-rythms seem to be picked up .
I fixed the problem by rotating the monitor so the center section sits to the left of the sternum , which gives the electodes a flatter position on the skin. Also , before I go , I mix some table salt in sorbolene and smear it on the electrodes - gives far better conductivty than spit ! Completely problem free now for more than 12 months. Wish I could say the same for my running . Also make sure the band is as tight as it will go.

[Stonewalled]

My Polar F11 HRM also has misreads (I hope they are misreads) from time to time - usually earlier in a run - sometimes 235 and occassionally even 65 ( I wish!).

I have always put it down to the electrode not being wet enough or has too much salt on it or maybe even the signal not relaying well if I am wearing Skins on cooler days. Thought it may have been a battery issue but still played up once or twice after changing this. it doesn't happen all the time just every so often.

Its more annoying than anything when it happens as it mucks around with my runs Max HR. So much so its another reason why I'm keen on replacing it with a Garmin 310XT.

I agree with KB if you are genuinely concerned when it goes so high - stop, count your pulse and I'm sure you'll cease the worries.

Cheers

Stonewalled

[Mouse]

I had a heart rate scare on Tuesday. I couldn't work out why my heart rate was getting higher and higher - reaching 296 at which point I then realised NTR had adjusted the display settings and I was actually looking at the distance

[FitzCameron]

there was (fortunately) no pain or dizziness. What exactly made me look at the HRM at that point I'm not sure, but when I saw 209 BPM I went from as fast as I could go to zero in 1".

I did get a manual reading and whilst it was quick it was a few minutes after which is why I floated the topic but it was nothing near the 230+ mark when I uploaded the results this morning......

I think I'll get it checked out for piece of mind: it's funny as there was a bunch of very unfit 50+ year olds doing workouts beyond probably what they should have been - then I looked at my HR.....

Currently post lunch and a cup of tea, it's a placid 49 BPM.

I'm happy heaar about the misreads - I'll keep a check manually. Bloody technology......



FC

[sunny1]

Poor contact, powerlines, static electricity in your shirt, negative ions in the air ...

Mine read 203 just yesterday for about 3 minutes at the start of a run, then mysteriously went to 0. Funnily enough I didn't feel dead!! Had to saliver-up the contacts for it to go to something more normal. Was just a bit pissed that the unusually high reading would mess with my average HR for my run, which I am trying to keep in the lower zone for some of my runs. Total results for the run were ok though.

[nando]

I got my HR up to 255bpm in a race, and I subsequently found out it was due to Atrial Fibrillation (AF). Believe me, when it gets up to that level, you know your heart is racing, and don't need a monitor to tell you.

I would think it was a problem with the garmin, but no harm in getting a stress test done on your heart, just to make sure. In fact, I would recommend it even without this scare.

[Louise]

I often get dodgy reads in the first 30 minutes of a run. When I check it manually with 2 fingers against the jugular, the HRM seems to be reading the shadow beat as well. ie, my actual pulse rate is half that of the gadget (Polar or Garmin - they both do it).

And yeah, I'd hope that I would recognise something was wrong if I really was doing 230bpm!

[Bert]

When I got my first HRM I used to run at lunch time in the Domain (Sydney). After a while I noticed it was going very high at one spot where the road is actually quite flat, on the eastern side of the peninsula. I eventually worked out that it was being swamped by radar transmitters on navy ships at the Garden Island Dockyards on the other side of the bay. The cure was just to ignore it at that point, as I knew I wasn't reaching 300bpm and still standing, never mind running.

[Olmy]

I used to get very strange reading with my HRM, similar to others. At first just wetting it more would do the trick but it got to the point where is was completely unreliable and needed a service. It came back with a new strap and has been fine since. So, it may be something scary like AF and so may be worth getting checked, but more likely (unless you measured it yourself at the time the readings were funny) it was equipment problems. So change battery, make sure it is wet enough, and get it serviced if it keeps doing it.

[Bellthorpe]

Absent a real condition such as AF, and assuming that the electrodes are moist, the answer is to tighten the chest strap slightly. It stretches over time, and the simple 'buckle' also slips slightly over even a few days.

Edited by Bellthorpe, 29 October 2009 - 04:51 PM.

[Leofisio]

my HR monitor showed a HR of ZERO many times... and I am still here... healthy and alive!

[Luckylegs]

In the "Garmin Forerunner 205/206 Owner's Manual" p.56....as well as things like cleaning the sensors, applying moisture, changing batteries, it gives this tip:

"If you have trouble with erratic heart rate readings, position the transmitter on your back."

So there you go: another solution to add to the confusion!

It also mentions that synthetic fabrics that rub or flap against the monitor can create static electricity that interferes with heart rate signals.
It's a wonder we've not all been electrocuted by now!

This morning I was running really, really, really fast ! Later, after downloading the run onto "Garmin Connect" I saw a MHR of 106. Noting to get excited about I know. My MHR is 158 as far as I know, so a glitch of some sort like (1) I was wearing the monitor upside down - yes, I was - and (2) it was slowly sliding down with the sweat to an area closer to the hips than the heart!

So, as the good book says: the strap needs "...to fit snug against the body."

I might try wearing it on my back tomorrow. If a camel can have a hump, why can't I? LL

[chilliman]

From Fitzcameron's Sig said:

A run followed by a cool beer - what more could one ask for....?

sunny1, on Oct 29 2009, 02:59 PM, said:

Was just a bit pissed......

And from Wikipedia under AF - Etiology said:

Excessive alcohol consumption ("binge drinking" or "holiday heart syndrome"). Even otherwise healthy middle-aged women who consumed more than 2 drinks daily were 60% more likely to develop AF.

You 2 will have to cut back on the grog I think.


Edit: Fixed quotes.

Edited by chilliman, 29 October 2009 - 09:22 PM.

[Bellthorpe]

Of course it's important to keep studies such as that in context. As the authors wrote:

In the present study, the risk of developing incident atrial fibrillation was small, as would be expected for this middle-aged population. As a consequence, the absolute increase in risk associated with consuming 2 or more drinks per day was small (0.66 events per 1000 person-years of follow-up).

[chilliman]

Thanks for clearing that up Bellthorpe, it wouldn't go down too well at the gunnies.

[FitzCameron]

Thanks for taking the time out everyone to reply on this one - it certainly set my heart at ease - Literally! I wore the HRM all day yesterday and rarely did it go over 60BPM

I'll try ALL the tips; change the battery, make sure I have better connections, drink more beer, etc.

I am as fit as i have ever been so such an errant spike just 'seemed out of character'

Always one to watch my health, I'll suss out where I can do a combined VO2 Max test, Heart stress, the kit and caboodle done - any suggestions where in Melbourne?


Thanks again everyone and have a great weekend.

FC

[durianrider]

Ive got a garmin 310xt and yeah I get crazy heart rates sometimes. Its usually around heavy electrical areas up here on the gold coast.

Like people say, just sit down and count your heart rate for 15 seconds and x it by 4. Then call an ambulance if neccessary!

Train smart
Eat smart
Stay above ground..

Sounds like a good deal to me!

Edited by CoolRunning Admin, 09 July 2010 - 03:00 PM.
removed possible spam link

[eoin]

kb, on Oct 29 2009, 12:02 PM, said:

My advice would be not to rely on a gadget to tell you your HR.

Sit down and count it.

Pounds to peanuts it was a gadget error.

kb

I was doing circuits of the local rugby pitch recently (physio said to only run on grass for a week or two), and it was only when I connected the Garmin to my PC later that I saw a blip from 160 ish to 205. I wasn't out of breath, no dizzy spells, obviously no hills!
I put it down to equipment malfunction.

[photogirl]

According to my Garmin I've exceeded my MHR by 10-20% on a number of occassions and am still here to tell the tale. It wasn't a clear 'high HR on hard section of run' or anything like that just random. I decided it was just an anomaly and let it go.

[Bellthorpe]

How does your Garmin device know your maximum heat rate? Presumably you told it. How did you ascertain it?

[UnfitnessFanatic]

Bellthorpe, on Jul 9 2010, 01:52 PM, said:

How does your Garmin device know your maximum heat rate? Presumably you told it. How did you ascertain it?

How do you ascertain your max hr?
My wife is a little worried about hitting 206bpm for a fair amount of time during the gold coast half last weekend and wants to get it checked. I know there is a rule of thumb, something like 220- your age? But surely there is a more accurate way of working it out than that.

[KnockoutMouse]

UnfitnessFanatic, on Jul 9 2010, 02:29 PM, said:

How do you ascertain your max hr?
My wife is a little worried about hitting 206bpm for a fair amount of time during the gold coast half last weekend and wants to get it checked. I know there is a rule of thumb, something like 220- your age? But surely there is a more accurate way of working it out than that.

There is, but it hurts....

[Bellthorpe]

UnfitnessFanatic, on Jul 9 2010, 02:29 PM, said:

How do you ascertain your max hr?
My wife is a little worried about hitting 206bpm for a fair amount of time during the gold coast half last weekend and wants to get it checked. I know there is a rule of thumb, something like 220- your age? But surely there is a more accurate way of working it out than that.

The most accurate would be a stress test, but it's not really necessary.

In your wife's case, it would be fair to say that her maximum heart rate is more than 206 ...

What does she want to get checked? Some dude in a white coat could nod as she runs on a treadmill, and say "yep, 206 ... 207 ... oh please don't barf all over the treadmill"

[UnfitnessFanatic]

Bellthorpe, on Jul 9 2010, 03:33 PM, said:

The most accurate would be a stress test, but it's not really necessary.

In your wife's case, it would be fair to say that her maximum heart rate is more than 206 ...

What does she want to get checked? Some dude in a white coat could nod as she runs on a treadmill, and say "yep, 206 ... 207 ... oh please don't barf all over the treadmill"

Haha I would pay to see that.

She was a bit concerned it was high thats all. I told her she survived so whats the problem? But she is a bit worried, I might just go home and say I bet you can't get it any higher! lol