Is it my heart or Garmin that's gone crazy ?

[whibbles]

I've been running for 4 years now and at the age of 69, I am still running regularly but at a bit slower pace during the winter, I had a good (not) parkrun on a cold windy day @ 36:20 with a 5 minute warm up walk and I was in my red zone just for 2% with a pace of 7:15 min/km. Today, I just decided to go for a slower run on the greenway near me. I didnt feel I was overexerting myself and didnt look at my Garmin until the end. I was shocked to see I'd been in my red zone (over 150bpm) for 63% with a pace of 8:13min/km and 5 minutes slower !!! I'd be very interested if anyone else if anyone sees these kinds of variations in the space of 5 days. Thanks in advance

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

Not variations no but the max heart rate of 220-age was too low for me so i raised it, my first run on c25k my heart rate reached 186 now it’s regularly 165 by the end of a longer run but wrist based heart rate watches can be confused between heart rate and cadence, when we went for a long steep hill walk yesterday my garmin said heart rate 107 crikey i thought that’s no more than getting up to put the kettle on so i think it is a bit confused as it was beating like mad on that hill, it went up a bit when we slowly ran back down

As long as you feel ok I wouldn’t worry though

[whibbles in reply to SueAppleRun]

I've been trying to run slower this year in the aerobic range Z2 or Z3 but I'd probably have to walk all the way 😉 I am not worried about my heart - just the rest of my body !

[Curlygurly2 Graduate10]

Yes, I was following a HR zone based plan I found on GC, and after a few weeks I found my HR was increasingly bandy,,, running at 6 Billion Dollar Man speeds had it shoot up top Z5, then sprinting would put it below Z1 - I.E. no pulse detected....I got in touch with Garmin, gave me a reset, and it seems to be better now. I'd suggest keeping an eye on it with that in mind.

[whibbles in reply to Curlygurly2]

Thx... usually my Garmin is pretty accurate and on a 30km bike ride this week , I was in zones 1-2 for 75% of the time so I'll check again when I do a (non) slow parkrun on Saturday

[Lizcanrun Graduate10]

I don't really know much about this stuff. But recently someone said their Garmin was more accurate if they did it up one notch tighter and others agreed...

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate in reply to Lizcanrun]

That’s useful to know thanks, i wear mine loose

[Hidden in reply to Lizcanrun]

I have a Fitbit and they recommend pushing further up your arm (so it it tighter) when exercising to get a better reading.

[whibbles]

thanks for the tips.... I will try it but hopefully it was just a one-off experience ?

[KaryB]

My heart rate seems to be all over the place the last few weeks too. My fitness age has dropped from 22 to 40 and I'mdoing nothingdifferent. The heart rate reading don't match the way I'm feeling when running.