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Garmin HRM showing big spike in HR at beginning of run
Hi, I have been using my Garmin Forerunner 210 week in week out since about June. It has worked faultlessly. However, for the last 10 days I have noticed that it shows a VERY big spike in my heart rate at the beginning of my run. During this part of my run I am not working very hard and am not out of breath at all. In fact I am just getting going and I am careful not to start fast.
On my last run I thought it might be poor contact with the strap so I made a specific effort to wet the contact area with saliva before I set off. It still happened.
You can see some screen shots of my heart rate since this started happening here:
http://ninjakhan.co.uk/2012/11/27/heart-rate-monitor-spiking/
Any ideas what is wrong and I how I can fix it? Really annoying as I am sure it is throwing the calories burned figure to a higher number than it should be.
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Comments
Most likely static electricity from a synthetic shirt, which is a bigger problem in the cold, dry air of late autumn/early winter.
Possible solutions here.
I get this behaviour with my HRM as well, but just live with it. The calories burned figure during exercise depends far more on distance run than heart rate, so I personally wouldn't worry unduly about this. Electrode gel, or a sheet of Bounce in the tumble dryer seem like simple things to try if you're determined to solve the problem.
Have you started wearing an extra layer in the last ten days, or a long sleeve shirt?
I have noticed that the HR strap doesn't work very well with my new jacket, whereas never had an issue with my gilet or various tops. As Njord says, I know its a false reading, so I just ignore it until it sorts itself out later in the run.
I am wearing a long sleeve shirt but i was wearing that before this started happening. I will try the various things to fix it that are out there on the net such as warming up first and then applying liquid to the contacts. However, based on njords comment i won't worry about it too much if calories burned are not massively impacted.
Clean the monitor connection thingys with vinegar use a cotton bud or tissue to get right in there
Washed it out and made sure the strap was throughly soaked before going out on my run. Worked fine! Ok it was a bit uncomfortable but given that i was running in rain and wind it was not such a pain in the grander scheme of things