Heart rate monitors?

[Osiris]

I recently bought one of those "fitness" watches that all the cool kids seem to have, but now I'm wondering how to make best use of the built-in heart rate monitor. So far I've found that my highest heart rate on a recent ride was 145 bpm and that my lowest resting rate (while lying in bed) was around 46 bpm. Not sure what to make of that, except that I could never get my resting rate that low even in high school, so I'm a bit surprised that it could drop down that far 40 years later. I seem to recall that my highest heart rate was somewhere near 180 bpm, and that was while I was running flat out on a treadmill at the gym some 30 years ago. I wouldn't expect it to go that high today, but I haven't run any tests yet.

So how exactly am I supposed to use the heart rate monitor in training? I'm sure some of you must be using one of these things.

 

[RojoRacing]

wrist HR monitor values should be taken with a huge grain of salt I find they are ok for resting HR measurements but can be all over the place for actual activities. I use garmin 935 as an everyday watch and watch my daily resting HR to give me an idea of how fatigued or recovered I am.

 

[ccf]

I have a Fitbit, and like rojo, I use it to keep track of my resting heart rate. When riding I use a Rythm arm-band heart rate monitor, and wrap it high on my forearm. I found that the chest-mounted Wahoo heart rate monitor would slide down my torso.

 

[Osiris]

I use garmin 935 as an everyday watch and watch my daily resting HR to give me an idea of how fatigued or recovered I am.

So how does it tell you these things? Is your heart rate noticeably higher when you're fatigued?

 

[hurri47]

Here's one way to look at it. Forget speed. Forget cadence. Once you know what heart rate you want to be working at, that monitor is the only gauge you need, especially if you are near your maximum. Climb that hill without worrying about your chest exploding!

-Dan

 

[Osiris]

I have a Fitbit, and like rojo, I use it to keep track of my resting heart rate. When riding I use a Rythm arm-band heart rate monitor, and wrap it high on my forearm. I found that the chest-mounted Wahoo heart rate monitor would slide down my torso.

I have an old heart rate monitor with a chest strap, but I think I bought it way back in 2011, and my much newer Garmin Edge doesn't seem to recognize it.

 

[RojoRacing]

So how does it tell you these things? Is your heart rate noticeably higher when you're fatigued?

Like most things physiological you learn as you observe over time and take notes. My typical recorded lower range RHR is 41-42, that’s me fully recovered after being lazy for a few days. I say recorded because the garmin doesn’t just post the absolute lowest value it sees, there a bit or data averaging I believe because my HR will drop into the high 30’s sometimes and my resting is still recorded at 41. Now if I go out and do very hard 2-3 hour ride it’ll jump up to 48-50 and start going down the next day 2-3bpm each day. If my hard ride was more like 8 hours or more it’ll jump up to 48-50 and stay there for a day then drop down slowly like before. If I’m lazy for too long and don’t do any rides for several days or more my HR will bottom out then go back up and settle around 45. It’s not an exact science but over time if you already know how to listen to your body, this just confirm was you already feel and helps quantify it.

Last 4 hours from just before I woke up, you’ll notice it shows a low of 43 but my recorded RHR for this morning is 45-46 per the next picture. The drop out was me removing the watch to take a shower.


So I rode hard Sunday last week and my RHR jumped up and started to fall over M-W starting this weeks graph. Wednesday I did and easy 110 miles after work so that night it jumps up but because the effort was easy I drops straight back down. I haven’t ridden since and you can see it start to go up and I ended a in-training state. Maybe I’ll show you what it looks like at the end of this week when I do my 600 mile ride in two days and then chill at my parents place for a couple days.

 

[3WHELZ]

I use both a Wahoo TICKR X Heart Rate Monitor and a Samsung Galaxy Watch. The TICKR seems to be slightly more elevated by 1-3 (edit) beats.

 

[3bs]

i have fenix 5 and a wahoo TICKR. they are always within a couple beats.

i use the watch all the time including rides,and just use the TICKR on my stationary. and it is fascinating to see what your heart actually does. particulary for me i think it is noteable that my heart rate changes a lot more at work than i ever expected. training wise, my heart rate climbs quickly at the start of a ride and then settles back down as my lungs and everything get into sync. if i get in a specific range, i can pretty much ride endlessly. at elevation i have to be more aware, becuase as i get less air, the heart picks up the pace to compensate

i ride a lot with doctors and also a guy who is a fanatic. they all use their heart rates more than any other training measure. they are all in great shape and are good riders, I dont think that is a coincidence.

 

[hurri47]

The most interesting thing I ever learned from my HRM was that my pulse increased by ten with the simple act of riding out onto Oracle Road.

-Dan

 

[ed72]

I use a Garmin strap. I'm 61. Max HR is only 173 ish nowadays. I try to do most of my training at no more than 180-age. I make 315 watts at 150 BPM and a little over 200 watts at my target aerobic HR of 119. Dr. Maffetone is the HRM guru in my book. As my fitness increases, I make more power at lower heart rates. Stoke volume improves. Lots of people say monitoring HR is useless, I disagree. Power is more important but making more power at lower HR is an important metric for me.

 

[jond]

Osiris I use heart rate and power metrics. After baselines become familiar I can avoid dehydration’s worst experiences by monitoring those two metrics on hotter long days on the bike.

 

[ed72]

Osiris I use heart rate and power metrics. After baselines become familiar I can avoid dehydration’s worst experiences by monitoring those two metrics on hotter long days on the bike.

So true!!

Also, hyperthermia. If HR goes high and skin is pink, you are about to be in trouble.

 

[Osiris]

So true!!

Also, hyperthermia. If HR goes high and skin is pink, you are about to be in trouble.

Once while mountain biking on a particularly hot/humid day in July, I began to feel queasy and lost all my energy. After pulling over to rest, I noticed that my HR stayed high and wouldn't slow down. Not a good sign. Fortunately I was near the trail head, so I managed to walk the bike back to the car. It wasn't the result of dehydration, because I had plenty of water with me on the ride, so I'm not sure what happened. Another rider said it sounded like "heat exhaustion", though I'm not sure that's even a medical term.

 

[Osiris]

I use a Garmin strap. I'm 61. Max HR is only 173 ish nowadays. I try to do most of my training at no more than 180-age. I make 315 watts at 150 BPM and a little over 200 watts at my target aerobic HR of 119. Dr. Maffetone is the HRM guru in my book. As my fitness increases, I make more power at lower heart rates. Stoke volume improves. Lots of people say monitoring HR is useless, I disagree. Power is more important but making more power at lower HR is an important metric for me.

I finally convinced my Garmin Edge to recognize my old Bontrager HR monitor. Now I just need to create space on my Edge 520 screen to display HR. Only five data fields available unfortunately, so something else will need to go.

 

[RojoRacing]

I finally convinced my Garmin Edge to recognize my old Bontrager HR monitor. Now I just need to create space on my Edge 520 screen to display HR. Only five data fields available unfortunately, so something else will need to go.

5 data fields? Old people eye problems?

 

[Don1]

I wondered that

 

[Emeljay]

Old people eye problems

Yeah, us old(er) people, as I'm right in the mid of the Boomer gen, I will answer this

And it's not just eyesight, can (and will be) hearing, joints, skeletal, muscular, lung and circulatory, immunodeficiencies, digestive, nutritional distractions, etc, global warming and/or the solar minimum, earthquakes, sunamies, volcanic eruptions, etc So what do I have to pay attention to as an "ever increasingly experienced commuting/recreational cyclist?!", especially as my most recent bodily rebellion is my right eye detaching the retina, and after the surgery it complaining ever more by clouding the lens, with this next surgery to make me ever more bionic with a man made lens, whew, time to recover and get back to commuting and cycling just for fun! I like some data fields, especially miles covered, but one needed to list how much enjoyment along with time/miles/people met along the way/ experiences shared, etc. So yes give us more than performance data fields that could be shared with our cycling community back and forth to motivate us old people to keep going

 

[Osiris]

5 data fields? Old people eye problems?

I use a Garmin Edge 520. The screen is small, and 5 seems to be the maximum number of data fields you can display, so I would have to get rid of one of them in order to show heart rate.

 

[trplay]

You might double-check that. I believe the garmin 520 has five screens and can hold up 10 fields on each one.