Max Heart Rate and Cold Weather (Read 1024 times)

Hey everybody! I just have a quick question. I recently got a Polar RS100 as a gift. I'm loving the whole heart-rate thing, but I have noticed one little glitch. Lately, I have been running outside and it's been REALLY cold (sub 20-degrees with a windchill of about 2-degrees). Whenever I come back in and check the stats, my average is normal but my max is WAY too high. (I'm coming in at like 230-ish. From all the other tests I've done, I know my max is around 200.) Any idea what could be causing this? Does the cold weather have any effect on how it reads my heart rate?

I doubt your max is 200 230...that's high, but anyway, the HRM is spiking up,I used to get that on my polar s120, make sure you wet the contacts on the strap, is the strap falling down at all, mine did with the polar no matter how tight I had it...GL

Fixed. I think that's what you meant to say. If so, I agree. HRM's often show higher than expected numbers when there is poor contact. MTA: As far as cold weather affecting heart rate -- if anything, I would think that once you got moving your HR would be lower Hot weather produces higher than normal heart rates at a given level, in cold weather, the issue of overheating stops being an issue.

Jeff is right on. I may be seeing things but I've also found that more layers of clothing tend to increase the chances of spikes to my watch. Cotton shirts seem to give me better readings than technical fabrics. Of course, it could also be that it takes a bit longer to get a good sweat going and increase the electrical contact.

Maybe your body doesn't get along good with HRM's? Back when I was first starting out i had a heart rate monitor that would constantly spike to 230 or so. When I've tried using the HRM on my Forerunner 305 I get the same spikes... although not as frequently. Thus, I don't run with the HRM because it annoyed me. Maybe I just don't get along with HRM's. My experience!