Spike in Heartrate (Read 792 times)

Is a spike in the heartrate, like the one shown below common when wearing the Garmin Heartrate monitor. It's not like I was aware of the sharp increase while running. Upon more detailed investigation I was running on a slight downslope at the time this spike was recorded. I was running with some sort of flu like virus which has me a little congested. I would think I would have noticed such an increase in effort, is it just a flaw in the capture of readings, perhaps?

Please provide an elevation profile for this activity if possible.

Thanks for your thoughts Trent!

Very likely a measurement error. Interesting how noisy the HR reading was up until about 1.5km, then very smooth for the rest of your run. My guess is the electrodes on your chest strap had poor contact with your dry skin until you started sweating more. Also the drastic noisy to smooth change at 1.5km, you likely made an adjustment to the strap either consciously or by accident.

Very likely a measurement error. Interesting how noisy the HR reading was up until about 1.5km, then very smooth for the rest of your run. My guess is the electrodes on your chest strap had poor contact with your dry skin until you started sweating more. Also the drastic noisy to smooth change at 1.5km, you likely made an adjustment to the strap either consciously or by accident.

Thanks for the response, I'm leaning that way as well, some sort of a faulty reading.

backstretch is running at about 6min/km. Since there isnt a timescale on the graph, you have to convert. The width of the spike from where it reads about 155, spikes up to 176, then back down to 155 is about 0.05 km. Running at 6min/km, this means the spike occurred in a timeframe of 0.3 min, or 18 seconds. For his heartrate to jump from about 155 bpm to 175 bpm and back down in about 18 seconds and for him not to feel it indicates a ton of measurement error.

backstretch- change the x axis to time,zoom in on your graph on the spike, and attach it to this thread. Trent, are you a cardiologist or cardiac expert? If not , please cite a source on that BS. Chronotropic response has a 1 to 1 linear relationship with metabolic rate. You can have heart rate spikes (a palpatation), but you will almost always feel them. For him to not feel them, not likely. Wilkoff, BL, Firstenberg, MS Cardiac chronotropic responsiveness. Ellenbogan, KA Kay, GN Wilkoff, BL eds. Clinical cardiac pacing and defibrillation 2000,508-532 WB Saunders. Philadelphia, PA:

Hey backstretch, could you have coughed or had a breathing issue at that point?

I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in the middle MTA: I don't like throwing around credentials typically.