Heart Rate Monitors: Where to start?

Black Licorice

Black Licorice

Newbie with Hope!
Thinking about picking up a heart rate monitor to.... keep a log of my heart rate.

What are some things I should be aware of while looking to purchase a heart rate monitoring device?

I have an iPhone and would appreciate a device that lynced with..... STRAVA. :oops: :lol:
(not totally married to this idea)
 
If you want to record your heart rate to your iPhone, get one that has Bluetooth. I've used a Wahoo TICKR for 18 months without issue, changing the coin battery every 6 months just so it doesn't chance dying on one of my rides...that's about 400-500 hours of use...and it should easily last for 1000 hours. There are many others out there. To keep it simple that one is affordable (59.95 @ REI) and is also able to transmit via ANT+ to Garmin devices if you decide a cycling computer/gps/fitness watch is in your future. I'd stay away from the wrist wearables...dirt/sunscreen/sweat/crashing have a way of screwing up their data.
 
Give in to the dark side...just go ahead and get a Garmin. When you buy the bundle with the HRM, it's actually not a bad deal and the Garmin uploads to Strava with ease.
 
STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!!!!

So you want to redline your heart by chasing PRs and KOMs on STRAVA, but you want to monitor your heart so you can dial it back when you are pushing too hard. UNPLUG - my good friend. Listen to your body with the senses you have. Does constant digital monitoring and analysis increase your fun?

On the other hand, WTH do I know, I am the slowest climber on this forum. :oops: :wave:
 
Actually, Herz, knowing your max HR and your anaerobic HR, you can use the HRM to keep it under anaerobic and somewhere in the "working, but not popping out of your chest" range and use it to increase your endurance, strength, and fitness. Which is the ONLY reason to have one. 8-)
 
Of course you can....

But I would guess there are also some pretty cool built-in bio-feedback mechanisms that will give you the same information.
 
I only look at mine afterwards...I have an alarm set on my Garmin that I use during races to avoid "going into the red" too early. Its a valuable training tool...just like Strava can be. Just focus on the riding, the HRM along with your climbing Strava data will tell you if you're improving, or if you were really as slow/fast given as good/bad you were feeling...just don't get a power meter on a mountain bike...that's just silly.
 
Black Licorice said:
Thinking about picking up a heart rate monitor to.... keep a log of my heart rate.

What are some things I should be aware of while looking to purchase a heart rate monitoring device?

I have an iPhone and would appreciate a device that lynced with..... STRAVA. :oops: :lol:
(not totally married to this idea)
Click to expand...

BL, I have a Polar Bluetooth HR strap/transponder that you can use, and if it works for you you can have it. LMK. I bought it awhile ago to use with my phone and my phone sucked, killed the battery and lost the Bluetooth signal all the time. I ended up with a Garmin 500.

I will not opine on the usefulness of a HRM for YOU. You have to figure that out. Monitoring HR works for me as I know what rate I need to stay below (which is way before max HR) so as to have any longevity without blowing up. Sometimes I can tell that threshold easily without a HRM. Other times (like when it's hot and humid) I wouldn't know how much higher rate I'm at without looking.
 
knucklebuster said:
Monitoring HR works for me as I know what rate I need to stay below so as to have any longevity without blowing up.
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This. :clap:

Maybe it's my age (which is similar to Dave's), but you whippersnappers out there please consider this premise - you do not have to go farther and faster every ride. Or ever. If you ride a trail 100 times - some days you will be faster, some days you will be slower - regardless of your equipment, your digital feedback, your training regimens, etc. Learn to love that. It is fun to make progress and it is fun to go fast. It's fun to beat people too. Just never substitute analysis for joy. Live long, ride hard, but enjoy the Sh!t out of every ride if you can!

Dave's reason for using a HRM is to not blow up his ticker, so he can enjoy many tomorrows. Seems like the best reason there is. And he will still smoke ALL of you down a hill. Well, BL might give him a run for his money...if he's not too busy acquiring and analyzing data! :wave:
 
I have the Garmin 510 with the heart rate monitor, and use it pretty frequently... My primary use, though, is for more accurate caloric data. As a recovering fat guy and food addict, I still count everything I eat, and I want to know how many calories I burn on rides. I know that Strava and the Garmin will report roughly double the caloric expenditure for a given ride as compared to the numbers I get when wearing the heart rate monitor.
 
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bicycling.com/training/fitness/lactate-threshold-101" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bicycling.com/training/fitne ... eshold-101</a>

Can be useful if you can find the HR that correlates with your lactate threshold to know how to manage your endurance and fatigue build-up. It's not as intuitive for some people and getting gadgets and going by % of max HR can help guide people to find the ballpark range. For me it's around 125 BPM, which may seem rather low, but is actually average for someone my age. To me, it feels like I'm barely pushing it, but that's the intensity I know that I can maintain for a 24 hr race, if I choose to do one. Pros try and raise this threshold to higher levels through training; I would not be surprised if some of them had it at something like 150 bpm. Would explain how these Leadville 100 record-breaking-men are pushing a pace of 16 mph over 100 dirt miles. :shock:
 
herzalot said:
STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!!!!

So you want to redline your heart by chasing PRs and KOMs on STRAVA, but you want to monitor your heart so you can dial it back when you are pushing too hard. UNPLUG - my good friend. Listen to your body with the senses you have. Does constant digital monitoring and analysis increase your fun?

On the other hand, WTH do I know, I am the slowest climber on this forum. :oops: :wave:
Click to expand...

HAHA! Actually for health reasons. In my initial post I had typed out a long winded "why" but I deleted it.

Starting with the first time I ever mountain biked, I remember stopping at the bottom near Lynx after riding from the church. Once I stopped to rest, I nearly passed out and was very light headed.

Many times during riding, when I stop I start to feel the same way. I remember riding with Knucklebuster and feeling that way when we took breaks ON BORREGO barely into our ride on a slow paced ride at that.

I always attributed it to being out of shape and just not knowing how to pace myself. However, I notice that this happens to me during basketball as well where I will play the first one or two points only to feel very light headed only to eventually "warm up" and feel fine. This even happens on downhills sometimes where it feels like I have forgotten to breath. Many times I ride the top half of Lynx when I first get to Aliso and when I stopped I noticed that I am sometimes very light headed.

So recently, I have been checking my heart rate when I get to the top of mustard to see where it's at. My heart rate is at about 120-125 after climbing straight from Ralphs to the top of mustard. (Heart rate at my doctors one morning was at like 83!)

I spoke to my doctor about this and he mentioned that I may not be hydrating enough. So I figured I would start to focus a lot on hydration as well as monitoring where my heart rate is during strenuous activities before I go with the next step. For some reason, I feel like my heart just isn't into working very hard when it should. :?

Thanks for all the recommendations guys! KnuckleBuster - I'd love to try yours out! I see on STRAVA you are riding during the day - let me know when you ride, I am pretty much free during the day.
 
I tried a Heart Rate Monitor for racing back in the 90's on the recommendation of my Trainer. He told me that I should keep my BPM's between 175 to 185. During a race wearing one, when I looked down and saw that I was at 212 in the heat of the race, I later told him to GFH... ;)
I would rather win races than monitor my heart rate. But I agree with the Garmin all-in-one. I have the Edge 705 and LOVE it! :D
 
I got a Garmin Edge 510 at XMas with a HRM, because I wanted a Garmin, and getting a HRM seemed like one of the things that I should do. (Educated purchase decision, I know).

After wearing it for ~6 months or so, I can tell you why I like riding with it.

1) While I can certainly tell between heart throbbing, holy crap I'm working too hard, and I'm doing good... I sometimes glance down to see the data point as a reminder to control my breathing. Oh look, that says 182 and I just got to a somewhat flat part on Mathis, I should focus on breathing for this flat to lower my HR before the next climb.

2) Visualization of my Fitness and Fatigue. While this is likely not scientific enough for Varaxis, I really like this tool.
pfE0Y76.png


You can tell at a glance where my hand injury was! But you can also see where I was pushing to get ready for my two 50 mile rides (both in April). You can see the beginnings of my training plan going into place in that first bit after the hand injury. Early in the year I was almost strictly a weekend rider, and the improvements/declines were very peak/valley. I want to spread out my riding and get more weekday riding in as I lead up to VQ and you can see that the past few weeks it's far more shallower, and should result in a faster increase in fitness.

Regardless, this is mostly for my after ride number crunching. I enjoy the ride (or grimace through the climbs as appropriate) while I'm out there, and when I get back home, I can spend 15-60 minutes pouring through the data prolonging the enjoyment of my sport/hobby.
 
Mikie said:
I tried a Heart Rate Monitor for racing back in the 90's on the recommendation of my Trainer. He told me that I should keep my BPM's between 175 to 185. During a race wearing one, when I looked down and saw that I was at 212 in the heat of the race, I later told him to GFH... ;)
I would rather win races than monitor my heart rate. But I agree with the Garmin all-in-one. I have the Edge 705 and LOVE it! :D
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That is also something to keep in mind... As we get older, our max heart rate decreases. A 20-something can get away with a heart rate north of 200, but it would land this 45 year old in the hospital with blown gaskets. Cougar and I are about 10 years apart. He mentions hitting 182 on Mathis, but I know that I very rarely hit 175, and I'm usually in the 160s on rough climbs. 182 would be bad...

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Getti...ics/Target-Heart-Rates_UCM_434341_Article.jsp

The relevant part:
 

Attachments

My max HR so far in my ~6mo of recording is 195 (And I hit that Sunday during the race :P). My resting HR is in the 60s. But ya, age plays a part for sure.
 
I run the Garmin HRM with my 800. It works great. I have a buddy that runs one that syncs via Bluetooth to his I-phone. He says it works well for him also, and it a lot cheaper than buying a Garmin. I'm a bit of a data junkie, so I like to run through the stats after a ride. I don't pay much attention to my Garmin while I'm riding unless I'm using it to guide me on a new trail. I also don't worry about segment times and stuff while I'm out there, but it's fun to compare rides when I'm done. Strange how sometimes your times are fast when you thought you were moving slow and vice versa. Also, within the group I usually ride with, we like to compare our Strava suffer scores after a ride to see who hurt the most!
 
After using a variety Garmin monitors, I second the Wahoo Tickr - works with both Garmin and phone. I use it on the bike, running, gym... I haven't tried it yet, but the Tickr X has memory, so I might even be abel to look at heart rate data for swimming.

No, I don't really know what to do with all this data, except to use it for training in certain HR zones and intervals. And it is nice to compare data and see that not only did I get faster on a climb, my HR is lower as well.
 
Black Licorice said:
KnuckleBuster - I'd love to try yours out! I see on STRAVA you are riding during the day - let me know when you ride, I am pretty much free during the day.
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BL, sent you a PM
 
Cougar said:
Regardless, this is mostly for my after ride number crunching. I enjoy the ride (or grimace through the climbs as appropriate) while I'm out there, and when I get back home, I can spend 15-60 minutes pouring through the data prolonging the enjoyment of my sport/hobby.
Click to expand...

What app/website is that graph from? That is cool :) I'm very much a numbers geek and totally agree with the data analysis prolonging the enjoyment, and reliving it ("now let me see, I felt pretty crappy on Mathis, but time wasn't too bad and HR wasn't maxed, maybe I need to push more, hmm, maybe I should give that another shot in a day or two") :D

Add: I'm still somewhat amazed that I get near max HR on downhills. Even though not pedaling, I guess there's still allot of other stuff going on for the ticker to keep up with, including the adrenaline :)

Back in my younger days I could get low 190s max HR, now, 15+ years later, maybe 175. But I still notice when I've been riding allot that a short break my HR will quickly recover from a hard effort to 110 and I'm ready to go again. Hot and humid days it takes allot longer for my HR to recover.
 
knucklebuster said:
Cougar said:
Regardless, this is mostly for my after ride number crunching. I enjoy the ride (or grimace through the climbs as appropriate) while I'm out there, and when I get back home, I can spend 15-60 minutes pouring through the data prolonging the enjoyment of my sport/hobby.
Click to expand...

What app/website is that graph from? That is cool :) I'm very much a numbers geek and totally agree with the data analysis prolonging the enjoyment, and reliving it ("now let me see, I felt pretty crappy on Mathis, but time wasn't too bad and HR wasn't maxed, maybe I need to push more, hmm, maybe I should give that another shot in a day or two") :D

Add: I'm still somewhat amazed that I get near max HR on downhills. Even though not pedaling, I guess there's still allot of other stuff going on for the ticker to keep up with, including the adrenaline :)

Back in my younger days I could get low 190s max HR, now, 15+ years later, maybe 175. But I still notice when I've been riding allot that a short break my HR will quickly recover from a hard effort to 110 and I'm ready to go again. Hot and humid days it takes allot longer for my HR to recover.
Click to expand...

That's in the Fitness & Freshness section of Strava, but it's behind the premium subscriber paywall I believe. (Which for as much as I use Strava, I'm totally okay with supporting their product - but YMMV)
 
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