Fenix 5s OHR w/HIIT training

Give up now when doing HIIT or upper body strength training and use a traditional chest strap. I've found even the class leading Scosche Rythm+ OHR, worn in an optimal position higher up the arm than the wrist, produces HR data graphs that are complete works of fiction for those sorts of activities (don't get me wrong, the Scosche is awesome for running and even mountain biking if placed next to the biscep). There are limits to even the best OHR units out there, and you've just found them.

Today I run with my F5, 910xt and a scosche.

Unfortunately the F5 OHR was not as good as in my previous runs. Maybe because I wore the F5 and 910 on the same wrist, which causes the F5 to move to much in direction of my hand and was not positoned so well as last week.
GPS Accuracy was also not so good. But still ok. Not that good as last week, but still acceptable. Maybe a bad GPS day for my F5 or maybe it is in fact an influence if two GPS devices are close to each other as DCR mentioned...

Best results for workouts: Rely on my Scosche+!

That's indeed a "no no", why not wear the 910 on the right wrist? ;-) Besides if you want to test HR you can use the Auxiliary HR data field to get both the oHR and Scoshe on the F5.

That's indeed a "no no", why not wear the 910 on the right wrist? ;-) Besides if you want to test HR you can use the Auxiliary HR data field to get both the oHR and Scoshe on the F5.

Yes, I did this last Thursday. Right arm 910xt and Scosche. Left arm with F5, Aux-HR and HRM-belt. Just a little too much and overkill. But the results were great. Today I wanted to spare the HRM belt but to be able to record the HR on both watches they have to be on the same wrist. (The scosche must be on the same side otherwise there is not consistent recording)

Maybe tomorrow I am going to give it a last try and after this I run alone with the F5 and start beeing happy without this nerdy comparisons.... The F5 is just great and as long as the distance is ok I don't have to look at every corner of my gps-tracks. Big difference to the F3 beginning with the worst tracks and distance measurements ever.

Right, not bothered about the tracks myself as long as I get a good distance (although the requirement for that is a clean track of course...) and so far it's not as consistent/reliable as the FR235.

Anyway I did my first F5 run without the HRM today as the weather is warmer and it was an easy run. Well I quickly regretted it because it was too low for a good 5 minutes and messes up the PC calculation...After that it caught up with the oHR of the FR235 and they stayed consistent.

Finally I finished my slow sunday jog fully equipped with too much equipment!

Conclusion:

1) The dog starts chasing squirrels again due to spring time. Need to be leashed again. Many stops...

2) GPS accuracy is identical to my old 910xt even forestal areas. I don't need no futher accuracy checking anymore. Far better then F3 tracks...

3) The OHR accuracy is mostly ok, but it's tends to get worse over the time. Maybe due to sweat!? For slow jogs the OHR is ok. Also better than F3H3. I think I use the AHR datafield some more time to check but I intend to run with my Scosche in the future. No problem here since I didn't buy the F5 for running heart rate measurements. I like the OHR for the 24/7 recordings but not for running. But it's a nice backup if you forget your strap.


F5:Recommendation!! ;)

Today was my first workout with the 5s.

I slacked my way through strength training, and the OHR seemed accurate.

Then I did a hiit class and the OHR was absolutely worthless. It crashed at 80-90 beats per minute when I was actually dying. I guess it couldn't handle all the wrist action? I don't know whether to give it another chance, or just wear my chest strap all the time.

There isn't any wrist-based OHR monitor that can handle HIIT training, or any form of training that has lots of wrist flexing.
You'll have to use a chest strap if you want accurate HR information for that form of training.

Road ewbur

I used a chest strap today for Body Combat. The results I got were real spikey. Like a bunch of red pins lined up next to each other. Does that mean my fenix and chest strap were not staying connected?

Can y'all see this?">https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1642098274 ">https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1642098274

Every time the hr goes down to 70, I think it disconnected. Grrrr.

What HRM did you use? That looks like it dropped out quite a lot. I get occasional drop-outs doing crossfit sessions - often because I've either banged the strap (any clean or snatch movement often results in the bar hitting the damn bump from the chest HRM as I pull it up haha) or because I didn't have the strap on tight enough.
I have found that my Garmin HRM Run4 is better at keeping track of my heart rate than my Wahoo TICKR. But when the drop out they drop out to 0 - so I'm surprised that HRM is dropping to 70.
Drop outs are incredibly rare on my workouts - here's one
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1623182942

Having said that - I am using an F3. Maybe the F5 has some other issues to work through.

What HRM did you use? That looks like it dropped out quite a lot. I get occasional drop-outs doing crossfit sessions - often because I've either banged the strap (any clean or snatch movement often results in the bar hitting the damn bump from the chest HRM as I pull it up haha) or because I didn't have the strap on tight enough.
I have found that my Garmin HRM Run4 is better at keeping track of my heart rate than my Wahoo TICKR. But when the drop out they drop out to 0 - so I'm surprised that HRM is dropping to 70.
Drop outs are incredibly rare on my workouts - here's one
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1623182942

Having said that - I am using an F3. Maybe the F5 has some other issues to work through.

I used the standard garmin ant+ heart rate monitor. I always had trouble staying connected to my VAHR. But generally it would stay connected to my vivofit 3 >big shrug>

Do you think I'll do better with the HRM Run or Tri?