Cadence lock with HRM Pro + Epix

Check the strap is sufficiently tight. Wet the whole strap before putting it on. Check the battery. Some people do have an elevated heart rate initially before settling down. If the problem persists contact Garmin Support. 

Thanks, I will check for tightness as well as make sure it is sufficiently wet.  When I first noticed it happening, I thought maybe my HR was just spiking the first few minutes of my runs as blood is circulated to my muscles.  But it seemed more than a coincidence that the HR recorded was right at the same figure as my cadence at the time, and at some point, the HR just drops very quickly back down to expected levels.  I just don't know if it's possible it could be switching from optical to HR strap after a few minutes... I suppose I could manually disable the optical HR sensor and see if the problem persists?

Travisimo said:

So I've been using the Garmin HRM Pro heart rate strap for my runs, but I'm still getting cadence lock for the first 3-5 minutes of almost every run I do.  For example, when I first start running, it'll show my heart rate in the 160-170 bpm range (which is my running cadence at the time) instead of my actual heart rate.  After a few minutes, the HR will drop immediately and be "normal".

I've exactly the same issue lately with my two years old HRM Run. The heart rate goes up way too high at the beginning of the run and then drops to normal after about 10-15 minutes and stays normal until the end of the run.

I rinse and clean the rubber electrodes with a mild detergent after each workout, but that doesn't seems to be enough. Then I tightened the strap more, but that doesn't help either, and it interferes with my breathing. So I cleaned the rubber electrodes and the area in between more thoroughly with a more agressive detergent and then it's fine again, but only for a few days.

I think this is a sign of wear and tear of the rubber contact electrodes by sweat, and after two years I bought a new HRM-Pro and everything works fine again.

Travisimo said:

I just don't know if it's possible it could be switching from optical to HR strap after a few minutes...

I have had this happen before.  My personal experience is that when my HR strap is wet but not wet enough, it will measure a lower heart rate than reality.  If it is not wet at all or making contact then it will not be powered on and the optical heart rate will operate.  In this case, you could definitely get cadence lock until the HR straps turns on from getting a signal.

If you have the Fit File Repair Tool it can tell you the HR source for each sample every second which should let you know if the issue was cadence lock from your optical HR or if it was what was being reported by your HR strap (right or wrong).

I have the HRM Pro and the Epix and have been running the last couple of weeks. For me my Cadence and Heart Rate track correctly. I usually don't usually wet my HRM Pro, but will put it on 30 minutes before I exercise. 

Could it be that the battery needed changing? Sometimes electronics can act a bit odd on low voltage I think.

henleybailey said:

Could it be that the battery needed changing? Sometimes electronics can act a bit odd on low voltage I think.

No.

Of course, the first thing I did was changing the battery. And also, I always rinse the electrodes with water and wet my chest with water before I put the belt on. And I've also tried to use electrodes gel to improve the conductivity. And I make sure that I don't wear any running clothes that produce static electricity. And I regulary clean the electrodes.

But unfortunately all of this doesn't helped in my case. So I think it's normal that after a certain time of usage the electrodes wear-out, as others have found the electric conductivity goes down and the electric resistance rise. With this the HRM sensor gets only a weak HR signal which turn unstable and shows errorneous results, either to high or to low or spikes.

It's already well discussed e.g.

www.dcrainmaker.com/.../troubleshooting-your-heart-rate.html

Sometimes it may be solved with the above mentioned tips and tricks, and somtimes it's not possible.

forums.garmin.com/.../hrm-pro-abnormally-high-values-during-first-minutes

Hmm, I don't think my issue is with wear as this is a fairly new strap that I purchased less than 2 months ago.  It seems to be holding up well, so I'm going to try to make sure it's tight enough and wet enough and see if that fixes it for me.