I know there have been several questions posed about the accuracy of the 5X+ as it relates to HR for playing racquetball, squash and tennis, but my question is a bit different.
I am a competitive racquetball player that used to train several times a week. For the last four years, until January 19, I used a Vivoactive watch with chest strap for tracking my training and playing. When I played any racquet sport, the distance on the court recorded would be, what I would estimate, very close to the totals I ran while playing. In January I switched first to 3HR and then a 5X+ and have noticed since then that my distances are out by a factor of 10x (that is, old watch 2.5 km, new watches 0.24 km).
If the only difference between the two watches is OHRM vs chest strap and (hopefully newer and better technology, why did the Vivoactive track distance better for indoor activities? I haven't tried the 5X+ with my chest strap yet, but I don't think that should be the difference. All other things are equal (watch on opposite hand, use treadmill running as the substitute for racquetball).
The second part of this question/comment is that my 5X+ records my HR pretty accurately for all sports (running, walking, biking, hiking) but racquetball is inconsistent. The HR will start off recording properly but will then drop or maintain a HR that is well below my actual rate. I find myself adjusting the watch strap several times a match so that I can properly record the HR Sometimes it starts recording properly on its own from the start, so I can't replicate the problem consistently. Has anyone else had this issue?
I upgraded my watch in part because I didn't want to wear a chest strap any more. Now I am not sure that I shouldn't...
