New max HR detected absolute nonsense

Occasionally my Fenix 6 sapphire, in beta program, says after an easy run that it has detected a new max HR. This value is usually 10+ bpm higher than reality. There is no option to reject it. My training zones, that are personally configured from lactate / HR testing in a lab on a treadmill, are then overwritten with this nonsense. Any suggestions other than typing everything in again to Garmin connect and then going through the sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't synchronising effort?

0 Dr Phil over 1 year ago in reply to Former Member

the best option is to set max HR on a fixed value on the 6. How to obtain that value, I'm not sure though.

Did a search for you - https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a20806124/how-to-find-your-max-heart-rate/

0 Tisztul_A_Visztula over 1 year ago in reply to Dr Phil

My own method, however, is pretty close to the one proposed by Polar:

Warm up for 15 minutes on a flat surface. Build up to your usual training pace.
Choose a hill that will take more than 2 minutes to climb. Run up the hill once (for at least 2 minutes), building to as hard a pace as you estimate you could hold for 20 minutes. (You don’t have to keep running for 20 minutes, you just need to build up to a pace that you could hold for at least 20 minutes.) Return to the base of the hill.
Run up the hill again with a faster pace. Get your heart going as hard as you can, building up to a pace you estimate you would be able to hold for 3 kilometres. Observe your highest heart rate on the display.Your max HR is approximately 10 beats higher than the now-noted value.
Run back down the hill, allowing your heart rate to drop 30–40 beats per minute from where it was.
Run up the hill once again at a pace that you can only hold for 1 minute. Try to run halfway up the hill. Observe your highest heart rate. This brings you close to your maximum heart rate. You can use this value as your max HR to set your heart rate zones.
Make sure you cool down for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Most times I also used a modest climb of 7-9%, which is steadily ascending. Its length is around 280m, and it is part of a loop (rectangle-like) of 730m, with two short flat sections and a descent of 280 m.

After the warm up, normally I run up on this climbing section twice, after my first run I feel there is a substantial reserve, after the second there is just a bit. Certainly while I am completing the other 3 sections of the loop I am relaxing, so my HR is dropping back substantially.

I can never run up on the whole climb for the 3rd time, because I choose such a pace that I do have to stop mid-way (not exactly halfway, but in the second part of this climbing section), and when I stop my head is down, I feel my lungs are about to explode etc.

My point is that I never followed a protocol I just experimented how I could get the highest HR without being transported to hospital, but at the same time getting a real hurt which needs 1-2 days to fade away. And I never thought about what pace exactly I needed to run at, I just focused on the reserve I would still have at the top of the climb.

Since I am over 50, I do not play this max HR game any longer, because the hurts were worse and worse, although not frightful.