I'm considering buying a HR strap. I mostly use a Polar OH-1 sensor on my lower arm just below the elbow. Skin colour, hair and thin-ness of skin are perfect for optical sensors but I keep seeing odd things which I can't place. One thing is that when I run for a while after a break (get sick frequently) it often records a sudden decrease in HR by about 10-15bpm some 3km in. My old Scosche optical sensor also saw this. My Garmin watch doesn't. Also not sure if intervals are properly recorded.
However, I get really bad chaffing and blisters in the chest area just from the sports bra. Adding an HR strap might make this even worse. One option might be to wear it just above the hips. Not sure if this would work or would cause disturbance from my running pants though. I'm also not tall, and there's not a lot of space between ribs and pelvis, and a strap just on the edge of the ribs might also be problematic. Would be interested in further running metrics like running dynamics, HR variation, etc.
Thus any suggestions on a specific device? Was thinking of the Wahoo tickr because it looks fairly small.
