This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Faulty heart rate recordings - max heart rate differs significantly from .FIT file

zorax2
6 months ago

I think there is some kind of glitch in the heart rate part of the firmware.

For example, on today's ride, my Garmin 1050 displayed a new max heart rate of 181 BPM as well as a new lactate threshold. Physically, my ride wasn't that draining and my maximum heart rate in the activity summary was 164 BPM.

The different readings didn't correlate so I explored further given I have atrial fibrillation and wanted to make sure I didn't have an episode of AFib. I downloaded the .FIT file and exported all of the data to a spreadsheet and confirmed the maximum heart rate recorded on this ride was 164 BPM. I use the max recording rather than smart recording so I'm able to see everything and there was definitely no extreme outlier of 181 BPM in the file.

I mentioned this strange behavior to my normal riding partner who indicated that he has also experienced this abnormal HR reading substantially higher than the HR average in the summary and also based on perceived exertion.

I've now had this happen several times. I'm hoping Garmin can determine what causes this issue so that workout heart rate zones don't get changed and just to have the correct data.

17959527188_ACTIVITY.fit

  • 0 6 months ago

    Forgot to mention I use a Garmin heart rate monitor strap for accurate readings. I've got a Garmin Epix Gen 2 watch which is absolutely awful for heart rate monitoring - it's never even close to measuring correctly so I don't use it for bike rides or other HRM usage.

    Interestingly, the Garmin heart rate strap is how I found out I had Afib. We were doing an easy ride and suddenly my heart rate was around 280 BPM (or higher?). I confirmed it with my riding partners heart rate strap and then still not believing - checked my Garmin Epix which was way off and then verified with my friends Apple watch that showed the same high HR. Went to the ER and ended up having a cardioversion. Heart rate is important so I hope Garmin figures out this glitch.

  • +1 6 months ago in reply to zorax2

    The max HR is a computed max estimate by the Firstbeat libraries from submaximal efforts, so will be higher than the values obtained during the activity, unless the activity was a maximal effort HR test.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to aweatherall

    Thank you for the explanation - I had no idea there was something like this.

    In my case, my max for all-out efforts is 173 BPM. I wonder if the calculation takes age or resting heart rate into account.

    I checked Garmin connect and fortunately it did not change my Max HR for setting heart rate zones.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to zorax2

    FWIW: I only ever hit my max during competitive situations with repeated all out efforts. I don't get very close riding solo or working out, no matter how hard I think I'm going.

  • 0 6 months ago

    I have a fairly accurate Max HR of 164 bpm set in my profile across my devices in Garmin Connect. Since using the 1050 for about a month now it has given me a prediction of 165 bpm Max HR based on rides which have maxed out at about 130-140 bpm so I for one am fairly happy with the algorithm.