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Forerunner 255 frustrating resting HR bug

I hadn't been using my Forerunner 255 as my primary watch and as I use the HRM pro when running, I'd disabled the wrist HR. Annoyingly, Garmin connect shows my resting HR as the lowest HR recorded during these runs which clearly isn't my resting HR. Instead of a resting HR of 44 it shows figures around the 140-150 mark which actually seems closer to what my average HR on a run would be. It didn't do this on the 245 or the Fenix 6 before that and now that I'm using it as my main watch it's throwing off the other metrics that are based on resting HR, such as fitness age.

If you look at the chart below, I started wearing my Forerunner 255 everyday from the 7th Feb so all the joined dots shows my normal resting HR since then. The other dots sitting between 120-160 bpm are the days when I ran. What's even more annoying is that I can't delete this errant data so I'm stuck with it.

Anyone else having this issue with the 255?

0 S.M.R. over 2 years ago

I doubt its a watch issue, Garmin changes the way it handles things quite often (and often without clear notes on the changes). Logically if the watch OHR wasn't on then it wasn't recording. They also implement a more fancy Physio True up system very recently so people can wear multiple devices so that might be another reason for the difference in methodology.

I had a look back at my data before I got my new watch and it is the same as you show here (I had a 630 and 745 before and only wore through activities). Since the new watch (July 2022) that I have been wearing daily its in line.

0 Grumpy from dawn till dusk over 2 years ago

john.murray said:
Annoyingly, Garmin connect shows my resting HR as the lowest HR recorded during these runs which clearly isn't my resting HR.

Ok, agreed. That is a stupid way to handle it. Obviously if there is no valid data, it should not just take the lowest recorded value as resting HR. It could be a simple filter like „if it is from a recorded activity, it can never be a resting HR“.

john.murray said:
and as I use the HRM pro when running, I'd disabled the wrist HR.

You know, that is not necessary?!?
I also use the FR 255 with HRM Pro. Before FR 245 and HRM Dual. Before that a Sigma HRM via Bluetooth.

When you start an activity and the watch detects the HRM, it will automatically use it AND turn off the built in optical HRM - you can easily check that.

0 john.murray over 2 years ago in reply to S.M.R.

That’s interesting you saw the same issue on those other devices. Looking back, it’s been happening for me since November but I’ve had the watch since June so that would point to it not being a hardware issue but a software or GC one.

I also use an Edge 530 with True up enabled but none of the dodgy readings happened on days I cycled and used that device.

0 S.M.R. over 2 years ago in reply to john.murray

Mine seems to be what I would define as logical in that the period before I was using my watch all day since I bought it mid 2022, the resting HR is linked to resting HR during activities as that would have been the only HR it was recording. During this time I didn't have OHR on my 630 and when I had the 745 I only wore during activities. I was using my AW6 as my daily watch at that time.

From the date with the new Garmin watch - which I now wear all day given the necessity to do so to get all the metrics to be useful - the RHR has been in line with the much lower daily RHR.

In my case this is from approx mid July 2023.

I haven't had two devices simultaneously so cannot comment on the effectiveness of the Physio True up functionality.

0 john.murray over 2 years ago in reply to Grumpy from dawn till dusk

Grumpy from dawn till dusk said:
You know, that is not necessary?!?
I also use the FR 255 with HRM Pro. Before FR 245 and HRM Dual. Before that a Sigma HRM via Bluetooth.

When you start an activity and the watch detects the HRM, it will automatically use it AND turn off the built in optical HRM - you can easily check that.

Yes, but I got errant readings before when optical HR was enabled, in that time between putting the watch on and starting the activity (or maybe putting the strap on?). Disabling it stopped that… until recently!

0 john.murray over 2 years ago in reply to S.M.R.

S.M.R. said:
Mine seems to be what I would define as logical in that the period before I was using my watch all day since I bought it mid 2022, the resting HR is linked to resting HR during activities as that would have been the only HR it was recording

But resting HR is your heart rate at rest, not the lowest HR during an activity. The logical approach would for it to be ignored!

0 john.murray over 2 years ago

**Update** Managed to delete the dodgy resting HR data by going into Activities > Steps which shows a daily summary of everything, including the runs. Deleting the summary removes the resting HR and movement data but doesn't delete any activities that are shown in there. This bug seems to have started around about 22nd November 2022 as I only had to go back that far. Shouldn't have to do this but glad to have found a workaround.