5k Race Heart Rate wrong ALL in Zone 5 - Should I delete HR data?

I ran a 5k race and my Polar H10 chest strap transmitted all the Heart Rate very High in Zone 5. My HR was recorded as Average 166 with a Max of 173. My tested Max is 174 so there is no way I ran 25 minutes at 98% - 100% HR. Performance Condition popped up as -5 (Negative 5).

My question is should I delete this HR Data from the Fit File and upload it??? That HR will mess up my Suggested Workouts, Vo2Max, etc. Fit File tools "Field Stripper" let me Remove Heart Rate. I have not uploaded it to Connect to verify it worked yet.

more info

I noticed during an easy 11:00/mile warm up I was in Zone 4 immediately. I checked the H10 contact strip was wet. I don't know if I checked if the center 2 contacts were snapped in fully. I should have taken it off and on. I was going to bring my LED arm band but since I have used this H10 3 to 5 times per week for training runs it seemed unlikely to be a problem. GC App says the H10 battery good.

Later I tested the H10 with an Indoor Cycle using the same Shirt and holding the Bib Number with Timer chip in place to see if either of those were the problem. It showed normal HR and matched a Polar LED Verify Arm HR I also wore. So not sure what happened.

Here's some graphs showing the 100% effort. This Forum really limits size.

My Stamina dropped to Zero in 5 minutes, yet I ran at steady pace of 8:00/mile for 25:00

I suppose this helped me ignore HR and run a PB of 24:45 from 26:12.

I used Pace Pro and stayed on that page the entire race. It showed me running a right at 8:00 or just under. It seemed very stable and really worked well. I set it for negative splits 8:15,8:10,8:05 to finish around 25:30. One I slowed down from a fast 7:30 start I was holding 8:00/mi so well I just kept going. So recommend Pace Pro !

Top Replies

Etupes25 over 1 year ago +1

As FlowState mentions, deleting the activity will not correct the issue. The watch is using predictive analytics to its metrics, so data recency matters for a while until its weight fades away after a few…

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0 FlowState over 1 year ago

The vast majority of performance / fitness metrics (such as VO2 Max) are calculated on the watch itself, so I don't think it will help if you strip HR data and re-upload the activity.

Even if you go for a run and discard the activity (so it's never saved on the watch), you'll find that recovery time (for example) is still updated.

0 Etupes25 over 1 year ago

As FlowState mentions, deleting the activity will not correct the issue. The watch is using predictive analytics to its metrics, so data recency matters for a while until its weight fades away after a few weeks. With Garmin, some metrics look back at 2 to 3 months of data (Endurance score, for example), so it is a good guess that it will take a couple of months for the bad data to fall off.

Average of 166 over an HR Max of 173 is 95% which is indeed higher than the 90-92% range for the typical threshold, but not outlandish for a 5k race which is typically above threshold. In addition, getting your HR a few bpm away from your HR Max during a 5k is in fact a good way to get a field tested HR Max value. So I am not sure why you think that the data is that bad for that particular 5k.

Maybe there was some data capture or connection issue with the chest strap early on and that threw your performance condition off.

That said, the watch underestimated your stamina which is a tell-tale sign that your metrics are off: VO2 Max, HR Rest and/or training data. Since you have a tested HR Max, you have already a cornerstone well set up.