Optical Heart Rate garbage for first 9-10 minutes of run

I see this too, I have a feeling the HR doesn't lock on prior to the start of an activity although the heart symbol suggest otherwise. I had a VA3 and that didn't lock on at the start of an activity either.

interestingly I ran to the gym tonight which took 9 minutes and ran back after my gym session and HR worked perfectly. It seems that this issue may be due to the HR not locking on properly in certain circumstances.

I also don’t believe my HR peaked at 191 but it probably wasn’t far off and I can accept that as a optical limitation. Producing garbage in the early stages of a run I can’t accept tho.

Attached is my parkrun with a chest strap, they are not so different. Ohr does have limitations but overall your result seems pretty good compared to mine.

I think they look very different. Yours smoothly increases whereas mines all over the place then jumps up 20 bpm??

Compare these 2 and tell me they’re similar. The 645 Heart rate is all over the place in the first part of the run. It drops at one stage significantly which most certainly is nonsense and then it hovers around 145 when my true HR would have been 160+. It then eventually jumps in to life and catches up. No such issues with the chest strap. I think it’s a software issue where the watch can’t handle a quickly changing HR in the initial part of a run. Either that or I have a dud unit.ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1372797.jpg

While the other trace was better, this one looks off. I'm not sure it's a dud or software and is likely a general issue with ohr.

If you have ever used it for weight training you would see that it's garbage due to the quick changes in hr.

My advice if your interested in HR is to get a strap or if you have one use it all the time. Ohr is excellent for general HR but only ok in exercise situations.

Edit. There is another thread about a similar issue of HR dropping mid walk which I have experienced but not on a regular basis. There could be a software issue....

One last thing, don't tighten the watch too tight, this can cause issues, it should be snug but not tight.

The attached is from this morning with the wrist HR. It appears to have worked really well today. I ran at a similar pace for the whole run with no quick speed ups or slow downs.

Watch was worn snug but not tight.

I would experiment with watch tightness and position, if it's still giving odd results reach out to Garmin support.

Whilst that graph is not as smooth as you’d get with a chest strap at least it looks like you’re getting something reasonably close. I’d be happy with something similar.

Today I ran another 5k. I tried wearing the watch on my inner wrist where my veins are pronounced and my skin is still white, pasty and hairless. It made zero difference.
attached is today’s run. I’ve added a green line as an example of how I’d expect it to look from years of wearing chest straps and highlighted the parts I know are clearly garbage.
its annoying as I bought this watch mainly to do away with chest straps and on the back of dcrainmakers review where the heart rate looked really good. Reality for me is somewhat different. Looks like I’ll have to contact Garmin support but not holding my breath for a solution.
is no one else getting similar results to me??

ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1373936.jpg

Similar issue at todays run. While running at a very low pace my heart rate goes up to 160 (+/- 20 bpm higher than expected); i drop pace even more just to see if it corrects ; but stays high; after pausing the run for a minute; heart rate goes up again and then all of a sudden drops 20-30bpm to the expected levels while i actually increased pace. ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1373952.png