massive heart rate fluctuations while at same pace

It has happened one or two times for me. Once at the start, i was looking through my 2007 diary and it read like this on

1/1/07 - 3 x 1 mile on road with 800m recov.

It was intresting - pulse 183 during warmup. Dodgy heart rate monitor???

After that I was out a run once and i was coasting along at 145 and all of a sudden it jumped to 195. No increase of pace etc.

I visited a doctor though and got an ecg test then refered to a specialist. I got an ecg test and then called back for more in depth tests. Turned out to be nothing more than just hypertrophy which is expected in endurance athletes.

I also only use a heart rate monitor on a few occassions though. How many times has it jumped outwith heart rate monitor usage?

See a doctor if your worried.

Kevin52 wrote:

Another option is to find a treadmill with HR grips and run a nice steady pace and check your HRM against the treadmill HR receiver.

I find the StarTrac brand treadmills read HR within 1-2 beats of my Polar RS800.

This is probably one of the better ideas - run on a treadmill using the hand grips for measuring HR.

Some treadmills will actually pick up the signal from the HRM sender - I know my old polar F6 would work with some treadmills, so that you didn't have to touch the hand grips - so that is one potential problem with this test - making sure the signal is from the hand grips and not the HRM transmitter unit.

However it should settle the matter - if no strange spikes/fluctuations on the treadmill HR reading then you might need to look at the HRM as the source of your problems.

Unless you are feeling physical symptoms which match the sharp rise in HR, the most likely culprit is static electricity from your shirt. The best remedy is to use a gel on your chest strap which will eliminate this problem. I use Spectra 360 Electrode Gel, available from Amazon.com. That solved my similar problem completely.

Rub the Gel on the inside of both sides of the strap where the electrode ridges are.

thanks to all who commented. i tightened the straps way up today and wore a shirt that wouldnt get as wet and mess with the strap. seems like the problem solved, the key was not allowing strap to be able to move at all.

thanks guys

Good point... my S625X is read by the treadmill receiver but not the RS800 as it uses 2.4 ghz. At least I haven't run into one yet that reads the 2.4 ghz signal.