Heart Rate Monitor in Colder Weather

d_atchison10 wrote:

Does anybody notice that their wrist-based heart rate monitor seems to be more erratic in the winter? The wrist-based heart rate on my Garmin seems to be spiking and going crazy lately. Something to be concerned about or just normal for a wrist-based heart rate monitor?

I have an armband and a wrist and they both are poor when my skin gets cold. Can confirm

Wrist/armband never worked very accurately, and should not be used. If you decide to use HR information (which really isn't very useful/necessary), you need to make sure to use a chest strap AND understand all the 34234 factors that affect heart rate and max HR.

You are probably getting a chest strap after reading this, so I'm already gonna tell you what to look out for in cold weather conditions.

In cold weather (freezing and lower), your max HR will be around 10 bpm lower than in regular conditions. So if you want to do an easy run or tempo run, you have to subtract 10 bpm from your regular HR.

Many people can do easy runs at 145-150 and chat in 70F weather, but in 25F the same HR is a tempo run (because the max is not 190 anymore but just 180).

Don't forget the other factors affecting max HR - it's lower in the morning, higher in the afternoon. Low on glycogen = lower max HR. Lots of stress/lack of sleep/recovery = lower max HR.

Harambe wrote:I have an armband and a wrist and they both are poor when my skin gets cold. Can confirm

Glad to hear you have a wrist.

I came to the same conclusion. I have chest strap but don't look at heart rate during the runs. Only when I finish and I use it to gauge marathon efforts.

Ya my wrist based monitor is questionable in warm weather and ostensibly useless in cold weather. Chest strap works fine. As others have said effort is harder in very cold weather although your HR may appear the same. For me that means anything below 25 degrees Fahrenheit or so.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Wrist/armband never worked very accurately, and should not be used.

YES & NO

I started off with a chest strap and knew how to properly use it so had a good baseline and backlog of data. Then i got a new garmin watch and thought optimistically i would be able to use its wrist HR at least for my regular steady jogs, then switch to the more accurate chest strap for workout runs. WRONG, the Wrist was terrible for me, and i tried wearing it several different ways in hope of finding a sweet-spot, but nope.

The drawbacks on Chest strap(Garmin Dual/Premium) for me were:

- I'm skinny so it would creep/slide down when running sweaty track workouts in the summer which got to be real annoying.

- Having to wet the contacts was annoying. I have below average perspiration. Winter/cold usage was tricky

- Overall it was inconvenient and took away from my running enjoyment.

Then i got the PolarOH1 Arm Band.

I tested it thoroughly side-by-side with the chest strap for accuracy "DCRainmaker style" and it exceeded my expectations. It hit anything i threw at it; 200's 400's, tempo runs, time trials. Also tested on the bike outdoors doing 30sec max efforts and all good. Only difference i could detect was a ~2-5sec lag in HR ramp-up when initiating an effort which i was fine with. It is very convenient & comfortable. Much so that I utilize it all the time including races. I wear it above my bicep and have its tension set just right to be snug enough to make full contact. Winter performance is no diff. Its under my tight sleeve so theoretically that could increase performance for someone not wearing it snug enough since the sleeve helps to keep any outside light from reaching the sensor. There is a couple other arm-band variants from Scosche & Wahoo but i choose the Polar since it it the most simple/light/comfortable design that disappears on your arm.

I've been training in -10 to - 18 degrees celsius (14 to 0 fahrenheit) for the last 6 weeks or so, and it (Garmin Forerunner 245) seems consistent and normal.

In general, in all temperatures, it seems consistent and accurate (at least relatively; i.e. the differences correspond to perceived differences in effort) for me.

d_atchison10 wrote:

Does anybody notice that their wrist-based heart rate monitor seems to be more erratic in the winter? The wrist-based heart rate on my Garmin seems to be spiking and going crazy lately. Something to be concerned about or just normal for a wrist-based heart rate monitor?

wrist based hr monitor - it is such a bullsh@t, absolutely no accurate. Use chest strap, if you want control your fitness by heart rate.