Question: arrhythmia or HR monitor error?

If you had an arrythmia, you'd know it. go to the doctor if you really have any question about this and they'll probably give you a stress test.

HRMs go on the fritz all the time. I have an F2 and I get strange stuff from it sometimes, too.

"If you had an arrythmia, you'd know it. go to the doctor if you really have any question about this and they'll probably give you a stress test."

I had a stress test done, and everything was OK, except they said it was "impaired tolerance to exercise". That's why, after years of sedentary life, I remembered my young days of running. I also don't think it's arrhythmia, cuz the blinking of the heart symbol on the screen is quite rhythmical. The point is that I get 180 HR readings while in fact starting my warm-up, feeling that I'm doing nothing at all.

Two things: Make sure the HRM strap is snug and use a conductive cream on the electrodes. I've got an S610 and it will "drop out" from time to time (give no reading or a reading that's about half of what it should be), and on occasion give crazy high readings (like > 200 BPM when my max is around 180). I have traced this down to poor contact. Making sure the strap is snug and using the cream helps, but I still get problems now and again. When I see a crazy reading I will push the strap hard against my chest (thumb on one electrode and finger tips on the other) for 20 seconds and that usually gets things back on track.

It's probably the HRM acting up. I'd say one run out of every ten, mine will go buggy on me. It's usually because the strap is too loose, or I didn't moisten the contacts well enough (you don't need a conducting gel - a glob of spit will work just fine, thank you very much).

The HR will often jump to 180-200 or thereabouts for no good reason (my HRmax is 168). I've decided that, in the absence of a real good contact, it may be associated with overhead/underground utilities (JimFiore, being an electrical engineer, I believe, may dispute this), or, alternatively, it's picking up your stride rate (I know this sounds unlikely, and it may be wrong, but I've decided it's possible for the footstrike shock to send pressure waves throughout your blood system - rightly, or wrongly). In any event, whatever the reason, it happens fairly regularly, and it happens to EVERYONE I know who uses an HRM.

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, but if you're the paranoid type, go ahead and see what the doc has to say.

My money is on stride rate. Most runners stride between 80-90/min, so the result, with 2 footstrikes/stride is 160-180. He'll likely find that when a good sweat layer builds up, the problem will go away, as it adheres to the skin better. (Jim's conductive cream advice is right on the money.)