My graph after today’s ride said heart rate spikes had been removed. When I checked the raw HR data, it was only 1bpm above my Max. I’m curious how a “spike” is identified rather than it being a new max HR? Having looked at the raw data I’m inclined to believe it’s a new Max HR rather than a spike, based on the effort I was putting in up that hill and it being only 1bpm above my previous max.
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I was curious about this too
I’m just keeping an eye on it for now as it’s somewhat trivial for small changes.
HR spikes above 185 bpm fixed
Heartrate spikes are detected and fixed by comparing the HR trace to your max HR. Spikes above max HR are replaced with a line interpolated between the HR values before and after the spike. If the HR data for an activity is very poor you can ignore the HR trace by clicking the cog icon. You can see the unmodified HR trace by clicking the charts button and adding Raw HR.
So anything over your Max is just capped as that, nothing more technical than that to my knowledge.
Yes it just caps anything over your max. Max HR isn’t something that goes up unless you are just starting out and don’t know what it is yet. So if you are in that position and get a spike, have a look at the data to be sure your HR monitor isn’t playing up, if its all good update your max HR in /settings and click the “Update Activities” button.
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C’monn guys, Max HR is VERY stable. It might go down a bit with age, but if you keep training consistently, it probably will be very consistent for years to go. Just check your RAW HR data and if HR goes up consistently without jumps, it is correct. If you see a sudden HR change of +5bpm, it probably is a glitch.
Actually at my age (49 this year) I would probably get my heart checked if I saw spikes of +5bpm. (I had it checked last year and it was all good). But +1 doesn’t seem like a spike to me.
The difference to the former HRmax is not important. What is important to check, is how that max HR occurred. A steadily increasing HR during a hard effort is sure to give a good value. A heartrate that suddenly rises a number of beats and unexplainably falls again, is a spike. Check the RAW HR chart and you will know quite easily if the new value is legit. So instead of having your heart checked when seeing 5bpm spikes, check your HR monitor first 
. Some of them start giving false readings when the battery is almost empty, others show weird HR graph when in the neigbourhood of HighVoltage lines.
What I wanted to point out is that maxHR is not a performance monitor, and you should not go hunting higher values. Beginners will have their HRmax adjusted a couple of times. After getting that initial number, it’s just a matter of checking if that number comes back each season. If not, there may be a slight downward change (1bpm) caused by aging.
I’m 57 and my maxHR of 185 hasn’t changed in the last 7 years.
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That isn’t my experience @MedTechCD . From age 35-43 my max heart rate has gone down 20bpm from almost 200 to about 180. But, I rarely even hit 180 these days and it is not uncommon I do a max effort and see a corresponding max HR of 175. Then, there will be these 1 out of 100 “superman” days. My max heart rate seems to unlock and will go over 180 to 185 or even a little higher. I have no idea why or when those days will occur. But, when they do, I will do power outputs beyond what I am typically capable. In one instance, my average power up a 20min climb that I regularly attempt to PR, jumped 10% from what I knew to be possible. I was so sure my power meter was faulty, except, the PR time was the PR time. No way I could repeat the numbers a week later and I had to ignore the power info from the activity in Intervals to because it was skewing my eFTP. I’ve had it happen 3 or 4 times now in the last year, since I stated paying closer attention to training.
So yeah, in this body’s experience, spikes happen.
@david I just had another of these spikes yesterday, and, it is now often enough that I feel like I should reset my max HR to account for these spikes. When I reset the HR though in the settings tab:
…and reload the activity from Actions:
It is still cropping the HR to 180. Bug?
I think you need to apply to activities before the new settings take effect.
Would you mind sharing the uncropped HR trace after that? Really curious to see how it behaves.
At 58 years old, I started out Intervals with a 220-age=162 max HR. But I started measuring actual heart rate with Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 about 2 weeks ago, I noticed that during Crossfit WOD’s I tend to go over the 162, seemingly at moments of real max effort. Reading that you have a max of 185, made it clear to me that I should not necessarily doubt my watch if there seems to be a good relationship between the effort and the data.
I’d better adjust my max HR now. thanks for the insight!!
I’m 57 and also have a recorded max of 185bpm. The chap who came up with the formula 220-age reportedly admits that had he known it would be taken up and used as it has, he’d have put more effort into his work. It might be an OK guide but…
Thinking about it, it says everyone on the planet aged 20 must have a max HR of 200. 180 for all forty-year-olds etc. Everyone!
That just cannot be right. Every 365 days and the extra one each leap year, all our bodies somehow knock down their maximum? There’ll be deviation.
The thing is, we won’t actually ever know what it is either. We won’t ever actually knowingly hit it. Given enough attempts (if it is indeed safe for individuals to go find out), we will find a value at which we more or less peak. But it is only the value we recorded on a certain day and time, not necessarily our physiological max.
Personally, I prefer LTHR as the means for zone setting purposes.
Just my view and others will exist.
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