Tx. You should probably just adjust the Intervals.icu HR zones to more closely match the Strava zones, at least for the lower zones. In particular make the start of Intervals.icu Z5 match Strava Z4 i.e. 206 bpm. HRSS looks at HR relative to threshold so that will help a bit.
Intervals.icu uses a 7 zone model to match the power zones so a mix of HR and power activities can be combined for “time in zones” totals and so on. So you want the power and HR to match up if possible.
Here is my year so far … the power and HR bars are very similar which is what should happen if everything is setup nicely. But maybe your HR response is just unusual
That makes sense, but your legs will give in, not your heart. Honestly, that HR does not look as real to me. You may well have an unusual high max HR for your age, but 236?
And you mention it ‘gently’ increases or drops, but from that last screenshot with your buddy’s file, at either side of the 220+ sections, it’s like a straight line up or down… And it shows some other irregular jumps at the beginning of that high bpm section and at the end of the ride.
Ah, ok, thanks! I’ll experiment with the HR zones then. I’ll need more data / rides obviously. But I’ll start with a first adaptation based on your suggestion… I guess my HR response is a bit unusual indeed. But I’ll need more evidence to back that up.
I suspect my HR zones will react more normal in the first 60k (hard ride) or first 100k (long ride) and after I am cooked will start to react more extremely… But will have to check that as well!
My heart didn’t give in, I just told him to slow down to let my HR get back to normal in order to make it to back home. Because I knew from experience my legs would give in at a certain point.
I don’t have a background in medicine, but I have to figure this out to explain to a doctor, so I might as well post the results here in the meantime.
Yellow zones: stops - blue zone: some strange spikes, so probably bad connection of HRM, green zone - see below
5min crop - we drop the pace from 35kph to 30kph at the beginning here.
1min later, my HR starts to drops gradually from 220 to 190 (takes 2min30), then it goes to about 145 in 30sec. I have no idea if this is normal behaviour, but I don’t see any jumps in values in that whole area. And I was certainly recovering at that stage of the ride. At the 3h zoom level, this looks very steep, but zoomed in, it looks alright to me… At the stops and the spikes I can see the irregularities when zoomed in.
I have the medical letters after my name (not that it makes any difference) and without going into details, the only real-appearing HR data I see are from about 0:10 to 1:00, 1:05 to the blue highlight, and maybe from 3:30 to 4:00.
Apparently one needs a PhD or something to earn credibility and get positive feedback on comments, instead of counter arguments about why you are wrong
I will keep that in mind and think twice before I engage in a discussion again…
I have really appreciated all your feedback. And mentioned before that I was going to double check with another HRM and with a doctor.
I have sent my first FIT file with HR and power to a doctor, mentioned my max HR and asked if that could be normal and if I needed further testing. According to him high max HR do occur and are nothing to worry about. He said it could be useful to take lactate tests to determine my zones. Those tests are scheduled for next month. I’ve also read on several websites that distribution of max HR in the population is a bell curve that goes above 250 at the end of the spectrum. So that seemed reassuring as well… So doubting the HRM purely on the high HR did not seem necessary.
For the steep rise and fall of HR at the start and end I’ve looked closer to see if the HR rises gradually or stepwise. No experience with HRM, but I can see the difference between a rising value and a jump (which clearly means something is wrong). So I just wanted to make sure conclusions were made on the right interpretation of the data.
And I also just bought a trainer with way too low power readings. So I probably had a hard time believing that my new HRM is flawed as well
Anyway, if the HRM data are wrong, this discussion is a bit pointless so I owe it to all of you to get that double-checked first…
So thanks again for all your time and effort!
I guess you did, but we have a button for that and we keep count - you have found it
I’ll leave you to it - nobody but @Eric_W seems to be willing to burn their fingers on this, so if your doctor says it’s fine, I guess we’ll have to wait for your test results to come back.
Okay, because I can’t help myself: see these three zoomed in sections, where your HR drops > 60-70 beats in under 30 seconds, without speed or power changing (I managed to pick one point where you actually had 0 power, probably due to a Strava calculation).
Plus, there are numerous sections that clearly show equally unexplainable jumps, but you recognized those as spikes.
Given these irregularities, my guess would be a HR monitor acting up, but once again: if the doc says it’s fine…
Cyclopaat, I don’t want to turn this into an argument.
My doctor replied in my email about the max HR, in which I attached the FIT file that the high max HR was not necessarily impossible or problematic, just far off-centre… According to you it was not (humanly) possible… He did not give feedback on the FIT file itself, so I’m not even sure if he studied it thoroughly.
I don’t know how fast HR can go up or down. A healthy heart can rapidly change HR, but how fast that is, I don’t know. If you think it’s too fast, that’s fine. Eric also thinks the HRM data are flawed. So for now I’ll assume my HRM is broken. Maybe there is an irregularity in my HR above a sudden bpm that causes it to read higher values, who knows.
So as I said, I will test with another HRM, preferably in parallel with my Viiiiva HRM. And I will get further testing by a doctor. I’ll let you all know the results…
cheers!
It’s different for everyone, which I why there is something called HRRc - I’ve posted this on that item previously:
“A recovery heart rate of 25 to 30 beats in one minute is a good score, and 50 to 60 beats in one minute is considered excellent. You should monitor your one-minute and two-minute recovery heart rate at least twice weekly to gauge whether your fitness level is improving.”
As you can see, and taking into consideration it’s highly personal, you could argue that your drops are not impossible. But, considering there is no real change in effort, it doesn’t make sense.
And sorry, I don’t want to make an argument either, I am (was) just trying to be helpful, but that kinda backfired…
Which is obviously not my name, but that’s what intervals.icu gets from Strava If you don’t want to check my profile on Strava: my first name is Robert
Really helpful information Robert!
I’ll try to keep an eye on my recovery heart rate, once the rest is sorted out.
Just got my racebike with PM back from the mechanic, so i can start to ride with power and HRM again. Now I just need a second HRM to doublecheck my Viiiiva. Will see if I can lend a watch rather than a breast band HRM.
It doesn’t help you, but I have Wahoo TickrX and it never fails me.
I also have Garmin Dual, which is equally good, but the batteries wear out much faster and are stupidly difficult to change. Same 2032 coin cell, but 4 tiny screws for the lid.
Garmin watches are good, I have a Fēnix 5s, but as I bought the Apple series 5 last December, I don’t use it anymore.
did a couple more rides. On one indoor ride with some sprints the max HR on the Viiiva was 168. Next ride you can see some obvious jumps from about 170 to 200+ values.
4iiii will take the unit back. I’ll look for a way to delete the HR data here from my earlier activities as they will probably mess up my data.
My apologies to everyone who wasted time here trying to tell me what I didn’t want to see! Learnt a lesson… In the meantime, I’ll try to learn all the ins and outs of intervals to see how I can use it best.
New one came out yesterday. I bought a viiiiva as it also acts as a ant+ to BT bridge for my trainer. But since it doesn’t send back ef-c to the trainer, it’s of no use in ERG mode. If I had known I would have bought a tickr or tickrX…
Wow that explains the HR charts and the “broken” HR strap. My wife had a similar problem with arrhythmia. She does a bit of trail running, MTB and road cycling and sometimes her HR would jump to 240bpm+ and she just collapsed, not even able to walk. This happened on a run in bad weather and she spent nearly an hour getting cold on the mountain.
So she saw a specialist and had the ablation procedure. They trigger the problem on a scope using a probe and “zap” the bits of heart that are causing the short circuit. It was very successful for her, she has not had any problems since.
So if yours does start happening at lower HR you might want to investigate that option.
