[OwenFW]

TL;DR: When TP gives summary HR numbers for a workout, is the MAX HR pulled from the data or from what I’ve set as my max HR?

A couple of days ago I went out to set a PR on an 8.5-mile loop that consists of a 3200ft climb over 4 miles, 3 miles steep down, then 1.5 miles gradual incline back to the car. For the most part my pacing worked out, although there was about a mile near the top when too much time in Z4 caught up with me and I had to hike fast rather than run, and in the last mile I didn’t have enough gas left to trim a final 1:38 to reach my target time. Nice fat PR, but I’ll have to go back another day to reach my target time. I learned a ton about my current fitness for this kind of event and what I need to focus on in my next training phases to perform better.

I noticed something curious in my HR data, though. (For context, I’m using a Suunto Ambit3 watch with a Wahoo chest strap. I’m 42, just coming off my transition weeks after self-coached mountaineering training using TfTNA and three weeks in the Andes.) After this run, TP suggested that I should update my AnT to 180 from 175. Ok, that’s all well and good, and makes sense given how much time I was able to supposedly spend in Z4 without my legs turning to jelly. However, as I looked at the summary HR data (Min 124 AVG 179 MAX 196) and the detailed analysis, I noticed that the HR graph actually includes spikes above 196–a lot of them. 196 is what I have set as my max HR in my account settings, but when I look at the graph, there are dozens of spikes above 200, up to 206. Is TP somehow smoothing those peaks in the summary number, or is it just not reporting anything over what I’ve listed as my Max HR? And assuming the chest strap data and those spikes are real, would one normally update Max HR in TP after seeing data like that?

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 24, 2019 at 6:45 pm #23929

Owen:

I honestly do not know how TP calculates the workout’s max HR. I would have thought it was from the recorded data. It is not impossible that those incongruous spikes above 200 were anomalies and not actual HR readings. 206 for a 42 year old person in the midst of such a long run seems unlikely. I know this is not answering your question. You should probably ask this of TP tech support.

Scott

[Steve House]

Steve House on June 25, 2019 at 9:06 am #23936

Owen,
I agree with Scott, Please ask TP tech support and we’d appreciate it if you’d let us know what they say. thanks, Steve

[lionfish90]

lionfish90 on June 25, 2019 at 2:39 pm #23998

I don’t know the answer to your question, but when I have gotten squirrely spikes like that (and they clearly did not match my effort level and were above what could obviously be my max HR) it meant that I needed to replace the battery in my chest strap. Doing that would return readings back to rational ones. (YMMV, of course. And strong work on the PR!)

Best,
Rene’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 25, 2019 at 4:10 pm #23999

Whenever I’ve had i possible max HRs recorded during a workout, it was either the strap or the monitor. In addition to asking TP, maybe check the batteries in each.

If not batteries or software, how old is your monitor? I have an old that, as soon as I remove the chest strap, the display jumps up to 240…

[OwenFW]

OwenFW on June 26, 2019 at 11:45 pm #24069

I’ll contact TP tech support and then report back!

[OwenFW]

OwenFW on June 27, 2019 at 3:00 pm #24130

Here is the response from TP tech support:

“Basically, the summary data that you see above is typically information sent directly from the device, which will occasionally show differently than what is recorded in the data of the file. The File probably has those spikes in there somewhere, which is what TP is picking up and analyzing in your 2 second peak. Smoothing out the data will have to be done manually, which can be done by following the instructions in this article:

https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us/articles/204072284-Fix-Data”

So, essentially, my Ambit3 was doing some smoothing of the data in the summary it provided, similar to what can be accomplished visually by adjusting the slider bar on the heart rate graph in the analysis window.

Probably a good reason never to take a 2-second MAX HR too seriously. In contrast, the peak 5-second HR from the same workout does match my max HR measured in the lab.