heart rate training

I'm not going to make any comments on HR training. But, in my experience, the spike at the beginning is more of a factor of the strap not making good contact with your chest than your HR actually being that high. Typically after you start sweating a bit the contact will be better and the HR readout will be more accurate.
Jamie

+1 

'atta boy.

Yes, it can be helpful to wet the contact patches on the strap to get a better initial reading. As to the why's and how's of using the HR monitor, based on what you posted I would recommend doing a search here on the forum for information on training w/HR so you can much better use it if that is your plan. Good luck!

There are tons of good posts for HR training.  I use Hr to train on the bike and run.   It is working well for me now that I understand it. 

Couple of things. 

1.  min and max HR doesnt really matter.
2.  The formula you are referring to is wrong for a lot of people including me
3.  The HR zones are usually different for the bike and the run.
4.  There are running and biking tests that you can do that will really help you figure out YOUR HR zones.

Good luck

Edited by davidschmaus 2010-10-03 6:15 PM

Ok...I figured that poor contact at the get go would show up as a lower heart rate...as in beats are being skipped.  The "high" heart rate settles down after about 10-15 minutes.  But, yes I have been pre-wetting the HR strap.

Thanks for info.

My Garmin records periods of unreasonably high heart rates sometimes when I'm on the bike too, occasionally as high as 240 or 250. Doesn't seem to do it for the run though. I saw a thread a little while back, either here or maybe over on slowtwitch, where several others mentioned seeing a similar phenomenon. There were several theories, including poor contact either from biking position or lack of moisture. The lack of moisture could possibly be affected by wind drying. Another interesting suggestion involved static from wind moving tech material shirts. I don't know what the answer is but since it only seems to happen on the bike, and I'm still breathing, I'm inclined to believe it's some kind of equipment problem.

Bad contact can result in low or high readings.

x whatever on doing some more reading on this.  Don't use the 220-age formula! (or any other)

Well, did a MHR test on treadmill today.  Using the default 220-age my predicted MHR is 185.
My MHR on treadmill went something like:

1 mile warmup
1 mile @ 7:20 pace @ 161 BPM average
1/4 Rest Interval
1 mile @ 6:50 pace but accelerating to 5:00 pace over the last 1/2 mile. 162 BPM average, 186 BPM Max
1/4 Rest Interval
1.05 mile @ 6:27 pace @ accelerating by .1 mph every .05 miles.  170 BMP average, 188 Max BPM.

I was pretty tapped out after the 3rd set.  I think that I might have pushed just a bit longer in retrospect though, but looking at plot of BPM versus time the HR was close to reaching an asymptote.

So, preliminary MHR withing 3 BPM of the "rule-of-thumb".  Not too shabby.

I go in thursday for a free fitness assessment that sports sciences department of local university is giving.  VO2 max, Body fat, MHR, etc.  We'll see how those results turn out.

If I'm biking under transmission powerlines, my HR spikes to the default maximum on my HRM - could this be causing your spikes?

220-age for me would be 190, but my MHR is 205.

Also, I find the the HR zones for me, are pretty accurate to my ranges of  % MHR, you just have to realize that your max on the run is different than your max on the bike.

IMO, 5 weeks out from a big race is not the time to be changing to HR training.  Focus on it the off season and by the spring you should have it figured out.  My running speed took a big hit for several months when I first started HR training.