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A day of continuous heart rate monitoring

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Last week I had a day trip up to Brussels (Belgium), and I thought it might make for an interesting experiment: All day continuous HR monitoring.

Except, unlike such experiments folks have done in the past, I didn’t wear a heart rate strap.  Instead, I used the new Alpha wrist HR monitor.  It comes in two flavors: ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart.  For this particular test, Bluetooth Smart worked much better because I could stream it directly to my phone, which recorded the data all day long.  I used the Wahoo Fitness app, simply because it’s the most complete app out there when it comes to data integrity and portability.

 

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My day started out around 7:30AM with me preparing to head to the train station.  I started the recording at approximately 7:45AM, just before I left the door when I put the freshly charged watch on and phone in my pocket.

Now, in order to piece this together, I’ve split up my day in chunks explaining what I was doing in each chunk.  I did this through a combination of recording everything I did during the day in a little notepad, and then piecing it all together afterwards.  I then used the sport tracking/log application Neotrack to display the data.  Then everything was overlaid using…MSPAINT.  Yes, advanced operation here.  In general each chunk represents 60 seconds of data, with it showing the heart rate average for that 60 seconds (in beats per minute, BPM).  As a general reference to the day, my resting heart rate if I lie still for about a minute or so is generally about 40bpm.  Sitting around you’ll generally see it between 50 and 65.  Ok, with that context – let’s get on with it!

7:45AM until 10:00AM: Getting to the station, waiting around, and the train ride:

This first segment is from when I initially left the apartment, walking/rushing to the Metro (subway) station, navigating deep down into the subway station, and then getting on the short train ride to Gare du Nord.  From there, I worked my way back out of the Metro trying to get from the underground portion to the above ground train portion.  After which, I found the high speed train to Brussels delayed.  So I wandered around, found food, generally froze (there’s no heat in the station), and just waited.

Eventually there was a people rush for the train as it pulled in and gave us about 4 minutes to run to the correct car, get in, etc…  Once that was complete, it was normalcy again and I was able to get some work done on the train.

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It is interesting to look at the spikes in heart rate while rushing through the stations.  However, I’m not convinced that those 140bpm spikes are real.  And by not convinced, I’m going with ‘not a chance in heck’.  A heart rate of 139bpm is my Z2 rate – my long running rate.  Normally, that’s about 7:00-7:30/mile.  Thus despite it being a bit of a rush, it wasn’t an over the top rush.  Not a nervous sprint.  So I’m a bit hesitant that those spikes are accurate.  I think the 120’s are probably realistic (there were plenty of stairs) – but not those 140’s.

Here I am, cruising across the countryside at a couple hundred miles an hour, working away.  I know, not terribly exciting:

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10:45AM until 12:45PM: A fast and furious taxi ride, some quiet work time:

At some point around 10AM, while sitting idly on the train, the app crashed, and thus there’s a gap of about 45 minutes in data.  Given I was just sitting there, I’m guessing we didn’t miss much and that the data likely looks just like the earlier train portion above for that 45 minute chunk missing.

I noticed as the train pulled up to the station and restarted the app – which was happy for another 15 hours straight.  From there, I exited the train station to find the taxi line.  This time I wasn’t at all in a hurry and you can see that displayed with a fairly low HR.  I got into the taxi and all is mostly fine until he hits the highway…at 150KPH – which is approaching 100MPH.  Oh, and it was snowing out.  And this was on the exit ramps and curves.  Dodging (more reasonable) traffic on the roadways.

After that, I arrived at the airport (it’s where I was meeting folks who were flying in).  I had a bit of time to kill, so I was taking conference calls and working on my laptop.

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In general, you can clearly see a bit of a lower period where I’m in the cab in the city and not fearing for my life.  Then a spike as I’m fearing for my life on the highway.  That spike carries through a bit as I get to the airport and begin work and on a conference call.

12:45PM until 3:45PM: Lunch, more snowy car rides, and a meeting split with presenting

As we move into the most exciting part of the day thus far (lunch), we see a small spike while I’m eating.  I believe there was also some jostling around in the cafeteria as well and trying to find a place to eat.  So some of that is likely walking/activity induced.

Then there’s again a small rise while we were driving.  It appears I’m not a fan of others driving at high speed in snow and ice and braking hard and often.  Then calmness returns while waiting in the lobby for folks running late.

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As the meeting starts, you see a slight bump in HR.  While I’m initially partaking and answering questions, I’m not yet presenting.  Then as it’s handed over to me, and you see a small rise in HR – about 5-10BPM in average while I’m presenting.  I present on a near daily basis, so presenting doesn’t bother me.  In fact, if you look at my HR average while presenting, it’s about the same as while on a conference call (70BPM), so it seems it’s mostly just the act of talking that increases HR.

3:45PM until 6:45PM: A Belgium Pub, more subway time, and the high speed train home

After the meeting concluded there was a bit of a walk to what was going to be the car park, and then it was decided that a pub was preferred, so a detour to a Belgium pub.  The pub didn’t last terribly long, as I eventually had to go.  It was a Christmas brew, in case you were curious.

Following the pub you see my HR climb a bit as I navigate the underground subway system and everything associated with that.  It was a bit of a packed train on the subway.  But once at the main train station things calmed down a bit and I was able to easily grab the nonstop train home with less hecticness.

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Once onboard the high speed train things largely level out and are pretty calm for the ride home.

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6:45PM until  8:30PM: Driving/walking to the bike store, picking up a bike, driving/walking home:

After the high speed train pulled into the station I did the two-step-tango switching to the Metro subway system.  You can see that initial spike as I worked my way down into the Metro (I was trying to move pretty quick as the train was once again late).  You then see it taper off while riding on the Metro.  Then there’s a solid spike as I exit the train and quickly rush back towards the house to meet up with The Girl and the Autolib.

Once in the car (Autolib) it’s quiet and calm for a brief moment.  Then we have to park the little car in it’s designed Zipcar-like spot, rush across the street, into the bike shop, validate things are good on both her new bike and untangling the power meter crank arm on mine.  Once all that’s complete, you see it calm back down again as I get back into the car.  Though, it took way longer to drive home than get to the shop.

After getting near home we park the car and you can see an increase in HR again as we unpack everything and walk home and get everything situated at home (putting back on the wheels, etc…).

You then see a drop again as I clear out some e-mail for a short bit, before the HR’s jump as we prepare for a run.  This includes a few quick errands around the house related to laundry and garbage, and then changing into running gear, heading outside, and waiting for satellite reception.  All that activity means a slightly elevated HR profile during that portion.

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8:30PM until 1:50AM: Going for a run, relaxing for the rest of the night:

Finally – time to run!

This was with The Girl, and it was relatively even, after we got into it.  You see a bit of a climb in the middle as head off the flats and up a climb for a bit.  Then it lowers back down again and lowers further as we descend back down.  It was only a 40 minute run, so not terribly long.

Following the run we’ve got a quick cool down walk/jog before heading inside.  Once inside I alternate between checking e-mail, showering (warmth!), more e-mail, and making/eating dinner.  It’s interesting to see each chunk fluctuates the HR quite clearly.

After dinner finishes, it’s time to ‘relax’ for the night.  Which essentially means a combination of TV, cleaning our work related stuff, clearing out DCRainmaker stuff, writing posts, and anything else administrivia on the computer.  Eventually, at 1:50AM I head to bed…ready to start it all again the next day.  I actually have no idea what that random 130BPM spike is in there.  It’s a bit odd.

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Final Observations and Device Considerations:

For the most part, the patterns are roughly what I’d expect across the day.  In periods of whole body activity, we see a jump (walking for example).  Yet, even in periods where I’m talking we still see a slight increase of HR.  On average, when I’m just working quietly on the computer, the HR goes down a bit – and tends to be fairly calm.

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Interestingly however (and you can see this best on the full-day chart directly above), you see a slight overall rise in HR post-run.  So even while I’m sitting there on my computer afterwards, for at least a couple hours there’s a clear elevated HR compared to pre-run.  It’s only as we near 1:50AM that we start to finally see this slowly taper out slightly.

For those curious about the whole day from an activity standpoint, I happened to also be wearing a Fitbit, which gives a bit more context, though, not quite as much since it’s only recording when I happened to move.  And keep in mind it’s slightly offset in that unlike above, there’s not a 45 minute gap in the day around 10:00AM.  Additionally, I didn’t take it running, or post-workout, so it’s only during the day while essentially doing normal everyday things.  But you can see it align a bit here and there – specifically to the train rides, and computer time.

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Finally, to talk briefly about devices.

This was of course transmitted via the Alpha device as I noted above, using Bluetooth Smart.  But, it also does ANT+.  In fact, back in September I used the ANT+ variant to record over 30+ hours of heart rate data while flying back from Canada to France.  Except, at the time Fenix didn’t correctly record the data (since been fixed), so that was lost.  But, I’m looking forward to doing something similar again in the future with some ultra-long haul flights and see what the data looks like.  Do keep in mind though that the Alpha doesn’t record data, rather it only transmits it, so you do need something else to record the data somehow (another watch, phone, etc…).  I used the free Wahoo Fitness App as noted earlier, because it provides the most comprehensive data export and analysis capabilities out there – with everything at 1-second granularity.  Plus, it works with both ANT+ and BLE devices, allowing me flexibility there.

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On the phone side, I found that I burned 10% of the iPhone 4s battery per 30 minutes.  So I used a combination of both a charging cable while sitting still and a charging case while on the move to keep it cooking.  During the run I just ran with a simple arm band.

Lastly, some of you may wonder how this will look with a device like the Basis watch from MyBasis.  The answer remains to be seen.  Initially when first envisioned, it would have done both continuous HR monitoring, as well as accelerometer based motion sensing, and a bunch of other metrics around skin temperature, response and more.

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However, since their ‘coming out’ press last week it seems like some of that initial functionality has been scoped back on the continuous piece (it’s not doing that any longer).  And to date, nobody outside the team has actually held a real final production Basis devices.  All of the flurry of media pieces you saw last week were all based on press packets and unique photos per media entity, not actual devices.  In short, nobody has actually touched one yet in real life and reported on it.  So while I’m super excited to test it out in a scenario like this (and am working with them to get a device shortly), I caution that it may not be the Basis device your grandpa knew a year ago.  It may be better, it may be worse, it just may be different.  Nobody really knows.  But, I’m looking forward to finding out.

As always – thanks for reading!

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71 Comments

  1. Did the Alpha ever lose HR connection with your skin?

    • DC Rainmaker

      Not that day. In fact, I can only think of cases once or twice where it’s lost contact during an activity (I’ve been using it since July).

      The more common problem was that it wouldn’t be able to find HR upon initial startup, and would take a few tries of positioning it. But with the last unit I received a week or so ago, that’s essentially gone and I’ve only had trouble just once getting it to find initial HR. And that was resolved with a simple nudge. It’s almost like GPS satellites – once you find it you’re good to go!

  2. Belgian traffic can be a bit overwhelming the first time. Max speed limit is 120 km/h, but that’s more or less a guideline 😀
    Also, taxidrivers in Brussels centrum are even worse.
    If you don’t like them, you can also take a train from Brussels to the airport. (every 15 minutes or so, a 25 minute ride)

  3. Kristof

    I hope you didn’t tried to ride a bike in Brussels City? That’s dangerous as hell 🙂

  4. Lieven

    Christmas Brew? I assume it was Palm?

    On Gare du Nord: previous years they had some kind of patio heaters installed on the waiting area in front of the international train platforms.

  5. jpb

    Was that a typical day? If you don’t get to bed until nearly 2am and presumably need to get up before 7am you can’t get much sleep. I feel tired if I get less than 8 hours!

    • DC Rainmaker

      It’s fairly typical. I usually go to bed around 1:30-3AM. And usually get up around 8-9AM. It just depends on what’s going on. That morning I got up around 7:30AM…I’m pretty quick at getting out the door.

  6. Pietro

    This are the kind of post i like of the most…
    I try this experiment with my 910 xt for 24 hr. I have noticed that during the sleep my bpm were from 40 to 60.
    During the day my range was from 80 to 120 in relax mode and from 130 to 170 while running.

  7. Jan

    Can I use the ANT+ version of the Alpha wrist HR monitor for HR and send data to my Forerunner 910XT via ANT+? So I don’t have to use the heart rate strap (which can be uncomfortable to wear at times) and still get pulse data on my Forerunner 910 XT?

    • DC Rainmaker

      Yup, no problem at all. Of course you’ll have two watches on…but that’s never stopped me.

      It’s what i was doing in past tests with the ANT+ version – connect it to the Fenix, and other ANT+ devices.

    • Thank you: I was looking for info on a Mio Link to link it to my Garmin 910XT too, but I see I better take the Mio Alpha ANT+ version, so I could use it also independantly to ‘archive’ my heartrate when I want to. Thank you very much, rainmaker!!!

      Belgium is indeed a special country. Please do visit Bruges one time (next time?). It sure is much better for your heart than Brussels is! VAN BELLE Jean Marc, info@logocom.be +32-56-252520 (“Ja, nog een “)

  8. Tommy

    “Eventually, at 1:50AM I head to bed…ready to start it all again the next day.  I actually have no idea what that random 130BPM spike is in there.  It’s a bit odd.”

    TMI. (Newlyweds…)

    • Bert

      Concur. Looks like HR starts to get slightly elevated for 3+ minutes. Can’t wait to hear there’s a little rainmaker.

    • DC Rainmaker

      Funny…

      So, out of curiosity I just went and looked at the raw data (CSV file, second by second). It looks like a case of 6 random seconds at 180bpm (actually, 179.498611), and then a bit of a bleed on either side of about 15 seconds or so. I actually saw something akin to this elsewhere where it felt like the HR was smoothed a bit – and this shows a great example of it. I think the random 180bpm are (obvious) errors, but the smoothing is more than I though – smoothed at about 15 seconds on both sides, back down to normalcy (76). It occurs to varying degrees for three minutes in a row.*

      I had seen it on a run but during intervals couldn’t easily pinpoint it afterwards in the charts.

      Anyway….

      *Note to myself: Row 49530

  9. gene

    Ray – excellent job again. Please tell Garmin to incorporate into their watches ASAP. I know in past articles you mentioned that you expected technology like this, real time web tracking, temperature, etc to be incorporated into running/tri watches soon. Any updates on a prediction of when that may occur?

    • DC Rainmaker

      Not this spring. But I could see something for fall of next year. I don’t expect it to come from Garmin first though.

  10. Do you have any recommendation in regard to apps for android? I think the Wahoo app is iOS only 🙁

    • Tim, I like endomondo, lot of activities to choose from, and you can pull down the data from their site once it’s automatically uploaded. Also if you have an xperia arc, or ion they support ant+ natively. I’m retiring my arc as my daily driver today as my nexus 4 should be delivered any minute. I just hope 4iiii’s heart rate strap is all it’s cracked up to be. Also, it’d be nice if the android community could create an APK for devices that support both BTLE and ANT that could transmit either. I’m thinking my rooted motoactv could support similar features as what the 4iiii is claiming.

      One more thing, depending on your phone you can get a OTG usb host adapter, plug a garmin usb dongle in and download the ant radio service in the play market for free. I have a touchpad running CM10 that I use to capture my data when riding my rollers this way.

  11. AmeS

    Ray,
    I have just found something similar: Wtek sensor
    link to wtek.it

    it comunicates to training watches WTEK by wireless but there are other version (ant+, for polar and in future with Bluetooth Low Energy).

    will you try it?

    p.s.: it’s so strange imaging you with a jacket 😉

    • DC Rainmaker

      Ok…ok…ok.

      Is there anywhere else to buy them?

      It looks like this one is the ANT+ one: link to wtek.it

      Do I need to buy anything else besides that one item?

    • AmeS

      I think you will need a simple wristband to wear on the forearm

      here in Italy there are many webshop to buy it.
      Maybe you should contact Wtek 😉

      p.s.: yes, HS-2+ is the ANT+ version

    • I finally tried them!
      link to ale-santuz.blogspot.de
      The HS-2+ is definitely ANT+ compatible and results are quite good. The main point, though, is comfort…if you don’t like chest straps this could be a very good alternative.

    • DC Rainmaker

      Nice post.

      I’d be curious how well it ‘stayed put’ for you. In my testing, I found that it could very easily fall out of the little fabric holder.

      I also some quite a bit of lag (looks like yours was better). Pretty much to the point that I stopped bothering using it.

    • Talking about the WTEK sensor, I found it quite comfortable, even if i have no problems with “standard” chest belts. It always stays in position, even when sweating is massive (indoor altitude simulation workouts).

    • As already said on my blog, maybe the only reason is that you didn’t have the small-sized wrist band as I did…

  12. Matt

    I feel like this was asked after a different post, but I can’t find it, so apologies if this is a repeat questions: would the Alpha or the Basis be able to collect HR data underwater?

    • DC Rainmaker

      There are two flavors – ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart. On the ANT+ side, no, only about an inch or so (which, as someone else somewhere asked about, you could put it right next to an ANT+ watch and get data). On the Bluetooth Smart side, I need to find a heat unit (a watch that will display Bluetooth Smart HR) to be able to test it. Not quite so thrilled about dragging my iPhone into the pool. 🙂

  13. Tim M.

    Ray – I was surprised how fast your iphone drained. Is the wahoo app turning on the GPS? I would have expected little impact to battery life based on the BTLE marketing promises.

    • DC Rainmaker

      No, GPS was explicitly off. It’s a bit high, but that would put it at 5-6hrs of BT time. Keep in mind that the ‘Low Energy’ part of BT is really only the sensor piece (HR unit)l, and not as much the phone itself.

  14. Jem

    Great review Ray, thanks! I’m getting further into body metrics tracking and I’ve been looking at methods of integrating all my day-to-day data into a concise and presentable format, instead of looking at (eg.) Fitbit for one, Garmin Connect for another, Evernote for yet more, etc…

    Your mention of Neotrack caught my attention and it looks promising, but still not fully customizable – no options to add custom metrics and poor mass-data import options. I’ve briefly looked into Training Peaks (which you’ve mentioned previously) as another option, but I’m not fully familiar with it yet.

    What kind of tracking system(s) do you use and what kind of data are you tracking? Might be a good post if it hasn’t been done before, or my apologies and point me to it if it has 🙂 Cheers!

    • DC Rainmaker

      Mostly I use Training Peaks for normal training data, but there aren’t really any good apps/sites for this type of continuous data. I tried a bunch for this post, and used Neotrack because I could easily merge stuff together while still zooming in and setting graph values.

  15. gene

    Ray – I hope you’re planning on doing your trademark review for this watch. The above post is awesome, but would love to see the other thoughts on the watch, rolling pin pictures, etc… Thanks again…

    • DC Rainmaker

      Yup, should be soon. They shipped out the two final production boxed units on Wednesday (ANT+ and BLE), might arrive today. I expect a review by CES (2nd week of January).

  16. gene

    Ray – fyi – basis is on sale at their site…

    • DC Rainmaker

      Yeah, they’re just doing notification only though right now (drop your name in the e-mail bucket and wait). They said they were trying to get out before Christmas, doesn’t sound like that happened.

    • DC Rainmaker

      Actually, in looking at their Facebook page, it sounds like one or two people did get shipping notifications. Good stuff.

  17. Howard A Lask

    Ray,

    I have had my Alpha for about a week, my experience has been disappointing. Thought you might be interested:

    On several occasions the watch is unable to find my heart rate. I have paid attention to the instructions and located it on my wrist correctly. If I leave it for 1/2 hour then try again then it often works ok but this is less than satisfactory when I need to go for a run or bike ride.

    When I am exercising, heart rate data is often erratic. I have been exercising with both the watch and a chest strap so that I can compare the data. Often the data is very close but it will sometimes spike to unreasonably high levels for a minute or two then revert to ‘normal’ or it may display a value that is way too low for several minutes (yesterday it displayed resting HR levels whilst I was sprinting on the bike!). Consequently I cannot ditch the chest strap as I can’t trust the HR readings from the Alpha

    I have been seeing artefacts on the screen on occasion – thin strips of yellow almost like the screen has hairline fractures in it. They appear for a minute or two then disappear.

    The battery indicator has been showing 2 bars since I unboxed it. I then suddenly got a low battery warning unexpectedly as I had no visual indication that the battery was low

    • DC Rainmaker

      Interesting – especially the weird artifacts. Haven’t seen that.

      I have seen the battery indicator oddities. I know that I typically get between 20 and 30 hours – and after that, I remember to charge it. But it seems like the battery indicator is wonky.

      On the HR data being erratic – how tight is the unit? And does it slop around any?

      I find that I’m getting really solid results – but The Girl isn’t so lucky, because her wrists are tiny and she has to slide it up her arms more. In doing so, for harder intervals, it slides around.

  18. Ray, what I love best about a day in your life is how excited you got in a bike shop!!! must have been like a candy store for you!
    You were most relaxed during public transport and least relaxed in a high-speed Taxi ride on snow!
    Also very interesting how high you can get your HR during intense work sessions on the computer. Your brain must be cooking!
    Keep up the great work.

  19. greg

    I’ve just bought one, intending to use it for more or less all day continuous heart rate tracking. But unfortunately it seems that anything that stresses the finger muscles on the wrist with the watch will falsely spike the heart rate reading. Given the amount of time I spend on the keyboard, this won’t be acceptable.

    I’m thinking that the spikes you see there might be from that.

  20. Denzil Brisland

    I have paired my MIO Alpha with the Wahoo fitness app and can see my bpm readings on my Iphone. What I cant figure out yet is how to record the data as you have shown above. I too wanted to carry out the continuous monitoring exercise. Can you help?

    Thanks,

    Denzil

  21. Denzil Brisland

    Hi Rainmaker,

    Thanks for your reply, Im not the brightest in this field, I can see a user profile but not an activity profile. And where do I find the Zone Five Software?

    You might need to take it back a level or two for me, sorry for being dumb!

  22. Brilliant !
    Exactly what I need to know a breakdown and..how to do it !
    I will using this piece of tech for different applications.
    More brain based, coupled with and eeg machine, with clients.
    Keep up the great work !

  23. Eddie

    Hey guys and gals. I also use the Mio Alpha for heart rate training. I’ve been running consistently for 6 months, about 4 days a week at 30 – 60 minutes per run at about 6mph. I also do 1.5 hours of weight training 3 – 4 days a week.
    Sitting on the couch after breakfast my HR is 48 – 58 bpm. I’m sure my resting HR is about 35 when I wake. My HR was over 100bpm during the day a couple of years ago. So in effect I’ve halved my HR.
    I love my Mio Alpha however I’ve noticed a few issues with spikes. The Mio Alpha is a fantastic pice of kit for runners especially. The MA is accurate when I’m already running. However, when I start running, my HR increases but the MA finds it very difficult to give a believable reading, it’s all over the place. Once my HR starts to level out at 125bpm the MA becomes very accurate. When I weight train my HR goes up and down as I lift and relax. The MA finds this exercise type very difficult to calculate as my HR fluctuates so much. My experience shows that the Mio Alpha is best suited for steady state cardio such as running or cycling. As long as your HR isn’t fluctuating too much the MA works great. Quick changes in HR, or moving the watch gives the spikes you mentioned in your blog. Great post though.

  24. michael

    Hello Rainmaker (Ray?)
    Enjoyed you article very much. Please tell me how the access the raw data (comment #15). Can I download those raw data to PC for graph plotting and printing?
    Best regards Michael

  25. VAN BELLE Jean Marc

    I have the Mio LINK because the Alpha does NOT exist (anymore?) with ANT+ en i use it in combination with Garmin (910XT and am willing to use it for my girlvriends Garmin 110).

    I am not that pleased with battery life (12 hours only) because I wanted to use it for the same purpose as here (sleeping).

    On the other hand, it works even when swimming with the link on the same arm/wrist (but you cannot but the 910XT in swimming modus because that one does not accept hartlink).

    The 110 seems to be better because, when you link it to a PC, you get a USB-disk that has every data on it in fileformat that you can import with own software.

    The Forerunner 910XT is for me perfect, but it is a pity I cannot get the data of this watch without the allways changing software of Garmin itself.

    Another negative point for Garmin is that I have to sell my Garmin Legend Etrx HcX because it can no longer connect to the same software of Garmin as where my Forerunner 910XT is on.

    Rainmaker, do you know about software (it is worth it paying for!) that can use my Etrex data, my 910XT, my 110, Mio and also my Nokia Windows Phone (a real disaster, but apps are coming up for this platform and Microsoft has enough money to survive the following years so this platforum surely will go up) and my elder Geonautes, by preference in family (not only one account).

    I am afraid this is a very difficult question, so it would be of no pain to hear… the real things does not exist anymore (I am a developer and thinking of programming it myself, ANT+ would be perfect to use also in industrial software in Belgium with cafés and restaurants in combination with tapcontrol of beer and with the measurements of bottles with alcohol).

    Sorry for my poor English. We speak Flemish, then Dutch, then French, only then English and German followed by the ability to understand Spanish and a little bit Italian if they do their best to speak slowly enough).

    • The biggest challenge on the WP platform is indeed apps. For Bluetooth Smart apps, depending on your exact phone – if it supports BLE your best bet is the Adidas miCoach app. I think there was a problem initially with the Mio Link, but it’s either been resolved in the last release, or on the docket for the next update (app update).

      Going forward, you’re seeing Garmin move away from ANT+ for data transfers (still for sensors of course), and instead going to Bluetooth Smart and USB (and WiFi).

  26. VAN BELLE Jean Marc

    910 times ThX +je

  27. Road_and_Trackrunner

    Hi Ray,

    just to get the basics of the story right, your report is well done anyway: You will not find your heart rate upon your wrist, you’ll find your pulse rate. That’s pretty much a difference if arrhythmia occur, e.g. leading to missing pulses – in many people not uncommon during activities.

    Keep up the excellent work, Ray.

    Road_ and_Trackrunner.

  28. Frank Cook

    Would this work to register ones sleeping heart rate across the whole sleeping time? I would like to see the whole evening, and not just an average or last rate.

  29. No, I bought it for this reason. It does not work well because of this:

    It is NOT accurate with a low heart rate, it IS indeed accurate above 80 BPM.

    Secondly it does not STORE any data. I used the version with ANT+ on the wrist with also my Forerunner 910XT that stored the data perfectly for the whole night.

    Anyone that would know about something that could store my heartrate during night and day for a week long without charging, is welcome to provide me of the link for that.

    Because I would like to measure HOW MANY HEARTBEATS my heart does in one average week time to start testing with weeks with lesser and more heart beats and to see how my body responds to that (in weight versus appetite).

    Dear rainmaker, any idea about what equipment that can store data and is ACCURATE for heartbeats at night under 70 BPM upto 50 BPM??? Do you know your lowest and highest heartrate by the way in normal weeks and after a very heavy triathlon? Could you write an article about this, mentionning your age also (you are not a woman, so I presume I may ask)?

  30. Thanks, DC Rainmaker: I bow for the Basis in… due basic respect! Thanks for replying and I will immediatey check if it can work without recharging every day (because that is also a problem with my MioLink model 56P). +je

  31. Nate

    Any updates on day-long heart rate monitoring? Has anyone tried this recently? I was wondering if there are now any better apps than the Wahoo app for this. (I’m using a Wahoo strap.) I just thought it would be interesting to see how heart rate is impacted throughout the day. I wonder if there are any good apps that include hrv, movement (e.g., walking, running), etc. analysis. Perhaps just using wahoo to record data and then uploading data to some software or website. Any recommendations?

    • Hi Nate-

      Check out my most recent post on the topic here: link to dcrainmaker.com

      Cheers.

    • Nate

      Awesome, thanks for pointing that out.

      On a separate note, this won’t much matter for most with gear, but I was looking for a simple (Android) app (to use with Wahoo strap) to alert me when I when I passed out of my heart rate zone. This is one of the main functions I was looking for, but I didn’t want to pay the ≈$5/mo. that most apps charge to have such a feature (Strava, Runkeeper, Endomondo, MapMyFitness…). Seems like such a simple and basic feature… my polar from 15 years ago did that, but the only program I found to do that adequately was the free Cardio Training (link to play.google.com). So if anyone’s looking for a decent program for that purpose, there it is. 🙂

  32. Francois C

    Hi all,

    Is there anyway to use the Fenix 3 (not HR) with the HR strap to monitor heart-rate in continuous and upload on the Garmin Connect?

    I tested Connect IQ app “RHR” but I don’t get how to export the data to any platform (ideally Garmin Connect)

    • No, no such manner. It’s a bit of a closed box, and no other way to get the data into it.

    • Van Belle Jean Marc

      I use daily the Garmin Fenix 3 left and the Garmin vivoctive HR+. The vivoactive measures all day my hearthrateso i have contiuously all data. Fantastic duo! And the free app of Garmin connect works perfect with it. PS: Did my first 5 km BLIND run in sofia. Wonderfull experience: everybody connected to a job where children are involved should do this! +je

  33. I feel like buying a HR monitor now!

  34. Nic

    Do you still use Neotrack? If not, what have you replaced it with? The link for it seems to lead to a spammy website.

  35. H ah aha ha . Great Monitoring and Is the wahoo app turning on the GPS?