Oh, while I'm thinking of it...I used my heart rate monitor for the first time yesterday. It's a fun little tool. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it stop beeping incessantly...when I glared at my wrist and said "Shut up--I know!", the guy on the next precor gave me a "bitch is crazy" look.
I tried doing an OwnZ0ne calculation, but my heart rate was over 100 in the locker room so it couldn't get a variable reading*. My age zone was about right, though. I found I had to go a lot slower on the elliptical high intervals than I had been in the past, in order to keep my HR in the recommended range. This disappointed me a little, since I was thinking that my cardio conditioning was better than it is. All this time, I've been working too hard on the high end.
I also discovered that if the exercise machine has heart rate panels built into it, the transmitter will send to it as well. When I first got on the elliptical, I was trying to see what the difference was in the HR measurements between the hand panels and the chest strap, not even considering that the chest strap was controlling both receivers. I was sort of surprised that the numbers on my watch and the precor display were exactly the same...even when I wasn't holding the hand panels! Spooky. Then it occurred to me that my chest transmitter was sending to both. D'oh!
The wrist receiver does work better than the machine receiver, though--I think because I have a coded transmitter and it established its connection in the locker room. There were a couple times that the machine's receiver lost my signal (maybe someone walked by with a transmitter on) and put out bad numbers, but the wrist receiver never did.
Speaking of the chest strap, it was more comfortable than I expected it to be. After a few minutes and some minor adjustments, I hardly noticed it was there. The electrodes are under fabric for this model, and the wet cloth felt clammy at first...but once I started sweating, it was all the same.
So yeah...I like the new toy. I'm going to take it out for a spin on the track later today, if it doesn't rain again.
*the way I understand it, P0lar M-series monitors will calculate your ideal HR target zone based on a 5-minute fit-test at the beginning of the workout, but your HR has to start under 100 in order for it to work. If it can't get a read, it sets the target zone by age.
Posted by Joy at March 3, 2005 11:07 AM