I know, I know - you all told me so. :Retro smile: I know that people talk about them all the time here. I finally broke down and ordered myself a watch with a chest strap that measures heart rate and beeps when it goes past a rate that I can set. It arrived today, and MAN, I should have got this forever ago!
I should also probably have demanded a fee from the watch company for raving about their product. But it is good. A bit on the large side for a normal watch, but not as super huge as many sports watches seem to be. It looks fine on my girly little wrist. Mine is a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch (http://www.amazon.com/Timex-Ironman..._1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1336519477&sr=8-15)...which I mention not as a plug for them in particular (though I do like it), but only because I was burnt and it was an effort to find one that I was sure would do what I wanted it to, so maybe it will save somebody else some effort. If you're up to looking around at all, though, I'm certain that there are much cheaper watch and heart monitor strap combos out there that would be perfectly fine for our purposes. Nobody paid me to say this. ...Unfortunately.
My heart rate went up to 120 just from casually surfing the internet. Now I know why I get so sweaty and flushed and wiped out sometimes from "easy" activities like that. Also definitely jumps dramatically when I stand up (which I knew from isolated testing with my blood pressure cuff, but is neat to see in a more fluid way). It gets higher than I thought, though. Usually when I stand and test it's in the 120's. But walking to the bathroom shot it up further - to 135. Obviously I've never walked around with the BP cuff on.
Anyway, VERY interesting to see in detail, and hopefully it will be a good tool in helping me back off BEFORE I start getting bad symptoms. Even if I haven't yet had my anaerobic threshold personally tested, I'm pretty sure that 135 is too much. Thanks to everyone who suggested getting one and getting me to finally get around to it.
I should also probably have demanded a fee from the watch company for raving about their product. But it is good. A bit on the large side for a normal watch, but not as super huge as many sports watches seem to be. It looks fine on my girly little wrist. Mine is a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch (http://www.amazon.com/Timex-Ironman..._1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1336519477&sr=8-15)...which I mention not as a plug for them in particular (though I do like it), but only because I was burnt and it was an effort to find one that I was sure would do what I wanted it to, so maybe it will save somebody else some effort. If you're up to looking around at all, though, I'm certain that there are much cheaper watch and heart monitor strap combos out there that would be perfectly fine for our purposes. Nobody paid me to say this. ...Unfortunately.
My heart rate went up to 120 just from casually surfing the internet. Now I know why I get so sweaty and flushed and wiped out sometimes from "easy" activities like that. Also definitely jumps dramatically when I stand up (which I knew from isolated testing with my blood pressure cuff, but is neat to see in a more fluid way). It gets higher than I thought, though. Usually when I stand and test it's in the 120's. But walking to the bathroom shot it up further - to 135. Obviously I've never walked around with the BP cuff on.
Anyway, VERY interesting to see in detail, and hopefully it will be a good tool in helping me back off BEFORE I start getting bad symptoms. Even if I haven't yet had my anaerobic threshold personally tested, I'm pretty sure that 135 is too much. Thanks to everyone who suggested getting one and getting me to finally get around to it.