I’ve been diagnosed with suprvaentricular tachycardia (SVT), currently wearing a halter to see what the triggers are. I’m wondering if SVT prevents my Wahoo Tickr HRM to properly ready my heart rate; I’ve tried multiple HRM’s and they will usually stop reading my heart rate once I get into the threshold range.
If anyone here has SVT while you’re on the bike, do you also have problems with chest-strap heart rate monitors? Would love to hear about any HRM’s that have worked for you.
Have had occasional SVTs for 35+ years. I’ve not had any HRM drop out; in fact, I shared the recordings from several different Garmin straps and my Scosche Rythm+ and now Rythm 24 with my MD and the cardiologist I saw to document episodes. That led to a Holter (back in my younger days and again about 10 years ago) and a treadmill test as well.
What I don’t like is that recording the SVTs screws up my view of average HR
BTW, the most common occurence is when I hit a easier block of work following a harder effort, such as a few minutes into a descent on a hard climb or after a structured O2 max interval.
I have occasional SVT occurrences and my HR monitors all confirm what I am feeling. I have a Wahoo TICKR and TICKRX, plus two Scosche Rythm monitors. All work normally both before, during and after an episode of SVT. I connect them via Ant+ to my head unit and BLE to TR on my iPad.
Yup…same here. Always occurs on the backside of a tough interval or training session. I do follow-up with my cardiologist every year. I also read he book The Haywire Heart, which helped make sense of it all.
Speaking for myself only here, after consulting a cardiologist:
I have PSVT (paraoxysmal supraventricular tachycardia), in other words, very short episodes of this that last just a couple heartbeats (and feel like a momentary flutter in my chest with no other symptoms). Some days I don’t feel it at all, other days I literally feel it hundreds of times, which is particularly frightening mid-race or during a workout. Anyway, I went through a ton of testing for it, and luckily my condition itself is not dangerous. The cardiologist recommended medication only if I find it too disruptive or annoying to behave normally. To this end, I actually stopped wearing my HRM because of it. I found it harder to ignore the fluttering feeling when my heart rate reading visibly (and alarmingly) jumped for a moment along with it, and since there was no useful information to gain from my HRM in this regard I eliminated the source of stress.
Thanks for sharing @SeanHurley . That sounds similar to my case, normally I will just get a few heart flutters during the day. However the incident that made me see my doctor was a prolonged event.
I was on a ride in Yosemite last month and was going up to Glacier Point, I started feeling strong heart palpitations and skipped beats, looked down at my Garmin and saw my HR spiking at over 220 BPM; my MHR is 181 so I started freaking out a bit.
I got off the bike and rode in a follow car for the remainder of the ride. While my HR did fall back down to the 80s, the palpitations did not stop until we got back down to 3,000 feet. Since then I’ve experienced a couple other episodes while riding, normally when I put in a threshold-or-higher effort for more than a couple minutes; once I dial back the effort my heart rate starts to spike.
In any case, I’m still wearing the Holter monitor and have recorded a couple events. I’m hoping the cardiologist will tell me that it’s PSVT too.
Yep, I think the key point here is that one athlete’s diagnosis is theirs alone and it’s super important to consult your doctor and get checked out. I’ve not experienced sustained SVT myself but there are a long list of athletes who have, and it sounds really frightening. I hope your situation resolves itself and everything is ok!
I have a very similar situation. PSVT occasionally and when training or riding, I need to stop and let things settle. I also see a cardiologist annually and keep a log of both the PSVT and any palpitations I feel.
Everyone is different….for me the PSVT, when it happens, can be unsettling. I do still wear a HRM and I keep a Kardia EKG sensor handy at times to catch any events for tracking to discuss with my doc.
