Today is the long(er) run day from my 80/20 half marathon training plan so I was planning on comparing the Vantage V oHR accuracy using the H10 as a reference and also since I was using the phone paired with the Polar H10, to check the distance and GPS track. That worked fine, but it wasn’t totally without surprises.
Two things were surprising:
- The distance was different: 12.92km Vantage V vs 12.54km iPhone Polar Beat
- The H10 needed some moisturising, as it started the workout with all over the place readings. That normalised after 6-7 minutes, as it usually does and stayed that way, confirming the suitability of Vantage V oHR for steady workouts. I don’t know how well would it work under stress and intervals, but we will find out.
Now, let’s look first at the distance … the Vantage V was paired with the Stryd that I trust (even though I should test it on marked track) and provided a nice looking GPS track. The iPhone, to my surprise, was a mess, you can see below.
Regarding the heart rate readings, I didn’t know until I ended up the session what the Polar H10 registered, since I didn’t look at the phone during my run. I was surprised, but not that much because it happened before, to see that even though, when starting the run, the values were the same – it quickly went up and down and only stabilised after 7 minutes. Overall, even with the initial variation, the average bpm difference is less than 1bpm – 0.4%.
What is nice and reassuring, for the steady workouts, is the stability of the Vantage V oHR measurements – a detailed sample of the comparison below
Starting with yesterday, I got also some Training Load Pro values, those will be probably more relevant after some other sessions, but it’s a start.
I also noticed that the cadence looks fine now (I’m under the impression that it comes from the Stryd) and also the altitude is fine now.
I’m still surprised that, even though I see variances in the altitude (which is confirmed by the topography), that is not reflected in the summary of the session (neither on watch or Polar Flow).
With that, it’s time to prepare for the day off …
Liviu Nastasa 