Got a Garmin for Christmas (thanks me )  It has a heart rate monitor which I don't really use for training, I've just been keeping an eye on it mostly because it's neat.  It seems to operate consistently.  Today I went out for an easy 5 mile run on the roads.  8:45ish is my current easy pace.  I steadily increased my speed throughout the run.  My heart rate for most of the run was around 165, then it sped up and fluctuated between 165 and 180 for the last couple miles.  For the last half mile I decided to pick it up and run hard the rest of the way.  Strangely, my heart rate dropped down to below 150 (according to my device) as my pace quickened to under a 7 min. pace!  It held steady in the 140 range until I sprinted the last 50 meters or so when it skyrocketed up to the 180's again.  This is so strange to me that I can't stop staring at the graphs!  It doesn't seem like the device malfunctioned.  Does anyone experience a similar phenomenon?

I would treat it as a fluke, but watch to see if it happens again.  
 
I do agree with Dave in any case. Much better than flat line.
 

Quote from Dave Tapp on Jan 19^th, 2010, 9:27am:

Agreed!  I hope my next run also won't produce a flat line!

maybe you're a finely-tuned machine that thrives on hard work.

Quote from Darnyankee on Jan 19^th, 2010, 12:08pm:

 
Are you positive you were running at all?
 
 

Careful there my friend...you start talking about blacking out, we start thinking intervention.  We might check you into a runners' rehab or something. I think there's one coming up at Clinton Lake!
 

haha...that is strange....maybe the faster you go the worse the connection to your body?...the thingy doesn't get a good signal from your heart?
 
oooorrr...maybe you are just that good...... by my highly sophisticated, medically informed, and totally-non-made-up calculations.....you should be able to run a 3 minute mile at your natural resting heart rate.    

I was running the course of the annual Delavan Fall Festival 10k, at the time in question I was running by some houses toward the park.
 
I'll be doing some experiments to see if I can repeat this occurance or if it was a fluke.  I hope I'm a freak of nature with unparalleled VO2 potential, but I doubt it.