Like Dominque, I use a BLE heart rate monitor and smartphone app. I am using the Polar H7 chest strap, but I got that before the Mio Alpha was available. Or at least before I knew it was. I personally don't mind the chest strap that much, but I can see the appeal of not needing to use one.
I use an iPhone and one of these to mount it on my wrist while I run. I prefer that to an (upper) arm band because I can glance down at stats or a heart rate graph when I want. But that is more practical on longer, paced runs then when doing short HIIT training.
My personal preference is Digifit iCardio, while Dominque likes it for assesment tests and Runtastic Pro for actual runs. The basic iCardio is free, but has in-app upgrades to support sensors like HRM or to create your own custom workouts or perform fitness tests. You'd want the upgrades. You can then define your HIIT intervals and it will give you audio cues for transitions. For example, define:
- Warm up period of x minutes
- Repeat series of intervals x times:
- 30 seconds, target HR zone 4
- 60 seconds, target HR zone 3
- Cool down for x minutes
- Automatically enter HR recovery mode (tracks HR for 2 minutes to record graph of how fast it comes down)
It seems iCardio measures and stores your HR every 6 seconds. So the graph you get afterwards would let you pretty easily see each 30 and 60 second interval. But it won't directly give you the average HR for each interval. It will give average HR and pace for each "split", but those have to be defined as either based on distance or time. Time based splits are in whole minutes, so you can't set it to 30 seconds. Nor can you auto-split based on work-out interval transitions. Since it does record it every 6 seconds, you'd be able to figure it out though.
If Runtastic Pro will give you avg HR and pace on 30 second intervals, you may like that. I'll let Dominque chime in on what Runtastic Pro supports.
With iCardio you can see the graph of the changes in your HR. In fact, you can see it live in real-time on the iPhone. So with the above wrist mount you could even glance at that during your walk intervals.
Just thought of another option: instead of auto-split based on time or distance, you could turn off auto split and enable a big lap button. Then tap that with each transition. You'd then get split statistics based on the 30 and 60 second intervals.
Digitfit includes a free website account to upload data. They do have a paid subscription available, but the free level already does more than I use. Plus it links to Fitbit, so each of my runs automatically creates an "activity" record in my Fitbit account and overrides the calories that Fitbit estimated for the same time period.
I'm happy with iCardio, but while I do intervals it is more like couch to 5k training intervals, not HIIT. I just did my first 5K in Oct and my second in Dec, so I'm very much a beginner runner and you could be looking for different features than me.
I'll let Dominque elaborate on what he likes better about Runtastic Pro.
Features I would like iCardio to have that it does not yet:
- Support for BLE foot pod sensor, to enable auto-start, auto-pause, and cadence tracking
- Support for auto-splits to be based on workout intervals instead of fixed time or distance
- Support for audio cues for timing against a "ghost runner" or a previous workout
- Metronome with option to only play sound when you are below the target cadence
As a newbie, my needs could be very different than yours. But overall I am pleased with iCardio.
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