. Sometimes I have trouble listening to how I feel but when my HR won't come down I can be forced to see it in a number.
I'm the same way. I have a cheap ($20) HRM that I got off of woot.com. (It's worth keeping an eye on the site as the HRM comes up pretty frequently). One of my friends found a cheap HRM (~$25) on ebay, so if that's in your price range you might check there as well.