Thanks Don, I tried to find a definitive answer on the web as to what
is considered a good drop but each site differed greatly. I'll see what
my recovery rate is during a time trial workout where I usually get my
heart rate up to 151 bpm. Not like climbing reapeats are not easy
either.

I few years ago, I remember reading an article that claimed the
recovery rate was one of the best predictors of mortality.

I just went and googled and found it, in the New England Journal of
Medicine.

 http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/341/18/1351

Heart-Rate Recovery Immediately after Exercise as a Predictor of
Mortality
Christopher R. Cole, M.D., Eugene H. Blackstone, M.D., Fredric J.
Pashkow, M.D., Claire E. Snader, M.A., and Michael S. Lauer, M.D.

"In univariate analyses, a low value for the recovery of heart rate
was strongly predictive of death (relative risk, 4.0; 95 percent
confidence interval, 3.0 to 5.2; P<0.001)."

There is an interview
 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s63595.htm

In a six-year follow-up study, researchers showed that in a group of
men and women aged around 57, the heart rate one minute after peak
exercise strongly predicted their likelihood of dying in the following
few years.

"It's a dramatic finding which could have an impact on the way people
with serious coronary risk are screened or indeed whether you need to
go on to have fancier tests like nuclear heart scans of angiography
where your coronary blood vessels are catheterised and X-rayed.
...
"The person who led the research team was Dr Michael Lauer, a
cardiologist at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Michael Lauer: We looked at something very simple; we looked at the
heart rate at the end of exercise, in people undergoing exercise
testing, and then we looked at their heart rate one minute after they
finished exercise. We took the difference between the heart rate at
peak exercise and the heart rate one minute later, and we measured the
heart rate recovery. We followed 2,400 patients for about six years,
during which time 213 of them died. And what we found was that this
change in heart rate during the first minute after exercise was an
extremely powerful predictor of mortality, in fact it was the most
powerful predictor of mortality that we've looked at; it was a more
powerful predictor of mortality than nuclear tests, which look at blood
flow abnormality to the heart, and it was a much more powerful
predictor of mortality than the electrocardiogram we physically looked
at during exercise."

I'm going to repeat that last part, adding emphasis:

 "...this change in heart rate during the first minute after exercise
was *an extremely powerful predictor of mortality",

  in fact *it was the *most* *powerful* predictor of mortality that
we've looked at*;

  it was a *more powerful predictor of mortality than nuclear tests*,
which look at blood flow abnormality to the heart,

and it was a *much* *more* *powerful* predictor of mortality than the
*electrocardiogram* we physically looked at during exercise."