HR recovery time is generally considered to be closely related to aerobic fitness. When you are doing a long low intensity workout in the aerobic zone your body doe not accumulate what is called an oxygen debt. You are very aerobic so as soon as the training stress is removed your HR quickly settles back toward normal. After very high intensity work, like during a biathlon race when the skier enters the shooting range or when Kilian is doing hard intervals there is an accumulated deficit of oxygen that has been built up. To “repay” that debt takes time. How much time is related to the stroke volume of the heart. The higher the cardiac output the faster the debt is repaid and the quicker the HR will return toward normal. Although it will not drop all the way to normal resting due to the “stress” the body is under from the work just done.

There are no absolute measures and you’d be wise not to compare yourself to professionals like Fourcade or Jornet who have a life time of training behind them. Better to test yourself and and then note improvement in your own 1 minute HR recovery time. Note that fatigue will overwhelm fitness in this test. If you are tired then the test is useless.

Scott