I wonder how they come up with these conversions? Obviously the air has less oxygen at altitude, but it seems like it would be difficult to assess, say, how a 10% reduction in the amount of oxygen available affects your times. Anyone have any idea? I would think the best way would be to time many swimmers at several altitudes and see how their times varied on average, but there are so many other factors at work, not to mention availability of the data might not be great.
I wonder how they come up with these conversions? Obviously the air has less oxygen at altitude, but it seems like it would be difficult to assess, say, how a 10% reduction in the amount of oxygen available affects your times. Anyone have any idea? I would think the best way would be to time many swimmers at several altitudes and see how their times varied on average, but there are so many other factors at work, not to mention availability of the data might not be great.
