Does barometric pressure affect distance running performance?

At high altitude the low air density/low oxygen density is a limiting factor in endurance performances. So changes in barometric pressure can easily influence performance (higher pressure means more oxygen).

At sea level there is more than enough oxygen available. The limiting factor is not oxygen density anymore, but how much of this oxygen your body is able to use. Changes in barometric pressure don't have any influence at sea level then.

Partridge wrote:

At high altitude the low air density/low oxygen density is a limiting factor in endurance performances. So changes in barometric pressure can easily influence performance (higher pressure means more oxygen).

At sea level there is more than enough oxygen available. The limiting factor is not oxygen density anymore, but how much of this oxygen your body is able to use. Changes in barometric pressure don't have any influence at sea level then.

Air is 20.98% oxygen no matter where you are on earth (at least on solid ground).

What matters is the pressure. The higher in altitude you do the lower the air density and the pressure. "Ideally" sea level under very specific conditions would have a pressure of 760 torr (mm of hg). In Colorado Springs the air pressure is 20% less (about 610 torr). The summit of Everest is about 253 torr.

The partial pressure of oxygen in the air is 21% of the barometric pressure (please note I am assuming no moisture in the air since that will change things). So at SL the partial pressure of O2 (PO2) is 160 torr, in COS it is 128 and Everest is 53.

Your blood also have a partial pressure of oxygen. "Deoxygenated blood" has a PO2 of around 35 torr (at SL, lower as you increase altitude).

It is the pressure that matters since gases move from an area of greater concentration to lesser concentration. If that difference is small as it is in COS and on Everest compared to SL then less oxygen is pushed into the blood.

Adding in moisture in the air drives down PO2.

The reality is that at SL you are rarely going to get a huge drop in pressure that is going to have a huge impact. At altitude you can get enough of a drop to cause issues like acute mountain sickness. My ex got AMS once in Breckenridge because a low pressure front moved in and dropped the pressure enough that as we rode the chair lift up the mountain she became symptomatic.

One issue with the article is talking about temperature, I think the ability for the body to dissipate heat better in cooler temperatures is more of a factor than muscle elasticity when it comes to faster times in distance events.

Here is a good synopsis (tsk tsk on Asker for having the Mexico City Games in 1969 when they were held in 1968).

So would I run faster at SL in theory with a lower BPressure like a 28.00 ? Hard to find at SL I guess.

Here's my understanding (not a climate scientist!):

I believe you can think of barometric pressure in the same way as altitude. When the barometric pressure is low (like in a storm) it's like being at a higher altitude. But pressure changes with the weather and so on at a given location are small in comparison with pressure changes with altitude, so we usually just ignore them.

According to google, the typical air pressure at sea level is 29.9 inches Hg, and at 4,000 feet it's 25.8 inches Hg.

If you look at barometric pressure across the US right now:

http://www.usairnet.com/weather/maps/current/barometric-pressure/

you see that it varies by +/-0.5inHg across the country (from 29.5 to 30.5). This is not a lot of variation overall, the equivalent of like a thousand feet of elevation from lowest to highest. I guess it's also not nothing -- worth a few seconds per mile in terms of performance.

Interesting to think about.

Luv2Run wrote:

Air is 20.98% oxygen no matter where you are on earth (at least on solid ground).

Is that true? If the molecules roughly follow the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, why wouldn't the more massive molecules make up a greater percentage of the air at lower elevations?

David S wrote: Is that true?

yes, it is true.

"While the ratio of the oxygen and nitrogen in the air remains the same, less molecules are available within the same space. "

cheers.