So I'm sitting here at my desk gazing at my picture of the Himalayan Panorama, and I thought that an ideal topic for my first blog would be the merits of physiological research 'in the field'. The Himalayas are relevant because 6 weeks ago I returned from a 4 week research expedition to The Pyramid Research Laboratory at 5050m in Nepal, with a group of researchers and clinicians from New Zealand and Australia. It was a unique trip, since unlike many other research expeditions where the portability of kit is essential (mainly because you are carrying it!), our group sent 340kg worth of equipment up to the high altitude lab (and all of it arrived in working order!!). We had echocardiography ultrasound, transcranial dopplers, several data acquisition systems (amplifiers, ADCs..), muscle stimulating equipment, load cells, sleep systems, spirometers, the list goes on...... So why did we go to the bother of picking up the lab and moving it half way around the world and then reassembling it on the side of a mountain? Why, when environmental chambers can simulate quite closely, altered atmospheric conditions? Why, because this was real-life physiology! We stayed at 5050m for two weeks, collecting data solidly for the duration, for over 10 different projects - I've never seen an environmental chamber that could accommodate that (and I sure wouldn't want to live in one for 2 weeks!!). But aside from the unique physiological stress that we were able to study, it was, for me, one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. I was experiencing the physiology first hand, and as a researcher, and a teacher, that was invaluable to me.

Last year, I packed up a car-boot full of research equipment and headed to the south of France, to test some cyclists who were completing the Tour De France route to time and schedule, one week ahead of the elite race. It is another situation where I took equipment that had never been out of the lab before, into the field, in order to collect some insightful data in such a unique environment. Now I come to write up that project and I'm finding the compromise we make when taking the research out into the field. The amount of work the cyclists did each day was not standardised, the cyclists all performed different amounts of work everyday, they all drunk and ate ad-lib throughout the cycling, the temperature was different daily....all things that, if this experiment had been conducted in a lab, would have been considered and monitored. But this is real life - this is the Tour De France; this is what happens when you ride up and down mountains for 8 h a day, for 3 weeks solid; this is what really happens when people put their bodies on the line in the name of sport. I don't think you can really get that in a lab and by getting out into the field it's amazing to have a scientific insight into it. And I'd take the Alps or the Himalayas any day over the view from the lab window!!