The latest cartoon from xkcd refers to my favourite episode of Star Trek: TNG.  Actually, I suppose I generally found ST:TNG rather un-memorable, usually with facile plot resolutions.  But this episode I thought was quite imaginative.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="414" caption="xkcd: Darmok and Jalad"][/caption]

Dave Jones kindly sent over a photo of me he'd taken during last weekend's Norlond Combine '50' on the F1/50 course - at the risk of appearing excessively vain, I thought I'd post it here.  I noticed him getting set up on the exit from the Sandy roundabout as I approached the turn, so I had time to compose myself so as not to look like I was on the point of throwing up (not, you understand, through effort - rather it was due to the weekend's over-indulgence, never a good training strategy).  I think I managed the composure thing rather well.[caption id="attachment_1497" align="alignleft" width="432" caption="Gritting my teeth at the Norlond '50', 15th May 2011"][/caption]

Way back in 2008 I wrote a brief blog article about the sequencing of the genome of a rather poorly unusual organism, Trichoplax adhaerens (What the heck is a Placozoan, anyway?).  The interest there was that the genome had a variety of genes associated with organisms with a more 'complex' structure (Trichoplax looks rather like a flattened blob of cells), while no-one really knew much about the biology of the animal.A paper describing sexual reproduction in Trichoplax has just been published in PLoS One (Eitel M, Guidi L, Hadrys H, Balsamo M, Schierwater B, 2011 New Insights into Placozoan Sexual Reproduction and Development. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19639. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019639).  Here's an excerpt from the abstract:

[...] Placozoa are a unique model system for which the nuclear genome was published before the basic biology (i.e. life cycle and development) has been unraveled. [...] Here we report new observations on sexual reproduction and embryonic development in the Placozoa and support the hypothesis of current sexual reproduction. The regular observation of oocytes and expressed sperm markers provide support that placozoans reproduce sexually in the field. Using whole genome and EST sequences and additional cDNA cloning we identified five conserved sperm markers, characteristic for different stages in spermatogenesis. We also report details on the embryonic development up to a 128-cell stage and new ultrastructural features occurring during early development. These results suggest that sperm and oocyte generation and maturation occur in different placozoans and that clonal lineages reproduce bisexually in addition to the standard mode of vegetative reproduction. The sum of observations is best congruent with the hypothesis of a simple life cycle with an alternation of reproductive modes between bisexual and vegetative reproduction.

All rather interesting - the authors note that the genome sequence was in the hands of scientists before the Trichoplax life cycle was in any way understood.  I imagine that this sort of situation will occur more often, as projects that are randomly trawling the environment for novel DNA sequences have been carried out (Venter et al (2004) Environmental Genome Shotgun Sequencing of the Sargasso Sea.  Science 304; 66-74).

This evening time trial was on the Stony Stratford course, and was on another blustery evening.  At least the rain (which had been promised by the occasional spot during the afternoon) held off, and it was quite warm for those of us who'd ridden to the event.  On the downside, the problems I've been having with my back resurfaced on the ride over.  Accordingly I resolved to try and moderate my gear on the tougher sections of the course.  This isn't my favourite course, as one needs to haul oneself up a substantial climb between Beachampton and Nash.  I was off #11, with Chris D. off a minute behind, which I figured would give me a bit of encouragement.At the allotted moment, I belted off from the line and soon found myself round the first bend and into the headwind.  Still, I was making progress as I caught a couple of riders before Nash.  I rounded the double bend at Nash and redoubled my efforts, only to be held up by a small group of cows being moved between fields (and a couple of cars held up by said cows).  I was forced to halt, or at least slow to a crawl.  Eventually, Chris came up behind, and (being made of sterner stuff than I) pushed past the cars and through the cows.  I decided that if he could do it, so could I, and followed.  From there on, Chris and I were riding at pretty similar paces to the turn, and all the way back to the finish.  I did pass Chris on the descent from Nash (big gear!) and eventually finished a couple of lengths behind him.As I write this, I haven't had the results sent through, but my computer indicates a short 28.  Looking at the computer trace (see below), the "cow incident" seems to have reduced me to a crawl for about a minute, which would leave me with a time similar to that I recorded in this event last year, 27:19.Oh, and my nice clean time trial bike ended up spattered in cow poop.  Oh well.Read on for results and the Garmin trace!

Position	Name	Club	Time
1.	Dave Glossy	Corley Cycles	26.30
2.	Chris Dunwoodie	TMK	27.02
3.	Lindz Barral	iteam	27.20
4.	Rob Saunders	NBRC	28.03
5.	Jake Hales	Corley Cycles	28.16
6.	Chris Dredge	TMK	29.31
7.	John Buchanan	TMK	29.34
8.	Clive Faine	TMK	30.17
9.	Brian Primett	TMK	30.55
10.	Matt Wootton	PM	31.12
11.	Max Duke	A5 Rangers	31.21
12.	Graham Line	NBRC	31.56
13.	Christine White	TMK	33.14
14.	Katherine Dilks	TMK	33.21
15.	Tony Brunton	NBRC	33.54
16.	Alan Lawson	NBRC	34.03
17.	Gordon Batcock	NBRC	35.12

The previous posting describes my recent ride in the Norlond Combine 50 mile time trial on the F1/50. To summarise: I felt ill throughout, and had a really rotten race!  Here's a brief clip showing me shortly before the finish.  The comment about '400 Watts' is a running joke in Team Grumpy (see for example this blog article).Norlond '50' 15-May-11

As last year, this event was nominated by my club as it's 50 mile championship event, which was an added impetus to my participation.  On the morning, however, I felt distinctly unwell.  Perhaps this situation had something to do with a couple of days of hosting family, with attendant over-eating, but it really wasn't ideal for a race.  Because the organiser was in my club, he'd done the traditional thing and put a member of the organising club off first (#9) - this also meant I'd be back and able to help with the results board.Anyway, at the appointed start time, there I was at the line.  It was very cold - probably only a few degrees over freezing.  I negotiated the dreadful road surface on the sliproad roundabout and descended the slip onto the dual carriageway.  There was a particularly nagging side wind, which promised to make the race rather hard in both directions.  By the time I rounded the first turn at the Sandy roundabout, it was pretty clear this wasn't to be an event in which I would bang out a decent performance.  In fact I was feeling as though my stomach was going to empty at any point, and during the race occasionally had to com off the tri bars to avoid being sick (which wouldn't have been good for the bike, I guess).  Along with this, I had horribly weak feeling legs and couldn't raise my heart rate to its usual racing level.[caption id="attachment_1464" align="alignright" width="152" caption="Heading north on the F1/50"][/caption]As I came past Tempsford Carol and my father were there to give an encouraging shout (and take a photo -see right).  Actually, I was probably looking better that I felt as at that point the road's quite sheltered and pretty level.  Unfortunately I knew what was up - by the time I reached the Black Cat roundabout, I reckoned I'd not get below 2 hours.  But I persuaded myself to keep on going.One factor working against me was the lack of riders ahead of me to catch.  It was pretty solitary for the first lap - no-one passed me, and there (of course) was no-one to catch.  As I passed the slip road at the start for my second lap, I did start seeing riders on their first lap (and did actually catch one or to of them) - but of course the counter to this was that some of the faster guys came past me!Eventually I made it to the finish, and rolled back to the HQ.  I got changed and went over to the HQ where I assisted with the results board.  There were some cracking rides - notably Ian Cammish (1:45:23) and Jason Gurney (1:48:06).  I ended up in 33rd place with 2:02:08 - almost 17 minutes slower than Cammish!Click Continue Reading for results and ride detailsResults (to 33rd place)

Pos	Rider	Cat	Club	Time
1	Ian Cammish	V	Planet X	01:45:23
2	Jason Gurney	V	Baines Racing - Silverstone	01:48:06
3	Hywel Davies	S	Planet X	01:50:30
4	Luke Clarke	S	Team Milton Keynes	01:51:26
5	Ross Clarke	S	Team Milton Keynes	01:51:48
6	Tim Davies	V	Icknield Road Club	01:51:58
7	David Johnson	V	VC10	01:52:59
8	Stewart Wilson	V	Baines Racing - Silverstone	01:53:22
9	Tom Boulton	S	Finsbury Park CC	01:55:49
10	Stuart Wright	V	Planet X	01:55:49
11	Steve Clarke	V	Team Milton Keynes	01:56:24
12	Phill Keefe	S	iCycle	01:56:38
13	Luke Souter	S	Banbury Star CC	01:56:40
14	Dave Lazenby	V	A5 Rangers CC	01:56:55
15	Steve Torley	S	Team Milton Keynes	01:57:22
16	Rick Laws	V	Ogmore Valley Whrs	01:57:27
17	Steven Batsford	V	Banbury Star CC	01:57:29
18	Chris Sheppard	S	Welwyn Wheelers	01:57:36
19	Tony May	V	North Road CC	01:57:37
20	Sam Williamson	V	Hemel Hempstead CC	01:58:09
21	Chris Hubbard	V	De Laune CC	01:58:12
22	James Singlehurst	V	Rockingham Forest Wheelers	01:58:44
23	Steve Sexton	V	North Road CC	01:58:44
24	Craig McKee	S	Rugby RCC	01:58:47
25	Ian Bibby	V	Finsbury Park CC	01:59:30
26	Ken Roesner	V	Kings Lynn CC	02:00:01
27	Erron Field	S	Chelmer CC	02:00:24
28	Jase Walkley	S	RAF CC	02:01:04
29	Adrian Manning	V	Wyre Forest CRC	02:01:16
30	Mark Saggers	V	St Ives	02:01:45
31	Steven Kay	V	Verulam CC	02:02:01
32	Tony Boardman	V	Team Swift	02:02:04
33	Robert Saunders	V	North Bucks Road Club	02:02:07

At least the forecast showers held off for this evening's time trial, though blustery wind remained to try my patience.  A good turnout of about 19 riders produced some fine rides, with a bit of a gulf between Tim and Jason and the 3rd and 4th placed riders with a tightly fought 1 second difference.From my perspective, I've been trying to pull back form lost through February's injury: at last week's event I was about half a minute shy of that event in 2010, tonight I was 4 seconds slower than in 2010.  On the other hand the margin between Tony and me was somewhat smaller, around 5 seconds.  By and large, though, I'm reasonably pleased with this evening's ride.The wind meant the outward leg to Chicheley was a little tough, but once round that corner, things were a bit brisker, and I managed to catch one or two riders.  Traffic was pretty light this evening, which is always good!Read on for the results table and map

1	Tim Carter	Virgin Active	21.36
2	Jason Gurney	Baines Racing	21.43
3	Chris Dunwoody	Team MK	23.09
4	Tony Parks	NBRC	23.10
5	Rob Saunders	NBRC	23.53
6	David Carrington	Team MK	24.12
7	Grahame Freestone-KingJohn Buchanan	Team Sales EngineTeam MK	24.38
8	Anthony Batt	NBRC	25.11
9	Rob Chaundy	Team MK	25.13
10	David Price	Twenty3c	25.14
11	Brian Primett	Team MK	25.50
12	Steve Abraham	NBRC	26.04
13	Ruth Freestone-King	Team Sales Engine	27.06
14	Alan Lawson	NBRC	28.07
15	Christina White	Team MK	28.12
16	Graham Line	NBRC	28.14
17	Gordon Batcock	NBRC	29.01
18	Tony Brunton	NBRC	29.06

Well, all the weather forecasts for this morning were diabolical - heavy rain and strong southerly winds were forecast.  I'd decided that there was no way I was going to race on a major dual carriageway in heavy rain, so I was more than a little apprehensive.  In the end, the BBC changed their forecast to sunny spells (and they got it wrong - we had a little light rain, but it was pretty heavily overcast).  What they did get right was the stiff breeze, which promised to make the southbound legs really quite tough.The event was on the F1/30 (my first ever 30 mile time trial): starting near Tempsford, riders head south, joining the A1, crossing the Sandy roundabout to turn at Biggleswade North (Warden Lane) roundabout, heading north across Sandy and Black Cat roundabouts to turn at Buckden for the final 10 mile southbound leg to finish near Tempsford.  There's a map of the course, with some heart rate and speed data at the end of this report.As I got started, I was appalled at the state of the miniroundabout that takes the riders onto the sliproad to join the A1 - successive harsh winters coupled with an evodent unwillingness to repair damage has left it in appallingly pitted and potholed condition.  Indeed one to the riders I talked to at the start said that he'd punctured in the potholes at the Beds Road CC '25' a few weeks ago.  This was good to know, and I took the roundabout  very carefully.  On joining the main dual carriageway, I was already regretting having done the '10' on the preceding afternoon.  Slogging into the headwind was really quite miserable and mostly I was only holding 23mph or so.  Of course, once round the Biggleswade North roundabout, things looked up considerably and, benefitting from a helpful tailwind, I must have averaged over 29mph to the Buckden turn.Returning to the finish was a 10 mile slog into the headwind, a section in which I really lost the will to race.  Bizarrely, there were stretches which were presumably quite well sheltered, where I saw my speed creep up, but on the whole I was knocking out 23-24mph.  I passed the 25 mile point in about 57:52, and eventually finished in 1:10:43.This being my first 30 mile time trial, I suppose this represents a personal best.  I'd have been happier had it been in more comfortable conditions though!

After the NBRC club time trial on Wednesday, when I felt my form was beginning to return, I was rather looking to this event to reaffirm this judgement.  By Friday, however, I was rather annoyed to see the weather forecast for Saturday afternoon was for heavy rain.  On the day, however, the rain didn't materialise (rather, the BBC had changed their story, now forecasting it for first thing Sunday morning - just when I was supposed to be riding the Norlond '30' on the F1).  So, as I lined up at the start it was dry, though rather warm and humid.  I felt really quite sleepy!  The main climatic obstacle was the rather strong and blustery cross-wind that looked as though it might be most troublesome on the outward leg.And so it proved.  It felt as though I was riding through treacle for the first half of the event.  For the first time when riding this course, I had no problems of being baulked by traffic at any point.  Instead, I was just finding it quite difficult to build up and maintain speed.  The return leg was marginally better, but really only marginally.I crossed the line in about 23:07 - not far different from my time of 23:02 in last year's event.  Perhaps the form I had last year is returning after my injury setbacks of February.  As usual, this was a very sociable event - plenty of conversation.  Maybe it's because a relatively early event in the calendar, and usually with modest number of riders.  Anyway, it was good to touch base with riders I'd not seen since last season.