Matt O’ Rama

Man, 50 miles is a long way to ride your bike. I did a 50 mile ride on Saturday as part of the Albuquerque Century and it was hard. I mean really hard. It didn’t help that I hadn’t been riding my bike almost at all in the past 6 months. So really I had no right to ride that far and if the last 15 miles hadn’t been downhill or flat I don’t think I could have finished. But while I was unreasonably happy to see the finish line, I did it.

The main thing you forget when you don’t ride long distances for a while is how much sitting on a bike hurts your ass. That and my back muscles hurting from not being used like that for so long were what almost did me in, not my legs which is nice because it means I didn’t lose all my leg fitness. Now that I’ve done this insane ride I’m going to push myself to be ready for the 100 miles next year. That ride has 2 insane hills as well as big rolling hills on Tramway so there’s no faking that one. I’ll have to be ready for real. I’m also hoping to do some triathlons next year since I’ve been a slacker and don’t think I’ll be ready this year. We’ll see though.

I do have one suggestion for the ABQ Century folks: Do some kind of real finish line. I showed up at the finish to no applause, no picture, nothing. I figured I was just late since it took me awhile to finish but some other people there said there had been nothing the whole time they had been there either. Now to a lot of people, doing those long rides might just be another weekend but the rest of us would appreciate some kind of atta-boy or something. I don’t even need a plaque or anything. Hell, a whoohoo and a congrats would have sufficed.

But overall it was great. The food/rest stops were very well done and the route was mostly well marked. Hopefully next year some of the roads with no shoulder will be widened but that’s up to the city, not the ride people. I’m glad I did it and I look forward to going again.

Tags: Biking, Personal, The Big Blue Room by matt
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http://www.hicks-wright.net/blog.php?id=5173

This blog post is a review of a trip this guy took to the new, highly cool-looking, Grand Canyon Skywalk. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a glass-floored walkway that sticks out over the Canyon. Sounds awesome, and I’ve wanted to go on it ever since I first saw the pictures. According to this post, it pretty much sucks. First they charge you way more than advertised, then it’s not even finished, and they don’t let you take cameras. Let me repeat, NO CAMERAS. What? You’re at the Grand Freaking Canyon and they don’t let you take pictures?

I was just at the GC recently for the first time and I was pretty impressed by the tourist parts that were there, hopefully this will get better over time. But if they think they can just foist off some lame, overly-expensive, half-built thing on people (and not even let them take pictures for pete’s sake) and not have the bad word-of-mouth spread they’ve got another thing coming. I have no plans to go back to the Canyon anytime soon but until I hear that things have gotten a lot better at the Skywalk I’ll be skipping it.
[tags]grand+canyon,skywalk,grand+canyon+skywalk,lame,ripoff[/tags]

Tags: The Big Blue Room by matt
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I’ve been doing my triathlon training, although my inability to get up early enough in the morning has been hindering my attempts somewhat. I’ve been swimming and running more than I ever thought I would, but I haven’t been back on my bike much. I’m bringing it to work tomorrow and I’ll get a chance to do a good ride since we get to leave early (a guy I didn’t know passed away so we’re closing early).

I’ve decided to do either the Socorro Triathlon or the Bottomless Lakes Triathlon. The Bottomless Lakes race is in a big lake I visited once before and I’d like to do that but being my first tri, I think it might be a good idea to do the Socorro one since it’s in a pool. I’ll have to decide soon so I don’t miss my chance. Both of these races are Sprint distance, which is good with my lessened training schedule.

I’m excited. I think I can do it, with my least confidence being in the running. The Sprint tri includes 3 miles of running, about 3 miles more than I’ve ever run at one time. :) I’m getting better but it’s going to take a lot more pavement pounding.

Tags: Biking, Personal, Triathlon by matt
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So it looks like the triathlon I was planning on attending is cancelled. I found this out in the newsletter for a New Mexico based Triathlon club, The Outlaws. So that sucks, but I found a triathlon club I might want to join so that’s a silver lining. Although from reading about some of the members, I don’t know if I’m up to snuff. One of them does 150+ bike rides, for pete’s sake. I’ll keep an eye on them though and see how my training goes. I’m going to sign up for one of the other triathlons around the same time as the defunct one soon.
Speaking of training, I’m doing a lot better than I thought I would. I’m swimming a lot farther already and I’m getting better at breathing. I’m trying to keep to the techniques I read about in the book Total Immersion, which I recommend if you’re into swimming and want to get better, or if you’re like me and have no old habits to break and want to get better. I’m also running more and walking less in my training runs. Next is to get my flat bike tire fixed and see how much of that fitness I’ve lost not riding for 6 months. It’s probably going to be pretty pathetic. And I’m anticipating my ass hurting, a lot. That’s the price you pay for not riding.
[tags]triathlon,training,running,swimming,cycling,new+mexico,albuquerque[/tags]

Tags: Personal, Triathlon by matt
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I found a site called We Endure through a typical internet round-a-bout way (a comic book writer whose forum I used to frequent’s wife had a link to it on her site) and I’m really happy with it. While the site’s name is kind of strange, it’s for endurance sports training so it fits. You add all your training to it: how far you ran, what much you swam, etc. It also does a countdown of days until the events you specify so now I know I only have 149 days till the Triathlon. Yikes. But anyway, if you’re interested in training for some endurance event, I’d recommend using We Endure, it really helps to see all your training laid out in front of you.

My site is available here, if you’re interested.

[tags]weendure,endurance,triathlon,training,exercise[/tags]

Tags: Personal, Triathlon by matt
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The last place I worked had almost no opportunities for exercise, which I always thought was weird since it was the administrative center for a giant hospital. Plus it was very near a bunch of good restaurants. Those factors combined with my general lack of willpower and food issues to cause me to totally obliterate all the progress I’d made in losing weight. My new work is right next to a great bike trail I’ve always liked (the trail where I first learned to really ride actually) and has a deal with the nearby gym (the same one I used to go to when I lived in this part of town) so I’ve been really looking forward to getting back to working out and exercising. I haven’t ridden my bike in like 6 months for pete’s sake.

So to make a long story even longer, somehow the idea of doing a Triathlon got lodged in my head and for the first time in my life I’ve been running. Only twice so far but that’s 2 more times than I’ve ever even wanted to run in my life so it’s a step in the right direction. I bought some running shoes and some goggles for swimming, along with a Triathlon book, a running book, and a swimming book I read about a few months back in the Cool Tools mailing list. The triathlon I’m aiming for is at the end of July and it’s what’s called a Olympic distance: Swim 1500 meters (almost a mile), Bike 25 miles, Run 6.2 miles. I figure that’s enough to make it tough but not impossible. I don’t know if I’ll make it given that I can really only train at lunch and a little on the weekends but I’m giving it my best shot. I’ll be writing more about my training as it goes along hopefully.

One thing I learned today about it is that I’ll be competing in what they call the Clydesdale division, that is the division for people over 200 pounds. I’m not sure how I feel about the Clydesdale definition but since I have no chance of actually winning I don’t care one way or the other. If I just finish it’ll be a miracle so whether I’m beat by skinny people or fat people doesn’t matter to me as long as I cross the finish line and get healthier doing it.

Wish me luck. I need it.

[tags]triathlon,Clydesdale,training,swimming,cycling,running[/tags]

Tags: Triathlon by matt
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Robocop, PhD in Wired

This article makes me smile. It’s about the actor Peter Weller, best known for being Robocop and Buckaroo Bonzai is now a professor teaching about Rome. I love to see smart people being able to do their thing and learn, which is what he’s doing now. He’s even an architecture buff, which makes me like him even more. His class on comparing movie portrayals of Rome to the real-life culture sounds incredibly interesting too, I wish I could take it.

It’s hard to imagine what freshmen think when they wander into Professor Banzai’s lecture hall. Weller reports that he loses a lot of students after the first class. “They thought they were going to get the easy A from old RoboCop,” he says with a laugh. The 450-page course reader tells them otherwise.

[tags]robocop,buckaroo+bonzai,actors,peter+weller,wired,professors,learning,rome,teaching[/tags]

Tags: Art, Personal, The Big Blue Room by matt
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At the 2006 IAU meeting held in Prague this past summer, the scientists voted that every planet must also have “cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Since only spheres with a large mass can achieve such orbital dominance, Pluto was no longer a planet. The scientific bureaucracy had spoken; our solar system had shrunk.

Too bad for Pluto. But in the end I think this will turn out to be one of those nitpicky things only people like me know and bore everyone with.

“Did you know that technically a tomato is a fruit?”
“Is that right?”
“Yes, a tomato is technically a fruit but it was ruled a vegetable for tariff purposes. Hey, wake up!”
“Did you know Pluto isn’t really a planet because it doesn’t clear the neighborhood around its orbit?”
“Oh really…zzzzzzzz”

Pluto will stay a planet in everybody’s mind because it’s always been a planet. The IAU should have just grandfathered in Pluto, saved everybody a bunch of trouble, and made themselves heroes to every kid with even a passing interest in space (which should be a lot more of them).
[tags]space,science,pluto,planets[/tags]

Tags: Geekery, Science, The Big Blue Room by matt
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Build an open source, universal nut sheller (for peanuts)

This is the type of thing that would have been mostly impossible not too long ago. These guys are building a cheap, durable machine to help people in developing countries shell peanuts and make money. Before we were able to share information and help each other out across the world, these types of programs took enormous amounts of time and/or money to get working. But now, these guys can do an interview with Redhat Magazine and get the word out to potentially millions of interested people in no time. And this is a real project too, not just some company coming in and getting a photo op that will never be practical or amount to anything.

I’ve been very interested in the micro-lending programs where you can loan somebody say a few hundred dollars to buy what they need to get a small business going. As soon as Kim and I get some more of our bad debt paid off, I’m planning on helping out with micro-loans and real-world projects like this one. There’s no reason we can’t use the net to help out people around the world in a small way and end up making a big difference. You don’t need a huge World Bank style operation to help, a bunch of people making small contributions can really do some good. I’ll be posting more about this as time goes on.

MORE: The Full Belly Project, PopSci award given for the machine

[tags]redhat,money,peanuts,open+source,full+belly+project[/tags]

Tags: DIY, Money, The Big Blue Room by matt
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Our yard the night of the storm

Originally uploaded by MattGrommes.

Even more snow fell after this. For more pics, click here and see my Flickr pictures.

Tags: Personal, The Big Blue Room by matt
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