Couch2Boston

I've written this post in my head about 16 times during the month of January, so I guess today is the day to actually type it up!   This is the first time since 2011 that I don't have a spring marathon to get ready for and that's because I didn't start running until 2012 😀  I usually take a break in late fall/early winter to rest or do something different before getting back on the marathon training horse to prepare for the next Boston.  Since Boston 2021 is still in limbo, so am I.   Like everyone, I wish the world was normal but it isn't and I'm trying to embrace the opportunity to keep mixing things up. I like to test my limits and for almost a decade now that has meant swinging for the fences and finding new and unique ways to hurt myself.  The twisted logic being that if I don't go just past my limits how do I know if I've found them?  Until I'm injured there is almost always room to try doing a thing just a little bit more/harder/faster/whatev...

Power Block 50 Problem The Power Block 50's are convenient because they let you adjust the dumbbells from 10 to 50 pounds in 5 pound increments.  That makes for a lot of weight in a small footprint as long as you need a 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 or 50 pound weight.  The problem is that sometimes a 5 pound jump in weight is just too much in a dumbbell.  For example, going from 25 to 30 pounds is a 20% increase in weight.  What do you do when that is too much?  With the right tools, some steel and some magnets you make a way to adjust them by 2 1/2 pounds instead. The Solution - Attach Steel with Magnets

Let's face it, most of us with a running or a triathlon background know that we should spend more time lifting weights or at least doing strength exercises more than we do.  With the horror show that 2020 was it created the perfect circumstances to really throw myself into something new to see what would happen, so in September after Can Lake 50 was cancelled and I no longer found peace with running I stopped in favor of something completely different.  Weight lifting 😱 This shift didn't come out of nowhere.  In November 2019 a friend Jake introduced me to the weight room at the Y.  At the time it was a way to do some preventative maintenance to get my body ready for the stress of trying to tackle  The 444  and during that part time first foray into lifting  I learned a lot from him and saw some nice gains, but with all of the interference from swim/bike/run at the time it was different than the most recent time around. In the 12 weeks from mid Se...

Totals Swim - 74000 yards (least since 2012) Bike - 2615 miles Run - 1000 miles (least since 2012) Heavy Lifting - 62 times Dumbbell - 74 times Duration - 460 hours

If something is worth doing, then it's worth overdoing, right?  Right?  I like our garage gym setup but I couldn't really see what I was doing.  It might not help me to see what I'm doing, but it would be nice to try.  lol.  With the window directly in front of me and no good place to store a movable mirror it seemed like a good time to try something silly.  There was room for a TV on the wall.   Maybe I could just mount a TV under the window and hook it up to a camera?  I'd have to look down (spoiler: or not), but that wouldn't be too bad.  Hey, what if I hooked it up to 2 cameras (spoiler: or 3)?  Then I could choose between a front or a side view.  That would be cool.  A mirror couldn't do that.  Take that stupid mirror!  A chance to do something ridiculous?  I was sold. The following has me squatting 295 pounds simultaneously recorded from three different perspectives.  I'm far from perfect but bein...

OK, so there are really three pieces of information that we have to figure out to be able to get this working with the Roku TV, just like the Cell Phone Camera/Roku TV Integration .  The IP Address, TCP Port number and the Stream URL.  The Login and Password are something that I had set when going through the Foscam install instructions so those were up to me. As a reminder, I was working with the R2C version of the Foscam Security Camera WiFi IP Home Camera but this will likely work with many other Foscam camera versions.  Also, the Roku App I was trying to integrate it with was IP Camera Viewer which is also available on Android and iOS.  Strike 1, Swing And A Miss - Foscam Desktop App The first thing I did was install the Foscam app on my laptop.  The interface is fine for a typical consumer that wants to use the security cameras as part of the Foscam ecosystem, but none of the pages within the app give us any insight on any of the 3 magic values to get int...

OK, so there are really three pieces of information that we have to figure out to be able to get this working on the IP Camera Viewer app on the Roku TV, just like the  Foscam Security Camera/Roku TV Integration .  The IP Address, TCP Port number and the Stream URL. This set of instructions involved a lot less time Googling for answers and came about by applying some software skills to reverse engineer the Stream URL.  I hope to explain clearly how to do this so that anyone else that wants to try this out can do so without a lot of unnecessary pain, but if you have any questions please feel free to let me know in the comments. Step 1 - Use IP Phone Camera App to Start Broadcasting Video   After you have installed the IP Phone Camera App, launch it and then select the WiFi banner/button.  This brings us to a screen where we can start broadcasting that also answers 2 out of 3 questions that we have to finish the setup.  They conveniently tell us the IP Addres...