A Little Scary How Much Google is Taking Over

So here I am, for the first time, making a post from a Chromebook.  It's a little laptop but with Google Chrome operating system.  I originally got it for the kids to use so they don't use my laptop, but I find myself thinking maybe I'll keep this and let the kids use it.  It would certainly come in handy for taking to classes, it's nice and compact.

But I find myself thinking, wow...  it's like Google has taken over my life.  Now I've got their laptop.  I've been an android junkie for awhile, living off my cell phone which is powered by, guess who, Google.  I use their navigation program all the time for work.  Right now, I'm thinking that if the powers that be at Google wanted to become megolomaniacs intent on ruling the world, the only thing that stops them is that evil Empire at Apple.  But then again, my apple addict friends would argue that it's Google that's the evil empire.  If the two ever got together, look out.

I did run into one disappointment though when it comes to Android this past weekend, as it would relate to this blog anyway.  I've always loved having the applications on my phone for workouts and such.  While doing the Couch to 5K workouts, I've been tracking with two different apps, Endomondo and Active.com's Couch to 5K trainer.  This weekend, Best Buy had the Wahoo Blue heart rate monitor strap on sale.  I've always been thinking of getting one of these monitors that can connect via Bluetooth so that programs like Endomondo can also track heartrate, so I was pretty happy about that.  It's advertised as being for iPhones "and other Smart Bluetooth" devices.  My Galaxy S3 has Smart Bluetooth capability, sweet.  So I pick one up.  Only to find out that I need Wahoo's application to sync up and, guess what...  they don't make an Android app.  So, my wife, who has an iPhone, got to inherit my nifty little gadget.

So, yesterday I did run the third workout of week two on the Couch to 5K training program.  Heart-rate-monitor-free, albeit.  I will say I'm a bit surprised how good I've felt so far this time around.  In week two, you do a five minute warm up walk, run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes, run 90, walk 2, etc until you've done six of the 90 second run intervals, then you do a cool down walk of 5 minutes.  It's a total of 31 minutes.  Last summer I tried doing the C25K program again, and mid way through week 2 pulled a calf muscle and got slowed way down, never really did complete the program in time for the Firefly Run, a 5K I was training for, but still was able to run/walk the course.  But this time around, I feel even better.  It's harder to compare with the training that I documented better earlier in this blog, but one thing I will say is that I do feel more like I'm running than I remember ever feeling during the running segments.  I've lengthened out my stride, don't feel like I'm shuffling as much and don't feel like the motion is nearly as herky jerky as I felt before.  Add to that I'm a good 40 pounds heavier than when I was training the first time...  but I don't feel the stress in my joints that I've felt in times past either.

And yes, the plateau remains.  There are times I shake my head and think, I'm eating less, I'm doing a great job getting a work out in every day, and yet...  everything remains the same.  I know that if I were continuing to use the BodyMedia armband I've talked about in the past, which measures all my activity, it would show I'm burning a butt ton of calories, a LOT more than I'm eating.  And yet the plateau remains.

Having said that...  I'm not that concerned.  Okay, maybe the fact that I'm talking about it points to a small level of concern.  But there is something that is telling me I'm on the edge of busting through that plateau.  Maybe it's the past experience?  I've been here before, after my last surgery.  Not for nearly as long, I know that.  But I remember being at a point for awhile, being a bit perplexed at how I wasn't really losing weight even though I was eating less and working out a lot more.  And then it was like something burst.  I think that's where I am now.  I feel better, I feel lighter, I feel the effect of the runs and the workouts and all, and it's a good feeling.  I don't know if it's that the workouts are kind of helping the plateau along in some way, whether it's the building muscle (which we all know the mantra that muscle is heavier than fat), or what.  But I know I've felt this before, this point where it's like the weight is making one last stand, or that my body is preparing or whatever and that's keeping it here in the low 240's...  but something is about to break.

I believe it.  Okay, mostly anyway.  I will admit that a part of me says, yeah, it's been a month and I've been thinking it's going to be any time now.  At this point a month ago I was looking forward to hitting the 330's by the start of the year...  and now I'm looking forward to hitting the 330's by February.

And this is the point where plateaus do such nasty damage because it gets you into that kind of thinking.  That's why, I know it's better to focus on that part that, honestly I can't really back it up other than knowing there is something deep down that just tells me, it's about to break free.  Sometimes you just have to have that confidence, because that confidence keeps you doing the stuff you gotta do to make it happen, you know?