{"id":13498,"date":"2026-09-27T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=13498"},"modified":"2026-09-27T11:18:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T17:18:01","slug":"talents-and-developing-the-right-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/27\/talents-and-developing-the-right-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Talents, and developing the right ones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m pretty darn talented. Want to know how I know? I can with confidence say I gained roughly 5 lbs in 3 weeks whilst also walking 155 miles. That’s impressive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I didn’t track one morsel, I can only guess where along the Cotswolds trail or the pubs or the impressive hotel breakfasts I found it, but it definitely came home with me. On one hand, ugh. On the other, I enjoyed accumulating every ounce of it. Or I guess being in Europe, every gram? Partial stone?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lille, France<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I mean, it certainly can’t be the day in France where I ate chicken and cheese and fries and wine and champagne and charcuterie boards and a delivery burger, right? That’s just what one does in Lille! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, I’m now on a reasonable mission to send it all back into the ether from whence it came. Oddly enough, eating like a normal, healthy me for the last month did not put a dent in it. Extreme work stress, fatigue from said 155 miles, jetlag and just the fact that Austin is still eleventy billion degrees is not helping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 week stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • 1949 calories average per day<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 140g protein average per day<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 565 active calories burned per day<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 2417 total calories burned per day average<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    I’ve been pretty consistent with the intake. My lowest day was just under 1700 calories – right after I got back and wasn’t working out much yet, and I truly wasn’t hungry and just enjoying reliable access to vegetables and boring healthy food. My highest day was 2350 which was “go out for BBQ then have 4 whiskeys” day. Most were between 1800-2100, which makes the math work. If both intake and burn are to be believed, I should be losing about 1 lb per week. And I’ve done a pretty solid audit with chatGPT on my tracking this last week. We’ve looked at my calorie intake and burn and are fairly certain I’m pretty accurate for both. So, what’s the verdict?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4 week stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • 191.6 average<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • 191.5 average<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • 192.8 average<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • 192.0 average<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
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      I make this face at the scale<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

      I know myself. I usually take a few weeks to settle in after disruption and this was MAJOR disruption, but damn, this is frustrating. At this point, my best bet is to keep at it and don’t do anything stupid as much as I feel like I should. I know how unhappy I get these days when I try to nudge the calories down below 1700-1800. It just doesn’t work with keeping myself in the proper protein zone and eating enough carbs and vegetables to keep me functioning in other ways. So, my best bet is to try and keep that as my floor and lower the ceiling as much as I can unless it’s a big workout day. So, next monthly checkin, let’s see what the trajectory looks like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Speaking of big workout days – haven’t had that many of em this month and that’s been by design. Once the race got cancelled, it took a lot of pressure off and let me not force anything. Swim? Hah. Biking outside? No thanks. I just eased back in verrrrrry slowly and am finally ready to maybe do a little athleting again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Week 1: Tiny, slow runs (4 of them, 1-2 miles). Did strength 3x at home with much lighter weights. Walked a little. That’s it. I was really feeling exhausted, stressed, and had no idea how I was going to feel normal ever again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Week 2: Set myself a goal of 30 minutes easy cardio 5x that week. Almost made it. All the non-walk cardio felt absolutely awful, like climbing mountains, and was a stretch to keep my heart rate down below zone: exploding. Both Vo2 maxes tanked. \ud83d\ude1b Same 3x week strength with reduced weights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Week 3: One more week of 30 mins easy cardio 5x with the possibility of a little more later in the week if I was starting to turn a corner. I managed to do 5ks Thursday and Friday (36-ish mins each instead of my 30 min max) and a 45 min easy bike on Sunday. Same lighter weights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Week 4: Finally starting to feel myself again. 2×45 min bikes with the heart rates slightly less ridiculous than the weeks previous. 2x5ks (~36 mins) just barely in zone 2, and a full HOUR run in zone 2 because it sounded like fun. 3x weights back to normal weights, less reps. Vo2 max still in the toilet but SLIGHTLY improved.<\/p>\n\n\n

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      Basically life is back to lots of these selfies, which feels right.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

      Week 5, I am going to try my FIRST re-introduction to spice. One of my runs will have 2×5 mins tempo. All else stays the same except maybe the time creeps up just a little bit on workouts if I’m feeling them. Weights should stay the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The weather is supposed to hand us a lovely storm which will result in cooler weather, so the composition of the cardio is a toss-up. I love running in the rain, but I also am not going to run in torrential thunderstorms. I expect I’ll be very motivated to be outside a lot this month though!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      October should be an interesting month depending on how quickly the corner turns. I have designs on doing something between participating and racing a 5k on Oct 17. I don’t think I’ll be anywhere near primed and ready, but it might be fun to go out there and see what my legs have in a few weeks with no judgement. I think the first one I want to race<\/strong>-race is early\/mid Nov, which feels like enough time to have my legs back under me. The cool thing about 5ks is I have a crack at one every weekend I want to, pretty much. So, I’m looking forward to a speedy fall\/winter as long as I am patient with my ramp up, which is always a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Moving along, adulting got some progress, being home for a whole month is kinda cool sometimes<\/p>\n\n\n\n