Changing careers is like running 1000 miles (YMMV)
Some things in life take up a lot of time and effort - for example changing career or having a baby. It’s over ten years now since I changed careers and I know it took a lot of work and dedication - but how reliable are my memories - can I quantify what the impact was? Fortunately I can - it’s equivalent to running 1000 miles (YMMV).
Running Activity Over Years
1000 Miles
The chart shows how much running I did each year - as I got older, wiser and slightly more achy I added in lots of yoga and swimming. I have a rough conversion based on time it takes to do an activity to produce a Run Equivalent metric each year. The graph is pretty clear: either side of my career change in 2014 I was roughly doing 2200km. In 2014 that dropped to around 500km. So roughly 1000 miles (miles here instead of KM so I can amusingly use YMMV) - Your mileage may vary - if you run your mileage will likely literally vary. However you may not run but if you have an intense new thing in your life it will likely mean doing less of something else.
Not just exercise
While I track exercise the career change didn’t just impact that - it was an intense period with a unique opporunity to make the most of a coding bootcamp, events and an engaged cohort. The learning, networking and socialising swallowed up not just the running but lots of my personal and social life. This was all worth it - I needed a new career, a new job and to accelerate as fast as possible to pay the bills. I liken it to accelerating in a car - you drop a gear, raise the revs and accelerate as quickly as possible. Once up to speed you settle down into a more maintainable way of life. And that is what came to pass - there was still plenty of hard work and graft but there was also space to get back to friends, family and fitness.
Other things that take up time.
Post 2016 the graph has a lot more ups and downs - a big running event in 2019, a pandemic from 2020 onwards, an older body needing more yoga and less running, a bad back impacting total running in 2022. The run equivalent levels though were pretty high still - until 2024. The arrival of a baby takes a lot of time - and the numbers suggest roughly as much as an intense career change and around that magic 1000 miles. You can’t really accelerate a babies progress - it just takes up a lot of time. Working hard is imperative as babies cost money so it’s the sport that gives (although replaced by plenty of activity - more crawling on the floor, pushing buggies, lifting a wriggling little body). Hopefully some balance settles in although I have a feeling I’ve seen my all time highs of yearly run equivalent KMs. The replacement is more than worth it.
Summary
So the clear and probably obvious message is - a big life change will take up time. In my case a new career and a baby both were equivalent to running 1000 miles. As always - your mileage will figuratively and literally - vary.