Best Side Job while Going All-in on Running

Running shoe store salesman is the most common route.

A few thoughts/questions:

1. How old are you?

2. If you get in the right job (even relatively low paying) you should be paying a lot less than $300 per month for health insurance. Also, if you are making less money, even health insurance through the Affordable Care Act shouldn't be more than $200 per month.

3. Have you thought about trying to save up money and not work? If you don't have any debt to pay off, you could try to save enough to take 3 months to a year off work (depending on where you live, you can stretch money quite a while).

4. Are you looking to work part time or full time? I think 20-30 hours per week might be ideal if you are working on your feet.

5. What prevented you from recovering with an AM/PM running schedule at a 9-5 job? Did you actually work way more hours? Did your commute take at least an hour per day? It seems like you could get up at 6:30, have time to run an hour before work, run an hour after work, and be in bed by 10:00, which should be enough sleep to recover if you are not pushing the pace too much.

If you are not worried about your social life while chasing your running goals, you should be able to take pretty much any schedule. However, balancing work, social life, and running can get tricky sometimes.

Thank you for the advice. I'm 26. Paying out of pocket for health insurance because I'm an independent contractor as a writer. I have no debt, but with current bills it would be tough to just forgo work for even three months. I also think continuing to work part-time while chasing down my goals will be generally healthy (a nice change of pace from running, plus the peace of mind knowing I have an income stream).

My schedule wasn't all that different than what you described during my 9-5 days. The issue, more than anything, was too much stress. 2-3 hours of training plus 8 hours of working wasn't sustainable. My body never got a chance to catch up, and my running suffered. I know I can handle that much running training, so it was the constant stress at work that put me over the edge.

Al Bundy 4 touchdowns 1 game wrote:

Running shoe store salesman is the most common route.

I've thought about that. But wouldn't that job be just like any other customer service gig?

runningallin wrote:

Al Bundy 4 touchdowns 1 game wrote:

Running shoe store salesman is the most common route.

I've thought about that. But wouldn't that job be just like any other customer service gig?

I would think the fact that you could stand around in your recovery socks, drink coffee and chat running with people all day (hopefully their running) would be much more alluring than working at Sears with an entirely different clientele.

I could have my head in the clouds, I assume thats what its like. But then again I hate my boss so I am bound to paint a rosy picture of most any other gig, hah.

runningallin wrote:

Al Bundy 4 touchdowns 1 game wrote:

Running shoe store salesman is the most common route.

I've thought about that. But wouldn't that job be just like any other customer service gig?

Sure, but lots of locally competitive sub-sub-sub elites in their 20s do it. The running store in my town is full of them.

Why do so many sub-sub elites want to squander so much time and energy on what is ultimately a selfish and meaningless endeavor?

We need to instill in people a desire to pursue meaningful things. 26 is too old for such trivial pursuits.

Do what you're good at. If you are a halfway decent writer and halfway decent promoter, that is a perfect job. I'm a freelance editor and translator and it is great for running, and makes significantly more than $1,200 per month. If you're not having much success and are a good writer, look into how to improve your online presence.

Substitute teaching has great hours for running with a "living wage". As much as possible look for a job that lines up with your career interests and gives you some relevant experience, If you have zero interest in teaching, then you won't stay with substitute teaching. Freelance writing should give you some flexibility to work less than 40 hours a week or at least move your hours around to train in the afternoon, and work later.

I know this is crazy talk, but how about a kick @ss half or 10k?

All the speed, more reasonable training load.

Stay at home dad.

marry someone that also has a job and no debt, and you work part time somewhere like retail or something

If I were you, I would not want a job I would have to stand the whole time at (ex: running store, coffee shop, etc). I currently work a job right now where I stand 85% of the time and it's not great in terms of recovery for my legs. But I suppose if you are only doing a few hrs a day, may not be as bad.

Carl Spackler wrote:

Substitute teaching has great hours for running with a "living wage". As much as possible look for a job that lines up with your career interests and gives you some relevant experience, If you have zero interest in teaching, then you won't stay with substitute teaching. Freelance writing should give you some flexibility to work less than 40 hours a week or at least move your hours around to train in the afternoon, and work later.

Substitute teaching sucks. The pay is absolutely pathetic even if you are a certified teacher and if you aren't certified it's basically minimum wage. As a non-certified substitute, you're probably going to get put in a lot of teacher aid positions in special ed classrooms. On your feet all day and very stressful job. I wouldn't recommend it for this guy.

The only plus to subbing is you're out relatively early (school is out 2-3:30PM) and you can decide what days you want to work. So if you have a big workout Friday or a race Saturday, you can just decline any jobs you are offered for that Friday.

And just to clarify on my statement above, I mean the minimum wage pay for substitute teachers is "pathetic" given what the jobs often entail. As someone with a college degree (even if it isn't in education) I shouldn't be making 8 bucks an hour to teach in the classroom, whether it's a standard classroom or special education. If you want to put me as a "study hall monitor" or librarian sitting around all day checking out books, then fine, that's minimum wage. But dealing with kids and teaching them in the classroom is worth more than that.

I think you are making a mistake and making excuses if you put your career on hold thinking you can run better if you worked less. When you are young you think money and material things dont matter, but next thing you know you turned 40 and living expenses skyrocketed and you are still living check by check and people who you despise become your managers and boss. You can have a job and still run.

Airbnb, but you would have to have enough cash to buy a home.

I own a 3 bedroom 1600 sq feet townhome 13 miles north of Austin. Bought it for 160k now worth 200k which is very cheap for Austin and occasionally if I am able to fill the two rooms with compatible guests, I can bring in about $1800 per month.

Volunteer Gigalo.

Not Cool Bro wrote:

And just to clarify on my statement above, I mean the minimum wage pay for substitute teachers is "pathetic" given what the jobs often entail. As someone with a college degree (even if it isn't in education) I shouldn't be making 8 bucks an hour to teach in the classroom, whether it's a standard classroom or special education. If you want to put me as a "study hall monitor" or librarian sitting around all day checking out books, then fine, that's minimum wage. But dealing with kids and teaching them in the classroom is worth more than that.

I don't know where you make $8 an hour as a sub, thats pathetic! I live in a suburban district and make 13 an hour, also pathetic. The job is good for running, if you're just looking to do it for a school year or so as you practically always get out of work with daylight remaining, but since it starts so early, typically arround 7-730, you won't be doing any morning runs in the light. In my district, subs are contractors, meaning they chose their own assignments each day. This may sound great, but something isn't always available or you want to skip out on a 1-2 hour thing to look for a whole day of work. What it boils down to is affter getting back from a morning run, which you woke up at 5 for, you're sitting on the computer for 2-3 hours just refreshing the screen, hoping you can work that day (because you only worked 2 and a half last week and now you're low on cash).

The advantages are if the weather is going to be crappy all weekend, but nice tuesday, I can take tuesday off and do my 20 miler, no one cares, I'm a contractor. If I want to go run a weekday track meet, I can. Just about always light when you get off work, fo at least a hour. I get out anywhere from 215-415. In dec/jan sometimes there isn't much light.

- If you love helping kids learn, sometimes the job is rewarding.

Disadvantages:

-still a low paying job for someone with a degree.

-You'll work well below your ability level, often babysitting kids as they do worksheets with the goal of keeping them quiet enough so other teachers don't complain, no one gets hurt, and nothing gets damaged.

-A lot of times you get special ed assignments where you don't even get a desk to sit at, you're in other teachers rooms, ostensibly helping the sped kids, but mostly just standing there as you don't have any experience with these particular children or a place in the lesson plans.

- Because the job pays more than most other low skill jobs, your competition is fierce. Expect assignments to go in seconds. You'll be online all the time if you want to work.

-if something goes wrong, its not the kids fault for misbehaving, its on you as a sub, don't expect administration at the schools to have your back

- The biggest one: you probably still need money in the summer! There is a period of 12 weeks or so with no school where you won't be working as a sub, so you're back to ground zero unless you lived like a monk all year.

I'm taking classes for teacher licensure in another subject area, demand for latin teachers is really low in my state, even those with masters degrees, so now 2 nights a week I drive an hour to the closet public university and sit with some undergraduates for a few hours, but at least when I get it all done and am a full time teacher all the uncertainty about whether I can work or not disappears and my take home pay goes up a lot.

I'd say the best side job isn't substitute teaching, but state park work. But there, you'll be working every weekend, so while you get fit, you'll never be able to race.