Burning it off

A few weeks ago, I was laid off from my job. It didn't come as a huge surprise, seeing as I worked for a start-up company in the worst economical times that I can ever remember, but it did give me a swift kick into the realm of jobhunting. Since then, my days (and many of my evenings, too) have been spent interviewing over the phone, flying all over the place for interviews, sending out applications to what feels like a hundred jobs, completing editing tests, tweaking my resume, and networking with everyone I can find.

Jobhunting is really a full-time job in itself. I recently had a friend tell me that I should enjoy this "time off" with "no responsibilities," and I was somewhat torn between laughing and bursting into tears.

So between the stress of suddenly finding the right job to launch the rest of my career and the uncontrollable excitement about the new experiences that are yet to come, running has really become my savior. It's not that I have extra time for it, or that I'm doing nothing all the time and need the exercise--it's just that it keeps things in perspective. When I go out, it's just the pounding of my feet and my own huffing and puffing to keep me company. I do a lot of my best thinking out there on the road, because there are no distractions, no to-do lists, and no assessments.

Last week, I was getting ready to fly the next day to D.C. and spent the whole day putting the finishing touches on my writing portfolio, baking cookies for my generous friends who were letting me crash on their couch for the night, and packing everything I needed to make a great first impression in just a few hours at the interview in a carry on-sized suitcase. At one point as the sun started to draw a bit lower in the sky, I realized that I just needed to get out of the house for a few minutes and work off some of that nervous excitement. I laced up my sneakers and sprinted to the town line, which is about a half a mile away, and then back again, beating my normal average mile time by about a minute and a half. It was a small accomplishment, but I came back home with a smile on my face and a clear head to prepare for my trip.

Feeling the burn

I should have known that there were tools out there like this, but I just discovered Run the Planet's calorie burning calculator, which takes the guesswork out of the workout. Somehow, that five-miler I completed today seems all the sweeter after finding out that I burned 411 calories in the process.

As a sidenote, Boston enjoyed fantastic weather today, with highs up to 57 F. I was out in shorts and a T-shirt for the first time in recent memory--my standard dress code lately has been long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, and gloves, plus more layers as necessary. It was great to feel the warm sun again!

New obsession: dailymile.com

My friend Emily invited me to join dailymile.com on Friday morning, and I'm not afraid to admit that I'm already hooked. (She says I'm easily amused; I prefer to call it enthusiasm.) The site is social network-based--think Facebook for athletes--and the idea is to build a network of friends and encourage each other to keep on the move (but my guess is that a little competition never hurt anyone, either). They have an automated motivation system--similar to the poke, for those of you who are Facebook regulars--that lets you pick from predetermined messages such as, "Like U2 blaring through my headphones, you inspire me" to send to your friends as motivation, or you can write your own. It also provides event listings for upcoming races in your area. And for those of us who like to track our achievements, however small, the site tracks your workouts as you enter them and provides reports on how many miles you've run over a certain time period. And let's face it--seeing them all added up like that is going to make you feel pretty darn good.