2. (First paragraph). Last weekend I ran an ultramarathon. I spent quite a lot of time preparing for it and I am now in recovery mode. I traveled back on Monday. I also had a VERY busy day at work yesterday and I am behind on my writing.

3. (Get changed. → Second paragraph). Because I’m so behind I didn’t think I would get chance to do an article today. So I thought I would get a bit creative and demonstrate how I managed to get this article done in multiple stages.

4. (Make coffee → New section).

The writing process

Every time I do a bit of work on this article I add a number, describe the bit of work I did, and then add the content. Sitting down and writing the entire thing in one go might end up taking more time than just doing micro sections like this. Will this produce anything worthwhile? Not sure. But here we go.

5. (Finish getting ready for run → New section)

Little by little

Little by little the jobs I’ve needed to do are getting done. I went from thinking to myself that I don’t have time to get an article done today to suddenly having the beginnings of an article done and I’m now ready to go for a short run. I’m still pretty sore from that ultramarathon but I’m determined to get things going again.

6. (Run 5K → Upload run stats → Write another paragraph)

Looks like my legs still work. It wasn’t exactly easy going while being in recovery mode but I managed to get it done. At the end of the day, everything we do is just a series of small decisions that we work through in order to achieve a greater goal.

7. (Shower → New section → Add photo → More writing)

Small decisions, big results

I tend to think of ultramarathons as thousands (probably tens of thousands) of small decisions. Each step is a conscious decision to move forward a little bit more. This is especially apparent when you are climbing massive hills. Literally the only way to climb a massive hill is to keep making small steps until the distance is completed.

One of the most miserable climbs I had during the Kai 70K was the “final boss” climb up Mt. Shimoyama (霜山). It was a 600 meter climb in total darkness that just seemed to go on forever. I kept trudging up the mountain and looking at my watch, wishing the climb would be over but knowing that the only way to do it would be to just keep going one step at a time. 10% done, 25% done, 50% left, only 100 meters, only 10 meters, DONE! All of these were points that I focused on over what felt like an hour of climbing.

You can conquer mountains with small steps. You can also get a lot of other things done with small steps. Like this short article I thought I didn’t have time for.

8. (Make another coffee → Add some final thoughts)

Final thoughts and take home messages

I really didn’t think I’d have time to write anything today. But chunking it out into small sections between doing other tasks made it manageable. It’s probably not the best article I’ve ever written, but I managed to put something together, do something a bit thematic based on both the writing process and a recent experience, and get it out of the door on time.

When you’ve got something you need to do but don’t think you’ve got time to do it, consider moving incrementally down towards the goal until you get it done. It might take a while (it’s taken me about 3 hours from initiation to completion (including the run time)) but I managed to get it done.

Hopefully things will be back to normal next week.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

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In martial arts, strong martial artists are able to throw powerful punches and kicks. If you use a sword, being able to make powerful cutting motions is the goal.

When I was young I wanted to try to become strong. I would put a great deal of effort into punching hard and kicking hard. When I took up iaidō I also put in a lot of effort into making powerful cuts. The problem is that whenever I tried too hard to be strong, I would end up looking weaker in the process.

I have heard these phrases over and over again in my years training in Japan.

• 力が入っている (chikara ga haitteiru) : To have too much strength/strain

• 無駄な力 (mudana chikara) : Wasteful strength

• 力任せ (chikara makase) : Relying on strength

It seems almost oxymoronic to say that one of my weaknesses is my strength. But it really is the case. If you have strength but use it incorrectly you end up weaker as a result.

Over years of training I have been relying on brute strength and pure effort less and I have become stronger as a result. But I recently saw a reflection of my younger self and I’ve been considering this a lot more recently.

Meeting my younger self

Recently a new student joined my iaidō group. He is in high school and so is starting martial arts at roughly the same time that I started getting serious about martial arts. He is very diligent and puts in a lot of effort when he trains. But he may suffer with the same problems I suffered from when I was young.

When I perform a downward cut my sword generally makes quite a loud wooshing sound called a 刃音 (ha oto : blade sound). It is not necessary for your sword to make this noise, but it is quite satisfying when it does.

A katana is generally a two handed weapon. I am now at the point where I can swing my sword one handed and still produce a blade sound on the swing. While warming up recently I noticed my new 後輩 (kohai : junior) watching me and then trying to imitate my movements. Unfortunately and frustratingly with less noisy results.

Making the blade sing

At my iaidō school, after running through the warm up and main techniques we have some time to do our own training. That can involve individually practicing techniques we want, making groups to train advanced techniques together, or simply training form.

My kohai was recently standing in front of a mirror, checking his form and swinging his sword as hard as he could to try to get his sword to make that woosh sound. I approached him and gave him the same kind of advice I had been getting over the years. To relax, focus on technique, and to not worry about trying to be strong. Speed and power will come when you get it right.

I demonstrated a cut and he commented about the noise my sword made, asking if it was something to do with the 樋 (hi : gutter) of my sword. (There was a slight difference in how far this gutter went on my sword vs his). So I gave him my sword and asked him to swing it.

When he swung my sword it made a kind of whistling sound but didn’t have the deep woosh that was produced when I swing it. I then tried swinging his sword and it made the deep woosh, but sounded a little different to my sword due to the differences in the blade. This was almost a demonstration of what the sword really sounds like when you are able to use it properly.

Train to make the tools feel light in your hands

After my demonstration I was asked what kind of training I do to get strong enough to do that. My answer was that it was about technique. When you perform a cut you need to let the weight of the sword do the work and guide it with your body. You close your fingers one by one about the 柄 (tsuka : hilt) to make it move and apply a grip at the end of the movement to stop the motion of the sword.

“So having strong muscles isn’t important?”

It’s not that having strong muscles isn’t important. It’s just that you shouldn’t rely on them. I frequently see beginners choking the hilt of a sword like it owes them money and then swinging it with all their might, only to look like they are being wielded by the sword rather than the other way around.

The goal should be to train until the sword feels light in your hands. Once it feels light, you don’t feel like you need to use strength to move it. Your strength is the foundation, your technique is the suggestion, and your sword then performs as it is meant to perform.

You can’t brute force a melody

I’m not a singer so forgive me if I’m off the mark with this. But I have been to karaoke quite a few times so I have at least the view of an enthusiastic amateur about this subject.

It is easy for someone to sing louder, but just singing louder generally make the music more pleasant. People who are able to sing well may be able to increase the volume in which they sing beautifully, but someone who cannot sing well cannot improve the quality of the noise they make by simply singing “harder.”

It takes a lot of effort in order to become a good singer. But the effort is not simply brute force. It is knowing when to put in effort and when to relax. When to be loud, when to be quiet. The ebb, and the flow.

A lot of things share this pattern.

You can’t be a good swordsman by swinging your sword as hard as you can over and over again. You can’t be a good karate practitioner by throwing punches as hard as you can. And you can’t be a good long distance runner if your training is simply running as hard as you can until you can’t run anymore.

Spending a long time working on a craft is the best way to become better at a craft. You can’t simply brute force it.

Final thoughts and take home messages

When I was young I tried hard to be stronger. The older I get, the more I realized that effort alone cannot make you strong.

I sometimes see people making the same “mistakes” I made in my youth. I’ll do my best to guide them towards the understanding that I eventually came to, but that discovery is for each individual to make.

You should put effort into becoming strong but physical power can only take you so far. You should train until putting power feels effortless. Not to feel the power in your movements.

Finally, you can’t force yourself to sing better. Only louder. Think about that next time you go to karaoke.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

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Osu!

Matt (Gun Samurai) is a member of the Matsumoto Castle Gun Corps and recently let me know about a book he wrote titled, Gun Samurai: A Decade in the Matsumoto Castle Gun Corps.

Matt has lived quite an interesting life. He was a soldier, a nuclear police officer, and is now an important member of the Matsumoto Castle Gun Corps.

The book itself acts as a biography for the man behind Gun Samurai, a history lesson on the history and practices related to Japanese gunnery, and a story about what it was like to go from an unknown foreigner to a cultural custodian.

As a martial artist myself, I have a lot of empathy with this story. During my time in Japan I have had a lot of very kind instructors who have taken me under their wing and taught me about martial arts. But the martial arts I practice are a little more well known and accessible than the one practiced by Matt.

砲術 (Hōjutsu) or “gunnery” requires the use of firearms, which are not exactly easy to get hold of in Japan. It requires a lot of dedication to get the licenses involved and foreigners being foreigners, may not be able to dedicate themselves to such an arduous process.

Without giving too much of the book away, Matt discusses the process by which he went from a temporary member that was mostly there to observe and translate, to a senior “samurai” gunner in the Matsumoto Castle Gun Corps.

A lot of people who have little to no experience with Japan describe Japanese culture as some mysterious entity that foreigners can never become a part of. But this is as ridiculous a notion as “Samurai never used guns because they thought they were dishonorable.”

If you want to be a real part of Japanese culture it takes a lot of time and dedication. But you most certainly get out what you put in.

Based on my experience with Japanese martial arts I have always felt that the system is very meritocratic no matter where you go. There might be the odd weirdo out there that will complain about a foreigner having a gun or a sword, but the vast majority of people will respect those who have put in the time and effort to learn the craft properly and preserve an art form that may die out if it is not kept alive.

I’d like to thank Matt for writing this book. I listened to the Audiobook version of this and managed to complete it in about 4 days during my morning runs. It was great to run with you. I need to go over to Matsumoto some day to witness one of the displays myself.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

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Osu!

I’d like to start off this article by sharing a well known Mr Lovestein comic.

Anyone that has been on the internet for any length of time can probably relate to this. Especially if you have explored 𝕏, the website formally known as Twitter.

Being able to talk to people around the world is great. Recently there has been a bit of an algorithm shift on 𝕏 that has brought Japan and American users into close proximity. For the most part the reactions have been quite positive and wholesome, but there have been quite a few “Barfyman” style interactions that have come up of late.

I recently saw some Catholic users saying that they want Japan, as a country to be Catholic. My initial response to this was, “If you want Japan to become Catholic you don’t want Japan to remain Japanese.”

My thought when I posted that was that people who want to replace Japanese culture and religion with Catholicism don’t actually appreciate Japan for what it is and want it changing into something else.

Many people understood what I meant, but others have decided that I’m saying that the 0.34% of Japanese people who are catholic aren’t really Japanese (which I’m not). Others (non-Japanese Catholics specifically) have decided to start getting quite personal with me and keep repeatedly telling me to stop trying to push my point of view on Japan because I am not Japanese.

Some of the most ridiculous people here are non-Japanese Catholics that have spent their easter weekend going on ethnonationalist style rants and telling me to where I came from because I don’t belong in Japan and I am polluting the racial and cultural purity of the Japanese people with my mere presence. I’m not sure if Jesus would approve of that message, but here we are.

These people are of course, ridiculous. But sometimes we can learn things even from ridiculous people. So I was thinking, what are they actually asking me to do?

“Be quiet and be average”

I moved to Japan in 2006. I planned to stay in Japan for one year, sample the culture, maybe pick up a bit of Japanese, then go back to England to find a job.

After about a year in Japan I decided that I liked the place and decided to stay. I dedicated myself to studying the language and culture and I live a happy and fulfilling life. I’m a 4th dan in iaidō, I have 5 black belts, and I run marathons and ultramarathons for fun.

“You don’t belong in Japan. Why don’t you go back to England where you belong.”

All that screams to me is, “I’m uncomfortable with you doing what you are doing and I’d feel better if you would just shut up and be average.”

DON’T be average

Less than 1% of the people in the world have run a marathon. One reason why running a marathon is seen by the “average” person as impressive is exactly because running a marathon is not something the “average” person does.

If you’ve ever experienced running a marathon you are an outlier. But even among these 1% outliers there are levels. Many of my marathon running friends think I’m out of my mind for entering ultramarathons.

Some people have all the advantages in the world available to them and they still choose to be average. And I do say that they “choose to be average” because they wouldn’t be average if they just put some effort into a single field in order to be above average at something.

I have a friend who is a guide runner for runners with visual impairments. Some of the visually impaired people he runs with are able to run 5Ks quicker than a lot of people with no vision problems. One of the most inspiring people I have seen him run with is a blind, deaf triathlete who recently completed an Ironman 70.3 triathlon (1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run). No average person does this. It is only extraordinary people that do this. And the extraordinary inspire.

The discomfort of others is not my problem

I’m just living my life out here. I do martial arts and I run a lot. Some people draw inspiration from the fact that I pursue my dreams. Others feel discomfort and lash out. And that’s fine if you feel that way. But it’s not my problem. Work on yourself. Lashing out at others doesn’t make you stronger.

The people who strive to better themselves and accomplish things will always move the hearts of others.

Final thoughts and take home messages

The internet is a silly place. Sometimes we get good feedback, sometimes we get totally unreasonable feedback. It is what it is.

Some of the unreasonable feedback comes from people who are deeply insecure. Nobody who is doing great looks at other people who are doing great and tells them to stop doing what they are doing and be average. The strong lift each other up.

Being average is not something we should aspire to be. No one has ever been inspired by someone just being average.

Those who strive to better themselves do not do so to please fragile, insecure people. We do so for ourselves and to inspire others.

Embrace the grind.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

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Osu!

I started my Substack in August 2023. Where possible I am still going to try to upload weekly in 2025 on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. These milestone posts serve as update posts to keep myself accountable with my training and to also give an update to those who are following me.

Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived, they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.

This month…

In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:

• Substack Stats

• Monthly Training Stats

• March Race/Event Results

• Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))

• Final Thoughts and Hopes for April

Substack Stats

I ended February with 736 subscribers and I am ending March with…736. It seems like there have been some new followers in addition to some old followers dropping off. Revolving door month. Welcome to my new subscribers.

Monthly Training Stats

Here are my training stats for March alongside the February stats for comparison:

March run total: 302.0 km (February: 284.0 km )
March walk total: 18.7 km (February: 25.8 km)
March run/walk total: 320.7 km (February: 309.8 km)
March elevation total: 3,173 m (February: 2,491 m)

I have been focusing a lot on trail running this month. I wasn’t just brute forcing volume. The climbing results were decent so I’ll take that. More trail running next month!

Race/Event results

I entered 4 parkruns (5 km races) during February:

• March 7th: 35:20. Tail walker. (Instagram pics here)

• March 14th: 19:18. 3rd overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• March 21st: 19:01. 6th overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• March 28th: 19:23. 7th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

On the first week of March I took a tailwalker position at parkrun due to having a race the next day. Every other run I took seriously and I have been continuing to stack up sub-20 5Ks every week. Good results this year.

Speaking of races, on March 8th I ran the Shizuoka marathon for the second time. I didn’t quite get under 3 hours but it was my fastest marathon to date. Fantastic result. Full report below.

Beach running has been getting nicer and nicer. The weather conditions are great recently so running barefoot is very comfortable again.

Iaidō and karate were both business as usual.

Reading list

I finished two audiobooks ongoing in March:

• Saturnine by Dan Abnett

Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy, Book 4. Amazing book. The siege is well under way now. This book follows the story of the assault on the Saturnine gate. A lot of stories are ended here. Very cool.

• Mortis by John French

Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy, Book 5. There was quite a major focus on following Ollanius Persson and his crew in this book but this was at the same time that major titan engagements started happening and getting closer to the wall. I’m really looking forward to continuing the story but I’m going to take a little break for a while.

I had one ongoing audiobook in March:

• Gun Samurai by Matt Okuhara

I have been communicating with the author of this book. Matt is a very interesting person. This book is part history and part biography, focusing on his service with the Matsumoto Castle Gun Corps. I have not finished the book yet but I am very invested in learning more.

Matt also has a YouTube channel. I’ll share a short video here:

Final Thoughts and Hopes for April

The majority of my training in March focused on trail running. This is all for the upcoming Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail) in April. I’m feeling a lot stronger thanks to all the trail running and this seems to be translating to strength in regular running as well. Seven out of the past eight parkruns were under 20 minutes (one of those runs I was a tail walker so it shouldn’t count, meaning I’m 7/7 on serious runs). This seems to represent an overall improvement in my running performance. I’m guessing this will start failing when it warms up but I’ll try to hang on as long as I can.

April is going to again focus on trail running. I need to keep climbing and doing so carrying the equipment I’m going to need on the run. Leg strength and overall endurance is the name of the game.

My next race after the Kai is the Hida Takayama Ultramarathon (100 km) in June. That is road based so once this trail running block is over I’ll be back to flatter roads and building volume there.

The Shizuoka marathon in March was a great result. I still have room to improve but I’m getting stronger all the time. If possible I would like to run a sub-3 hour marathon this year, but this will probably be something I attempt in the Autumn/Winter season. Still need to figure out which marathon challenge it at.

I’ve not put an entry in at Shonan yet but it is likely I will be running this one in December. I kind of feel obliged to. Here is the promo video for the Shonan International Marathon this year.

Thank you to all my readers

I hope you had a fantastic Marach and are ready to get after it during April.

Osu!

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Japanese is a beautiful language. One of the things I enjoy about the language are the neat idiomatic phrases that are built into it. The name of my blog, 文武両道 (bunburyōdō) is an example of one of these idioms, meaning to be skilled with both the pen and the sword. (文 (literature/culture), 武 (martial), 両 (both), 道 (road): One who walk…

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One thing I don’t like about the English language is that there are a lot of words where the nuance is lost due to the presence of double meanings. This is probably true in other languages as well, but I don’t need to deal with the consequences of those being spoken on a daily basis.

Because of my science background I am very careful when…

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I ran the Shizuoka Marathon for the first time in 2025. If you read the race report I wrote about it you will know I was met with quite a few issues related to my shoes last year. I was hoping that I managed to resolve that this year but I’m not sure I got all of the kinks out of my plan.

Just to give you a bit of background on the race (and to not make you go and look at the previous report), here is the Shizuoka marathon course. It is a flat course with just under 100 meters of elevation.

There are 15 water stations on the course, 6 of which have food as well. There is also an oden aid station but I knew from experience that I would not stop there since it is off the course at the 25 km point and would definitely be a time sink.

Before this marathon I made sure to “get some things right” that I did “wrong” last time. I bought a new set of shoes (same ones I completed my 100 miler in) and completed a few 5K races in them (setting a PB). I also bought some new gels and practiced with them (no stomach issues). One concern I had was that I was about 3-4 kg heavier than last year (I’ve been working out), but otherwise I felt pretty optimized for the race.

静岡マラソン (Shizuoka Marathon): 8 March 2026

Like last year I woke up at 4:00 to get over to Shizuoka. The first train was at 5:18 and the Shinkansen from Odawara was at 6:17. I went to bed at 20:00 the previous evening so I was well rested and ready to go. Exactly the same as last year except I didn’t have a reservation for the Shinkansen and needed to stand for that 20 minute segment of the journey.

I walked over to Sunpu Castle and everything was ok in terms of the queue for the restrooms etc. I didn’t drink any coffee on that day and didn’t feel any restroom related discomfort around the beginning of the race.

I got to the starting block as planned and when I looked over the crowd I was able to see the 3:00 pacer ahead of me. I wanted to try and keep the pacer in my sight for as long as I could but I knew they would have a head start on me.

The opening ceremony went ahead and by 8:20 we were off.

There were so many people at the start that it was not comfortable to move forward. Normally that’s expected at the beginning of a marathon but this one felt a bit oppressive because of the sheer number of fast runners. This gave me a chance to ease into going faster but I was not out as quick as I would have liked to have been. Being in the A block would have been perfect but B had me fighting my way for the first while.

The first 10K of the race went well. I picked up drinks at every water station and managed to get to the 10 km mark in record time…but only just. The water station was right before the 10K mark and I ended up losing a bit of time trying to pick up a drink. I managed to get through that section fine though with an average speed of 4:10/km. It was at this point that I had my first gel. So far so good.

On the next stretch of the race I found the 3:00 pacer and observed that I was still running comfortably at 4:10/km. I felt like if I kept my pace going at that rate I would have no problem but I also did what I could to accelerate and try to chase down that pacer. During one of those turns I noticed that the pacer was wearing a hat which made him look like a monkey. So playing in my head over and over again was, “chase down the monkey.”

I saw some of my friends in the loop leading up to the 15K turnaround point, which gave me a boost, but right at that corner before heading to the river I took a very quick restroom break since the toilets were free and right next to the course. I put in some extra effort right after that point and saw the monkey pacer ahead.

Running down that river segment is one of my favorite parts of this course. It is a little narrow but very scenic. You also run over quite a nice bridge at the 18 km point, which brought fond memories back of the previous year.

I blew through the 20 km point, had my second gel while charging past a taiko group, then after hitting the halfway point I felt like things were starting to go a little wrong. I had a numbness starting to bother me on my right foot. I could deal with it at the time but it’s not something I’d felt before. It was only impacting my right foot but it may have started wearing down my running form from that point onwards.

There’s a bit of climbing going in the loop at the south side of the course and then it comes to a straight line for the next 10 km of the run. My foot was holding up until roughly the 30 km point but then I started to break down a bit. I had my third gel but stopped to stretch as I had it. I occasionally needed to stop here and there to stretch my toes back because of the feeling of both numbness and pain on my right foot. Not ideal, especially when I thought I’d properly prepared.

Last year I stopped at some of the aid stations along the coast to eat/drink something and based on the way things were going (me needing to stop and stretch every so often), I decided to combine the slow parts with visiting those aid stations again. At one of the aid stations a bunch of kids (junior high school/high school) were shouting at me to get strawberries. I stopped, grabbed a cup of strawberries, shouted, “LET’S GO ICHIGO!,” ate the strawberries, then grabbed another cup as I started jogging again. That got a great reaction.

I was planning to have my next gel at 35 km but I took it just before the 34 km point to get it out of the way and hope the caffeine would push me through. Right after taking that gel a guy in front of me fell and did a sort of half roll. I grabbed him by the hand and hoisted him up using a karate technique I use during paired drills and we both managed to get moving again with almost no time loss.

I ran around the curve at just before 35 km, planning to slow down for a bit just after that point, but there were a couple of friends of mine there cheering me on so I decided against stretching there and powered on to the next aid station at 36K.

While stopping at that aid station the guy I helped caught up to me, tapped me on the back as he went past and thanked me for helping him out. Once I started up again I passed him saying, “頑張りましょう! (ganbarimashō : let’s do our best)” as I ran by him. I think we were both suffering a lot at that point but it was very good to see him moving again at a good pace even after a fall.

The last section has some really great support from the crowds in Shimizu City. I still needed to slow down every so often as I ran along but I made sure to not stop dead. When I needed to slow I’d do so by walking for 100 meters and then start running again at my regular pace. My pace at that point was still around 4:40/km even despite the pain in my foot so I was still going strong.

Once I hit the 40 km mark I was doing my best to keep going without stopping at all. I was considering stopping again to stretch but leading up to that point I realized I would be able to finish in a decent time as long as I kept up the pace. Since I wouldn’t be able to get a sub-3 hour marathon this time I was just aiming for a PB, but that plan changed when I realized a sub-3:10 would still be possible.

The last area of the course has you doing a few twists and turns around Shimizu City. There was a taiko group playing drums in the last kilometer but I still couldn’t see the finish line. I ended up turning one more corner, seeing the finish, then trying to speed up as much as I could before the finish.

Some friends of mine were at the end and even managed to get a video at the finish. Epic!

After the race

After the race I limped over to pick up my medal, finisher towel, and other participation goodies (a bottle of tea, an orange, and some snacks). Just like last year. The atmosphere is always amazing at the finish line.

I made sure not to accidentally step on the orange I received this year. This was made easier by the fact that it was a pretty warm day so I just went to pick up my belongings and finisher t-shirt then chill out on the street for a while.

I ended up meeting some friends of mine right after the race. There was a tent giving out venison meatball soup to the runners so I enjoyed a chat with my friends over a very welcome bowl of soup.

Race results

Very similar to last year, I crushed most of my previous personal bests.

The official race certificate had my net time at 3:07:39 (with the record time of 3:08:54). My previous PB was last year’s Shizuoka Marathon, which was 3:15:43, meaning I officially improved my time by 8 minutes 4 seconds (according to race records).

Also, here is this year’s finisher medal:

Final thoughts

This year was a massive improvement on last year. I didn’t hit my ultimate goal of a sub-3 marathon, but I am getting closer. If I am able to make the same improvement at my next marathon I will be well under 3 hours.

I thought I had everything dialed in on this one. The gels I used worked well, and my physical condition was generally good, but my shoes (once again) ended up causing an issue, despite the fact that they were shoes I thought I could trust. Was it that they weren’t broken in enough? Who knows? But next time I’ll probably use a different set of shoes after a consultation with staff and make sure they are properly broken in before the race. (My right foot has two quite nasty blisters on it from the run).

I took a look at my pace chart from this race. Definitely an improvement on the last Shizuoka marathon, but I’m still not quite there. That last hour just wasn’t up to standard. But I did clearly have a strong finish. There was plenty of fuel in the tank aerobically, but my legs/feet just weren’t playing when going so fast for so long.

When I think about most of my training, it is very focused on just building running volume so I can run for a really long time. Getting a sub-3 marathon is likely to need some more focused high aerobic training over long distances and with shoes that are comfortable enough to get the job done. Each time I do one of these it’s a learning experience.

Marathon season is now over for me. My next two races are ultras so I’ll need to be training specifically for those. The next one is a trial so I’ll be spending a lot of time trail running moving forward. I’ll also need to consider which marathon to enter in Autumn/Winter and prepare to train specifically for that.

Let’s do this.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

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Cover photo:

I started my Substack in August 2023. Where possible I am still going to try to upload weekly in 2025 on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. These milestone posts serve as update posts to keep myself accountable with my training and to also give an update to those who are following me.

Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived, they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.

This month…

In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:

• Substack Stats

• Monthly Training Stats

• February Race/Event Results

• Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))

• Final Thoughts and Hopes for March

Substack Stats

I ended January with 739 subscribers and I am ending February with 736. I’ve been a little more active on Notes this year but so far the trajectory hasn’t really changed much. A little disappointing but I will keep chipping away.

Monthly Training Stats

Here are my training stats for February alongside the January stats for comparison:

February run total: 284.0 km (January: 353.0 km)
February walk total: 25.8 km (January: 13.5 km)
February run/walk total: 309.8 km (January: 366.5 km )
February elevation total: 2,491 m (January: 2,761 m)

I ended up doing a lot of trail running for the first few weeks of February but later in the month I started backing off as part of my marathon training block. The final week of the month had me doing 5K a day rather than at least 10K a day. I didn’t feel the need to go for a 300 km February. I think the quality was overall quite good, as you’ll see in the next section.

Race/Event results

I entered 4 parkruns (5 km races) during February:

• February 7th: 19:37 6th overall (6th in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• February 14th: 18:47. 3rd overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• February 21st: 19:12. 3rd overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• February 28th: 19:04. 3rd overall (2nd in age group)(Instagram pics here)

February was quite a productive parkrun month. I managed to run my first ever sub-19 minute 5K and also managed to get under 20 minutes on every parkrun in the month. I purchased some new shoes to get ready for the upcoming marathon but I didn’t wear them until the 14th. So some of this could be due to improvement, and some could be down to new shoes.

For beach running we had some pretty extreme difference in temperature. At the beginning of the month a snowstorm blew in and gave us some very interesting conditions to run in (cancelling the Saitama Marathon in the process).

Later on in the month it was much nicer.

Iaidō and karate were both business as usual.

Reading list

I finished one audiobooks ongoing in February:

• The First Wall by Gav Thorpe

Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy, Book 3. The first space port falls to the traitors but not all is lost. This book was very well written. I love it when your expectations are suddenly are flipped.

I had one ongoing audiobook in February:

• Saturnine by Dan Abnett

Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy, Book 4. Probably one of the best books in the series so far. A flaw in the defense of the palace becomes a trap. Very cool.

Final Thoughts and Hopes for March

My training in February ended up being not quite what I expected it to be. I will be running the Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail) in April, but before that I’m running the Shizuoka Marathon for the second time. I need more trail running to get ready for the Kai but it would also have been beneficial to do more specific road training for Shizuoka. I ended up focusing a lot on running predictable trails quicker, and then going all in on my parkruns. Looking at how quickly I ran my parkruns in February, I think the training may have paid off but I won’t know until I clear the marathon. Once that is done I’ll have more of a heavy trail focus with a lot of climbing.

From January this year I have also been doing a lot of strength training. I’ve gained about 2-3 kg of muscle. I don’t feel like I’m being weighed down so the additional muscle is likely helping me out. (I’ve been focusing a lot on core and leg strength).

I have a clear road map of my races coming up later in the year. After Shizuoka and the Kai, it’s Hida Takayama Ultramarathon (100 km) in June. So once Shizuoka is done it’s going to be climbing, strength training, and keeping my speed up at parkruns. Keeping it simple.

Shizuoka this weekend. All my focus is on that right now. Ganbarimasu! I’ll probably do a quick update on Notes first so watch this space for more details.

Thank you to all my readers

I hope you had a fantastic February and are ready to get after it during March.

Osu!

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I’m sure that at some point in their lives every single one of my readers has had some kind of experience with performance anxiety or stage fright. If you are expected to stand up in front of a lot of people then a feeling of dread can end up interfering with your ability to perform even if it is something that you are …

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I have been practicing karate for a more than 20 years now. One thing that has always appealed to me about karate is that is literally related to empty hands (空手: Karate: Empty hand). That is not to say that I am against the idea of training with weapons. It would be absurd for an iaidō practitioner to think that way. I just appreciate that …

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I’m not sure why but I’m recently seeing a trend on social media of people claiming that doing cardio (especially running) is going to do irreparable damage to your body. These kinds of comments are usually coming from either these ALPHA MALE gym bro types or people attempting to appeal to the ALPHA MALE gym bro types. Th…

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I started my Substack in August 2023. Where possible I am still going to try to upload weekly in 2025 on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. These milestone posts serve as update posts to keep myself accountable with my training and to also give an update to those who are following me.

Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived, they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.

This month…

In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:

• Substack Stats

• Monthly Training Stats

• January Race/Event Results

• Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))

• Final Thoughts and Hopes for February

Substack Stats

I ended December with 738 subscribers and I am ending January with 739! Not much difference between the months so I’ll take that as a good sign. Moving forward I’m going to try to be more active with Substack notes as well so watch this space for more notes.

Monthly Training Stats

Here are my training stats for January alongside the December stats for comparison:

January run total: 353.0 km (December: 300.9 km)
January walk total: 13.5 km (December: 6.6 km)
January run/walk total: 366.5 km (December: 307.5 km)
January elevation total: 2,761 m (December: 2,070 m)

On January 1st I ran a full marathon, which contributed heavily to the higher than usual run stats this month. Plenty of trail running to get the elevation total higher as well. As much as possible I’ve been trying to get in some varied training as well, with low aerobic, high aerobic, and anaerobic training sessions mixed in. So far so good.

Race/Event results

I entered 4 parkruns (5 km races) during January:

• January 1st: 23:55. 15th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• January 10th: 20:26. 7th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• January 17th: 21:17. 14th overall (5th in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• January 24th: 40:42. Tail walker (Instagram pics here)

There were a couple of parkrun cancellations in January, but there was also a New Year special on January 1st so I ended up getting 4 in.

On the January 1st event I ran 38 km to the parkrun in another city and used that parkrun as the finish line for a personal marathon. It ended up being a really good way to finish off the challenge.

I took the tail walker position on January 24th because it was the day before another event. This took me to 50 volunteer credits and my next parkrun milestone! I try to volunteer whenever I can but I generally volunteer for positions where I can also run. Tail walker is a good position for that and it makes it essential for me to slow down.

Speaking of other events, on January 25th I ran the Shonan Fujisawa City Marathon. This event is a half marathon (despite the name), and I generally view it as something of a running festival in Fujisawa but I still try to give it my all. I ran hard this year with the aim to break my half marathon personal best. And though I did smash every one of my personal records from 10 km all the way up to half marathon, I am a little concerned that it felt so exhausting to do so. I have a marathon coming up in March and I’m not sure if I could run at that pace for another half marathon. But we shall see.

Beach running was business as usual. We’ve had some very cold days but also some pretty pleasant ones. No rain at all so that was definitely a bonus. These remain a highlight of my week.

For iaidō I took part in a tournament and 初抜き (hatsunuki: first drawing) event on January 12th. My team didn’t win but it was certainly a good experience.

Business as usual for karate.

Reading list

I finished two audiobooks ongoing in January:

• The Solar War by John French

This book was a fantastic start to the Siege of Terra series. The traitors have arrived in the solar system and charge right at Terra. Some familiar faces make a (tragic) reappearance and most of the void war stuff is done and dusted here. Planetfall!

• The Lost and the Damned by Guy Hayley

The traitors start making planetfall. The daemon primarchs are not able to set foot on Terra which makes Angron even angrier than usual. This book establishes that the primarchs are ready to attack Terra but the palace is still largely protected against the warp. This series is fantastic.

I had one ongoing audiobook in January

• The First Wall by Gav Thorpe

I’m going through this series quite quickly. Really enjoying it though. So far in this book the traitors have decided to take one of the main space ports on Terra and establish that as a stronghold. There’s a lot of focus on the imperial army forces going there by train but I still am not sure of the significance of this yet.

Final Thoughts and Hopes for February

I could say that I had quite a successful January. I got new PBs for my half-marathon (and other distances), I got some varied training in, I started really focusing on strength training to boost my overall fitness, and I am pretty locked in to my iaidō and karate training. However, I’m not sure if what I am doing will be enough.

In March I’ll be running the Shizuoka Marathon for the second time. The half marathon time I ran in January set me on the right track for a sub-3 hour marathon, but I was more exhausted than I expected to be at the end. I have all of February to try to increase my high aerobic endurance to try to get a good time. Last year I ran the same half marathon in January and then comfortably ran a quicker marathon PB in March, so let’s see how this goes.

The next race is the Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail) in April. I have a hotel booked for before and after this run so I should be able to go prepared. This is going to require a lot of climbing and trail experience. My strength focus is gonig to help me with this but I am putting my training focus on high aerobic endurance first. Once the Shizuoka marathon is done I’ll be focusing heavily on climbing until the Kai.

Next is Hida Takayama Ultramarathon (100 km) in June. Once the first two races are done I’ll be focusing mostly on volume to make sure I have the low aerobic endurance to get it done. This race should in theory be easier than Nobeyama, but I’m not going to underestimate it.

With these three races to prepare for I have different training themes coming up over the next few months. I am however going to keep supplementing my training with weights and tons of ab wheel work outs to give me more strength and stability to get it done. This will hopefully help with my karate and iaidō as well, but that will be more about getting strength training out of my system and then relaxing while doing martial arts.

No races in February. Just sticking to the plan and trusting the process. Let’s go.

Thank you to all my readers

I hope you had a fantastic January and are ready to get after it during February.

Osu!

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Background

When I first arrived in Japan I spent a lot of time reading manga to study Japanese. When I was reading manga in English back in the UK the subject matter was quite light…

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In times of antiquity physical labor was seen as a low class thing to do. Even the act of going outside and exposing yourself to the sun was something that only the poors would do. Back when I was at school in the UK I remember learning about Queen Elizabeth I maintaining an extreme pale complexion by …

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I started my Substack in August 2023. Where possible I am still going to try to upload weekly in 2025 on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. These posts serve as update posts to keep myself accountable with my training and to also give an update to those who are following me.

Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived, they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.

This month…

In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:

• Substack Stats

• Monthly Training Stats (plus a look at 2025)

• December Race/Event Results

• Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))

• Final Thoughts and Hopes for January (and 2026)

Substack Stats

I ended November with 742 subscribers and I am ending December with 738. A bit of drop off but still relatively stable. Thank you to those who have stuck around for so long and also my new followers.

Monthly Training Stats (plus a look at 2025)

Here are my training stats for December alongside the November stats for comparison:

December run total: 300.9 km (November: 236.5 km)
December walk total: 6.6 km (November: 16.1 km)
December run/walk total: 307.5 km (November: 252.6 km)
December elevation total: 2,070 m (November: 1,186 m)

This December I managed to get the total to just over 300 km and also get my elevation over 2,000 meters. I almost didn’t hit these targets after already passing my year goal in mid-December. Speaking of which…

2025 run total: 3,767.8 km
2025 elevation total: 23,396 m
2025 run time: 343h 1m

I was aiming to get my run total to 3,650 km in 2025. That would make my daily run total 10 km per day. After crossing that point in mid-December I started backing off a little and focusing on more specialized training (mostly focusing on trail running). By the last week of the month I noticed I was able to get to 300 km if I ran 45 km in three days, so I ran 15 km the first day, 22 km the second day and 8 km on the final day to take the total to just over 300 km.

At the end of all this, my daily run total averaged out to 10.32 km. That’s a pretty good year.

Race/Event results

I entered 4 parkruns (5 km races) during December:

• December 6th: 25:13. 23rd overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• December 13th: 20:23. 14th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• December 20th: 19:39. 7th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)

• December 27th: 20:38. 12th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)

December was a decent month for parkruns. I managed to get a sub-20 on one of the runs and the slow 25 minute run was planned due to another event I was running.

Also, in 2025 I took part in 45 parkrun events with two of those events taking part in different countries (Singapore and the UK).

In December I also ran the Shonan International Marathon for the third time. I was jet lagged, under the weather, and probably under prepared, but I still managed to complete it in under 3 and a half hours. The race report for that can be found below:

In December I also took part in as many beach runs as I could manage. The sand is getting colder and conditions are not always in our favor, but the challenging conditions make every session worth the effort.

We had a cross training session at the end of December for karate where my legs were well and truly smashed in. It made running at the end of the year a little more challenging but it was a good session. Iaidō was very much business as usual with no special events to report.

Reading list

I finished two audiobooks ongoing in December:

• Titandeath by Guy Haley

This book really didn’t focus too much on Space Marine battles, but it was quite an interesting drama about the titan legions. The creation of chaos titans really stood out in that book.

• The Buried Dagger by James Swallow

Final book in the Horus Heresy series before the Siege of Terra. A long time ago I was a Death Guard player, so this book was a long time coming for me. It focuses on the downfall of the Primarch Mortarion. I enjoyed learning more about the background of this legion and in the end I felt kind of sorry for Mortarion. This felt like a good ending to a series I’ve been enjoying for almost eight years now. On to the Siege!

I had one ongoing audiobook in December

• The Solar War by John French

Straight into it. Siege of Terra, book 1. The traitor legions start smashing up the solar system on the way to terra. LFG!

Final Thoughts and Hopes for January (and 2026)

December was a successful month to cap off a successful year. In 2025 I got a new PB in my marathon time (Shizuoka Marathon 2025), ran my first 100 mile run (Yagurazawa Okan), completed one of the toughest 100 km ultras in Japan (Nobeyama Ultramarathon), and smashed my original distance target by running 3,767.8 km. It’s going to be tough to follow this year.

I have several races booked already for 2026. I have the Shonan Fujisawa City Marathon (half-marathon, 4th time) in January, the Shizuoka Marathon (full marathon, 2nd time) in March, the Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail) in April, and the Hida Takayama Ultramarathon in 2026 (100 km) in June. (I reported that I missed the entry window in November but I received an email in December saying the entry opened (again?) so I managed to get a place).

Shonan is going to be a fun run. Shizuoka is going to be another swing at a PB. The Kai is my first time to enter an international running tournament (I aim to simply complete this one). Hida Takayama is part of a multi-year project where I am trying to complete a series of 100 km runs (this is the third of a series that now has five races). Not sure what I’m going to do in the second half of 2026 but I already have a lot on my calendar in the first half of the year.

For iaidō, my first tournament is on January 12th. This will be a prefectural tournament where teams are sent from each city to compete. I am one of the representatives of my city. I’m mainly going for the experience but I’ll do my best. Hopefully I’ll have a solo tournament to enter later in the year.

For karate I’m not sure how things are going to go in 2026. I just want to keep training and keep getting better. I have no plans to enter any tournaments or do any gradings right now but this may change depending on discussion with my instructor.

As for the new year, I’m not the kind of person who really does new years resolutions. The “new year, new me” attitude implies to me that I need to become a different person. I’m more about trying to keep the momentum going and starting as I mean to go on. If I report this in the next milestone it will be out of season so I’ll do it here. On January 1st I woke up VERY early and ran a solo marathon. I heard there was a parkrun event a few cities over so I ran 38 km to the start line then completed the parkrun to get to a full marathon (plus 1 km for luck).

I ran a marathon on January 1st, 2025 and I ran another one on January 1st, 2026. This year I want to keep pushing myself and getting better at whatever I do. I’m still considering what shape this should take, because I want to focus on quality training rather than simply racking up miles to reach a certain number.

Happy Year of the Horse to all my readers. There are 26.2 miles in a marathon and this year is 2026. Time to channel some of that equine energy and get it done. Think of this as the universe telling you to run a marathon this year.

Thank you to all my readers

I hope you had a fantastic December and are ready to get after it during January and 2026.

Osu!

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As we approach the end of 2025 I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Last weekend I managed to get out there and spread some Christmas joy. Here are a few pictures.

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Pretty much everyone in life has at some point come across a daunting task. It could be writing a long report, washing a huge pile of dishes, writing Christmas/New Year cards to a large number of people, or even taking that first step on a very long hike. There are endless examples of daunting tasks that I could list here and I’m …

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This year (2025) was my third time to run the Shonan International Marathon. The details of the course are exactly the same as first time (consistent marathon) so if you would like details about the marathon itself I recommend checking out my first report, which can be found here.

Lead up to the race

At the end of October this year I got a little sick. I went to Singapore and got worse while I was there (being diagnosed with pneumonia when I got back to Japan), but I largely recovered after a few weeks. I spent the two weeks before the marathon in Europe (on business), and while I did run there I felt a little under trained and jet lagged when I got back to Japan.

I decided to try to aim for sub-3 anyway, but with the back up of a marathon PB, a Shonan Marathon PB, and of course, finishing the race with a smile.

20th Shonan International Marathon (7 December 2025)

Race morning

This year I decided that I didn’t want to wait for the bus at Oiso so I walked the almost 4 km to the Prince Hotel from Oiso station. This acted like a good warm up. The weather was pretty pleasant even at this time of the day but I knew it was forecast to get quite hot as the marathon went on.

It took quite a while for me to get to an area that I could drop off my bag. The crowds coming in from that side were quite intense. I eventually dropped off my bag then went to the area close to the A block to get ready for the race. This year there was a system where toilets were available based on blocks. I managed to take a final trip to the restroom and as soon as I was done the runners had already gone to the starting area.

I met a few friends of mine in the area and one of my friends spotted the sub-3 hour pacer group I was intending on running with this time. I followed the pacers then got ready to start the race.

The race started at 9 am and I stuck as close as I could to the 3 hour group for as long as I could. To run a sub-3 hour marathon you need to maintain a pace of 4:15/km. The pacers at the start were running at 4:10, and running with them managed to get me an all time personal best for my 10K. Unfortunately I was not able to keep that pace going and eventually ended up dropping off. I was going to run my own race at that point because a sub-3 hour marathon was clearly not sustainable in my condition on the day.

Support for this marathon was absolutely fantastic. Over the year I’ve been running in the area I’ve made a lot of friends, and the ones who weren’t running the marathon came out to support. People were calling after me by name on many points of the course. I got a lot of high-fives and received a lot of cool pictures after the race was done.

I managed to keep going quite reasonably until the turnaround point at around 19 km. I then started falling apart and feeling quite unwell. As I was crossing the bridge to leave Fujisawa one of my friends called after me to tell me to drink lots of water. I took this advice to heart to see if it would improve my condition and started taking water breaks every few water stations. (Reminder that the Shonan International Marathon has water stations every 200 meters but you need to use your own cup. No paper cups at aid stations).

I kept taking drinks, walking with the drinks for a bit, and then setting off on a run again. This was a good strategy to bring my heart rate down and refocus myself, but I was getting worried that my pace was dropping. Outwardly, I didn’t look too bad but I was fighting for my life.

I kept my strategy going of drinking water/sports drink and making my way towards the finish line, and started to feel better as I started closing the distance to the finish. By the time I reached 36 km I was reducing my drink breaks and just kept heading towards the finish.

At around 37 km I could see the finish line, but also the sub-3:30 pacers caught up to me. Everyone was moving pretty rhythmically so there was a lot of noise coming from that pacer group. They briefly overtook me, but I upped my pace to make sure I got ahead of them, then used them as a marker to run my own race. As long as I kept ahead of them I’d get a sub-3:30 marathon and the quieter those foot falls got the more time I had to play with. I kept that strategy up until the end.

I increased my pace even more as I closed in on the finish line and ended up passing some of my friends who had overtaken me earlier. I gave them some encouragement as I went by but was totally locked in on Finishing the race.

The very end of the race has a small uphill section followed by a funnel leading to the finish. I charged through that area and comfortably finished in under 3 hours 30 minutes.

After the race

Immediately after the race I picked up my medal then met a few friends, then went to get a picture taken with the podium. Coincidentally the award ceremony was just about to start and a good friend of mine (Sakamoto San) had finished in 3rd place.

This was a rough marathon for me. My condition wasn’t great and I didn’t feel 100% on the day, but I still managed to get a decent result and had a lot of fun on the day. Although it was probably my hardest Shonan International Marathon, it was the one with the best support.

Results

It’s probably reasonable to compare my results with previous Shonan International Marathons.

• Shonan International Marathon (2022): 3:33:38.

• Shonan International Marathon (2023): 3:28:20

• Shonan International Marathon (2025): 3:26:32

I managed to cut off a few minutes from my Shonan personal best time, but it was still quite a way off my overall personal best time, which I got at the Shizuoka Marathon earlier in the year (3:15:43).

I came in 1216th place (1216/13573) in my category and 1254th place overall (1254/16142). Top 10%. I’ll take that.

Below is the race medal:

Below is the online certificate I received:

And finally here is the pace data from my watch. You can clearly see the drop off and the number of short breaks I needed to take.

Lessons learned

The Shonan International Marathon is quite a difficult marathon to do well at. For me anyway. The lack of water at aid stations means that fluid management is put on the runners. Though there are a lot of water stations the time loss associated with them is significant.

It might not be fair to blame the water stations alone though. My physical condition wasn’t great on the day so I need to try to make sure I have better preparation before the next marathon.

Final thoughts

Though this was a difficult marathon for me and I fell short of my primary goals, I had a good race, came in with a respectable time and had fun on the day. I also had a lot of friends complete their first ever marathon on that day and my good friend came in 3rd place. Great result all around.

When I think about it, this was my 10th official race of marathon or greater distance. Lots more to do. Let’s get after it.

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

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Osu!