The Monthly Milestone (June 2026)
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Greetings to My Readers
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 July
Substack Stats
I ended May with 736 subscribers and I am ending June with…732! That’s a little disappointing. I admit that I haven’t been posting as much on notes recently and that may be reducing my reach. But thank you to everyone who has chosen to stick around.
Monthly Training Stats
Here are my training stats for June alongside the May stats for comparison:
June run total: 299.49 km (May: 241.3 km)
June walk total: 40.1 km (May: 53.0 km)
June run/walk total: 339.5 km (May: 294.3 km)
June elevation total: 2,521 m (May: 1,735 m)
June was a much more active month than may. I wasn’t thinking too much about my run stats for this month because I did a big race and ran intuitively for the rest of the time. If I had been paying attention I would have run another 0.51 km to make it a round 300 km. How frustrating. lol
Regardless, I June was clearly a good month.
Race/Event results
I entered 1 parkrun (5 km races) during June:
June 20th: 21:38. 8th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
June was a pretty disrupted month. There was a cancellation on the first week of the month due to an event, I was busy the second week, the third week I ran, and the fourth week was canceled due to a typhoon. All in all, not a great month for parkrun attendance, and the one I did attend wasn’t very quick. There was however a reason why I wasn’t very quick.
On May 14th I ran the Hida Takayama Ultramarathon in Gifu. This was part of an ultramarathon series I am trying to complete over the span of a few years. I linked the race report below, so please feel free to check it out in case you missed it.
Beach running was largely business as usual. I attended every week apart from the week I wasn’t around or the ultra. We don’t stop for typhoons.
My karate attendance was pathetic in June. This was largely due to schedule clashes and cancellations. I attended my iaidō classes when I could but still not at the frequency I would have liked. I should be starting to get to normality in July.
Reading list
I finished two audiobooks in June:
Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
This was probably one of the most action heavy books in the series so far. There was a huge focus on Sanguinius and his brawls with multiple antagonists. Easily one of my favorites in the whole Horus Heresy so far.
I had one ongoing audiobook in June:
The End and the Death: Volume I by Jonathan Keeble
I’ve been listening to this series for about 8 years now. The End and the Death is the final part of the series but it’s split into 3 books. Things are getting real. I’m not far into this one yet so I’ll wait and see what happens.
Final Thoughts and Hopes for July
My current race season is officially over. The Hida Takayama Ultramarathon pretty much closed everything out, so now I am looking forward to a horrendous training season in the soon to be ridiculous heat.
I do still have races in my calendar. My next one will be the 青鳩トレイルラン (Aobato Trail Run) in September 26th. This is a 30 km run up a mountain range (sea to summit) that I ran a few years ago during a typhoon. Before that point I want to purchase some new trail running shoes with good grip that I might be able to use in future trail ultras. Watch this space for more information. In addition to this I will be running the Shonan International Marathon in December for the 4th time.
Future races are still undecided. Right now I’m planning some future races but I’m still not sure of the actual goal. More 100 km road runs? Longer trail ultras? Just going for a sub-3 marathon? Not sure. I need to survive the summer first.
My karate training has been a bit lackluster recently and I’m hoping my schedule will allow me to go back to the dōjō on a more regular basis. My iaidō training however has been pretty steady. I feel like I am improving gradually with it. In fact, although I don’t hae any races coming up, my next event will be an iaidō tournament in August. Again, watch this space for more details.
Summer in Japan is always brutal. It never gets easier. I do try to take the opportunity to improve under harsh conditions. A lot of people sensibly slow down during summer. I intend to try to keep the pace going. Let’s do this!
Thank you to all my readers
I hope you had a fantastic June and are ready to get after it during July.
Osu!
