The Monthly Milestone (May 2025)
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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 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
Race/Event Results
Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))
Final Thoughts and Hopes for June
Substack Stats
I ended April with 747 subscribers and I am ending May with 743. I seem to have hemorrhaged a few subscribers this month. Not sure what the cause is for that but hopefully it will pick up again eventually.
Monthly Training Stats
Here are my training stats for May alongside the April stats for comparison:
May run total: 311.9 km (April : 358.4 km)
May walk total: 54.1 km (April : 32.9 km)
May run/walk total: 366.0 km (April : 391.3 km)
May elevation total: 4,670 m (April : 3,893 m)
May was a bit of a difficult month. I started strong, took some time to taper before the ultra, then needed much more recovery time than expected. Even going into June I am still recovering from my big race in May. I got plenty of walking done and the amount of climbing that I did was a lot more than in the previous month.
This was not a bad month by any stretch of the imagination. I was on/above target for everything.
Race/Event results
I entered 3 parkruns (5 km races) during May:
May 3rd: 20:56. 10th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
May 10th: 20:12. 4th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
May 24th: 20:07. 9th overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
I entered as many parkruns as I was able to in May. There were two event cancelations in May (one of which coincided with my big race), but the ones I ran I did so with the intention of running at a quick, but manageable pace.
Speaking of races, in May I ran the Nobeyama Ultramarathon in Nagano Prefecture. It has taken me a while to get all of the information together for a race report. I’ll be releasing that report next week so watch this space for more details. For now, here is the Instagram post I made about the event.
The Enoshima Dash events are still in full swing. The weather has been very pleasant recently so it’s been great to run on the beach. The week after the Nobeyama Ultramarathon one of my feet was still a bit injured so I ran with shoes on for that week. It’s difficult to adjust to beach running with shoes on once you are used to running there with bare feet.
There were no special events for karate or iaidō this month. I’ve just been focusing on regular training.
Reading list
I finished 2 audiobook in May:
Under the Breaking Sky: Blind Fury by Nick Clausen
The more this book series goes on the more convoluted the situation gets. “Ghosts” have been introduced now (which may or may not be just hallucinations). It’s a fun ride but I needed to have a bit of a break after so much apocalyptic action.
There Is No Wall by Allie Bailey
I believe I first heard of this book when it was mentioned in another book (but I can’t remember which book it was). This book is a bit of an autobiographical story of the ultra runner, Allie Bailey. The author came across a lot of problems in her life and as a result developed problems with depression and alcohol abuse. She became an ultra runner while all this was going on, but that alone didn’t save her. She eventually turned her life around, became a running coach, and wrote a book about her experience. This is that book and I highly recommend it.
I had one audiobook ongoing in May:
Tallarn by John French
I only just got started with this book. This book is the 45th book in the Horus Heresy (Warhammer) series. Based on other reviews I’ve read it’s a bit of a slow burn. So far it is focusing on an Iron Warrior’s invasion of the world of Tallarn. Most of the narrative so far is focusing on tank battles.
Final Thoughts and Hopes for June
The Nobeyama Ultramarathon marked the end of my racing season for now. I’ve had 5 big events over the past 6 months and apart from the 人間塩出し昆布マラソン (Human Salted Seaweed Marathon) in July and the Shonan International Marathon in December my calendar is pretty open.
There are 3 races I’d like to enter in 2026 and I’ll be putting my name down for them as soon as I’m able to:
Tokyo Marathon (Full Marathon): March 2026 (Entry in August)
Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail): April 2026 (Entry in November)
Hida Takayama Ultramarathon (100 km): June 2026 (Entry in November)
The Tokyo Marathon always has a lot of people applying for entry. Getting a place may not happen but I will put my name down anyway. To get into the Kai you need to have a certain number of International Trail Running Association points over the past two years (I received points from the Izu Trail Journey). I am eligible to put in an entry but I’m not sure if I’ll get a place. The Hida Takayama Ultramarathon is part of the Running Wellness Ultramarathon series. I have now completed two of the four ultras in this series and as long as I apply on time I (like everyone else applying) should be able to get a place.
While I think it would be good to have more events in my calendar for next season, on come levels I am happy to have the opportunity to heal up and decompress a little. During the Nobeyama Ultramarathon I ended up injuring the surface of my heel and for the past few weeks I have been dealing with the fact that there are lots of small cuts on my feet, which are taking some time to fully heal up. As we enter June my foot is feeling much better but it is still not right and I would not want to run another serious race with my heel in this condition.
Looking at my current schedule I think June may have a bit more focus on martial arts than previous months. I may be supporting a few martial arts events over the month, but please watch this space for more details on those.
As we enter the rainy season and summer starts to creep up on us I’m hoping that I can keep consistently chipping away, improving, and hopefully finding a new challenge to take on in the near future.
Thank you to all my readers
I hope you had a fantastic May and are ready to get after it during June.
Osu!
Anthony