Ran to Japan

Unlike during the pandemic, I now spend very little time on YouTube. The days of following Seth James DeMoor’s daily updates from the Colorado trails or watching Ben Parkes race faster than I ever will in his signature pink gloves feel like a distant memory.

Lately, however, I have found myself drawn into the world of “Ran to Japan”, a channel with the fantastically counterintuitive motto: “Train harder, not smarter.” It documents a British runner living out the Japanese “running monk” lifestyle – waking up at 4:45 am and pounding 250 kilometres of asphalt per week. Through this strict regime, he is fast approaching the magic 2 hour and 10 minutes barrier in marathon running with his next race being the Gold Coast Marathon in Brisbane in early July.

In contrast, my own running has hit something of a plateau. No matter how many hours I seem to train, there is little visible progress, only the psychological stress of consistently finishing at the back of the pack in races that stretch the limits of my capacity. And yet, I am still here. Still running. Still showing up. Today that meant 11k of early morning recovery with Anna in Skatås, a cold swim in Härlanda Tjärn, and then 10k of indoor rowing at the gym while Eddie impressively powered through 50 minutes on the stair climber. Not quite 250k a week – but, perhaps, something equally enduring in its own way.