As we move into June, Japan's marathon season is well and truly behind us and trail running season is starting to take over. The weather is warming up, the mountains are opening up again, and for me, it usually means one thing: it's time to start doing some really hard training.

Recently, and since moving to Japan, I haven't really been putting myself into one category when it comes to sport. I'm not really a trail runner, even though I spend plenty of time in the mountains. I'm not purely a Hyrox athlete, despite competing in Hyrox. I've raced marathons, obstacle course races, trail races, road races and just about everything in between. At the end of the day, I simply enjoy training hard and seeing what I'm capable of when things start getting uncomfortable.

The last couple of weeks have been a perfect example of that.

My 12-Hour Overnight Solo Training Session

I wrapped up May with a solo 12-hour Last Man Standing-style training session. The concept is simple enough. Every hour, on the hour, I'd head out and run 6.7 kilometres before returning home, eating, drinking, resetting and then heading back out ready for when the next hour started.

I began at 6pm and repeated the process until 6am the following morning.

By the end of the session, I had covered just over 80 kilometres. Officially it was 80.4km, although my watch somehow found a few extra kms and recorded closer to 85. Either way, it was a long night and a very successful training session.

The reason for doing it was fairly straightforward. At the end of June, I'll be racing the Deep Japan Ultra, an 80-kilometre ultra trail through the Japanese Alps. Originally, I thought the race started at 9pm, which was one of the reasons I wanted to spend an entire night running. It turns out I had that wrong and the race actually starts at midday, but the training session still achieved exactly what I wanted it to.

My first goal was simply to spend 12 hours on my feet and see how my body responded. Running for 80 kilometres sounds impressive when you say it out loud, but the reality is that ultra running is often less about running and more about learning how to keep moving when you've been moving for a very long time. I wanted to know how my legs would feel, how my feet and joints would hold up, and what it feels like to spend half a day continuously "exercising".

The second goal was to run while fatigued and sleep deprived. There's a huge difference between running when you're fresh at eight o'clock in the morning and running at three o'clock in the morning when your body thinks you should be asleep. I wanted to experience that feeling in training rather than for the first time during a race.

The third goal was to test my nutrition. This was probably the most important part of the entire session. You can have the strongest legs in the world, but if your fueling strategy falls apart after six or seven hours, your race is probably over.

Throughout the night I experimented with a few different foods. I tried overnight oats, fried rice and some other snack options, but the standout performer was a homemade carbohydrate mix that I made myself. The recipe is incredibly simple: organic date syrup, organic maple syrup and salt. That's it.

I've been making my own electrolyte drink for a while now (mostly to save money lol), so making my own carb mix felt like the next logical step. My target was to consume somewhere between 80 and 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour, and by the end of the night I had averaged 87 grams per hour. I'm absolutely thrilled with that result because it gives me a huge amount of confidence heading into the upcoming races!

As successful as those three goals were, they weren't actually my favourite part of the session.

What I enjoy most about training hard has very little to do with fitness.

When you're out there by yourself at two o'clock in the morning, nobody is watching. Nobody cares. There's no crowd cheering you on, no social media post, no external motivation. It's just you and your own thoughts. Or, in other words, it's just you vs your thoughts.

I love those moments because they reveal a lot about who you are.

When things get uncomfortable, when you're tired, when you're cold, when you'd rather be asleep, you start negotiating with yourself. You start looking for excuses. You start questioning why you're there in the first place.

For me, that's where the real value sits.

That might sound slightly unhinged to some people, but I've always enjoyed putting myself under (immense) physical stress and seeing how I respond. Every time I do something difficult, I walk away knowing myself a little bit better.

The following morning, after finishing twelve hours of running, I celebrated in the most sophisticated way possible.

I walked straight into Denny's and ordered enough breakfast for approximately three people.

First came a scrambled egg breakfast set.

Then a grilled salmon breakfast set.

Then a French toast breakfast set.

After twelve hours of running, it felt completely justified.

Trail Running from Mount Takao to Mount Jinba

The following weekend was considerably more relaxed. My legs were still carrying a lot of fatigue from the overnight session and I was holding a ridiculous amount o f fluid from all the water and sodium I had consumed. For a few days afterwards, my legs felt heavy and sluggish, but by the weekend they were ready to get moving again.

I headed out to Mount Takao for an easy trail run. The route took me from Takaosanguchi Station up Mount Takao, across the ridgeline through Mount Shiroyama and Kagenobu, all the way out to Mount Jinba before turning around and retracing my steps back to the station.

In total it was just under 30 kilometres and around four and a half hours on the trails.

One of the things I love most about Tokyo is how quickly you can escape the city. In less than 90 minutes you could go from standing on a train platform surrounded by millions of people, and suddenly be running through forests or climbing mountains and looking out across ridgelines stretching into the distance!

The entire run was deliberately easy. There were no pace goals and no pressure. It was simply about moving, enjoying the trails and continuing to test some race nutrition options.

This time the menu consisted of Honey Stinger waffles, Honey Stinger chews and sour Haribos. At Mount Jinba, lunch was an Aquarius, cup noodles and more Haribos, which tasted like a five-star meal after a few hours in the mountains.

Before heading home, I stopped into the Salomon store near Takaosanguchi Station. I had visions of walking out with new shorts, shirts and perhaps some other unnecessary gear, but everything was full price and I am currently deep in my frugality era lol.

A couple pairs of socks made the cut (becasue they were 30% off).

Everything else stayed on the shelf.

Running the Yamanote Line with Alexia

The final adventure of this little training block happened yesterday when I met up with my friend Alexia to run the Yamanote Line!

Alexia has been coaching me for Hyrox through Club 360 and is one of those people who seems to have endless energy. She's smart, enthusiastic, curious and always excited about whatever challenge is sitting in front of her. After spending the last year living in Japan following her master's degree, she's preparing to move back to Chicago and start the next chapter of her life.

Before leaving, she said there was one thing she wanted to do.

She wanted to run the Yamanote Line.

Naturally, I said yes.

When Tuesday morning rolled around, Tokyo wasn't exactly putting on ideal marathon weather. It was raining, neither of us had any real reason to be outside, and we could have easily pushed it back to another day.

Instead, we met up, laughed about the weather, and started running.

One of the things I love most about long runs is that there's nowhere to be and nothing to rush. You just settle into a comfortable pace, put one foot in front of the other and let the day unfold however it wants to.

That was very much the vibe of this run.

We weren't chasing a time. We weren't trying to prove anything. We just wanted to spend a day exploring Tokyo together before Alexia headed home.

The Yamanote Line loops around the heart of Tokyo, connecting many of the city's most famous neighbourhoods. Over the course of the day, we ran through areas I'd visited hundreds of times and others I barely knew at all. One moment we'd be surrounded by office towers and busy intersections, and the next we'd find ourselves jogging through quiet residential streets where it felt like the rest of the city had disappeared.

Tokyo is a completely different city when you experience it at running pace.

You notice tiny shrines tucked between apartment buildings, local bakeries you'd normally walk straight past and little side streets that never make it into guidebooks or online.

As always, food became an important part of the day lol.

Every thirty minutes or so we'd eat a little snack I'd brought along. Honey Stinger waffles, Honey Stinger chews, sour candies etc. Then, every ten kilometres we rewarded ourselves with a bakery stop.

The first stop was fresh bread.

The second stop was bagels.

By the third stop, Alexia wisely decided she should probably eat some actual food and grabbed an onigiri while I continued treating the marathon like a moving bakery tour.

I regret nothing lol.

What I'll remember most about the day, though, wasn't the running. It was the conversations.

When you spend seven hours running beside somebody, you end up talking about just about everything.

We started with childhood, family and what life looked like growing up. We spoke about school, university and the experiences that shaped us into the people we are today. It's always fascinating hearing somebody explain why they think they turned out the way they did and what moments had the biggest impact on their life.

As the kilometres rolled by, so did the topics.

We talked about careers, future ambitions, relationships, family, travel, sport and the people who have influenced us most along the way. We spoke about living overseas and how spending a year in another country changes your perspective on life, often in ways you don't fully appreciate until you leave.

At some point after the final bakery stop, the conversation shifted again.

By then we'd been running for hours. The legs were starting to feel the distance and we still had a few kilometres left to cover.

Naturally, we found ourselves talking about motivation, discipline and why people choose to do difficult things. Where does drive come from? Why do some people keep moving when things get uncomfortable while others stop? Is motivation something you wait for, or something you create?

As the kilometres ticked by, I found myself doing a lot more encouraging than talking.

We were close. The finish line was there. The marathon distance was there. We just had to go and get it.

One of the things I love about endurance sports is that sometimes the goal isn't to feel good. Sometimes the goal is simply to keep moving when you'd rather stop, and finish.

That's where a lot of growth happens.

Watching Alexia dig in over those final kilometres was probably my favourite part of the day.

This was the longest run she'd ever done, and instead of backing off or finding excuses, she kept showing up and even increased the pace towards the end! Every kilometre brought her closer to a full marathon, and she earned every single one of them.

By the time we ticked over 42.2 kilometres, she'd completed her first marathon and the longest run of her life!

Alexia is an exceptional person and athlete, but a marathon is still a marathon. 42 kilometres is a long way, regardless of your sporting background, and she tackled it with the same positive attitude, energy and determination that she brings to everything else she does.

I was incredibly proud of her.

Seven hours of running, of conversation, of exploring Tokyo. And all with a good friend.

That's something I'll remember for a long time.

As farewell parties go, I'd say we did things a little differently.

Now the focus shifts towards racing

So that's been the last couple of weeks. 80 kilometres through the night. A day in the mountains between Mount Takao and Mount Jinba. A marathon around Tokyo along the famous Yamanote Line.

Now it's time to put all of that training to use.

I've got the Kaga Spa 20K, part of the UTMB World Series, followed the next weekend by the Deep Japan 80K Ultra. Sebastian will be back in Japan for both races, a few friends are flying over from Perth, and to be honest, I'm really looking forward to it all.

One of the best parts of racing isn't actually the race itself. It's having good people around you, sharing the experience, supporting each other and creating memories together.

The training block has gone exactly how I hoped it would. The kilometres are in the legs, the nutrition is dialled in, and most importantly, I'm excited to get out there and see what happens.

If you’re interested in this side of what I’m doing, I’m documenting my full racing and training journey as I build in this space! You can follow along on Instagram, or check out my website. If you have any questions around fitness, racing, or performance, or you’re keen to train or collaborate, feel free to reach out!

Thanks so much for reading, and as always, the next adventure isn't very far away. I'll see you on the next one!