Latest / Easy Double podcast / Jake Barraclough/@RanToJapan: 2:14 marathon, 300km weeks, YouTube sensation, life in Japan

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Jake Barraclough/@RanToJapan: 2:14 marathon, 300km weeks, YouTube sensation, life in Japan · Easy Double podcast

• 0:21
  The. Hello everyone, welcome back to
• 0:26
  the Easy Double podcast. This is the second of our
• 0:29
  interview series. Now this guy, if we went with
• 0:34
  RAF first because he's he had the coaches on her.
• 0:37
  Then if you've been listening to all of our weekly episodes,
• 0:40
  you'll know how much we love talking about this guy.
• 0:43
  So I've got a bit of an introduction for him here.
• 0:46
  From Yorkshire to Tokyo, today's guest has captured the
• 0:48
  imagination of the distance running world.
• 0:51
  Jake Barraclough, better known as Rant to Japan, went from UK
• 0:55
  club runner to US college athlete and now finds himself
• 0:58
  deep in the heart of Japan's marathon culture with a 214
• 1:02
  marathon PB to his name and ambitions to go much faster.
• 1:06
  Jake's been documenting the journey through YouTube, sharing
• 1:09
  everything from 300K weeks to medical tents and hospital beds
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  under his infamous Train Harder Not Smarter philosophy.
• 1:18
  Currently gearing up for Gold Coast Marathon with lofty goals.
• 1:22
  Jake Barraclough. Welcome to the pod, Sir.
• 1:24
  Geez, what an honour. Man, I'll have to put that
• 1:27
  segment in start of the Gold Coast race video.
• 1:29
  Just have that as my intro Lovely stuff.
• 1:32
  Or, or should I say irrational? That's miles off, isn't it?
• 1:37
  It took me a second to work out what you're trying to say, but I
• 1:41
  got you the the access could do with a little work.
• 1:44
  You're nearly there though. Bit more time on Google
• 1:48
  translating Duolingo. That would do the trick mate.
• 1:50
  I need some help as well. I'm I'm not that much better
• 1:53
  than you. No, seeing you've been, you've
• 1:56
  been trying a bit more on on the videos, like speaking to people
• 1:59
  in Japanese and stuff, haven't you?
• 2:00
  Actually, you play it down. I think it's pretty impressive.
• 2:03
  The the worst thing with that is the editing it because actually
• 2:07
  my mates back home with saying this, I think the the videos
• 2:10
  because when I'm editing it, you know, I'm adding like the
• 2:12
  English subtitles. I'm basically adding the
• 2:15
  subtitles, what I meant to say. So half the time the Japanese is
• 2:19
  completely wrong. I'm just chatting absolute shit
• 2:22
  and then I'm just translating it how I would say it in English.
• 2:25
  So it's not quite the level that I reckon people think.
• 2:28
  Yeah, this is what I meant to say.
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  And any Japanese viewers are looking at it like, what are you
• 2:32
  on about here, Jake? Yeah.
• 2:34
  It's like you did not say that at all.
• 2:35
  But yeah, the the language barriers are a bit of a
• 2:38
  struggle. We're getting there.
• 2:40
  Slow progress. So I know that Dean and Owen
• 2:42
  will have a bit of FRMO here, but it just couldn't quite work.
• 2:46
  Dean's gone away for the week and time difference for Owen.
• 2:49
  He's in work throughout the week.
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  But hopefully we can actually get Owen to tune into an episode
• 2:54
  that he he doesn't attend. It'll be a first anyway, so.
• 2:57
  We we'll have pulled up an absolute blind eye if he's
• 2:59
  tuning in, by the sound of it from I, I listen every week to
• 3:02
  your voice, but I like you say you're, you're my #1 promotional
• 3:06
  team. I feel like every episode I get
• 3:08
  a shout out. So I had to come on here, repay
• 3:11
  the favour. I mean, the, the reason we
• 3:14
  started the pod was it was just like, oh, well, we talk so much
• 3:17
  about running on our runs and with a coffee afterwards and
• 3:20
  stuff. And naturally your training was
• 3:23
  part of that. So I mean, we'd be going against
• 3:25
  our, our morals if we change track, wouldn't we?
• 3:27
  It's. Got to be done.
• 3:28
  No, I like that. I like that.
• 3:30
  So one of the listeners like after last week's interview,
• 3:34
  gave us a suggestion to have some quick fire icebreaker
• 3:38
  questions at the start of the pod.
• 3:40
  So these might come without context to people listening, but
• 3:43
  I'm sure we'll we'll get a bit of an explanation later on.
• 3:47
  So I'm going to hit you with will Arsenal finish second again
• 3:51
  next year? Nah, this is our year, say every
• 3:54
  year, but Nah, this one's different.
• 3:57
  This time we're bringing it home.
• 3:59
  It's got, it's got to be, it's got to be secondly, TKO or
• 4:05
  submission. Yeah, it's TKO knockout all day,
• 4:08
  none of that rolling around on the floor.
• 4:11
  I won't they're. Messing around.
• 4:13
  Exactly. And lastly, unpopular opinion,
• 4:16
  so it can be running related if you like.
• 4:19
  I'm sure you've probably got a few of those.
• 4:21
  Well, whatever fits. Yeah, the, the running angle, I
• 4:24
  feel like there's so many different ways I could go with
• 4:26
  this. Just deciding which group of my
• 4:29
  audience I want to offend with this point.
• 4:32
  I've got to got to be a little careful.
• 4:33
  I'm going to go 4. And I think I can say this.
• 4:36
  It's not hard to run far. It's hard to run fast.
• 4:40
  And it ties into the ultras. So I, I reckon all of the top
• 4:45
  ultra runners, the elites, they're just marathoners that
• 4:48
  weren't good enough for the marathon.
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  And I'm saying it because this will be me one day.
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  So I'm fully accepting that they'll reach a point where I
• 4:55
  can't get any quicker at the marathon.
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  And I realized, right, it's a lot easier to just run further,
• 4:59
  run slower. And I think, yeah, anyone can
• 5:02
  knock out these long distance, you know, like the the days like
• 5:06
  people do the what is it running across wherever 50 KA day, all
• 5:10
  of that. That's 10 times easier than
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  actually smacking out like a marathon type session, half
• 5:15
  marathon session. Running hard is difficult.
• 5:18
  Just jogging along all day. I don't think that's.
• 5:21
  As impressive, I won't offer my opinion because I'm not trying
• 5:24
  to upset anyone and and we do we do it enough with the double
• 5:27
  trouble. But for for those who've
• 5:29
  listened, I'm sure they will have heard the the double
• 5:32
  troubles on the ultra marathon theme.
• 5:34
  Anyway, So just a bit of context on I guess, the relationship
• 5:41
  between yourself and easy double.
• 5:43
  So me, Dean and Owen, we, me and you bumped into each other in
• 5:47
  Gold Coast last year, didn't we? And then all three of us kind of
• 5:52
  met, met you at Maragami this year.
• 5:55
  And I think Owen stayed on for a bit and maybe ran with you in
• 5:58
  Tokyo when you got back. Yeah, that's it.
• 6:00
  I was thinking I met Owen actually as well at Gold Coast
• 6:03
  before. Oh yeah.
• 6:04
  Like it was after the the Inside Running live show, because
• 6:08
  that's where I met you, I think for the first time, wasn't it?
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  I'm trying to remember this and then I think I bumped into
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  randomly because I think Owen have been there as well and just
• 6:16
  sit like the bus stop or something because at that point
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  I hadn't started a YouTube or anything.
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  I can't. Did you?
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  Maybe it was because I did the interview with those boys.
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  I think I was on a podcast. Maybe I just had like the
• 6:27
  Instagram or whatever at that point.
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  So yeah, I knew you and Owen and then met Dean for the first time
• 6:34
  at Marigami. Yeah.
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  That was like the whole squad came over.
• 6:37
  Yeah, you and Dean were sharing a few KS and marigami, weren't
• 6:40
  you? Actually.
• 6:42
  We were sitting in behind the Japanese guys doing no work that
• 6:45
  time all. Right, then I guess let's get
• 6:47
  into it. We're going to go with a bit of
• 6:49
  a chronological storytelling here, so we're going to take it
• 6:53
  right back to the start. So when and where were you born
• 6:56
  and raised? Are we going all the way back?
• 6:58
  OK so born in London. I like this the full the full
• 7:02
  journey. Born in London, then moved out
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  when I was about 7 to the countryside.
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  So like Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire kind of area about
• 7:10
  an hour north of London and then yeah, pretty much grew up there,
• 7:15
  like more rural countryside before eventually kind of moving
• 7:19
  back to London. But I feel like I haven't lived
• 7:21
  in the UK for ages because yeah, I guess we'll come to it later,
• 7:24
  but I've been abroad for a yeah a fair amount of time now.
• 7:27
  So have you actually not been back to the UK since you went
• 7:30
  over to Japan then? I went very briefly last because
• 7:33
  I had Paris Olympic tickets. So we went, I hit the UK for a
• 7:38
  couple days and then me and my family went to France for a
• 7:40
  couple weeks for that. But yeah, it's pretty brief.
• 7:43
  Yeah, nice. So sticking with the the early
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  themes then how did you first find running?
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  Like, were you involved in team sports and then naturally you
• 7:53
  were quite fit or? Yeah, it was the sort of
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  classic. I feel like everyone in the UK
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  plays football. It's like grew up.
• 8:00
  Yeah, obviously loving that, like rugby as well, kind of all
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  the yeah, school team sports. And then I think at my school we
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  had there was like a cross country race against some other
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  local schools that they did every year.
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  I think you could start doing it from maybe when you were like 10
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  years old. And they pretty much just
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  chucked the football team in this cross country race because
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  like no one was training at that point.
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  It's sort of just that, oh, the sport, you guys Chuck them in it
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  and they ended up winning that. It's like my first ever race.
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  And then I think realised at that point, yeah, I guess
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  naturally pretty fit, like I had a bit of an engine and it was
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  probably a year maybe after that I started training a little bit,
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  doing some runs here and there and then joining a club.
• 8:41
  Yeah, it must have been like 11-12 years old and started sort
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  of training a bit more properly from there.
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  Yeah, we were just chatting offline about Power of 10, which
• 8:50
  for context, Australian listeners, that's kind of like a
• 8:54
  personal record log of all of your races from AUK perspective.
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  They all get also uploaded based on your like your UK Athletics
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  number. It's a big database and I can
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  see for you, Jake, that you kind of had that typical track
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  runners pedigree of cross country and a load of eight and
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  1500s. So how did you find the balance
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  between track running in the summer and then cross country in
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  the winter? I've never liked the track and
• 9:20
  that's not changed. I feel like the the speed stuff,
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  like the eight hundreds just horrendous.
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  Like, yeah, get me on a cross country course any day.
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  You used to absolutely love the cross, partly because it's
• 9:31
  longer, I guess. Yeah, there's that theme from
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  early even. I don't know, I mean, it's
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  pretty short when you're that age, but what would it be?
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  Maybe 3K cross country, 5K maybe when you're sort of, yeah, like
• 9:43
  early teens. And that was always so much more
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  fun. So yeah, I definitely enjoyed
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  the cross more. I was I was doing some digging
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  into the results in on your power of 10 and there's in 2016
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  you raced Liverpool, which is like the European cross country
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  trials for the British athletes, isn't it?
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  And on that day you, you may or may not know this, you finished
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  77th, right? And the podium was Alex Yi,
• 10:09
  Muhammad Muhammad and Josh Kerr. Jeez that's crazy.
• 10:13
  Hang on, what age group was that under?
• 10:15
  So it's 2016. Oh, what?
• 10:17
  Would that be 10 years? Probably under seventeens maybe.
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  That's ridiculous. There's some big names, I guess
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  some a lot of people at that age like burn out.
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  You never hear from them. But then, yeah, there's the odd
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  few that kind of pop through and keep it going.
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  I guess as well, like people find it hard to be motivated to
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  go and do cross country like those tough runs and like boggy
• 10:39
  conditions and shit weather, but when you've got the likes of
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  those guys there, it's the proofs in the pudding, isn't it?
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  Clearly works that strength base.
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  And the another guy who was in that race I finished back in
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  20th was a male caress. Oh yeah, because he was one of
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  the ones that he was never unreal as a junior.
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  I remember because I think he's the same age as me.
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  So I'm sure, yeah, we raced a lot, like going up the age
• 11:02
  groups. He was never like up there top
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  five, top ten, but he sort of just steadily progressed.
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  And yeah, I'd say 95% of the guys that were up in that top
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  ten, like like early ages, just you never hear from them again.
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  So it's almost like, yeah, that it's hard to maintain it, I
• 11:18
  guess, but you just got to stay consistent over the years.
• 11:21
  I guess that's the the challenging bit.
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  Yeah, there'll be there'll be some guys in that like kind of
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  top ten, top 20 now. And if you're going to tell
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  them, oh, you know, the guy who finished 20th that day, like
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  behind you, he also finished fourth at the Olympics, they'll
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  be like, oh, what the hell, I'm like 15 stone now.
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  It's all funny. I kept it going.
• 11:39
  Could have been. Me sticking with the power of 10
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  theme, I did see as well in 2009 as a 13 year old you won nine of
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  16 races that year, so there must be some natural talent
• 11:51
  there. But this is an unbelievable
• 11:53
  stalking right here. He's done the research.
• 11:58
  Yeah, that was that might have been so I had this bad like
• 12:02
  chest surgery. So pretty much you might have
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  noticed some power 10. There's a massive gap between
• 12:08
  pretty much under 15 and maybe under 20.
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  I pretty much had four years off the sport completely for this
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  like major chest surgery. But like just before then, I
• 12:19
  feel like I was kind of just popping off, like starting to
• 12:22
  see the improvement. I've been training consistently
• 12:25
  and like, yeah, had that, I guess decent year was like
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  winning races. I think my final cross country
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  race I beat the guy who'd won nationals the year before or
• 12:34
  something. So it's like everything was like
• 12:36
  trending Well, I was like, yeah, this is it.
• 12:37
  We're we're finally kind of seeing the results and then bang
• 12:41
  four years off completely and that sort of changed the
• 12:44
  trajectory a little bit. So is that where then on the
• 12:48
  back of the surgery you came back as an MMA fighter rather
• 12:52
  than a runner or? That was where the transition
• 12:54
  happened. Yeah.
• 12:55
  It was like I basically couldn't run at all.
• 12:57
  I was getting this stabbing pain, like kind of in my chest.
• 13:01
  It was impossible to try and diagnose.
• 13:03
  Was seeing all these different people and in weirdly enough, I
• 13:06
  could do MMA, I guess because it's a bit more technical,
• 13:10
  something about the movement or yeah, that I don't know what it
• 13:13
  was that I could do that absolutely fine, no problem.
• 13:15
  And yeah, it was at the time when I was sort of early on the
• 13:18
  MMA trend. It was before, I feel like
• 13:21
  before people even knew what MMA was in the UK.
• 13:23
  So this was maybe 15 years ago, so way before the like Conor
• 13:27
  McGregor's, any of that. And I just started watching some
• 13:30
  UFC tapes and then was like, oh, I've got to give this a go.
• 13:34
  And yeah, it was during that kind of mid teens, like at
• 13:37
  school when I was like, I can't run, I've got with this energy,
• 13:40
  let's just go and throw hands at the gym again.
• 13:44
  Absolutely loved it. And yeah, sort of got into it
• 13:47
  properly then. So then eventually when I could
• 13:49
  get back to running, like at university, I think that was
• 13:52
  when I finally got over the chest problem.
• 13:55
  But then I was in this place where I'm trying to do MMA and
• 13:58
  running and not really committing to either because as
• 14:02
  you can imagine, yeah, they don't quite go hand in hand.
• 14:06
  The those sort of sports, Yeah, a little bit different.
• 14:10
  So I struggled for a while just yet deciding which which angle I
• 14:14
  wanted to go. Did you ever get to the point
• 14:16
  where you forced in the MMAI? Had a couple kickboxing fights I
• 14:21
  had there was so many times and it's like I wanted to do like I
• 14:24
  wanted to get an MMA fight. And I, I say, I still think to
• 14:27
  this day I'm a whole lot more talented at MMA than I am at
• 14:31
  running. I could go a lot, lot further in
• 14:33
  MMA. I think I remember just even
• 14:35
  within about six months of training, like having never
• 14:39
  trained ever before, like my teenage years, I could hang with
• 14:43
  the pro fighters in the gym. So like come to be kind of,
• 14:47
  yeah, hold my own off. Yeah, maybe six months training.
• 14:51
  I feel like I kind of had that natural fighter ability, whereas
• 14:54
  you think for running, it's taken me 15 years and I'm only
• 14:57
  just now Avery did, I don't know, be close enough to maybe
• 15:01
  hang with people in sessions. But the thing was I didn't love
• 15:04
  the training enough. Like, I just love the sparring.
• 15:07
  Like, put me in the ring all day.
• 15:08
  That's great fun. But so much of MMA is technique.
• 15:13
  It's like drilling, submissions, wrestling, striking, It's all of
• 15:18
  that stuff. But it's like, yeah, it felt
• 15:20
  like a chore because I, I realized it took me ages, but I
• 15:23
  sort of realized, yeah, eventually I was like, oh, OK,
• 15:26
  I've got to go even more like, oh, I'm have to head down to the
• 15:28
  gym. Like I'd run down, I'd do a run
• 15:30
  in the morning, then it's like I'd run down to the gym, train
• 15:33
  for like 3 hours, run back. I was fitting in some crazy
• 15:36
  training load. I think that was harder that
• 15:38
  period than what I'm doing now, like the 250 K weeks.
• 15:42
  I still think trying to yeah, hit the MMA running combo was
• 15:45
  harder. But in in the eventually I was
• 15:47
  like, if I want to, because I've I've always been very all or
• 15:50
  nothing. And at that point I was like,
• 15:52
  right, I want to make the UFC like I want to go all the way
• 15:55
  over MMA. But I'm thinking, can I really
• 15:58
  see myself putting in four hours a day in the gym drilling
• 16:01
  technique? Do I love it that much?
• 16:04
  And in the end, I finally figured it never feels like
• 16:06
  effort to go out for a run. I'll always happily hit 20K30K.
• 16:11
  And so I'm thinking, yeah, if I am going to pursue a career in
• 16:13
  something, it can't feel like a job.
• 16:15
  It's got to be something I want to do.
• 16:17
  And that was why I quit the MMA eventually and just went all in
• 16:21
  and running. So when you dropped the MMA
• 16:23
  then, was that kind of like around the time you were in uni?
• 16:27
  Yeah, it was some undergrad. I was still doing both, so I was
• 16:31
  in the UK for an undergrad. So yeah, pretty much from like
• 16:34
  18 to 23, maybe 24, I'm still doing both.
• 16:39
  Then I went to America on a sports scholarship, but to be
• 16:43
  honest, I scraped that sports scholarship.
• 16:45
  I pretty much just trained hard for like 1 year for running to
• 16:48
  get my 5K down because yeah, people listening.
• 16:52
  So you can get like pretty much fully funded scholarships to go
• 16:55
  to America. It's basically a free holiday
• 16:57
  for two years. I couldn't believe it.
• 16:59
  I was all right. So they'll fully pay for
• 17:01
  everything. I get to live in a nice yeah
• 17:03
  sunny place in America by the beach and it's all covered.
• 17:07
  So I was like, yeah, I'll put a bit of effort into running, get
• 17:11
  out there. And then once I'm out there, I
• 17:12
  can train MMA, can do the running.
• 17:15
  Basically, I don't have to get a nine to five, don't have to
• 17:17
  start working. So I thought it was perfect.
• 17:20
  And then when I was out there, I was still doing like heavily
• 17:23
  like the MMA and the running because the UNI I was at, it was
• 17:27
  so it was such a lower Tier 1. Like you see these like NC,
• 17:32
  double AD one. This was like an NAIA.
• 17:35
  So like a whole different league almost in itself.
• 17:38
  And I mean, to put into perspectives on the team, I was
• 17:41
  the quickest, I think I'd ran 5K like 15-15, maybe 15-10.
• 17:48
  That was like to get out there. I think the next best was like
• 17:51
  16 maybe. So like I was seen as like this
• 17:55
  animal and the team. But then really see, like,
• 17:58
  compared to all the other Americans dropping like 13 flat,
• 18:01
  Yeah, I was nowhere. But luckily it meant I didn't
• 18:03
  have to put in a lot of effort with the training.
• 18:06
  I could kind of coast by do the MMA at the same time and yeah,
• 18:10
  live for free on this scholarship.
• 18:12
  So it's like, yeah, happy days at that point.
• 18:14
  It's probably where you said that you trained hard at the
• 18:17
  running for a year to kind of qualify for the the college
• 18:21
  scholarship. It's probably thanks to all the
• 18:24
  cross country and the track pedigree you'd put in at like
• 18:27
  1314 fifty in that you kind of had that base fitness somewhere
• 18:31
  in the locker that you just needed a year to tap into it and
• 18:34
  then you fit again. To just unlock it, Yeah, I
• 18:37
  guess. And I mean, it's not like I
• 18:39
  never ran. I'd say like since I started
• 18:42
  running at 10 years old, barring that time with old surgery.
• 18:45
  But even when I was doing MMA, I was running for fitness.
• 18:48
  Like, it's great fitness, but it's like, I'm not trying to
• 18:50
  smack sessions and stuff. I'm just like jogging every
• 18:53
  morning, putting in the miles. So I reckon, yeah, I kept that
• 18:56
  sort of base fitness so I could always, yeah, with a bit of
• 18:59
  speed work, probably kind of bump up the levels reasonably
• 19:02
  quickly. In terms of like selection of a
• 19:05
  college, I just said there that kind of this one supported you
• 19:08
  with the scholarship and stuff. And you hear some of the pros
• 19:10
  like, Oh yeah, I know Josh Cares told this story where it's like
• 19:14
  finally selected the college that was like exactly perfect
• 19:18
  for him. But for you, was it like one of
• 19:20
  one? There was one on the table and
• 19:22
  that was it. Yeah, I did the basically the
• 19:25
  opposite of Josh. I wrote a generic e-mail, fired
• 19:28
  it out to like a hundred colleges, changed the the name
• 19:32
  or my. I bet with some of them I forgot
• 19:34
  to even change the name. Probably said like, dear insert
• 19:37
  name here. No, no wonder.
• 19:40
  Yeah, I didn't get hear back from them.
• 19:42
  But this one, yeah, I heard back from, I guess because they were
• 19:46
  so amazed that I was interested to go there.
• 19:49
  This one in Savannah, GA, because it was it's like an art
• 19:52
  college. So it was like weird that they
• 19:55
  even had sports teams, like they didn't have any of the
• 19:57
  traditional basketball, baseball, American football.
• 20:01
  The I find actually the the sports that they had and they
• 20:04
  had like full scholarships for these were horse riding, 10 pin
• 20:10
  bowling. They had E sports.
• 20:12
  You could get a fully funded 60 grand a year scholarship to play
• 20:17
  video games. And then yeah, they had running
• 20:20
  and a couple of it was like cycling.
• 20:22
  It was very different to your D1.
• 20:25
  Like you, Josh Kerr, is that kind of vibe.
• 20:27
  Yeah, this is just they they were happy to take me.
• 20:30
  So that was why I ended up there.
• 20:32
  So did you go over solo as well? Like there wasn't any friends
• 20:35
  who who were over there. Nah, just yeah, solo.
• 20:38
  Like I knew a lot of people from my uni, I was at Birmingham Uni,
• 20:42
  it's like very good running squad there.
• 20:45
  A lot of them have been over, but more like D1D2.
• 20:49
  So mine was a pretty random yeah.
• 20:51
  No one else had been there. So guess you've kind that you've
• 20:53
  been adventurous from an early age, then just taking a plunge
• 20:56
  and moving out to Georgia and the US.
• 20:59
  Take the gamble. Yeah, I feel like travelling, I
• 21:02
  suppose. Good fun.
• 21:02
  I mean, yeah, you've gone half across the world, so I'm sure
• 21:05
  you're similar, but I felt like you couldn't be stuck in the UK
• 21:08
  forever. Like, yeah, I want to see what's
• 21:10
  out there. I was going to ask you this
• 21:11
  later, but it's kind of feeds in now.
• 21:14
  Do you, do you ever think about now like you've levelled up so
• 21:17
  much as a runner about racing on the British circuit again and
• 21:21
  kind of like seeing where you come up against the the top
• 21:24
  athletes in the country now that you're so much fitter?
• 21:26
  Yeah, no, it would be good days. I mean, if I'm ever back in the
• 21:30
  UK, I'd love to jump into races, like some of the road races.
• 21:33
  And yeah, like even the five KS, 10 KS, that's actually what they
• 21:37
  don't have in Japan almost. It's like, I feel like what the
• 21:40
  UK is very good at is those 5K races, the road races, it's
• 21:44
  pretty good standard, like they're pretty stacked, those
• 21:46
  ones. Whereas here it's like the half
• 21:48
  marathons, marathons actually loaded, but it's actually very
• 21:51
  hard to find a shorter distance race that isn't on the track.
• 21:55
  So I can't stand the track. Like putting on spikes is just
• 21:58
  fatal and I'm tearing a car instantly, whereas yeah if I was
• 22:01
  back home I'd happily hit a road 5K.
• 22:03
  Even in in Australia it's similar it's hard to find a
• 22:06
  decent 5K like all the they're all 5000 meters.
• 22:10
  So as you say they're literally like every week almost in the UK
• 22:14
  aren't they? You can get into a deep field.
• 22:16
  It's crazy, I feel like that middle distance we're very
• 22:19
  strong at, whereas the overseas I think they prioritise the
• 22:23
  longer stuff, maybe the training and stuff.
• 22:25
  Yeah. Have you found the training in
• 22:27
  Australia? I guess very different to that
• 22:29
  kind. Yeah, I think so.
• 22:32
  With in the UK, the club set up like kind of everyone looks
• 22:37
  after themselves within a club, don't they?
• 22:39
  And like whoever's the captain of the club may sort the
• 22:42
  training out or whatever. Whereas in Australia it just
• 22:44
  seems a little bit more a bit more formal and a bit more
• 22:47
  deliberate, like everything's planned.
• 22:51
  But yeah, yeah, more focused in. That's true, that's true.
• 22:53
  I think it's more of a team culture as well in I see running
• 22:57
  back home as more of a solo sport, whereas definitely in
• 23:00
  Japan it's so team based. It's just that, yeah, the
• 23:03
  challenge is getting onto on those teams that once you're on
• 23:05
  it, they're super yeah in their own bubble.
• 23:08
  It's like, yeah, very much focused.
• 23:10
  Everything's building towards a certain goal.
• 23:12
  Just jumping back to college then like you hear some almost
• 23:15
  horror stories about how coaches have like ran people into the
• 23:18
  ground and like that's why a lot of people don't carry on with
• 23:22
  the sport after college. But did you have did you have a
• 23:25
  coach in college and what was your experience like there with
• 23:27
  the training? Yeah, the actually the coach
• 23:30
  that recruited me originally. So I arrive in Savannah, GA He
• 23:34
  quits after one week. So I did something to drive him
• 23:39
  out within within one week. But yeah, I was like, it's not
• 23:43
  ideal. I've just flown halfway across
• 23:45
  the world. I'm now on a team with no coach.
• 23:49
  So that was a little, yeah. I think we had a whole, see, it
• 23:52
  was at least a semester without a coach, might have even been 2.
• 23:56
  And then we got a coach who, yeah, I was kind of doing his
• 24:00
  training and then, yeah, still at the same time doing the MMA,
• 24:05
  keeping it on the down low a little bit.
• 24:07
  But it wasn't like I was being absolutely smashed with.
• 24:12
  It was more it was on, it was down to me.
• 24:14
  It was more like, he's like, oh, how much mileage do you want to
• 24:16
  do? So it's more I'm pushing to
• 24:18
  increase the mileage once I started getting properly into
• 24:21
  the running the marathons, as opposed to them being like,
• 24:24
  yeah, you've got to do this many miles a week.
• 24:26
  So what kind of distance was it you're running there on a weekly
• 24:29
  basis, can you remember? Yeah.
• 24:31
  So when I was in my hybrid MMA period, I reckon I was on maybe
• 24:37
  100 KA week. I'd say probably something like
• 24:41
  that hundred KA week plus probably 20 hours of MMA, 15
• 24:47
  hours of MMA. Is that pretty?
• 24:48
  Yeah. In terms of training load, like
• 24:51
  hours spent exercising, it was pretty heavy.
• 24:54
  So then I guess I can see that that that sort of training has
• 24:57
  LED you into the the NAIA Champs and where you ran the marathon.
• 25:02
  So this must have been your first marathon and you won in
• 25:05
  238. So what do you remember of that?
• 25:07
  My first and only marathon dove. It's all actually gone downhill
• 25:11
  from there. I can't seem to pick up a win
• 25:13
  over here, but that first one, that was actually the turning
• 25:16
  point. So yeah, that was towards the
• 25:20
  end of my time in Savannah, GA and there was this.
• 25:25
  So, you know, in like NC double AI think they only go up to
• 25:28
  maybe 10K on the track was weirdly enough for this NEA
• 25:32
  league, it's part of the outdoor nationals.
• 25:34
  So we've track. They also had a marathon
• 25:36
  attached to it. And I was like, this sounds like
• 25:42
  fun. Like the entry standard was way
• 25:44
  softer. I think you could get in with,
• 25:47
  you could get in with a half marathon and it was dead slow,
• 25:50
  whereas the track was still pretty competitive.
• 25:52
  I don't think at that point I would have got into 10K5K
• 25:56
  whereas yeah, I'm like, oh, let's give this marathon a go.
• 25:58
  And because as well at college, no one's really putting in the
• 26:01
  big mileage to train for a marathon.
• 26:04
  So it's way less competitive. I think to, I decided to do it
• 26:08
  to like enter it maybe two months out.
• 26:11
  And at that point, I kind of phased out the MMA, started
• 26:14
  focusing on the running, and I just went ham with the mileage.
• 26:17
  So I bumped it up from, yeah, about 100 KA week to probably
• 26:21
  close to 200 K for those two months.
• 26:25
  So it was almost out of nowhere. Yeah, I started just stacking
• 26:28
  the double S every day because I kind of even at that point, I
• 26:31
  felt like mileage was the key. And it was actually during that
• 26:35
  I read The Way of the Runner. So that Japanese book, which
• 26:39
  I've mentioned on my channel, I was like, oh, that's what
• 26:41
  originally got me into Japanese running.
• 26:43
  So I hadn't heard anything about it before then.
• 26:45
  And then, yeah, listen to his audio book while I was, yeah,
• 26:49
  just slugging out these miles. And that's when I kind of got
• 26:52
  this interest. I was like, oh, the level is
• 26:53
  ridiculous out here. Like just how much better they
• 26:56
  are than the Brits, the Americans.
• 26:59
  And it kind of timed quite nicely with me training for this
• 27:01
  marathon. And then just coming off the
• 27:03
  back out of marathon, I was like, oh, I love, I love the
• 27:05
  training. Like I realized, oh, yeah,
• 27:07
  putting in these two 100K weeks, that was that was great fun.
• 27:09
  Like it didn't feel like effort. And that's where the idea of,
• 27:13
  yeah, post America moving to Japan, that's where it sort of
• 27:16
  came from. That's where the dream began in
• 27:19
  training for that man with them, Arthur and Finn.
• 27:22
  The author inspired you. That's the one.
• 27:25
  Have you read the book or? Yeah, so I remember when you
• 27:28
  said earlier about being on the other podcast, that's what I
• 27:31
  listened to and I messaged you afterwards and said, like, I've
• 27:35
  just picked the book up. Like I'm a bit worried I'm going
• 27:38
  to end up in Japan myself. Well, that was it because you
• 27:42
  slid in my DMS, But after the interview, I remember that.
• 27:47
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a classic book.
• 27:49
  I feel like after reading that, yeah.
• 27:51
  It makes you think, oh, the level in the UK is just nowhere
• 27:55
  because he's comparing it. I think it's the AGGO half
• 27:58
  marathon. It's one of these half marathons
• 27:59
  where he's taught the authors. This British guy.
• 28:02
  Yeah, he's talking about it's like 100 students running like
• 28:06
  sub 64 whatever for the half marathon.
• 28:10
  And he compares it that year to like the British rankings like
• 28:12
  power of 10. And he's like, it's something
• 28:15
  like two or three pro runners that have ran quicker than that.
• 28:18
  It's like we're just being annihilated by these 20 year old
• 28:21
  students. So I'm thinking, yeah, what's
• 28:23
  going on in Japan? Like how are they doing this so
• 28:25
  much better? Mental isn't it?
• 28:27
  Do you think if they did focus more on the track stuff they
• 28:29
  would have like more top end success eventually?
• 28:32
  Because I don't know, for context for listeners, it's I
• 28:35
  guess widely accepted that Japan have got unbelievable depth,
• 28:40
  like just below the top level, but they can't quite get to like
• 28:43
  podiums. Perhaps I I've sort of thought
• 28:47
  about a lot. I think they're overachieving
• 28:50
  with their genetics and natural ability when it comes to speed.
• 28:55
  I actually think they're way outperforming.
• 28:57
  Like you look at their, yeah, the national records and like
• 29:00
  5K10K times, they're nowhere near what we are, what we're
• 29:04
  doing in Europe, America. But then somehow they're
• 29:07
  annihilating us over the marathon.
• 29:09
  And it's, they do have loads of track races here.
• 29:11
  Like they actually, they do race over the summer.
• 29:13
  They during high school, yeah, they're running track race even
• 29:16
  in uni they're doing it. I just think they're just not
• 29:18
  that quick. They just don't have the
• 29:20
  genetics that's suited for the 5K, just that raw sort of speed
• 29:25
  because you've got to be so quick to run these like sub 13
• 29:28
  minute times. You've got to have some absolute
• 29:31
  wheels. And yeah, they, I just feel like
• 29:34
  they don't quite have that top end speed.
• 29:35
  But what they've done is they've maximized the the mileage,
• 29:39
  they've actually smacked the training to be able to then just
• 29:42
  like fully maximize their potential in the marathon, which
• 29:45
  I don't think we're doing back home.
• 29:48
  So I guess we'll get into it later as well, but it's probably
• 29:50
  that the distance culture and Echidan feeds into like all the
• 29:55
  endurance and the longer stuff, doesn't it?
• 29:58
  Yes, the whole culture, they there's not a lot of interest in
• 30:01
  the track stuff at all. It's all about the longer
• 30:04
  distance right away from that high school upwards.
• 30:07
  They're all already training basically like half marathon is
• 30:10
  marathon is. So I mean, let's get into Japan
• 30:13
  then let's just transition. So relative to the, the marathon
• 30:17
  that you ran, how, how long after that was it before you you
• 30:21
  took the plunge and got the, was it a scholarship you went over
• 30:25
  to Japan on originally as well? Yeah, yeah, I've just been just.
• 30:29
  Yeah, living off these scholarships, just yeah,
• 30:32
  avoiding getting real work. Yeah, I've got lucky.
• 30:36
  I got this scholarship the recovered.
• 30:38
  It was like a year and a half program out here.
• 30:40
  It's like one year learning Japanese at this university and
• 30:44
  then like a work placement and then I'll finish it all now.
• 30:48
  But it was like, oh, how long after?
• 30:50
  I think I had maybe six months back in the UK and then came out
• 30:54
  to Japan after America. So I was, I was working as a
• 30:57
  teacher for, yeah, maybe 3-4 months during that while I was
• 31:02
  sorting the Japan stuff, like going through the rounds of
• 31:05
  this, the interviews and stuff, this scholarship, trying to
• 31:08
  basically find a way to get out here.
• 31:09
  See if you could pull the wool over their eyes that you were
• 31:13
  going to. What is it contribute to
• 31:15
  bridging the gap between Japan and the UK from a running
• 31:18
  perspective? Exactly.
• 31:20
  Just selling them that story and exactly giving that, and I guess
• 31:25
  it worked, somehow conned them into getting the scholarship.
• 31:29
  You might Well, I guess if whoever, like, processed your
• 31:32
  visa, if they've ever come across your YouTube channel now,
• 31:35
  they'd be like, yeah, 10 out of 10.
• 31:37
  He's done exactly what he said he was going to do.
• 31:39
  Somehow the YouTube, yeah, I've actually pulled the pieces
• 31:43
  together. Somehow that niche, the Japan
• 31:46
  content, I realize there's no one doing that, so I had to jump
• 31:49
  on it. Before we get into the YouTube,
• 31:52
  can you kinda paint a picture of the wrong culture in Japan in
• 31:57
  terms of like how many people are doing it, like how it feeds
• 32:00
  into daily life, like for these fellows who work in the office,
• 32:03
  how they train around it, and perhaps the story of acadine or
• 32:09
  like, yeah, just around that. Yeah, I can give this sort of
• 32:12
  brief synopsis. Obviously for listeners, you'll
• 32:15
  have to watch my videos to get the full package.
• 32:19
  But now the it's all based around pretty much the reason
• 32:23
  why they're so good. He's all because of this one
• 32:25
  academic race. So this long distance relay and
• 32:27
  the hack on Ekiden says every year the start of the year, like
• 32:32
  January 2nd and 3rd. Originally it was set up to help
• 32:36
  basically help Japan compete at the marathon distance because
• 32:41
  they wanted to use this academic as like a way to get people
• 32:44
  training for the longer distances when they were like in
• 32:46
  college to then help feed up towards the marathon.
• 32:50
  But then it's almost gone the other way, where the hack on
• 32:52
  Ekiden is bigger than everything.
• 32:55
  It's almost bigger than like the Olympics to them.
• 32:58
  It's bigger than all the world majors for the marathon.
• 33:00
  It's so internal, the running scene here, it's his own little
• 33:03
  bubble, that it's quite rare to see the Japanese guys racing
• 33:06
  abroad because you've got this one race.
• 33:08
  It's relay for university students, which is getting like
• 33:12
  60 million viewers. So it's like half the Japanese
• 33:15
  population. So it's the level of like the
• 33:18
  Champions League, like World Cup, like if England made it the
• 33:22
  World Cup final, yeah, you might have half the country watching,
• 33:25
  maybe more, but it's like literally that kind of level,
• 33:28
  this 10 hour relay over 2 days. And so yeah, everyone should
• 33:33
  training to be in that because that's almost the pinnacle of
• 33:35
  the sport. And then because it's half
• 33:37
  marathon distances, the legs, then they're pretty much at uni
• 33:41
  by the time they graduate, they've already run the top
• 33:44
  guys, 61 halves, 60 flat. So then they're pretty much
• 33:49
  ready immediately to move up to the marathon.
• 33:52
  Yeah, a couple months of marathon training and you see
• 33:54
  these guys straight out of uni or even sometimes like in their
• 33:58
  final year, like recently there was guys dropping like 206
• 34:01
  debuts at 20 years old. Like couple that absolutely mad.
• 34:07
  Yeah. Like it's literally better than
• 34:09
  a mil caress, like on a debut as a 20 year old.
• 34:12
  She's crazy. And then a lot of them after
• 34:15
  uni, instead of having to get a full time job, they can join
• 34:19
  these company teams. So all the big companies like
• 34:22
  Toyota, Honda, all these big companies in Japan, they sponsor
• 34:27
  these running teams. And so they can pretty much live
• 34:29
  like close to full time. They might do a couple hours of
• 34:32
  work in the office and then join the group for like training come
• 34:37
  together, but they're sort of fully supported half the year
• 34:40
  they're on training counts and stuff.
• 34:41
  So it's a pretty nice setup. And because of that, you get
• 34:44
  about I think it's like 1000 of these semi pro pro runners on
• 34:49
  these teams that are then, yeah, dropping these mad times.
• 34:52
  Whereas you think back home, we've got 5 pro marathoners,
• 34:56
  maybe a push like it's so hard to everyone else is working full
• 35:00
  time jobs, trying to train around that.
• 35:02
  The I think it's so hard, especially for the marathon.
• 35:05
  It's just so much of it is about putting the time in, putting in
• 35:08
  20 hours training a week, whatever.
• 35:10
  The you can see why they have so much sex success at longer
• 35:13
  distances when there's just, yeah, so much investment
• 35:16
  resources going into it, all these teams training together in
• 35:18
  groups. And so that's a big reason why
• 35:20
  the culture is so sort of hit big here.
• 35:23
  Because of like the, the stardom that comes with like being on
• 35:26
  these top packeting teams and then being supported by the the
• 35:30
  big Japanese brands. Are they earning like a really
• 35:33
  good salary from it or is it purely like the the flexibility
• 35:36
  and the opportunity to pursue training at a higher level?
• 35:40
  Yeah, it's less of a money thing.
• 35:41
  So they're they're technically just you normal employees.
• 35:46
  So I think their base salary would be the exact same as an
• 35:49
  office worker at Toyota or whatever it is.
• 35:52
  So they're not really doing it for the money you get the I
• 35:56
  think you get bonuses. So you run certain times where
• 35:58
  you qualify for certain events. And I think for the Ekiden
• 36:01
  there's massive bonuses for coming certain place in your leg
• 36:06
  or whatever. So I think they can make decent
• 36:08
  money, but like they're not like pro runners where like the MO
• 36:13
  Farah's or like the top guys where you can make serious bank.
• 36:17
  So would you compare like some of these top teams in the
• 36:21
  academ? They're almost like a boy band
• 36:23
  or something. Aren't me in terms of fame.
• 36:25
  The I say the weird enough, the UNI runners, they're almost
• 36:29
  bigger. So these are the guys doing the
• 36:31
  hack on academ. So that's because it's a
• 36:33
  university race. I feel like they almost get more
• 36:35
  attention because weirdly, the professional academ, it's like
• 36:40
  called the New Year's accident. It's the day before the Hakone
• 36:43
  won, this university won. That's tiny in comparison.
• 36:47
  So we did. The pinnacle is almost when
• 36:50
  you're 20 years old as a student.
• 36:52
  And that's where, yeah, these top guys are like literally like
• 36:54
  rock stars. Yet races like people asking for
• 36:56
  photographs and, yeah, getting recognized everywhere.
• 36:59
  But then yeah, equally if you're like Seguru Osaka, so like the
• 37:03
  top guys who carry like Yuki Karichi, they're they're pretty
• 37:07
  big time. Yeah, they'll get recognised a
• 37:09
  fair bit. So I guess being surrounded by
• 37:11
  these guys is kind of like your inspiration to keep keep
• 37:14
  levelling up and stuff. And I know that, well, I know
• 37:18
  I'm not sure if listeners know to, to the extent that you train
• 37:22
  with some of these like ridiculous volume weeks and
• 37:25
  hence where train hard, they're not smarter comes from because
• 37:29
  you've said you're just willing to kind of push the boundary as
• 37:31
  far as you can to leave no stone unturned.
• 37:34
  So I guess is this a good point to give us a sample of a recent
• 37:38
  training week? You want me to hit you with the
• 37:41
  the 300K monster it? Must it must be a record
• 37:44
  breaker. But the 200 mile mark was clean.
• 37:47
  I realized I was going to land on one of my friends about kind
• 37:51
  of because I use KS. But then yeah, in the UK it's a
• 37:54
  bit of a mix. One of my mates said, oh, you
• 37:55
  know, you're going to fall on 199 was like, go on, then we'll
• 38:00
  knock out another K, I'll add an extra K to my evening run
• 38:03
  because 200, yeah, that sounds pretty clean. 200 miles.
• 38:07
  So then how do you want to do it?
• 38:09
  Talk. Talk through the week or what?
• 38:10
  Yeah, you don't have to do every single run, but maybe just say
• 38:15
  how much mileage on on like the easy days you've done and then
• 38:18
  maybe give us a bit of an example of like the the monster
• 38:21
  session or the long run or something.
• 38:23
  Yeah, yeah, sure. So yeah, this week it had a
• 38:27
  little bit of time manipulation. So I actually don't in my
• 38:31
  training week it's written as a 270K, but we'll I guess we'll
• 38:35
  get to that near the end of the week.
• 38:36
  But start off with Monday. Steady long run.
• 38:39
  SO50K sort of yeah, steady pace, decent ticking over.
• 38:45
  It's more like a time on feet thing then nice easy recovery
• 38:48
  day after 20K and 12K just jog nice and crazy.
• 38:55
  Then I've got a sort of threshold type session on
• 38:58
  Wednesday. So it's 20 by 1K in three O 5.
• 39:02
  So I guess that's that sort of half marathon effort.
• 39:05
  Always with sessions. I'm doing 5K warm up, 5K warm
• 39:09
  down and then get out in the afternoon for like 10K.
• 39:13
  Little shakeout you can because of those big sort of threshold
• 39:16
  sessions like that days are 44 K day, there's a quite nice little
• 39:20
  volume. And then so recently I've
• 39:23
  started doing, I'll do like a medium long run and I think you
• 39:27
  guys do that in Australia as well, right?
• 39:29
  Yeah. It's very popular to do that
• 39:32
  midweek long run, yeah. Yeah, that's it.
• 39:34
  Because the the sort of Japanese training originally is based off
• 39:37
  like Lydiaoid. So it's that it's almost sampled
• 39:40
  from the Australian old school model.
• 39:42
  So yeah, they like I do a 30K long run or like medium long run
• 39:46
  midweek on Thursday, but I've been chucking in a few little
• 39:50
  quick reps at the end of it because my problems, there's no
• 39:54
  speed after like no fast fibers whatsoever.
• 39:58
  So I've been trying to throw in like when I'm tired.
• 40:00
  So yeah, I'm like 25 K into the run or whatever then I'll RIP.
• 40:05
  So what was this week? It was 3 by 1K in like 250 which
• 40:10
  for me is pretty much a flat out Sprint and actually trying to
• 40:13
  get a bit of turnover. Because on the other days, like
• 40:15
  even when I'm going to the track, I'm doing 20 by 1 K, it's
• 40:18
  not crazy fast. So I try and, and all my easy
• 40:23
  days as well, I'll throw in hill sprints.
• 40:26
  So I'm trying to get a bit of that turnover, the faster stuff
• 40:30
  to then like balance out. Yeah, I'm not just trundling
• 40:32
  along that jogging the whole time.
• 40:34
  That's like purely with the mindset of like the the back end
• 40:37
  of the marathon when when you're feeling a bit tired and you like
• 40:40
  sort of beat up, can you still like kind of hit that turnover
• 40:43
  and close hard? Exactly, Yeah, yeah, like pick
• 40:46
  up, try and maybe win a Sprint finish if it comes down to it.
• 40:50
  But yeah, it's more just exactly working on tired legs because I
• 40:54
  still, I've fallen apart in every marathon I've done from
• 40:58
  around. Yeah, that final 10K, they're
• 41:00
  just trying to condition the legs pretty much like working
• 41:03
  when tired. Then I've got 12K in the
• 41:06
  evening, just flush the legs out.
• 41:08
  And then another Friday is one of those recovery days.
• 41:11
  So like 20 K in the morning, 12K in the evening.
• 41:15
  Then I've got, OK, this is when it starts to get pretty chunky
• 41:17
  on the weekend. So I've got a marathon type
• 41:20
  session in the morning. So 40K in total with A5 by 5K at
• 41:26
  sort of marathon effort, which at the moment it's just
• 41:29
  outrageously hot here, humid as well.
• 41:33
  So it's an absolute slog out there just getting through it.
• 41:36
  I think this was one of the hardest sessions I've ever done.
• 41:39
  Yeah, sort of five by 5K, then a little 12K jog to try.
• 41:44
  And yeah, I find it really, even after a massive session, I'm
• 41:48
  absolutely cooked. I'll feel worse if I don't do
• 41:50
  anything. So just getting out for like a
• 41:52
  little plug later, it will help the next day just sort of
• 41:54
  flashing, yeah, all that like out of my legs.
• 41:58
  Then I hopped on. Two points here.
• 42:01
  Firstly, I reckon your your like biggest talent is your ability
• 42:05
  to recover and like somehow going out for an hour's jog in
• 42:09
  the evening almost make sure that you're like brand new the
• 42:13
  next day, doesn't it? And you can just like, get this
• 42:15
  crazy mileage and volume done. Yeah, I think it's true.
• 42:19
  Definitely my biggest talent is just durability.
• 42:22
  Yeah, like the ability to keep bouncing back, I guess a lot of
• 42:25
  people, yeah, would take longer to recover.
• 42:27
  Whereas yeah, I can sort of, I guess just keep, maybe it's the
• 42:31
  MMA background. I don't get these stress
• 42:33
  fractures, these kind of niggles that a lot of people get from
• 42:36
  the mileage. Yeah, it's sort of.
• 42:38
  And that's what I'm trying to tap into because I've realized
• 42:40
  that is definitely my strength. So I'm like, go all the way with
• 42:43
  that, just throw as much as I can at the sort of quantity end
• 42:47
  and see how much I can handle. Because I will, I will happily
• 42:50
  admit that for a while I was a bit of a skepticist and I was
• 42:53
  like, there's just no way he can, he can just keep producing
• 42:56
  this. And then like, you'd be
• 42:58
  approaching a race and I'll be like, Nah, he's cooked.
• 43:01
  Like he can't do that training and then race.
• 43:03
  Well. And then you just kept defying
• 43:05
  logic. So now I'm at the point where
• 43:07
  like, let's just roll with it and see what happens.
• 43:10
  Like I believe in you. Oh, I appreciate that.
• 43:14
  I mean, that's sort of what I'm doing.
• 43:15
  Just see what happens. Testing it.
• 43:16
  There will definitely be a point where, yeah, like once my
• 43:19
  sessions start suffering, then I realized I've pushed it too far,
• 43:23
  but there's not been a point where it'll always be in the
• 43:27
  moment. After a massive workout.
• 43:29
  I'll be like, there's no way I'm going to be able to move later.
• 43:31
  Like I'm at. I can't even like some of my
• 43:33
  warm downs just getting back home.
• 43:35
  I'll be going like 630 KS, like barely breaking sevens, like I'm
• 43:39
  shuffling but then within a couple hours I get a massive
• 43:43
  meal in and then I'm like oh I'm actually feeling right, I could
• 43:46
  probably get out again. So really, I do seem to recover
• 43:48
  pretty well. And then the second point was, I
• 43:51
  don't know if you've cottoned on that a lot of people now are
• 43:55
  talking about fueling that's kind of like a way to get like a
• 43:58
  cheap win or like get some advantages in terms of like
• 44:01
  efficiencies in the marathon. So are you fueling heavily
• 44:04
  throughout these big sessions or?
• 44:05
  Yeah, massively. I've been, yeah, probably
• 44:08
  similar to you. Like I listen to the podcasts
• 44:09
  and stuff. I feel it's coming up more and
• 44:11
  more that people are pushing the boundaries, how much you can
• 44:14
  fuel during and then like also before and after when it comes
• 44:19
  to like food fueling, I've always been a machine.
• 44:22
  Like that's the best bit of running so much.
• 44:25
  I get to eat like 5 meals a day. But then actually during the
• 44:28
  sessions now I've been trying to get more and more like gels in
• 44:32
  fluids in like electrolytes, trying to just hammer it down.
• 44:35
  I find in summer as well. Because like even the other day,
• 44:38
  like I weighed myself just before a 10K easy jog, it's like
• 44:42
  I'm out for what, 50 minutes, 40 minutes?
• 44:45
  And I lost over a KG in sweat. So I'm like, if I'm doing that
• 44:49
  on a 10K run, some of these like 50K long runs, I'm going to be
• 44:53
  losing 510 KG probably. So if I'm not on it with the the
• 44:59
  hydration, the the fueling, I'm actually ruined.
• 45:02
  See, I reckon it's pretty important.
• 45:04
  Be a big, big outgoing for you though as well.
• 45:06
  The amount of fuel that you burn through and sweat that you're
• 45:10
  losing and stuff. We need to, we need to get like
• 45:13
  precision involved and sort you out or something.
• 45:15
  They seem to be the brand who pick people up most, don't they?
• 45:18
  Oh. It's funny, you said I've got,
• 45:19
  I've got a couple brands just at the moment that no name, no, no
• 45:24
  free promo, no, no, I'm lucky. I'm good on that end.
• 45:29
  And also just another point on the recovery, it's probably
• 45:33
  important to acknowledge that you do so much stuff outside of
• 45:36
  running as well with the the S&C and your players and your
• 45:39
  stretching that like it's not just a God-given talent that you
• 45:43
  can recover. You are putting in the hard work
• 45:45
  to ensure that you're recovering on you.
• 45:47
  Yes, the sort of boring stuff and it's the stuff that I
• 45:50
  probably don't show that much on YouTube because I'm like, I'd
• 45:54
  find it a bit boring. I don't want to watch it, but
• 45:56
  then, yeah, I think maybe people don't realize how important it
• 45:59
  is and maybe how much time I spend doing it because I'm, if
• 46:02
  I'm running 20 hours a week, I'm probably putting 10 hours a week
• 46:06
  of stuff outside of running that lets me run 20 hours a week.
• 46:11
  So like, yeah, it's, it's so boring.
• 46:12
  But a couple hours a day I'm doing the, the foam rolling, the
• 46:15
  massage gun, stretching, core plyometrics, S&C.
• 46:20
  Every day there'll be something of that to just, yeah, keep the
• 46:23
  body together. So then, Oh yeah.
• 46:25
  So we got to, what was it we'd got to halfway through Saturday
• 46:30
  of this, the monster week. So at this point, I'm on 52 K
• 46:34
  for the day. Then I took a quick little
• 46:36
  flight over to Seattle, gained back 16 hours, knocked out
• 46:42
  another 18K to bring up 70K for the day, and then got myself,
• 46:47
  yeah, an extra few runs in an extra long run on technically
• 46:51
  Sunday and brought it up to what is it, 322 on Strava.
• 46:56
  But yeah, the I can't be counting the the extra day.
• 47:00
  I effectively gained an extra run in there.
• 47:03
  So I've just got it AS270K and then the next week 270K.
• 47:08
  So it was pretty big, but it will make a great YouTube video
• 47:12
  titled That's the one that's coming out this Sunday, the the
• 47:15
  300K Monster. So yeah, you've got to do it for
• 47:18
  the YouTube. It's the headline grabber and I
• 47:21
  noticed in your in your live stream the other day, there was
• 47:24
  a few conspiracy theorists trying to add in two and two
• 47:29
  together as to why you're in Seattle.
• 47:31
  And I know you're not going to share it here, but yeah, I'm
• 47:34
  excited to see what that was all about.
• 47:36
  I would love to break it on here, but I'd be I'd be
• 47:40
  sacrificing a whole load of views on the YouTube, so I've
• 47:43
  got to save it for yeah, a monster video coming soon.
• 47:46
  How long have we got away? It's.
• 47:49
  Probably going to be not this weekend, but the one after.
• 47:52
  But yeah, you're right. The, the Strava comments, the
• 47:54
  YouTube, I've got a lot of of pretty perceptive fans that are,
• 47:59
  yeah, trying to figure out what's going on there.
• 48:03
  We'll just we'll leave the narrative to bubble for now.
• 48:06
  Exactly. Keep the mystery.
• 48:07
  So that was a net 270K week then with last week also being a 270K
• 48:14
  week and then you are now kind of honing in the focus towards
• 48:19
  Gold Coast, would you say? Yeah, the, the like, this
• 48:23
  block's been an absolute shambles with people.
• 48:26
  Seen the YouTube, the Copenhagen hospital saga that's just
• 48:31
  absolutely knocked me back. It was annoying because I felt
• 48:34
  like I was coming in some good shape there before then.
• 48:36
  And then, yeah, I got this infection in my arm that just,
• 48:42
  yeah, completely wiped me out. Was on antibiotics for a couple
• 48:44
  weeks, had to have like surgery cut open, got a nice little scar
• 48:49
  still that yeah, there for the war wound.
• 48:53
  But it's properly knocked back because originally I've been
• 48:56
  thinking, yeah, this could be the sub 210 attempt, whereas I
• 49:00
  feel like it basically put me right back to scratch.
• 49:04
  So then I've had maybe 4 big weeks, but there's a limit to.
• 49:08
  I think one of my biggest talents is the recovery, but I'd
• 49:12
  say my biggest talent is how quickly I can lose fitness.
• 49:15
  It's extraordinary how how much like shape I can I can lose.
• 49:21
  That's why I have to keep knocking at the mileage.
• 49:23
  I feel like just one week of like downtime or whatever and I
• 49:28
  feel horrendous. I'm getting back, like coming
• 49:30
  back into shape. But Gold Coast is no longer like
• 49:32
  a big target race. I'll see what I can get out of
• 49:35
  it, but no expectations in terms of Times Now.
• 49:39
  Yeah, You could have done with another four to six weeks on the
• 49:41
  back of Copenhagen, really, couldn't you?
• 49:43
  Because originally that was that was meant to be like kind of
• 49:47
  test the waters a little bit and then build on, build on that
• 49:50
  into Gold Coast. But obviously that's changed.
• 49:53
  Yeah, it's probably this season as well.
• 49:55
  It's like ideally then I could have used Gold Coast as what
• 49:58
  Copenhagen was going to be and then leading to another
• 50:01
  marathon. But just summertime now it's
• 50:03
  like there's nothing. So it's almost, I might as well
• 50:06
  throw it at Gold Coast, see what I can get out of that because
• 50:09
  afterwards it's going to be 3-4 months before the proper racing
• 50:13
  season starts again in Japan. So I'm like just put a massive
• 50:16
  summer block in after and Gold Coast is like a free shot
• 50:20
  effectively just yeah, a bit of race experience.
• 50:23
  Get a nice trip over in Australia as well.
• 50:25
  So. What are there any long term
• 50:28
  effects from the what happened to you in Copenhagen or are you
• 50:31
  like fully recovered and that's that?
• 50:32
  It was just like a mad lip. I I was asking ChatGPT that the
• 50:37
  other day trying to see what what the long term damage would
• 50:40
  be. ChatGPT reckoned from two weeks
• 50:43
  of antibiotics and like surgery and stuff it could take 2-3
• 50:46
  months to start feeling completely normal.
• 50:49
  Like I feel like I've been getting back pretty good.
• 50:52
  The hardest thing at the moment, because it's so hot and humid,
• 50:55
  it's impossible to actually know what shape I'm in because even
• 50:58
  like last summer when I was in great shape, my times are like
• 51:01
  1020 seconds a case slower for the same effort.
• 51:05
  So it's really hard to actually know until I go to Australia
• 51:07
  because at the moment it looks like I'm training at like 220
• 51:11
  marathon shape, but then I'm looking last year at similar
• 51:14
  times and I think I was about the same level.
• 51:16
  So yeah, well, we'll see at Gold Coast, I'll say, where my actual
• 51:19
  kind of fitnesses are. In terms of a race plan, do you
• 51:22
  have one or is it just kind of hitting hopes?
• 51:25
  Go out hard and hope it sticks. For this one, I'm going to play
• 51:28
  it pretty conservative. I want to because I think the
• 51:31
  best ever, it's not even a race, but the best ever session I had
• 51:35
  was that training marathon I did before Tokyo.
• 51:39
  So like, what was it, 3-4 weeks out, just around the Yogi Park,
• 51:43
  the local park. I did like 30 K steady, feeling
• 51:47
  so comfy and then cut it down the last 12 K or whatever to run
• 51:53
  like an unofficial 216 marathon. But just because I ran it that
• 51:57
  way, I felt unreal, like recovered straight away.
• 52:01
  The next day I'm back out there. Comparing that to Tokyo, where
• 52:06
  it's the complete reverse. It was like a deceleration run.
• 52:10
  So I'm thinking for Gold Coast, start off really chill, try and
• 52:14
  feel so comfy through half 30K and then try and really, really
• 52:18
  cut it down. I think it's probably the safer
• 52:21
  way. I say that, but I could easily
• 52:23
  get on the start line and just absolutely fly off when I see a
• 52:27
  group there. But that's what I'm trying.
• 52:29
  I'm trying conservative. At least you know, you've got a
• 52:31
  bit of race experience there now as well.
• 52:33
  You know, like kind of how the course works from last year and
• 52:36
  stuff. Yeah, yeah, got a good feeling
• 52:38
  for that. Final 5K is always a killer.
• 52:41
  The hit, the wind coming back. So I'm prepared for that one
• 52:45
  now. There's so many fallen soldiers
• 52:48
  in that last 5K last year turning back into that headwind.
• 52:52
  Oh, it's brutal, wasn't it? Yeah, just bodies everywhere.
• 52:55
  And do you know any others who are going to be on the start
• 52:58
  line? Are there any coming over from
• 52:59
  Japan with you or because I've seen there's a quite a few
• 53:02
  Japanese in the half field but they don't think they've
• 53:04
  released the marathon field yet. Yeah, I was checking the
• 53:07
  incident today. I was waiting to see.
• 53:10
  I know a couple guys going over from Japan.
• 53:12
  There's usually a whole load, so I can, yeah, half of that elite
• 53:16
  field, I'm sure will be. Yeah, top Japanese guys.
• 53:19
  So yeah, you have 217, is it from last year?
• 53:23
  So I guess hoping to just kind of give that a crack somewhere
• 53:28
  around there. That's it exactly.
• 53:29
  I've seen if I could beat last year's time, that would be
• 53:31
  decent for how little training really I've had coming in.
• 53:35
  I feel like I'm not in great shape, but if I execute a better
• 53:38
  race then yeah, I might be able to pull that one off.
• 53:40
  Again, this might be something you're keeping close to your
• 53:42
  chest, but future race plans? Have you got like a Valencia on
• 53:47
  the cards or? The Valencia's got potential
• 53:51
  that that may or may not be hit. There's yeah, definitely that
• 53:54
  later sort of December like winter time marathon.
• 53:57
  That's where I want to properly go for it if I see if I can run
• 54:01
  a sub 210 because like that I thought it's such a clean
• 54:03
  barrier and like, yeah, there's just something about that.
• 54:06
  That's my real big like goal for this year was to break 210.
• 54:10
  And so I want to put together a massive summer, like consistent
• 54:15
  hue, like try and get it up to 300 K weeks or close to that at
• 54:18
  least just over a massive period because there's no races as well
• 54:22
  now. So it's quite a nice time where
• 54:23
  I can just post Gold Coast, put a huge block together and then
• 54:26
  look to, yeah, properly dial in on a sort of winter or like late
• 54:32
  autumn time marathon. So I don't think there's really
• 54:35
  any missing pieces to the jigsaw or is it you've kind of got all
• 54:38
  the elements in your training and you just need the run to
• 54:40
  kind of put couple of months back-to-back?
• 54:43
  Yeah, I'd say the, the big thing that what I'm missing is the
• 54:46
  team factor. The that's the the massive thing
• 54:49
  that because I realised the biggest jump I ever made in
• 54:52
  training was the first six months I was in Japan when I was
• 54:58
  joining this team. So this like group of amateur
• 55:01
  runners, it was sort of 220 to 217 kind of range.
• 55:06
  And like I'm I was looking back the other day every week my
• 55:10
  sessions are just getting quicker and quicker.
• 55:11
  Like crazy progression. Like we do the classic stuff
• 55:16
  like 10 by K. When I came out here it was like
• 55:18
  3 O fives and then it's like the next week I'm like 3 O twos the
• 55:23
  next week, 3 the next week 250-7255.
• 55:26
  It just like crazy linear progression and that was purely
• 55:29
  from going from solo training to having people to pull me along
• 55:33
  every week. I'm just moving through this
• 55:35
  group like going with faster and faster people.
• 55:38
  And that's where the basically the last year I've done 99% of
• 55:44
  workout solo, which is so tough like having faster runners.
• 55:49
  That's like the the key. So that's what at the moment I'm
• 55:52
  really, I'm trying to, yeah, reaching out to different
• 55:55
  groups, teams, connections I've got in Japan to try and join
• 55:58
  like one of these company teams because they're so exclusive,
• 56:02
  especially for a foreigner, it's a nightmare trying to get in
• 56:04
  them. But I reckon if I could get in
• 56:05
  one of those, that would just be a game changer for the my
• 56:09
  training. Well, I know you mentioned that
• 56:11
  after Gold Coast you're staying on in Sydney and Melbourne for a
• 56:15
  little bit, aren't you? So maybe a good time for anyone
• 56:18
  who's located over there. Reach out to Jake and get them
• 56:21
  involved in your group sessions. Yeah, yeah, hit me up.
• 56:24
  I'll be down for some group runs for sure.
• 56:26
  And also on the Japan element, does that mean that kind of like
• 56:29
  you're short to medium term future as in like the next, I
• 56:32
  know couple of years is still based in Tokyo hopefully?
• 56:36
  Based in Japan, I'm not stuck to Tokyo.
• 56:39
  I'd, I'd love to move out of Tokyo, but I'll go wherever
• 56:43
  there's a team. So I'll happily travel wherever.
• 56:46
  But yeah, I feel like I've done the, I've done as much as I can
• 56:50
  solo. But really, yeah, I'm, I'm
• 56:53
  really trying to get in a team now full time to get that sort
• 56:56
  of proper yeah, Japanese culture vibe.
• 56:59
  Well, you know mate, Perth's only half on your doorstep.
• 57:03
  If it doesn't work out, I've seen, yeah, you've got a good
• 57:06
  set up there, a good group. Maybe that's the move,
• 57:09
  especially during summer in Japan, or it looks pretty
• 57:13
  dreamy. What's the weather like this
• 57:14
  kind of year, Like this time? Like now I was just looking
• 57:18
  before. I mean, Dean keeps coming on
• 57:20
  here every week and saying it's pissing down, which it it does
• 57:23
  rain quite a bit in winter. But then I just look before
• 57:26
  because obviously I'm in the UK and now here it's like 1819° and
• 57:31
  cloudy, and in Perth it's like 19° and sunny and I'm like,
• 57:35
  well, one's summer and one's winter.
• 57:37
  How does that make sense? That's crazy.
• 57:39
  Gee, I see even winter's still pretty hot.
• 57:42
  Yeah, but you get the mornings and the evenings are nice and
• 57:45
  crisp and cool, so it's like perfect training conditions.
• 57:48
  Yeah. I mean, compared to what we've
• 57:50
  got now, that sounds like the move maybe I have to do.
• 57:53
  Yeah, winters in in Perth and then winter here in Japan.
• 57:58
  You know, basically I can't stand the heat.
• 58:00
  So yeah, I'll definitely have to head over that at some point.
• 58:03
  It's like the only thing is like free fitness basically, isn't it
• 58:07
  in the heat train And like you, you can't avoid it.
• 58:10
  And it's not as if you're choosing to go there as if like
• 58:12
  you would, you'd go out your way to go to altitude, but you still
• 58:16
  you're training in it and you're getting that aerobic benefit.
• 58:19
  So I guess you've got to try and look through the pain.
• 58:23
  Battle 3 yeah, hopefully when it comes to racing, yeah Gold case.
• 58:26
  Then I'll be like, oh this is lovely, nice and cool, no
• 58:29
  problem. I guess then let's let's get
• 58:31
  into the YouTube a little bit more.
• 58:32
  So I mean, I know we've touched on it.
• 58:34
  Jake's got a big YouTube channel and it's growing rapidly.
• 58:39
  I think that would be fair to say.
• 58:42
  So his identity is ran to Japan. He talks about everything that
• 58:46
  we've talked about so far and the way he puts his videos
• 58:49
  together are incredibly insightful.
• 58:52
  I even had my mum was watching 1 yesterday because she was like,
• 58:55
  oh, who are you chatting to tomorrow?
• 58:57
  And she's like sat down on the bed.
• 59:00
  So yeah, everyone tune into the channel.
• 59:03
  You'll get all sorts from it, knowledge and entertainment.
• 59:07
  I actually remember when we were in Maragami and we're doing
• 59:11
  doing some strides before the start and I heard Izzy back
• 59:15
  Doyle say to one of the other Australians, oh, is that that
• 59:19
  guy from YouTube as you were like doing your strides?
• 59:22
  Well, that's class. Yeah, she she said actually at
• 59:24
  the start she's oh, what's your videos that was quality because
• 59:28
  she started a YouTube channel recently.
• 59:30
  I've been enjoying. Yeah, maybe you've inspired.
• 59:32
  Her we need to crossover the collab.
• 59:34
  That's the move. I feel like more pro runners
• 59:36
  need to do it like because I like I'm sure yeah, listening to
• 59:40
  your like you guys have got the the weekly YouTube segment.
• 59:43
  Sounds like you watch a lot of the running YouTube.
• 59:46
  I'm the same. I'm like, I can't get enough of
• 59:48
  it, but I wish there was more pro runners just putting it out
• 59:51
  there other than because the trouble is I feel like a lot of
• 59:54
  the pro runners, you see the the workout videos, you know, like
• 59:58
  you, yeah, some of the rock up the track of film, the work.
• 1:00:01
  However, I'm not going to lie, I love running, but I find that so
• 1:00:04
  boring. Like I want to actually get to
• 1:00:05
  know the person. Like see a bit behind that, like
• 1:00:10
  actually more. Yeah.
• 1:00:11
  Personal vlog style. And that's kind of what the
• 1:00:14
  angle I was going for with mine, that if I just let people into
• 1:00:16
  my lives, into my life, basically showcase what it's
• 1:00:19
  like out here in Japan, how I'm training everything I'm doing
• 1:00:22
  then. It's just going to increase the
• 1:00:25
  interest, the intrigue there and then hopefully make it more
• 1:00:28
  likely for me to get sponsored term pro, that kind of deal if
• 1:00:32
  I've got this interest, rather than it just being down to
• 1:00:34
  times. Yeah.
• 1:00:35
  So if you think back like even only a couple of years ago, the
• 1:00:38
  narrative amongst pros was like keeping all their training
• 1:00:42
  secretive and close to the chest, whereas now people are
• 1:00:45
  starting to share the training. But as you say, you want that
• 1:00:48
  kind of rounded, holistic view of like a day in the life and to
• 1:00:52
  realize that people are normal and they do like go out for food
• 1:00:56
  and stuff like that as well. Like, that's the interesting
• 1:00:58
  part I guess, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:01
  I find that way more interesting than just watching the classic
• 1:01:05
  track montage. Like put some music over it and
• 1:01:08
  watch someone running circles. Like I could not care less.
• 1:01:12
  So he's only been posting videos for eight months and he's up to
• 1:01:16
  76,000 subscribers or almost 76. And the most popular video has
• 1:01:22
  got over two 200,000 views. So I think was your masters in
• 1:01:27
  like sports marketing or something, has that played a big
• 1:01:30
  role in kind of the strategy and growing the channel or is it all
• 1:01:33
  just been kind of organic and natural?
• 1:01:35
  It was, there was a lot of planning at the start, like pre
• 1:01:39
  kick starting the YouTube. I sort of, yeah, put a lot of
• 1:01:42
  time into planning out how I was going to do it.
• 1:01:45
  Because I've having watched so many other Youtubers, I feel
• 1:01:49
  like I've got a decent idea for what works, What's interesting,
• 1:01:53
  what channels do well and why. So like, I really studied.
• 1:01:56
  I mean, even down to the stuff like, like, it's so nerdy, like
• 1:02:00
  stuff like how long people are holding shots for.
• 1:02:03
  So like, if you watch my videos, there's a lot of, it's never
• 1:02:06
  just me chatting like a talking head.
• 1:02:09
  Like there'll be something happening every 35 seconds or so
• 1:02:12
  to like keep the narrative going, keep the storyline going.
• 1:02:16
  And then also just, yeah, I think it is just storytelling.
• 1:02:19
  Like it's all down to just in each video having a story.
• 1:02:24
  So from the little teaser at the start to then the conclusion at
• 1:02:27
  the end, you want to bring the viewer through that.
• 1:02:30
  And then also the bigger picture is me trying to go from your
• 1:02:34
  amateur runner to pro runner and letting people in on that
• 1:02:38
  journey as they follow along. So yeah, I feel like the sports
• 1:02:43
  marketing did help quite a lot. But yeah, I'm surprised how
• 1:02:46
  quickly it's taken off. Like it's crazy how how much
• 1:02:49
  support, how everyone sort of got behind it.
• 1:02:51
  Yeah, that's cool. So it's not like you're just
• 1:02:53
  pumping out videos for like quick wins and cheap views.
• 1:02:56
  It's like there's an overall narrative and a back story going
• 1:03:00
  on and people are kind of along for the journey, which I guess
• 1:03:04
  feeds into the how you've built the rant of Japan Army.
• 1:03:09
  Unstoppable for us. I wonder, obviously you get a
• 1:03:15
  certain amount of viewers per video, but there's probably like
• 1:03:18
  a a segment of those who are like elite supporters or like
• 1:03:22
  die hard fans. I wonder how big the Army is.
• 1:03:27
  Yeah, yeah, I mean this you can see on Strava is quite a good
• 1:03:30
  one. Like I always get, I recognise
• 1:03:33
  that the same few names like popping up in the Strava
• 1:03:36
  comments. Same with YouTube, like you'll
• 1:03:37
  get the in the first hour there might be like a certain few
• 1:03:41
  names and I recognise these. So yeah, people are, they're
• 1:03:45
  pretty crazy. They're on it.
• 1:03:46
  They love the videos. So now it's cool.
• 1:03:48
  Like it's fun making them. It takes a long time, but it's
• 1:03:51
  yeah, I reckon 1A week so that I can just about get that one out
• 1:03:56
  and then yeah, it's it's fun, like watching the support.
• 1:03:58
  So yeah, if you've got perhaps 30 hours of running related
• 1:04:02
  activities, training and everything else that goes with
• 1:04:05
  it, how many hours is consumed with the editing and stuff?
• 1:04:09
  Like a full video from idea to publishing is probably a 20 hour
• 1:04:14
  job, I reckon. Probably at least all my.
• 1:04:17
  I feel like recently I've been spending more and more time
• 1:04:20
  trying to Polish up the edit. Like, yeah, I get a bit
• 1:04:23
  perfectionist about where I'm tweaking, like just pointless
• 1:04:26
  little bits. But yeah, it all adds up.
• 1:04:28
  So it's, yeah, you add that in the in the the running and
• 1:04:33
  you've got a good portion of the week taken up.
• 1:04:35
  And going back to what you said before about more kind of
• 1:04:38
  Youtubers or athletes like collaborating and sharing their
• 1:04:42
  stories together, it does make sense because everyone's a
• 1:04:45
  winner in that case, aren't they?
• 1:04:47
  Like no one? No one loses out.
• 1:04:48
  Yeah, it just grows the sport in general.
• 1:04:50
  It's like, you see how well other sports do it.
• 1:04:53
  I felt like running so behind on that side of things, just so
• 1:04:58
  poorly marketed that yeah, you just put a bit of storytelling
• 1:05:01
  in there and there'd be so much more interest in the top guys,
• 1:05:04
  the elite runners. For example, like you had Rory
• 1:05:08
  Linklater over, didn't you? And now I don't know if he
• 1:05:11
  already had his channel going, but he's definitely pumping out
• 1:05:14
  a fair few videos now. No doubt he will have benefited
• 1:05:18
  from your exposure, but also you may have gained some Canadian
• 1:05:22
  views as well. Yeah, yeah, the legitimacy of
• 1:05:24
  yeah, training with The Olympian, that's always a good
• 1:05:27
  one. But now it's cool.
• 1:05:28
  Yeah. People that hear me, I love
• 1:05:29
  watching his videos. I guess it is the IT is the time
• 1:05:33
  factor that I guess a lot of the pro guys you're trying to focus
• 1:05:36
  on training, you don't want it to take away from the running.
• 1:05:39
  So it is a tough balance. But yeah, like, actually just
• 1:05:43
  recently I've started just working with an editor, like
• 1:05:46
  literally in the last week, two weeks, because I've realized
• 1:05:49
  that, yeah, I want to go all in on the running.
• 1:05:51
  Like if I'm trying to do triple days, double days, like, yeah,
• 1:05:56
  it's easy to get full into chat. I want to make the videos as
• 1:05:59
  good as possible. But I'm trying to remember that
• 1:06:01
  I want to be a runner first. Like I want to be the best
• 1:06:04
  runner I can be, not the best YouTube.
• 1:06:06
  I can be. Like it's great I've got the
• 1:06:08
  YouTube, but that is always going to come second to the
• 1:06:11
  performance. Yeah, it's good that that's at
• 1:06:14
  the forefront of your mind as well, because I guess it would
• 1:06:16
  easy be easy to get lost in it and kind of forget about what
• 1:06:21
  the the overall purpose was and start running for YouTube
• 1:06:25
  almost. And yeah, it's good that you're
• 1:06:27
  aware of that when when you're dealing with kind of sponsors or
• 1:06:31
  endorsements, you manage to like deliver the ads really
• 1:06:35
  authentically. So the the accents one with the
• 1:06:39
  the E SIM from is it Air Arlo? That was absolutely.
• 1:06:43
  Well, that would get that. It's because that was one of
• 1:06:47
  them where most of the ones I've done are like running related
• 1:06:51
  products. So stuff that I actually just
• 1:06:53
  use on a daily basis. So it's pretty easy then to
• 1:06:57
  yeah, chat about whatever is the watch or the clothing or because
• 1:07:00
  like, yeah, I'm wearing that. Whereas like the E SIM, I'm like
• 1:07:03
  this feels like a bit more of a a brand read like a like an
• 1:07:08
  actual sponsor segment. So I'm like, right, like I'm at
• 1:07:10
  least gonna have fun with this. Like I want to have fun making
• 1:07:13
  it And the I backed my accent ability so that one came out.
• 1:07:18
  So are the brands quite specific in terms of like how you need to
• 1:07:22
  deliver it or clearly they're quite flexible to allow you to
• 1:07:25
  just do with what you want the. All the running ones are pretty
• 1:07:29
  chill. They're I think because they've
• 1:07:31
  maybe seen other ones. Most of them nowadays are just
• 1:07:34
  like integrate it however you want in a video.
• 1:07:38
  But then like that E SIM 1, I had to write a whole a full on
• 1:07:41
  script like that. Like yeah, that was like full
• 1:07:44
  on. Every single word was scripted.
• 1:07:46
  I had to run it by them, check them.
• 1:07:49
  It's like I wasn't a big fan of that.
• 1:07:51
  I actually didn't tell them that I was going to be doing the
• 1:07:53
  accents. I just, I just, I decided that
• 1:07:57
  on the flight at the airport because I'm, I'm looking through
• 1:07:59
  this script, I'm like, this is so boring.
• 1:08:02
  I'm like, no one wants to hear me yap on about this for a
• 1:08:05
  minute during the video. So I was like, oh, I should put
• 1:08:08
  on some ridiculous accents. And people seem to love it like
• 1:08:12
  that. That ended up being A and
• 1:08:14
  entertaining segments, so I think it was a win for them as
• 1:08:16
  well with the brand. The only thing you were missing
• 1:08:18
  was your scouts accents. Yeah, that's, that's a work in
• 1:08:22
  progress. I need to listen more to yeah,
• 1:08:25
  to to you and here get. I feel like once I hear it I can
• 1:08:28
  maybe lock in, but it's a tough one.
• 1:08:30
  We'll we'll have to get Paddy the baddie on.
• 1:08:33
  Or that would be a big feature. And where do you see the channel
• 1:08:37
  going in the next kind of 12 months?
• 1:08:40
  You're just going to continue to follow your storyline I guess
• 1:08:43
  and kind of whatever you do will direct the channel and it's like
• 1:08:47
  long term goals with it. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:49
  I mean, I feel like I want to also showcase the Japanese
• 1:08:54
  running scene too, but but I'm quite aware that a lot of people
• 1:08:58
  are tuning into the channel for my storyline.
• 1:09:02
  So like, yeah, it's sort of, it does need to, the overall arc
• 1:09:06
  almost needs to kind of keep that there.
• 1:09:09
  And like, yeah, I want to sort of as I progress hopefully for
• 1:09:12
  running keep like putting that out.
• 1:09:14
  But I tried to at the same time put in some other people's.
• 1:09:17
  It's like who I'm training with. I'll give a little.
• 1:09:19
  So I like to kind of keep those side storylines and then I'll
• 1:09:24
  keep that like Japanese food culture running scene theme
• 1:09:28
  throughout. I feel like, yeah, hopefully
• 1:09:30
  people can come to the channel and it's not just just me, just
• 1:09:34
  like, yeah, yapping on about my training and there's some other
• 1:09:37
  sort of elements that they can they can come for.
• 1:09:40
  Well, I feel like we've kind of been through the journey, a bit
• 1:09:43
  of the narrative, your storyline and wrapped up with YouTube.
• 1:09:47
  So I've just got kind of like some random questions now, which
• 1:09:51
  aren't really related to anything specifically.
• 1:09:55
  So well, you do have Gold Coast coming up.
• 1:09:57
  Will you be doing a car blur the head of that?
• 1:10:00
  And kind of what's a car blurred look like for you because you're
• 1:10:03
  probably carb loading almost every day based on the volume.
• 1:10:07
  Oh yeah, I was thinking after this, yeah, I need to get some
• 1:10:10
  goods scanning. I've been slacking today.
• 1:10:13
  But yeah, it's a constant process for Gold Coast.
• 1:10:17
  I'm just such a fan of the rice. I'm almost, I need to double
• 1:10:20
  check that over there because I remember last year I was
• 1:10:22
  struggling to get just like packet rice.
• 1:10:25
  I might have to bring a whole box over like some supplies just
• 1:10:28
  to be sure because that's my go to here.
• 1:10:31
  Like, yeah, crack a raw egg into some rice, whip that up.
• 1:10:35
  Oh, you've got an absolute banger of a snack.
• 1:10:38
  Yeah, there'll be some heavy cover loading.
• 1:10:40
  You should definitely bring some rice over because you otherwise
• 1:10:43
  you might just find yourselves on on Uncle Ben's packet rice
• 1:10:47
  and you don't want that when you used to authentic Japanese.
• 1:10:50
  Yeah, it doesn't quite cut it. I think last year my pre Gold
• 1:10:55
  Coast dinner, because all I could find in the area was a
• 1:10:58
  foot long subway, I was like, this is just so, so poor.
• 1:11:03
  It did not sit well at all. I think I was too used to the
• 1:11:06
  Japanese cuisine that yeah, I've got to stick to the safe like
• 1:11:10
  rice option. And will you have bottles out on
• 1:11:13
  the race day? Have you managed to secure that?
• 1:11:15
  I've locked in the bottles, so yeah, it'll be yeah, pretty much
• 1:11:19
  cogs every 5K, few gels in the pockets, aiming for yeah, like
• 1:11:25
  100 grams of carbs an hour or so.
• 1:11:28
  I found that yeah, seems to sit pretty well in the last few
• 1:11:32
  marathons. Do you use caffeine in the gels
• 1:11:34
  or just purely the carbons? I usually go caffeine.
• 1:11:39
  I did though, you know that ultra marathon, The one?
• 1:11:44
  Actually, that's my biggest video.
• 1:11:46
  You know, maybe I need to tap into the ultra marathons more,
• 1:11:48
  but that one, I had caffeine. I think in all the bottles.
• 1:11:52
  I end up hitting the loo like 3-4 times.
• 1:11:55
  That ruined my stomach, so I'm a little bit scared after that.
• 1:11:58
  Yeah, I felt like the caffeine, I always see it as like, oh,
• 1:12:02
  just free performance enhancer. Like you get that boost.
• 1:12:05
  But then I guess there is probably a limit as to how much
• 1:12:07
  caffeine. Maybe play a little safer Gold
• 1:12:10
  Coast. Well, yeah, I had the caffeine
• 1:12:12
  one at halfway in Ballarat and I lost 60 seconds to a quarterly
• 1:12:17
  AT30K. So there is that risk elements.
• 1:12:20
  That's a danger. I remember you saying that.
• 1:12:22
  I said that was caffeine you had in it, it.
• 1:12:24
  Was caffeine one? Yeah.
• 1:12:25
  Because it is meant to be a massive performance and answer,
• 1:12:27
  but I guess balanced out by yeah, losing a minute in the
• 1:12:32
  lose. I think if you can handle it
• 1:12:34
  though, it's definitely worth it because like that last 10K as
• 1:12:37
  much as energy, you need concentration to like remember
• 1:12:41
  to keep driving your form and stuff, don't you?
• 1:12:43
  And the caffeine helps with that, definitely.
• 1:12:45
  Yes. It's not just a body that's
• 1:12:47
  gone. It's like, yeah or yeah,
• 1:12:49
  definitely for me, my head's gone completely.
• 1:12:51
  Like trying to concentrate, just think about anything is
• 1:12:54
  impossible. Yeah, you you want that little
• 1:12:56
  stimulus boost? Well, yeah, on in Tokyo when you
• 1:12:59
  ran your PB, your 214, you physically couldn't remember the
• 1:13:03
  last 5K, could you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, completely
• 1:13:06
  gone there. Yes, it's it's been trending in
• 1:13:09
  the wrong direction. Every marathon I've been in more
• 1:13:12
  and more of a state after. So we see at Gold Coast get the
• 1:13:15
  ambulance ready at the finish line.
• 1:13:18
  And lastly, on Gold Coast, in terms of of a race day kit, is
• 1:13:22
  that something that you've got nailed down or is it kind of
• 1:13:26
  subject to some of these sponsorships?
• 1:13:28
  Yes. That's that's a no comment right
• 1:13:32
  there, I'm afraid. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:34
  But but it's luck. It's luck.
• 1:13:35
  Same with the shoes that falls under the same umbrella.
• 1:13:38
  That's the same deal I've got at the moment.
• 1:13:40
  I'm getting asked everyday about shoes but I can't be giving
• 1:13:43
  these brands free promo. So yeah, someone needs to pay me
• 1:13:47
  to to get that free the the shoe promo.
• 1:13:51
  We'll we'll eagerly await the the start line then.
• 1:13:55
  What else have I got here in terms of tips?
• 1:13:58
  For any other people, what would be your your #1 tip?
• 1:14:02
  The number I I see recently, I can people, a lot of people,
• 1:14:07
  especially maybe new runners run their easy runs way too hard.
• 1:14:11
  Like for me, like if I'm racing at low 3 minute case, I'll
• 1:14:16
  almost never break four 30s on an easy run.
• 1:14:20
  And that's like 80% of the week. So like I'll happily run 5
• 1:14:24
  minute Case No problem. So then you think that's that's
• 1:14:27
  a minute and a half, two-minute difference per K to my marathon
• 1:14:30
  pace. So people running like a three
• 1:14:32
  hour marathon, like you can't be ripping 4 minute case in your
• 1:14:36
  easies because I think that's where people go wrong.
• 1:14:38
  You want to polarize the training, smash the hard stuff
• 1:14:42
  and then jog the easy stuff. You're getting no benefits.
• 1:14:46
  I don't know if it's the Strava effect, like it's the ego thing.
• 1:14:48
  People want to look faster on Strava, but I see it as more
• 1:14:51
  impressive. When I see a top runner running
• 1:14:53
  slowly, I'm like, that's almost cooler.
• 1:14:56
  Like, yeah, there's no benefit from pushing the easy stuff.
• 1:15:00
  Yeah, well, if you if you're doing your session days right,
• 1:15:02
  then you physically need to be crawling round on your easy
• 1:15:06
  days, don't you? Because your legs are just so
• 1:15:08
  banged up. Yeah, yeah, I'm like, if I can
• 1:15:10
  happily run 4 minute case all the time, like after a session,
• 1:15:13
  there's no way I've pushed this session hard enough.
• 1:15:16
  Yeah, I want to be actually gone, like barely able to make
• 1:15:18
  it home. Pivoting a little bit in terms
• 1:15:20
  of inspiration, maybe not necessarily now, but in your
• 1:15:26
  younger days, who's your biggest running inspiration?
• 1:15:29
  Back when I was like early teens, Mo Farah, Oh, but I'll be
• 1:15:35
  careful what I say. But that changed very quickly.
• 1:15:39
  Very, very quickly. Mid teens, I'd say.
• 1:15:44
  Now, Pam Levins, you know, the Canadian.
• 1:15:48
  So he's famous for his triple days, 280K weeks, absolutely
• 1:15:52
  mileage monster. He was what inspired.
• 1:15:55
  Yeah, I think before we even hear about the Japanese guys, I
• 1:15:58
  heard about his training. So yeah, he's a legend.
• 1:16:01
  Like I rate that a lot. I take it you've you've been
• 1:16:03
  down his YouTube channel then? Oh yeah, I've tried to find as
• 1:16:07
  much as I can. Stalk in the Strava.
• 1:16:10
  Yeah, getting as much details about his training.
• 1:16:13
  He's an animal. Is he still?
• 1:16:15
  Is he still ticking over now? Like is he active?
• 1:16:18
  On anything, it's hot. I feel like he locks off a lot
• 1:16:21
  of the Strava stuff. Like you only get a few posts
• 1:16:24
  and things like it's hard to find.
• 1:16:26
  Yeah, I think because I think he's maybe been injured for a
• 1:16:28
  bit coming back. But yeah, he's definitely.
• 1:16:31
  I've listened to some podcast interviews and like he's on the
• 1:16:34
  like maybe 3 triples a week, 3 double SA week and a single.
• 1:16:40
  He's relentless. Yeah.
• 1:16:41
  He's a proper inspiration, I'd say.
• 1:16:43
  Yeah, he's cooked from the same cloth as you in terms of like
• 1:16:47
  being crazy. I was going to try and be
• 1:16:49
  diplomatic about it, but. No, no, fully mental no, no,
• 1:16:53
  I'll fully take that. When it gets tough during a
• 1:16:56
  race, what you what you go to? Do you have like a mantra which
• 1:16:59
  you repeat to yourself or remind yourself of something or think
• 1:17:02
  about anything? Basically just like just don't
• 1:17:06
  be a pussy, just like don't quit, do not quit.
• 1:17:11
  Like yeah, it's pretty much you've got to get to the finish.
• 1:17:15
  Like I'm almost shout internally just shouting abusive at myself
• 1:17:19
  to try and just get through the pain and also just thinking it's
• 1:17:24
  a temporary pain like doesn't matter how much.
• 1:17:27
  Like it's excruciating the last 10 K 5K but I'm like it's only
• 1:17:31
  30 minutes maybe and then maybe some time in the medical tent
• 1:17:35
  after. But it's reason it's reasonably
• 1:17:37
  short. Well, I'm just like, if I can
• 1:17:39
  get through that then I'll thank myself later.
• 1:17:42
  Yeah, I think if you can get to the point where you are thinking
• 1:17:45
  of something to try and help yourself, it doesn't really
• 1:17:48
  matter what it is as long as you're not sat there just
• 1:17:50
  thinking, oh, this is so sore, I'm fucked, I've got so long to
• 1:17:55
  go. If you can just change the
• 1:17:56
  mentality I see to like be trying to help yourself, then
• 1:17:59
  you're in the right spot aren't you?
• 1:18:01
  Yeah, it's just somehow motivating yourself exactly to
• 1:18:04
  just get it, get through it. And I think lastly then unless
• 1:18:07
  you have anything you'd like to add, if there's one race in
• 1:18:10
  Japan that you'd recommend to anyone who's visiting or
• 1:18:13
  travelling, and if it's Tokyo Marathon, then discount that
• 1:18:17
  because I guess that's kind of obvious, but what would it be?
• 1:18:20
  Oh yeah, that's a good one. So you boys, Yeah, you came over
• 1:18:22
  for Marigami. That was that was my first one.
• 1:18:26
  I'd say there's a half marathon in Tokyo called Agao Half
• 1:18:32
  Marathon. That's a similar vein to
• 1:18:34
  Maragami, but just, yeah, ridiculous depth.
• 1:18:38
  Actually Ed Goddard from Australia, he came over last
• 1:18:41
  year. I think he came third maybe.
• 1:18:43
  But like I goes just like student runners, a hundreds and
• 1:18:47
  hundreds of students like actually ripping 6162 crazy
• 1:18:52
  depth. So that's one that, yeah, if
• 1:18:54
  you're over here, get involved with that.
• 1:18:57
  I I think I ran, that was, I think it was the first race I
• 1:18:59
  ran in Japan. Like when I came over, I ran
• 1:19:02
  like 65 minute half the time as a PV and I came like 150 year in
• 1:19:08
  the race. It's just got actually put away.
• 1:19:11
  But like that's the level. Yeah, we're talking.
• 1:19:13
  Sweet. And then in terms of like from a
• 1:19:15
  tourist point of view, if you haven't visited Tokyo already,
• 1:19:18
  you get to kind of tick that off as well.
• 1:19:20
  So it fits well. Yeah, yeah, there's so many cool
• 1:19:23
  places to see in Japan. Race is always a good excuse.
• 1:19:26
  Yeah, you come over for race and you get a bit of travel after.
• 1:19:29
  So before I wrap it up, is there anything that you feel like we
• 1:19:32
  haven't gone over you'd like to mention?
• 1:19:34
  I thought you've covered this story.
• 1:19:35
  Well, you've done the research. I'm impressed that the levels.
• 1:19:39
  Yeah, you've gone come through to tell the story.
• 1:19:42
  So yeah, I feel like we've done a good job.
• 1:19:45
  Put the hard yards in yesterday, yeah.
• 1:19:47
  Strong now. Now we just have to build the
• 1:19:50
  hype, get the get the listeners on board.
• 1:19:53
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it.
• 1:19:54
  I mean, you've been promoting me every week through the the
• 1:19:57
  weekly podcast. So it's all been leading up to
• 1:19:59
  this moment. All right then mate.
• 1:20:01
  Well, thanks so much for coming on.
• 1:20:02
  It's been it's been great to dive into your story and your
• 1:20:05
  mindset and your ridiculous training.
• 1:20:08
  All the best for Gold Coast and for all the listeners.
• 1:20:12
  I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
• 1:20:14
  If you did, feel free to bang it up on your story.
• 1:20:17
  Drop us a five star review. Let us know your thoughts.
• 1:20:20
  If you didn't enjoy it, feel free to keep that to yourself.
• 1:20:24
  And as always, thanks for tuning in.
• 1:20:26
  We'll be back next week and it congratulations if you've made
• 1:20:30
  it this far because you may be Privy to some news that when we
• 1:20:35
  do do the Gold Coast review then you might just get it from the
• 1:20:38
  horse's mouth. But we shall see.
• 1:20:41
  All right, Jake. Thanks, mate.
• 1:20:42
  Nice rod. Perfect.
• 1:20:43
  Cheers having me on. You've always got to come over
• 1:20:45
  to Japan again. Let's get in a race together.
• 1:20:48
  We'll get it locked in. We'll get it locked.
• 1:20:50
  Cheers guys. The.