The Monthly Milestone (November 2024)
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Greetings to My Readers
Things are still going strong since I started my Substack in August 2023. I’m still doing my best to upload articles weekly. For those who are new to my newsletter, I upload a very formulaic post once a month (this one), followed by other more creative articles for the rest of the month. This one is mainly to give an update on what has been going on and to keep myself accountable with my training (both to myself and my readers).
Articles are uploaded on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. Monthly milestones will be updated on the first Wednesday of the following month, meaning there will be one milestone and three or four regular articles per month. Apologies in advance if there are any disruptions this month due to it being December.
Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.
This month…
In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:
Substack Stats
Monthly Training Stats
Race/Event Results
Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))
Final Thoughts and Hopes for December
Substack Stats
I ended October with 705 subscribers and I am ending November with 718. It’s good to see things trending upwards a little more. I’m experimenting with new ways to increase my post visibility on X so let’s see if that has an impact moving forward.
Monthly Training Stats
Here are my training stats for November alongside the October stats for comparison:
November run total: 213.7 km (October : 191.8 km)
November walk total: 86.3 km (October : 89.2. km)
November run/walk total: 300.0 km (October : 281.0 km)
November elevation total: 5,554 m (October : 2,390 m)
As I’ve previously mentioned, my next race is the Izu Trail Journey (ITJ). The run is roughly 70 km with more than 3,000 meters of elevation, so my training this month has mostly been focused on trail running. There’s a trail near me that mimics the ascent of the ITJ so I’ve been running that a lot.
I managed to get my total to exactly 300 km in November. Because a huge chuck of this was trail running it was much harder to get the distance in. I’m still very happy with the result because these were some good numbers.
Race/Event results
I entered 5 parkruns (5 km races) during November.
November 2nd: 20:06. 3rd overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 9th: 20:30. 19th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 16th: 20:11. 7th overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 23rd: 19:36. 8th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 30th: 22:34. 18th overall (5th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November was a good month. I completed a major milestone by doing my 100th parkrun on November 2nd. I also managed to get my fastest parkrun time of the year on November 23rd. My previous fastest time was 20:01 on the official clock and I was getting a bit stressed that I wouldn’t be able to break 20 minutes this year. I’m glad that I finally managed to break that wall while not necessarily focusing on that. (More details about my thought process in my post, ordinary training, ordinary results).
The Enoshima Dash events are still going strong. I took part in 4 dash events in November but the event on the 24th was canceled due to another event our group was organizing.
On November 24th the 6th Enoshima Tyrannosaurus Race was held on Kugenuma beach. Basically the event is a sports day for people dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes. I was one of the staff members on the day providing support to the runners. I did a full write up on this that can be found here.
I took part in karate and iaidō as much as I could over the month but there were no specific events.
Reading list
I only finished 3 audiobooks in November:
Vainglorious by Sandy Mitchell
Last book in Ciaphas Cain series…so far. Cain is sent to investigate the cause of some missing shipments on a forge world. After several failed assassination attempts on him, he eventually discovers some Necron related issues on the planet. It was a fun book. Exactly what I want from this series.
In the Spell of the Barkley by Michiel Panhuysen
I find the Barkley Marathons fascinating. This book is about a climber that became a runner and ended up getting involved in this mysterious running event. This has been one of the best books I’ve read so far that has covered some of the inner workings of this event. I highly recommend it if you are into running stories.
Running Man by Charlie Engle
I didn’t know much about this book before diving in. I just thought it was another book about running (and I love stories about running). It started off as a story about the author spiraling down hard into drug and alcohol addiction before getting his life together and doing some incredible work on the world of running, including Running the Sahara. I haven’t seen this movie (because I don’t watch movies much these days) but it looks like one I should add to my watch list. This first chapters of this book are very difficult to get through but it’s an incredible story. Highly recommended.
I finished Running Man on November 30th. I’ll start a new book in December. I downloaded Finding Ultra by Rich Roll but I haven’t actually stared it yet.
Final Thoughts and Hopes for December
The ITJ is upon us! On December 8th at 6am (JST) I’ll be attempting to run 69.1 km across the Izu Peninsula. Course map below.
I’ve been preparing in November by running a lot of trails with all of my gear but I did have a bit of a scary moment when I realized that I booked the wrong bus and had no way to get from my hotel in Mishima to Matsuzaki Port (a 2 hour drive) on the day of the race. The travel agent managed to sort it out so I’ll be on the bus at 3am on that day and ready to go.
I hope my training has been sufficient for this run. This is probably the most I’ve ever prepared for a trail event. In previous trail runs I’ve done a bit on the trails but still done most of my running on the roads. November was very dedicated to getting used to running up and down trails so let’s see if it pays off.
During November I also signed up for next year’s Nobeyama Ultramarathon on May 18th, 2025. When I entered the Fuji 5 Lakes Ultramarathon (organized by the same group) there was a tour package you could book to get out there. I assumed the system would be the the same for this one, but when I checked the website I noticed the recommended hotels were already open for bookings. A lot of searching later and I found that a lot of these places were already fully booked up. I eventually got through to a hotel where reservations could only be done by phone. The elderly lady I spoke to on the phone was quite amusing to talk to and assured me she would be able to send someone to pick me up after the ultra because I will clearly not be able to get back to the hotel by myself. Seems she knows the event well.
Aside from my running adventures in December I have a small iaidō tournament coming up in mid-December. This is the first time the tournament is being held and I will be part of a team of three. The teams have a low rank, mid rank, and high rank practitioners. I will be the mid rank practitioner in my team, entering with a senior of mine and a junior from another dōjō. Looking forward to the experience.
November was a great month for training. I’m hoping to get some good results in December in the form of completing the ITJ and just having fun at that iaidō tournament. Finishing the year with a smile is absolutely the top item on the agenda regardless of race/tournament placement.
Thank you to all my readers
I hope you had a fantastic November and are ready to get after it during December.
Osu!
Anthony