The Monthly Milestone (November 2025)
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Greetings to My Readers
I started my Substack in August 2023. Where possible I am still going to try to upload weekly in 2025 on Wednesdays at 17:00 JST. These posts serve as update posts to keep myself accountable with my training and to also give an update to those who are following me.
Milestones will stay up but for the rest of my articles they will generally be archived after one month. After they are archived, they will be accessible to my paid subscribers. Free subscribers can read everything I post for free as it comes out.
This month…
In this Monthly Milestone I’m going to be covering the following:
Substack Stats
Monthly Training Stats
Race/Event Results
Reading List (what I’m currently reading (including audiobooks))
Final Thoughts and Hopes for December
Substack Stats
I ended October with 734 subscribers and I am ending November with 742. It’s great to see a few more people on board. It’s also great to see some more engagement from my new subscribers. Thank you very much for the likes, comments, and restacks.
Monthly Training Stats
Here are my training stats for November alongside the October stats for comparison:
November run total: 236.5 km (October: 310.0 km)
November walk total: 16.1 km (October: 17.2 km)
November run/walk total: 252.6 km (October: 327.2 km)
November elevation total: 1,186 m (October: 1,476 m)
This month was a bit rough for a number of reasons. At the end of October I started feeling unwell and the following week I was abroad and progressively getting worse. When I returned to Japan I went to my doctor and was diagnosed with pneumonia. I ended up needing to take medicine for two weeks to in order to recover from the pneumonia and then I needed to go abroad again at the end of the month.
My stats were a little lower in November than they were for the rest of the year but I am still ahead of where I need to be in order to hit the 3,650 km goal for the rest of the year.
Race/Event results
I entered 2 parkruns (5 km races) during October:
November 8th: 21:28. 10th overall (3rd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 15th: 21:09. 12th overall (4th in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 22nd: 19:38. 4th overall (1st in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November 29th: 19:57. 6th overall (2nd in age group) (Instagram pics here)
November was an interesting month for parkruns. I ended up starting the month with a parkrun in Singapore (with pneumonia), did two parkruns in Japan (one with pneumonia one without), and one parkrun in the UK. I had some quite interesting weather extremes with the Singapore one being at 31 degrees even at 7:30, and the one in England being cold and rainy. The ones in Japan had weather that suited me quite well.
I was only able to take part in two sprint events during November, but I enjoyed the ones that I took part in. The Shonan International Marathon is coming up so everyone is getting ready for that. I’ll be back to beach running once that marathon is done.
Although it is not a running event I have been traveling a lot recently. I technically took this picture at the very beginning of December but I think it should go in this milestone. Paris was very nice.
For iaido, in November I took part in a demonstration before a local kendo tournament. This was not a huge tournament but it is one I try to take part in to support the local kendo federation. It’s always a privilege to demonstrate my technique in front of others.
It was business as usual withkarate. No special events to report.
Reading list
I did not finish any audiobooks during November due to being spread a little thin and starting two books at the same time.
I had two audiobooks ongoing in November:
Titandeath by Guy Haley
I mentioned starting Book 53 of the Horus Heresy series at the end of last month. This book focuses on some of the final battles leading up to the seige of terra. There is a big focus on titan legions here. A bit different to the usual books but I’m quite enjoying it.
Because I knew I would be going to France soon I decided to give learning French another try. I did not finish the course but I got most of the way through it. This course was very useful and I was actually able to do some simple things in France without any problems. Mostly around ordering food but that is better than I expected I would be.
Final Thoughts and Hopes for December
I was well behind my expected distance goal for November but as of writing this I am quite close to achieving my goal of 3,650 km for the whole year. There is less than 200 km to go so I should very comfortably hit it in December. Traveling and a bout of pneumonia slowed me down but hopefully I am back on form now.
The first weekend of December is the Shonan International Marathon. I am hoping to get a new PB for this marathon, but I will likely be quite jetlagged when I am running. I am hoping my jetlag wont impact me too much, but we will see. If I cannot run a sub-3-hour marathon this time I will aim to do so at the Shizuoka Marathon next year.
Last month I mentioned that I will enter the lottery of the Mt Fuji 100 (Kai) (70 km trail). I had enough points to qualify but it was all up to chance whether I would get a place. I received a message before writing this milestone saying I have a place so my next big race in 2026 will be the Kai.
I was also hoping to run the Hida Takayama Ultramarathon in 2026, but unfortunately it looks like it is at capacity. This means I will need to consider other races next year. Oh well.
The lead up to December has been rough. November was a difficult month for a variety of reasons. It looks like December is going to be pretty quiet but that is only going to happen once I am back in Japan and the Shonan International Marathon is over. I’ll power through the marathon, close the distance on my 3,650 km goal, and then hopefully enjoy a bit of a low-key month. I think I need one after that November.
Thank you to all my readers
I hope you had a fantastic November and are ready to get after it during December.
Osu!
Anthony