If Santa didn’t know what to get you and left you cold hard cash, you might be thinking about getting yourself a GPS running watch. I’ve been testing the Soleus GPS Fit 1.0. At £99 it’s a competitive price for a GPS watch and for that it does everything you need it to do – it tracks your distance, speed, pace and has an autolap function.

What has most impressed me about this watch is the battery life on this little guy. Injury meant a week between two of my recent runs but when I picked it up before the second run it was still full of life and ready to do 10k with me. The strap too is much comfier on my tiny wrists than my ‘other watch’.

New Balance Fell Running Shoes

I’ve owned a lot of running shoes in my time, at the last count I believe I was at 12 (5 Brooks, 3 Nike, 1 Adidas, 1 Sketchers, 1 ON, 1 Vibrams) and while there’s a whole range of styles in among that lot, I’ve never owned a pair of off-road shoes.

But I do like a break from pounding the pavement to get out into some parkland and breath in something other than traffic fumes and frustration. So it was time for an off-road shoe. It’s pretty muddy out there and the moment and these little puppies had me upright as I ran up and down wet grassy hills and muddy trails.

I’d been expecting to adopt the running style of a footballer in studs making their way to the dressing room when I wasn’t on the softer ground but the grips on these were big enough to give me a sure footing on the pavement too.

Running socks
One of the downsides of my trail running experiment was that I’d worn my new favourite running socks and they’re no longer looking as nice. The Balega Enduro are, however, still the comfiest and warmest pair of running socks I’ve used. Shame I got a white pair. I’ll know better next time.

Icespikes
Winter still has a couple of months to go and so, in case we run into a frost, I’ve got a set of these on hand. They turn any old pair of running shoes (with a thick enough sole – sorry Vibrams) into a pair of shoes capable of running through snow and ice.