The Monday Debrief

Last week, we were making a video for the Running Channel on Christmas gifts for runners - coming soon to a certain youtube channel near you.. So if the sky is the limit, then there are GPS watches and other gear galore to splash the cash on. However,  if there's one handy gift that you could pick up for a couple of quid, it's a buff. Or a Buff . Buff is like sellotape or hoover, I think - a brand name that's turned generic. (Which always reminds me of the annual festival time email-from-lawyers we used to get at the Guardian chiding warning against using the tradename Portaloo as a generic rather than only to refer to the specific portable toilet made by  Portakabin Limited..)  Anyway, buff or Buff - they are brilliant. Plenty of us probably have a stash that were free too - races sometimes give them away in place of T-shirts or in a goody bag - but I do love my 'proper' original Buffs which tends to last a long longer, wear better (as in, not lose elastici

I do a lot of running. I also do an awful lot of miles by myself. Mostly, it's a necessity of timetabling rather than a deliberate choice - fitting runs in around family life and school pick ups and weekend activities and the like. I hardly lack for potential running buddies, given so much of my life actually revolves around running: I'm co-captain of the Windmiler's ladies team, I coach track sessions, I volunteer at junior parkrun or the Hercules athletics sessions my kids have just joined, oh, and yes, I write about it. View this post on Instagram Chasing Sophie round #Fulham10k today as the middle bit of my long run. Great way to break it up, flies by in company! and yes I was absolutely frozen at this point 🥶🥶🥶🥶 #runnersofinstagram #alwaysrunning #Repost @sophieraworth with @get_repost ・・・ 10k - brutal distance! Made it onto the “old persons” podium. The upside to ageing....😉#fulham10k @cityrunsldn A post shared by Kate Carter (@katehelen

    I've been staring at a blank screen far too long this morning already - feeling distinctly under the weather and Monday-ish. I suppose not every weekend can be spent in New York, though the contrast between hanging out in Brooklyn and sloshing around a muddy field in Surrey does seem a little stark. Yes, it was a cross country race again. And yes, I am still terrible at them. So this will be short and sweet and thrown right back over to you guys. Come share your weekend triumphs and woes below the line - and your plans for the rest of the year. One of the things I love about December (sorry, but is quite close now) is the mini running traditions. I've got Valencia 10k to look forward to at the start of the month, the family Christmas day run, the Boxing Day club run ending in mince pies and mulled wine, the New Year's day parkrun double.  Generally, if you profess to loving Christmas you end up fairly swiftly being berated for celebrating a holiday of consum

So there I was, last Wednesday lunchtime, contemplating a thrilling weekend tackling the laundry mountain and possibly even starting on the mess in the attic eaves. A few emails and about 12 hours later, I'm on a plane to New York. What a whirlwind! Anyone who has asked me advice on the best headphones will know that I do tend to bang on about Jaybird ones, so my love for them definitely predates hanging out with them in New York, but I think we can safely say it's gone up a notch. Of course, around the big city marathons, a lot of brands will plan sort of satellite events and pop ups - you could quite easily do a marathon's worth of shakeout runs with all the different brands, crews and clubs the day before the race, and exhaust your poor legs checking them out. But fortunately for me, I got all the fun of marathon weekend without the actual having to run 26.2 miles bit. Jaybird's pop up was in Brooklyn, and as well as numerous shake out runs, film screeni