FionaOutdoors

If you know me…Or you read this blog… you’ll know that I am always on the look out for new outdoors challenges! Just after turning 40 I decided to run my first marathon, the Loch Ness Marathon. A couple of years ago I set a goal of cycling the Bealach Mor Sportive. Last year, I [...]

Katrina Tweedie is a friend, a fellow journalist and a mum of three young boys. Fast approaching the dreaded 4-0 she decided that she wanted to mark the occasion with something memorable… Something a little more than just waking up with an almighty hangover headache. She was born in Zambia and Africa has long been [...]

If Hi-Tec means only walking boots to you then you’ll be a little surprised to see the energy that they are giving to trail running. In 2012 they launch a Hi-Tec Ultra Trail Series – and the outdoor walking and running equipment company now have a range of trail running shoes. The Hi-tec Ultra Trail [...]

What is the rain good for? Mud. And what are both rain and mud good for? Testing walking boots, of course. The first up are Keen’s Gypsum Mid Walking boots. I’m a big fan of Keen boots – and so, it seems, are many of my friends who whenever they see me in my fave [...]

Envy is not a strong enough word to describe the G-Force and his reaction to my Gore-tex Active Shell test jacket. Then, as if by magic (or thanks to the kindness of me, his partner) the opportunity arose to test a Gore-tex jacket of his own. While it is not made of Gore-tex’s super new [...]

Running uphill without any flat sections for 5k on a gorgeously sunny, but breezy and chilly, day in the Bavarian Alps with two top French bloggers and runners, Greg-Runner and Mountain Goat Sylvain, makes me sweat. Of course it does! It’s faster than my usual pace, steeper than my usual hills, at higher altitude than [...]

Breakthrough Cancer, based in Edinburgh, want to raise vital funds. So they have launched a new walking event in Scotland. The Perthshire Trek 2011 takes place on September 9 and 10 this year. The walk heads 16 miles along the beautiful Cateran Trail, in Angus and Perthshire, and it’s most definitely aimed at a wide [...]

My good friend and freelance colleague Ellen Arnison has completed the Moonwalk. I’m proud of her. And also slightly in awe of her madness. We have twice walked the Edinburgh Moonwalk together and while I stuck to my guns and said I’d never do it again (rather like having children. I only have one, Ellen [...]

Walking one of Scotland’s Munros is enough of a challenge for the average person. A Munro is defined as a mountain in Scotland that is more than 3000ft (914m) and many require a good level of fitness, as well as navigational ability to reach the summit – and then walk back down again. If you’re [...]

It really isn’t very long now until the evening of June 11 that Jo and I will get dropped off at Edinburgh’s Inverleith Park in our decorated bras ready to walk through the night for the Edinburgh Moonwalk. As pretty much anyone would have predicted I haven’t done enough training and will have to resort [...]