FionaOutdoors

It’s great to hear about other people’s outdoor sporting achievements and goals. I “met” Andy Fallon on Twitter. His tweets about an epic cycling challenge sounded interesting. Here’s his story. Andy is 45 and married with a six-year-old daughter. He lives in Huddersfield West Yorks and spends his days working for Morrisons as a senior [...]

Cyclists of all ages and aspirations can look forward to next May’s Highland Perthshire Cycling Festival. The organiser, Highland Perthshire Cycling, have announced the return of  the popular event and offered a glimpse of some of the highlights. The Highland Perthshire Cycling Festival takes place leading up to, and over, the legendary Etape Caledonia weekend, and includes [...]

This is an American graphic but many of the messages are applicable to cyclists anywhere. I like the sentiment of the messages and it’s a great way to get across a few points about the benefits of cycling. Thanks to Jen Rhee who got in touch to show me the graphic that she’d created. Created [...]

I like to make sure that outdoors equipment really does what it says it will. So I have been testing my Gore-tex Active Shell in a range of different situations. The Gore-tex Active Shell claims to be waterproof yet also breathable. This means that while the rain can’t penetrate the Gore-tex membrane, the sweat, in [...]

I met an interesting chap from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative today. We were at  Breakfast Media meeting and while it was early we did manage to have a fairly coherent conversation. If I meet anyone from the cycling world I can’t wait to talk bikes and gadgets and so we covered a range of topics including [...]

Triathletes tend to be keen on looking good. They spend time and money sourcing great quality sports clothing and equipment and in my experience they are some of the better dressed athletes. I’m not talking here about designer jeans and jackets, but rather well-made and well-fitting sports clothing that not only does the right job [...]

Stunning weather, superb views, a total transport cost of £8.50 and a fabulous day of solo cycling. Don’t you just love it when a day of adventure turns out to be utterly perfect? I had a whole day to myself and bizarrely(for Scotland in September) the weather forecast was predicting blue skies and sunshine. So [...]

In the summer I chanced upon a few new sections of beautifully smooth and welcoming bike path near the village of Ballachullish. I was so impressed that I stopped during my bike ride to take a pic of the oh-so-lovely new tarmac. I found out then that Sustrans were aiming to create a 25-mile bike [...]

New cycling addict, Debbie, received a vital lesson in How to Fix a Puncture the other day. I offered her the lesson in return for a glass of wine (I’m easily bought!). She carefully watched as I revealed how to remove both wheels from the bike, how to remove the tyre and inner tube and [...]

Real-time and Facebook friend, former colleague and now cycling convert, Debbie, reveals her discovery of the delights of two-wheeled exercise. Debbie writes: Some people are born to exercise – others have exercise thrust upon them. Anyone who knows me knows which category I fall into. I’ve spent a lifetime battling with my weight, mainly by [...]