The Young Feller

I recently received a message from the team at Limitless Pursuits, a website dedicated to delivering stories of men and women from around the world who show great spirit and strength to achieve things they never thought would be possible.  Sounded good to me!  They asked if they could interview me in the form of a Q and A.  I'd never answered one myself before but once I saw the questions I was immediately intrigued and went ahead.  I've copied the conversation below with the images used on their website.  The link to the official posting is here;  https://limitlesspursuits.com/land/fell-running/the-young-feller-calvin-jake-fergusons-ambition-to-take-the-fell-running-world-by-storm/ The interview took place in September 2017 and was published in October 2017. Traversing Lords Rake, Lake District, while supporting a Bob Graham Round attempt (pic by Ross Spalding) CALVIN JAKE FERGUSON took part in some fell running when he was just five years ...

Science in Sport.  Science in general.  A very interesting subject that helps us to get to grips with the human body, how it works, how it performs and why it does what it does in given situations.  In recent years, science has become integral in sport performance, especially at an elite and professional level.  Marginal gains.  Something you may have heard of.  It's basically the art of doing lots of little things that will add up to bettering yourself. In 1992, Science in Sport was founded in London.  SiS, as they are known, are now one of the worlds leading sports nutrition brands.  They have a manufacturing facility in Nelson, Lancashire (wonderful county!) and they currently have three main product ranges; SiS GO , SiS REGO and PROTEIN . The Caffeine shots are under the SiS GO bracket, while the overnight protein, as you might have guessed, is under the PROTEIN product range. First of all, protein.  I've tried the odd...

As most people know by now, racing is my favourite pastime.  I've done my fair share this season, clocking my 60th race after Sunday's Garstang half marathon, along with race 59 on the Saturday, after running the Great Langdale half marathon.  Saying that, another thing that most of you will now know is that I'm not a road runner either!  Now some of you might be thinking, well running is running, you use your legs & lungs while battling psychologically to push through the pain barrier, but, more seasoned runners will know that there is a difference between the fells and the roads, both in terms of terrain and the type of running you do. Anyhow, this double had been planned for a couple of months, with all my racing I keep a good check on my race calendar and my diary is planned well in advance but my training doesn't always match up to certain races.  I'm a firm believer in training to race & not racing to train.  By that I mean I will train hard a...

Following on from my last review, on the Gel-Indicate's, I've also been asked to do some testing of the Asics Gel-Luminus.  They are the 2nd tier of shoe in the structured cushioning section of the Asics road shoe spectrum, only slightly behind the Gel-Kayano.  Again the Gel-Luminus (as with the Gel-Glorify and Gel-Indicate), are InterSport UK exclusives (links at the bottom of the blog!!!) There are other shoes below the Luminus too but if you are looking for a top quality shoe for long distance running, the Luminus is definitely up there and as with competition in a race, you'd settle for a place in the top 2, wouldn't you?! With other brands taking the front in terms of advertising, I feel that Asics are wrongly overlooked by a lot of runners these days, particularly on the road circuit.  People tend to look at the price rather than the quality, which in some cases is fair enough!  But, if you genuinely have the funds to be able to afford a much bette...

The Viper 369 - Saturday 28th March 2015 - Delamere Forest, Cheshire Back in October, I saw an advert for an event in Delamere Forest.  Viper 369.  It sounded interesting and the price was great considering how long the event would be held for, if indeed I opted for the 9 hour challenge, which, inevitably, I did.  The concept is simply broken down in to laps of a 3.2 mile trail circuit.  The 3.0 required 5 laps then 6.0 a further 6 laps and the 9.0 a further 7 laps. After reading in to the unknown concept, I asked a couple of friends if they fancied the challenge.  They both gladly accepted and there we go, we'd entered ourselves for the Viper 9.0 -  The full 9 hours, near 20 laps of trail racing on a route we had no prior knowledge of, what more could you want?!  (I am indeed serious too, no sarcasm there.  Going in to the unknown in running terms is something of a huge plus, 99% of the time) The months between mid-October and ...

ashmei have cracked it. The best & most comfortable running socks, or any type of sock in fact, that I have worn to date.  I've ran nearly 40 miles in them since ashmei kindly donated a pair to us ambassadors on Saturday morning and they honestly still feel & look like, brand new! As soon as you feel them you can just tell they will be quality, but, as we all know, some things feel good in hand but don't quite do the job you want them to.  I can't say that for this bit of kit though, they do exactly what they promise on the labelling. As I mentioned, I've ran nearly 40 miles in them already including every type of terrain you can imagine apart from snow!  I've tested them on the roads - flat, up hill and down hill as well as at a casual speed and a race pace.  I've ran up to Darwen tower in them on the trails and I made sure I crossed muddy fields and fells in them.  You can never test something too much can you?  Well, only up unt...

March 5th 2015.  I heard the ping of the email tone to my mobile phone just after 5pm.  Usually it's some advertisement or flyer about offers or discounts but this email was different!  I'd received an email titled; "Congratulations - you're invited to our Ambassadors' Day".  Normally an email beginning with congratulations would be spam regarding a long lost relative who had left me millions but for once I had received an email that would hold some very exciting news. I had been short-listed by ashmei as a brand ambassador.  Hundreds and hundreds had applied but I was amongst the lucky few to be considered on the final list to represent the brand near and far.  I had plenty of planning to do in order to make the journey down to Hertfordshire but the opportunity I was presented with was more than worth the time and effort and I gratefully accepted the offer to attend. ashmei - huge success is well on it's way, in my opinion So, I had my jo...