The Ferg Running Mission
Six Pillars to Unleashing Your Elite Potential
My entrepreneurial hero is John Mackey, cofounder of Whole Foods Market. He coauthored Conscious Capitalism (2012), which makes the case that a noble mission leads to profitability.
My athletic journey is a long one, going back three decades. Admittedly, I did not realize my youthful dreams. However, after a decade of heavy training, including four years as an NCAA Division I collegiate athlete, I came away with an important realization: you can live the life of an elite athlete well into your twilight years. Elite athletes devote the lion’s share of their time to preparation, and you can undertake a similar lifestyle. A tiny fraction of their time goes to participation in Olympic or world-championship events off limits to the layman.
Further, as we get older we are often in a better financial position to live that elite-athlete life. We also likely have more maturity and better organizational skills to bring out our best habits and avoid pitfalls. As the saying goes, youth is wasted on the young.
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My mission is to find avenues to top-level performances that fit into the lives of people who are not full-time professional athletes. There are endless targets to focus on that might not get you on television but that reflect outstanding achievements. In my case, I have two loves—the marathon and rowing—and each year I come up with new targets for each sport.
Since that mission might seem broad, a touch of my underlying thinking is pertinent.
Anyone who follows me knows I emphasize personal responsibility and individual freedom. We need to be accountable for our actions, in the good times and the bad times.
My upbringing was on an organic sheep and cattle farm, so that gave me a sympathy for unprocessed foods and broader natural health. These days, that falls under the umbrella of the paleo (ancient or primal) approach to nutrition. The basic idea is to find what fits with our ancestry—what we are adapted to rather than what might be the fad of the day.
Te Akatea Station, our family farm (1992). Arthur Lydiard was one of the chief developers of modern endurance training, and his legacy remains relevant. The Lydiard method is foundational to endurance plans, as espoused by my mentor Lorraine Moller and the Lydiard Foundation. Arthur also mentored Michael Colgan, my go-to man for diet and strength-training insights, although he has retired now.
Public-choice economics explains how regulators and centralized information sources get captured by professional lobbies. Public education being controlled by teachers’ unions, rather than parents or taxpayers, is one such example. That means we benefit from a broad array of sources that are as independent as possible, ideally crowdfunded by subscribers. The good news is that we live in a fabulous era that is spawning independent media and research.
The term political correctness gets thrown around loosely, but essentially it means the pressure to conform with widely held or promoted dogmas. One example is that the two genders are interchangeable. This pressure interferes with our better judgment and objective analysis, so my intent is to present the unvarnished truth and let the chips fall where they may. That might ruffle feathers, but it makes for a more meaningful dialogue.
One piece of wisdom I took from my week with Colgan on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, was that there remains immense untapped athletic potential in humans. That was 20 years ago, and advancement in performance continues at a rapid clip. That leads us to have optimism regarding the prospect of game-changing improvements for the vast majority of athletes. That also means breaking out of traditions or mental constraints that impede innovation.
Ferg Running has been a passion project over the past couple of years. However, I am ramping up three domains: content, affiliated products, and a training ecosystem in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming.
One of my priorities is accommodation at my Fort Collins home for people who would like to train at altitude. My place has unlimited, picturesque, and varied running routes right out the door. There is a basement apartment available with plenty of privacy and space.
Please reach out if you would be interested in a training camp, perhaps for a week or two. If you are curious about the merits of Fort Collins, Colorado, for training, watch my video “Five Reasons Why Fort Collins Will Be the Next Running Mecca.”
If you would like to book a consultation with me, please sign up here.