Galloway Is the Only Way (For Now)

I have no business running a half-marathon on Sunday. I am completely unprepared. My entire mileage for this year is 129.38. Uh-huh...for the YEAR. I am certain even my non-running friends can look at that and say "yeah, that's not going to cut it".

Regardless of the mileage and the lackluster effort most of those miles were, I am signed up and therefore will find a way to get through the 13.1 miles come Sunday morning. Desperation forced me to find a different way and I think I figured it out this weekend: I am going to do a Galloway. For those not familiar, Jeff Galloway is a big name in running and has made that name by devising a run/walk program for half and full marathoners. Desperate to find something to get me through a distance I am not ready for, I did a six-miler utilizing a 3:1 run/walk ratio on Saturday. Boy, what a difference the one minute walk breaks make. It is SO much easier. Still challenging but I could have easily kept on going; which is good because that wasn't even half the distance I will be covering on Sunday. There wasn't any of the calf tightness, Morton's Neuroma issues, or blistering that have been plaguing me of late and I felt strong. This is my ticket to doing my best in Eugene while not totally sucking it and being miserable for many long miles.

I was also hoping the run/walk method would help my hip pain but no dice. The pain actually flared up more while running and felt pretty bad for the rest of the evening. Sunday and Monday weren't too bad but today I could feel it all day. I didn't even do anything yesterday but sit which, now that I think about it, makes for tight hip flexors. I hope it is just tight hip flexors because I am really starting to wonder if something else isn't going on in there. I actually broke down and took an Ibuprofen today (which I almost never do) and I will be icing it later tonight. I just want to get through the race with no problems and then back to the physical therapist for another look.