Meeting Mr. Galloway

The day before the Disneyland Half Marathon, I went to the Disneyland Hotel for the Health and Fitness Expo, window shop for running gear, pick up my race packet...and to attend Jeff Galloway's talks. Yes, "talks". He had two and I attended both.

But first, for the newbie runners reading this post, let me quickly explain who Jeff Galloway is. He is a US Olympian, the Disney Endurance Events Official Training Consultant. Founder of the Galloway Marathon Training Program (RUN-WALK-RUN™ method). This method has helped a lot of runners all over the world, including myself. I can't imagine how I could've finished my first Pikermi earlier this year with out doing the 5:2 run-walk cycle.

Ok back to the talk. As he started his first topic, I wanted to kill myself for switching purses and not being able to bring a pen and notebook to take down notes. There was a 20 minute Q&A and I was thinking of a nice question to ask him. Unfortunately, the others already asked the basic ones so I was left with, "What are your thoughts on using energy gels like GU and Hammer Gel?"

His reply was, "GU and other energy gels are ok since you need to keep feeding your brain. But it doesn't have to be energy gels. You can have gummy bears, candy, or sugar cubes." His reply was actually much longer than this but, for the life of me, I couldn't remember much. I think, I may have been, starstruck. :p

So far, these are the things I remember from both talks...

1. Barefoot Running - He doesn't advice barefoot or minimal shoe running. He said he's been running for 51 years and he has seen this "fad" come back every decade. So that would be five times! For this decade, it was brought back coz of the book, "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. "Your feet simply needs the support", he says. He also shared a story about the said author getting a stress fracture when he invited others to run with him after one of his book signings. Yikes!

2. Eating before a race - He said that there is nothing you can eat on race day that will help you on your run. Personally, he doesn't eat before a race. But he did mention the importance of hydration. So we must drink water or electrolytes before the race.

3. Warm-up - We should walk for a few minutes then progress to a slow jog as our warm-up before a run. This is enough to get our body ready. He doesn't believe in stretching.

4. Chi-Running - You can't tell people how to run. Each individual is different. We all have our running styles and our bodies adapt to this.

I know there's a lot more I learned that day, but so far, as I blog this, this is all I remember. Boo!

I can't say I agree with everything he says, but, like all things, we just listen and just apply which works best for us. I did try not eating before the race and not stretching (not intentionally, we just didn't have any space at the corral). Ummm, let's just say, I don't think I'll do that again.

After his second talk, Gail and I rushed to him. And like like true pinoys, asked to have our pics taken with him. Hehe! He was very accommodating and says he's been to our country before when he served in the U.S. Navy. Cool!

See our pictures HERE. =)

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