Is It Cheating?

The weather in New England has finally improved. Now it's hot and humid. I love summer and this is perfect beach weather. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, but this isn't exactly good weather for running outside. Unless you get up really early and I already have to be up early to go to work so that isn't an option unless I want to get up a 4:30. So needless to say, I went running yesterday afternoon in the humid, 90 degree weather.

I should first reassure you by saying that I wore my sunblock, my breathable hat, and my sunglasses as well as the smallest amount of clothing as absolutely necessary (don't worry, I had shorts and a tank on). I also drank 2 bottles of water during the day to prepare for my run so I wouldn't be dehydrated. Alas, my run was still rather miserable.

The other thing I did to try to beat the heat was take walking breaks. Over the course of my 3 mile run, I walked about 7 minutes for a total time of 35 min (I'm normally around 30 min). Overall, not too shabby. I must say that it was hard to motivate myself to begin running again after walking for a minute. I just wanted to keep walking!

I should mention that there is a famous runner by the name of Jeff Galloway who actually advocates walking during all runs to become a faster runner. I see this as a bit counter intuitive and sort of like cheating. If I'm calling it a run, I should be running. The whole time. I've actually seen people do this technique in races. And beat me! It is just so frustrating. I think the whole point is to run faster in the run part and then walk to recover and prevent fatigue. Maybe I should give it a shot in better weather.

Has anyone else out there have any thoughts about this? Is it cheating to walk during a run? Has anyone tried it? Were you successful?