Hello. My name is Shannon. It's been one week since my last blog entry.

It's been a hard recovery from Memorial Day weekend - and I was more than a little worried that the Thursday night run wouldn't go so well. My last outdoor run was...well...a while ago (having missed last Thursday's group run and having spent much of the holiday weekend carb-loading [which is just a nice way of saying eating, drinking and eating]).

So it was with trepidation that I started last night's run around the Back Cove. And yes, this time we were going the ENTIRE WAY AROUND.

And holy crap - who'd have thunk it - I knocked this run to the ground. Anna and I kept a consistent pace the whole way and only took three - very brief - walking breaks.

I was dumbfounded at first. How could this be? I'm still doing so many things wrong - not runnning nearly as often as the schedule suggests, etc.

But then I remembered what John Rogers (owner of the Maine Running Company and the guy leading the training) said to us back in April. It was something like, "Nutrition is important... yadda, yadda, yadda...don't get dehydrated...yadda, yadda, yadda...DON'T TAKE YOUR REST DAYS FOR GRANTED."

Epiphany! I'm not being lazy, I'm appreciating my weekly rest days - all six of them.

All I'm saying is, if it works, don't mess with it.

On a side note, Maine Running Company was just ranked one of the 50 Best Running Stores in America, by Runner's World Magazine.

Not bad, I say. Not bad.