Being a phenomenal indoor soccer player and an expert trail runner is so tough, I need a vacation.

This month has been a blur. Being a shorter month, February always comes and goes way too quickly. That being said, I feel like a bunch of things have happened these past 3 weeks. Let's recap.

I started playing arena soccer with my best friend from middle and high school. She and I played soccer together from the ages of about 10-18. Then we went to separate colleges and stopped playing for awhile. There was a summer during college where we played full field coed soccer. It was fun but once I got obsessed with running and krav, I just couldn't make the time for it each year. Until this winter when Eliza told me to join her weekly "indoor" soccer team. The games are outside but in an uncovered arena. You play off the walls and it's really face paced. Using the walls is exciting, because you can get awesome rebounds and goals by intentionally passing to another player off the walls near the goal. But you can also get duped on defense by players who wall pass to themselves and get around you. I am pretty familiar with this second example. 90% of the time, I'm the one getting duped. We aren't the best team out there but we aren't the worst either. I think we've won about half of them so far, but the weather has forced us to cancel some too. Ain't nobody got time to play in 30 degree downpours. #nothankyoupneumonia #gohome Anyway, it's been really fun spending time back on the "field" and catching up and reminiscing about soccer days with an old friend. (Our team name is the Pattaters in case you want to be a fan an follow the standings.)

Me attempting a wall pass.

I recently signed up for the Palmetto 200, which is a 200 mile team relay race from Columbia to Charleston. I'm on a team of 12 and we each run 3 legs, all with a few hours in between each leg. So there is only 1 person running from each team at a time. The race starts Friday morning and ends Saturday afternoon. That being said, there will be some runners who get night runs. Exciting! (Read as terrifying!) We meet soon to assign our legs. Speaking of legs, the way they broke out the legs is illogical. You would think they would divide 200 miles by 12 and get 16.67 miles for each runner. Right? Makes sense to me. But based on the "worksheet" I got via email, it's like leg distances were created arbitrarily. Some runners are running 12 miles total, while others are running 24. Say whaaat?!? If I get assigned to 20+ miles, I will kill my friend who pressured me into this. Anyway, I'll keep you posted mom and dad.

Krav life has been good. I'll start teaching my own Wednesday night class at 7:30 in March. It's going to be basic krav skills from level 1 and level 2 with a bunch of cardio throughout, because Lord knows I love cardio. Doesn't everyone? I am hoping to have a good steady following of students. I've had several women come up to me and tell me how excited they are to have a female instructor and to see a female that knows how to defend herself and fight if she needs to. I'm hoping to inspire more people to become more confident in self-defense techniques and also more prepared mentally and physically to do whatever it takes to get home safely.

On to more fun things...my family is going on a cruise this weekend. It's a five dayer out of Jacksonville. We have two days at sea, a day at Nassau, and a day at Half Moon Cay private beach. It should be nice little getaway and an escape from this awful and wet 30 degree weather we've had here. Counting down the hours to sunshine, cocktails, and a midnight chocolate buffet...less than 24 hours. BOOM. Can't wait.

cruisin'