My absence from the blog and writing for the past two weeks has been intentional. In a month and a half my first book, dedicated to all things obstacle course racing is due to my editor and publisher. In an effort to focus on the work and to escape the oppressive pollution in Salt Lake City after the Temecula Spartan Race, my boyfriend and I headed south of the border to his dad’s house off the Baja California coast in Mexico.

In my past like I use to put aside two weeks a year. Those two weeks would be completely off the grid and instead I filled my time on these vacations with reading books, eating fresh food, and enjoying surfing in one of the greatest places on earth. This was my retreat each year and the two weeks away would always give me a reboot I needed. I am a self professed techno addict, not the music but the gadgets. I love the internet, love my computer and have been known to waste away hours and days searching the endless regions of the internet. So for me as much as it was a vacation each year it was my detox.

Turning off the computer and the internet is hard to do. We are always wired in, and it keeps us connected in a great way but chains us to it as well. I am a person who needs to be pulled away. So as we headed to the boarder almost two weeks ago. I did my last Facebooking and emailing then turned it all off. Instead I spent the week living without internet and Facebook.

Instead I filled my mornings sitting in a room overlooking the ocean typing away at the computer as I looked onto the ocean. A leisurely late morning was filled with reading, eating, and exploring this part of the Baja coast. Afternoons were spent doing odd work and more exploring and in the evening we indulged in several seasons of Desperate Housewives. (We got to the house and found out there were no board games, or movies, other than eight seasons of Desperate Housewives. A show neither one of us would think about watching at home. But did instead.) I listened to my boyfriend play his guitar and talked with our neighbors. Life was quiet and yet I was getting more work done in less time.

To me this was as much a working trip as a vacation. On the surface vacation is the term most would use but while there I was able to work on over six chapters of the book and read for the first time in over a year a book for leisure. Amazing what can be accomplished when you have no internet and are forced into a detox. Now I am back home back to old habits no real change in my life, just a nice break and moment in time to step away.

Now I am home for only a few days before embarking on the most ambitious race to date Fuego y Agua in Nicaragua. This time I will have internet and will be updating from the road.