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Showing posts from August, 2025

The Enchanted “Half” Circle: Cycling Tales from New Mexico

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  New Mexico was beautiful!  The views were amazing! Taken from outside of our VRBO.  Looking into downtown Red River.  Such a lovely site.   Friday we headed up the mountain to the top of Red River via the chairlift.  OMG it had been twenty years since I had gone up a chair lift.  I white knuckled it on the way up.  My anxiety was through the roof.  However, I made it to the top without a complete melt down and again lovely sites to be had.   Red River, New Mexico loves Willy's, Bill's, and Billy's.   The biking in the mountains was hard.  The first little hill I road up had me bent over my handle bars gasping for breath and coughing.  The altitude was definitely a factor.  However, after acclimating to it over the next 48 hours the altitude was not the issue on race day.  My tummy however was.  I certainly didn't have my best day in the mountains.  I mean technically I road the fastest 10 miles in my ...

It is all over but the Dying… oops I mean Crying… crying….

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It is all over but the Dying… oops I mean Crying… crying…. August 2, 2025 I have consistently joked about my demise in New Mexico.  Mainly, because 85 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing sounds like a lot.  I double that mileage on the weekends and matched that climbing in the month of July.  Physically, I think I am as ready as I can before The Enchanted Circle.  Mentally, I am working on it.   I tried to lie down last night and imagine myself successfully climbing the Circle.  Leaving Taos and pushing my way back to Red River.  All I thought about was all the times I had stopped and had to walk or rest going up hills.  That wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.  I need to stop saying I am going to die in New Mexico and start to think about how much fun I am going to have.  No work.  No drama.  Just me and my bike and a big challenge in front of me.  I got this....