Weekly Newsletter: April 22nd-28th, 2024

This week, Keith is getting close to being fully recovered from his sprained ligament! 🙌 Lindsey was also able to enjoy more Spring skiing at Snowbird. ⛷️

Check out our new posts and videos 🆕 🎥 📝

Utah Adventures With A Friend: Part 3

Yi visits us in Utah for a road trip. This is part 3 of the multi-part series.

Keith and LindseyLindsey Huster

Enjoying his new management role 👨‍💻 ✅

Keith has now been in his new Team Lead II role for a full week. So far, he has been enjoying this change and has already been able to make several positive impacts on his team. Keith's manager suggested that he read The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier to get a better understanding of what is expected from a great engineering manager.

The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal—especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager.

Buy on Amazon

Keith thoroughly enjoyed this book. It provides an excellent overview of what is expected from an engineering manager. It also covers higher-level management and how the layers of management should operate within a high-functioning organization. This book will be used as a foundation for Keith's journey into the world of management.

More Spring skiing at Snowbird 😎 ⛷️

Lindsey met up with her friend Stephanie again this week to enjoy more Spring skiing laps at Snowbird. This time though, the weather was a bit funky, making skiing difficult. A thick layer of clouds covered a large mountain area, greatly diminishing visibility. Also, the thick cloud layer meant that the morning ice never had a chance to fully thaw into the "mashed potatoes" snow that we all love. Due to these difficult conditions, both Lindsey and Stephanie decided to end the day early.

Continuing bike prep work 🛠️ 🚵‍♂️

Keith is continuing to prepare his Intense Sniper T mountain bike for the upcoming 2024 Tour Divide attempt. This week, he performed a full brake bleed on both the front and rear brake systems on his bike. He followed the gravity bleed process for Shimano brakes which uses gravity to pull fresh fluid from the brake lever down through the caliper.

This was so much easier than the generally recommended process that involves using a syringe to push fluid up from the caliper to the brake lever. The syringe method may flush the system a little more thoroughly but it is also much easier to accidentally introduce air bubbles into the system. Any air in the system will cause inconsistent braking which can be scary when you are riding down a steep, chunky MTB trail.

Tour Divide training update 🏋️‍♂️ 😅

Keith is finally starting to fully recover from his ligament sprain! 🙌 The ligament itself appears to be nearly fully healed at this point and is no longer causing Keith any pain when he walks/rides. This is super exciting since Keith is still within his necessary recovery window for his planned 2024 Tour Divide attempt.

However, Keith is still working through some related patella tendon pain. We aren't exactly sure what caused the patella tendon pain but it is most likely a side effect of the ligament sprain and/or the shockwave therapy treatments. This pain is much easier to manage and has not yet affected his riding ability. It does affect his walking/hiking ability though.

Keith has found that a simple massage of the patella tendon/kneecap helps to dramatically relieve the tension on the tendon. We are hopeful that this patella tendon pain will resolve over the next week or so.

This week, Keith was able to complete a full 30-minute trial ride on his Stages SB20 indoor trainer without any immediate or latent pain! This is the first time in over a month that he has been able to ride pain free. Keith still has a long way to go to get back to where he was but he is finally on the recovery path.

Keith has set a few milestones/deadlines for his recovery to be successful. If he misses any of these deadlines then we will need to discuss postponing his attempt until 2025.

• May 3rd - Must be able to ride the indoor trainer at 100W or more for at least 1 hour without any immediate or latent pain.
• May 15th - Must be able to ride his usual, 50-mile outdoor training route without any immediate or latent pain. Must also be able to hike on a relatively easy trail (Lower Battle Creek Falls Trail) without any pain.
• May 31st - Must be able to complete the >100-mile Utah Lake Loop without pain. Must also be able to hike a moderately strenuous trail without pain (e.g. Grove Creek Trail).

Upcoming posts and videos 👷‍ 👷‍♀️️

Lindsey is working her way through the series of posts covering our friend Yi's visit to Utah last summer. Be sure to subscribe to our blog so that you don't miss out. Keith has been extra-focused on recovery efforts so he is unsure when he will be able to work on any posts in the near term. 🥺

We hope that you are enjoying our newsletters. What do you think about Keith's decision to switch from engineering to management? Do you have any management tips for Keith? Let us know in the comments section below.👇 💬