Weekly Newsletter: December 16th-23rd, 2024

The snowpack is disappointingly thin this year 😔 but we are trying to make the best of it. 🎿 Keith also got out on his annual Christmas ride around Utah Lake. 🚵‍♂️ 😅

Check out our new posts and videos 🆕 🎥 📝

Essential Camino Prep: Route Planning and Packing

Keith and I were inspired to walk the Portuguese Coastal Route of the Camino de Santiago. Planning the stages of the 170 miles and packing quickly became my focus for preparing for the trip.

Keith and LindseyLindsey Huster

Keith's weightlifting program 🏋️💪

Keith has been continuing with his weightlifting program as recommended by his physical therapist. This program is intended to strengthen his muscles and also restructure the tendons along his knees and ankles. These tendons need to be extremely resilient in order to survive the upcoming demands of Tour Divide bikepacking race.

Specifically, Keith is focused on two types of weightlifting workouts.

• Strength Training: This workout structure focuses on low-volume, high-weight compound movements such as back squats, deadlifts, pulls, and presses.
  • These sessions are intended to build muscle strength which will help to increase Keith's pedaling power (i.e. watts per kilogram).
  • Keith performs these exercises two to three times per week.
• Tendon Rehab/Balance Training: This workout structure focuses on isometrics (i.e. weighted, static holds) and single limb compound movements such as lunges, single-leg RDLs, single-arm pushes and pulls, etc.
  • These workouts are completed at a much lower-weight than the strength training workouts.
  • The isometrics aid in restructuring the fibers in Keith's tendons to make them more resilient.
  • The single-limb movements help to correct any muscular imbalances that Keith may have.
  • Keith performs the isometrics nearly every day and the single-leg exercises two to three times per week.

Thin snowpack at Snowbird 😔 🪨

Pray for snow! 🙏❄️ To say the snowpack is thin at Snowbird would be an understatement. During our last visit, only 16 of the 149 runs were open and the runs that were open were littered with rocks. As of writing this post, supposedly 91 of the 149 runs are open but the coverage on those runs has to be terrible since we have received hardly any new snow in the past week.

To make the best of this low snowpack season, we have been sticking to the groomers and practicing our skiing skills (e.g. carving, speed control, etc.). We also took advantage of the warm weather to enjoy a little Après-ski snack party in the parking lot. Special thanks to Stephanie and Brandon for supplying the snacks!

Keith's Christmas training ride 🚴‍♂️ 🎄

Keith has started a new personal Christmas tradition; a nearly 120-mile (193-kilometer) bike ride around Utah Lake! 🤪 Yeah, this is definitely a "Keith doing Keith things" type of tradition. 😆

Prior to this ride, Keith installed a set of Profile Design Brief bar ends at the recommendation of his bike fitter to make him more aerodynamic and comfortable on long rides. Keith also installed a set of Cinelli Anti-Vibration Gel Pads on each touch point and wrapped all of the hand grips in SRAM Supercork bar tape. The bar ends and bar tape worked amazingly well. The combination virtually eliminated all shoulder stress during this nearly 10-hour ride.

Keith leaves our house on his bike in the early morning hours, around 5:30 AM. It is still dark for the first few hours of his ride. He begins the route by heading north to the northern-most part of the lake. He then traverses west until he reaches Saratoga Springs where he stops at the final gas station before heading south on the west side of the lake.

The western side of the lake is pretty remote for about 30 miles (48 kilometers). There are no towns, gas stations, etc. until Keith reaches Utah Highway 6 on the southern end of the lake. From there, he traverses east for a few miles until he reaches a point that he can begin heading north towards the Lake Mountain/Lincoln Beach area of the lake.

The trip around Lake Mountain/Lincoln Beach is by far the most scenic section of the route. This section including breathtaking views of the lake and the mountain as well as the opportunity to see some wildlife, including bald eagles! 🦅 On a clear day, you can see all the way across the lake in every direction.

This leads into the final stages of the route which takes Keith back into civilization just south of Provo, UT. Once Keith reaches Provo, he connects onto the Provo River Parkway Trail which takes him up to the mouth of Provo Canyon. From there, it's mostly all downhill back to our home. Keith didn't get many pictures in this area this year due to intermittent rain showers that required him to stow his phone.

When Keith returned home, Lindsey surprised him with an amazing Christmas gift... a set of compression/recovery boots! These were the perfect tool to help Keith's tired legs start the recovery process. ❤️

Christmas Eve breakfast ☕ 🌯

We haven't been out to dinner in a while so we decided to enjoy a nice Christmas Eve breakfast. We headed to Peace on Earth Coffee in Provo, UT. This is a great local coffee shop that serves delightful coffee drinks, delicious savory food options, and amazing sweet treats! We indulged with huge, 20-oz lattes, a breakfast bowl/burrito, and we shared a scrumptious pecan roll. It was such a nice way to spend the morning together.

Upcoming posts and videos 👷‍ 👷‍♀️️

Lindsey has recently wrapped up a series of posts on our Quick Trip to New York City. If you haven't seen that yet, you should check it out. Lindsey has also started working on the post series from our three-week adventure along the Camino De Santiago, Portuguese Route! Those posts will be published soon. We also have several prior trips that we haven't yet shared, so be sure to subscribe to our blog if you haven't done so already.

We hope that you are enjoying our newsletters. How do you enjoy the winter/holiday season? Do you have any fun holiday activities planned? Let us know in the comments section below.👇 💬