Weekly Newsletter: May 20th-26th, 2024

This week was Keith's 44th birthday! 🥳 Keith also started physical therapy for his knee and we attended our first ever Sheepdog competition. 🐑

Check out our new posts and videos 🆕 🎥 📝

Utah Adventures With A Friend: Part 5

Yi visits us in Utah to hike, bike, and adventure. This is part 5 of the multi-part series.

Keith and LindseyLindsey Huster

Happy birthday, Keith! 🎂 🥳

Monday was Keith's 44th birthday! We celebrated his birthday last weekend since it's not as much fun to celebrate on a Monday. If you missed it, check out last week's newsletter to see how we celebrated.

Physical therapy for Keith's knee 👨‍⚕️ 🏋️

In the spirit of "Keith doing Keith things", Keith scheduled his first physical therapy appointment for his patellar tendon pain on his birthday! 🤪 His sports doctor, Dr. Craig Chappell, suggested that Keith perform his physical therapy at American Fork Physical Therapy (AFPT) in American Fork, UT. Dr. Chappell recommended this specific physical therapy since they have a focus on "return to sport" rather than just basic mobility.

The appointment started with a basic physical assessment of Keith's mobility and muscle strength. This was to check for any potential weaknesses or impingements that may have led to the patellar tendon pain. Fortunately, Keith's mobility was quite good and his muscle strength was generally strong.

After the physical assessment, Keith's knee was warmed up using a heated, weighted blanket along with a Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) machine to loosen up any tightness in his patellar tendon. This was followed by a round of patellar tendon scraping using the Graston Technique. Scraping is used to force blood flow into the tendon to help aid in healing. This assistance is important since tendons do not typically get a lot of blood flow on their own.

Finally, Keith was given a set of strength-building exercises to perform. These exercises will help to correct any muscle weaknesses in Keith's legs as well as apply some controlled stress to the patellar tendon itself. Keith will be performing these exercises in the physical therapy office and also at home.

Getting back to daily walks 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️

The beautiful spring conditions are the perfect time of the year for strolling around the neighborhood. We both enjoy these walks as they allow us to spend a little time outdoors and catch up on what's going on with one another. We even walked all the way out to our local coffee shop one afternoon. Walking is also important to Keith's patellar tendon pain recovery as it is a low-impact activity that works nearly every muscle in his legs.

Lindsey doesn't track her walks as often as Keith does so we don't have exact statistics for her. However, Keith does track every single walk (of course he does). According to Keith's Strava account, he walked a total of 15.8 miles (25.4 kilometers) this week.

Attending a Sheepdog competition 🐑 🐕

Utah is home to many unusual sporting events. This week, we discovered the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship and Festival. This festival demonstrates and celebrates the skills of herding dogs. The event grounds consisted of a main sheep herding area along a beautiful hillside, two smaller demonstration arenas, and several food trucks.

The smaller arenas were used to show off an assortment of demonstrations including a dog agility course, police K9 demonstrations, and duck herding. 🦆 Yep, duck herding is actually a thing... who knew?!?

The main sheep herding area consisted of several acres of ground along a hillside. Each herding dog was tasked with first running up the hill to locate the small herd of sheep. Once they located the sheep, the dog was to follow the command whistles from their owner to route the sheep through a set of sparsely located gates along the hillside.

Eventually, the dog brought the sheep down to the bottom of the hill and into a designated circle. Once in the circle, the dog was tasked with splitting the herd into two and then recombining the herd. Finally, the dog pushed the sheep into a small pen which completed the event.

It was so impressive to watch these specialized herding dogs work. Their instincts and abilities to maneuver the herd of sheep were amazing. Sheep herding isn't our typical type of activity but it was definitely fun and informative to get to experience this event.

Preparing for a professional bike fit 🚵‍♂️ 📐

In order to start preparation for the 2025 Tour Divide, Keith has decided to get a professional bike fit. He scheduled a bike fit with Chris Yeager at Peak State Fit in Salt Lake City, UT on June 11th. Peak State Fit uses the latest Retul Bike Fitting technology to accurately fit riders to their bikes and their intended riding styles. This bike fit will help to minimize the likelihood of another training injury.

Prior to the bike fit, Keith needed to remove the remainder of his bikepacking bags and do some much-needed maintenance work on his bike. Specifically, from all of the training rides over the past year, his entire drivetrain was worn out. This means replacing the front chainring, rear cassette, rear derailleur pulleys, and chain. This maintenance will ensure his bike is in good working order for the bike fitting and future training rides.

Getting ready for the beach! 🏖️ 😎

Next week at this time, we will be on the beach in Gulf Shores Alabama! This will be our first true beach vacation in quite a few years. We are really looking forward to meeting up with Lindsey's family and enjoying some much-needed relaxation on the beach.

Upcoming posts and videos 👷‍ 👷‍♀️️

Lindsey has wrapped up the series of posts on Yi's visit to Utah. We 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. Do you have any examples of sports unique to your state/region? Have you ever been to a sheep herding demonstration before? Have you ever had a Retul bike fitting? If so, did you think it was worth the high price tag? Let us know in the comments section below.👇 💬