Back from break.

I got back from a week off. It was really nice to catch up on sleep. I was probably getting 8-9 hours each night, which was unheard of for me since sometime last spring.

Not a whole lot of news. Cranksgiving was fun. I ended up retiring early with 8 of 12 items because my chain was popping. I had geared down from 48x15 to 42x15, and must have not popped a pin in the chain in correctly. I was riding to the first stop, and felt and heard the chain give a bit. I took it easy from then on. The last thing I wanted was to snap the chain going up one of those big hills in DM and go chest-first into my stem. I already did that once this year, and didn't want to repeat it.

My chain ended up breaking off as I was riding back to Mars Cafe from a "study" session at The Library, a little dive bar near the Drake campus.

I got a few hours on the bike in at home in Minnesota, but lacked the proper gear to ride around in 20 degree weather.

Oh, I got a new saddle for my 'cross bike. I went with a white Specialized Toupe. It's super light and has good build quality. I got it for a decent price; all Specialized saddles were 20% off at a bike shop in MN.

I had four Thanksgiving meals on Thursday, which was awesome. Plus I grabbed about 2 meals worth of leftovers to consume later in Ames.

I have three weeks of hell now. I didn't get much of anything done over break. Got a quiz, test, and lab due this week, two labs due next week, senior design paper and presentation, and a final exam. It'll be pretty hectic.

I am also planning on doing the TransIowa Tune Up on December 8th. It's a 108 mile gravel loop. Should be a good gauge as to how much preparation I have to do for TI.