I’m getting ready for the “Beyond Hope” 400km ride with the BC Randonneurs cycling club. This will be my second 400km ride and will be my first night start. The ride will start in Vancouver at 9pm, taking me east beyond the city of Hope (ergo the rides name) and up, up , up to the Manning Park Resort. Then I’ll turn around and return to Vancouver. My last 400 took me 23 hours and change. I’m telling myself that the added elevation of this ride, minus the weight I’ve lost in the last year should result in something close to 24 hours of riding. I’ll have a maximum of 27 so we’ll see how things go.

One thing I will be trying out this time is Paceline’s Chamois Butt’r so we’ll see if that makes for a more pleasant ride. The weather is looking rather wet and that usually makes the skin more irritable. Hopefully the Butt’r does its thing.

I’ll also be testing the longevity of my Nokia E71 battery life as I’ll have it tracking my progress via GPS. All I need to do is remember to turn in on at the start, something I failed to do on the last 300km ride.