MST NS Trail Utrechtse Heuvelrug

Even without an organized trail you can have a great time. This time I went from station Rhenen to station Driebergen-Zeist as preparation for the Airborne Freedom Trail.

Because I have the Castle Trail schrapteAfter all, I had to do some extra training to work towards the 44 km Airborne Freedom Trail. Thursday I had already planned to do this with a station-to-station trail: the Utrechtse HeuvelrugtrailA route of around 30 km, a collaboration between Mud Sweat Trails and the NS, scored the highest points. After a mailing from the Airborne Freedom Trail, who also recommended this route as training, the plan was fixed if the weather was good.

As a non-car driver, I am a great fan of easily accessible trails. Therefore, I am a real fan of the station-to-station routes that Han Savelkoel has created for NS and MST. The competition with the start- and finishphoto is not so important to me, I'm not fast enough for that (this route can be done in under 2 hours), but from earlier runs I know that the routes are varied and consist of asphalt for at most a few percent. I already walked Kennemerland, Brabantse Vennen (with Hans Verbeek in the snow) and Dieren-Arnhem.

Not sticky

As I dropped earlier, I'm currently experimenting with Generation Ucan, a sports drink based on ‘superstarch’ that slowly releases carbohydrates. This should keep blood sugars more stable. My plan was to bring three sachets: two with protein because the stomach reacts well to it, and a plain exotic orange which I would drink most of beforehand. I mixed all the drinks and put them in my own soft flasks. I also had 1.5 litres of water in a water bag. Even though the temperature is lower, in 3-4 hours of walking you need to drink a lot.

In the subway I already had the idea that my backpack was getting a bit wet. Probably not dried off properly, I thought. In the train, however, there was a small puddle underneath (apologies NS, luckily it is not as sticky as real sports drinks). After some investigating it turned out that the right softflask did not seal well. That one contained the most water, 500 ml… So drinking that one in one go instead of the orange variant (350 ml) was not something I wanted to do. Just when I thought that I had to empty and pour these – in a moving train – I thought that swapping the caps would possibly help because one bag had just a different shape. Oef… Surely there is a difference in the bottles I have from my Raidlight Responsiv 10 L versus those of the 12 L (successor).

After three quarters of the way through the orange drink, fifteen minutes later the blood sugar was 8.4 mmol/l. Ready for the start.

Timekeeper

Traditionally, you start and end the trail with a picture of a station clock. This is the proof of your time. Of course the watch is also on, showing me the way during the trail. Because the gpx wasn't set up correctly, I left 10 minutes after the train arrived. Still nice that with Movescount you can delete routes on the way for space and add them. A warning when the synchronization goes wrong would be even better, but I should have been aware of that myself.

I really could not find another path, even though I walked at least 15 m from the line for a long time.

For those who have never walked on gpx before: it's pretty easy, only sometimes the GPS is wrong. That's why it's sometimes difficult to see which path you should take if there are several paths close together. Especially if the route wasn't pre-routed, but determined using distance measuring and similar services. Again, I went wrong every now and then, which made me do a little more mileage. Especially to the start, as I overlooked a step.

Shuffle on

After an hour or so, I felt my blood sugar was not quite up to par. Because I was going to measure it a few times anyway, I stopped. Indeed 3.8 mmol/l, too low and that after a quiet hour. Again I feel doubts about Ucan. I grab a nougat, a gel and empty one of the protein bottles. Fortunately, at no point during this run do I feel my blood sugars drop so low that running is impossible. But only Ucan is not for me.

A good half hour later I take another gel, despite the spacious 6 and so I slowly buffalo on. In total I finish my three Ucans, take two nougats and three gels. On a total time of 4.5 hours (4 moves) that is only 1 gel per bag of Ucan less. Still, this is still worth considering if it doesn't send me too far into hypo. But Ucan is also expensive.

That's what we do it for

Along the way I really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. Once in a while I met some mountainbikers or hikers. Except for a running group at the beginning, I have seen maybe 6 runners (only 2 with racing vest) during those 33+ km. It was great just to enjoy the nature. And now and then listening to a Stephen Fry heroic story.

All in all a successful training for the AFT. The legs got a bit tired, but they functioned fine. In the middle part, I walked the worst, probably because I messed up with the food. Actually, above expectations after the 50 km Me-Mover of Friday.

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