Two first timers tonight with GoodGym Cardiff (Mawgaine and Louise!), made to feel very welcome and at home with the group regulars, so after some document checks and group catch ups we headed outside into the building site that is the seasonal market stalls. This was going to be a great test run for how warm ups will work once the market stalls open up in a few days….

So we braved the evening chill and took to the street, just down from our usual setting.

We're making GoodGym Cardiff History tonight folks!

Tonight we made Goodgym Cardiff History by breaking into groups and delivering on tasks for two different organisations. Mikey introduced himself, for the first official time and talked about one task whilst Ben talked about the other.

As it was his first time Mikey thought he’d try a new warm up dubbed ‘The Circle’, the group got themselves into (yes you guessed it) a circle. Then whilst jogging on the spot listened out for different commands; 1. Open the Circle (jog backwards stretching arms out until touching each other) 2. Close the Circle (jog inwards stretching arms upwards) 3. Drop the Circle (arms remain as they are whilst going into a squat position) 4. SPIN (run on the spot, as fast as you can)

Quite a strange sensation being inside the circle whilst all of this was going on……. Once all warm, we split into our groups;

• 11 runners with Ben leading to the Grangetown Hub: Ben, Emma, Lowri, Daz, Louise, Su, Fiona, Lydia, Claire, Mawgaine and Stuart.
• 7 runners with Mikey leading to the Samye Foundation; Runners helping at Samye: Adam, Jack, Lucy, Tom, Emma, Lorena, Eleri and Mikey.

THE GRANGETOWN COMMUNITY HUB COMBINED WITH KEEP WALES TIDY - Written by Ben

Ben led 11 runners to the Grangetown hub. The route took runners down St Marys Street, past Wales Millenium Stadium and alongside the River Taff where Ben encoruaged everyone to work on their pacing skills (He instructed everyone to run at a pace that they could maintain for approximately half a km). With everyone was now breathing quite heavily, and after a short run at a slightly slower pace to recover, we arrived at Grangetown Hub.

Hello all you healthy people

There to greet us was Lorna from Keep Wales Tidy and one of the domestic staff called Lux who works at Grangetown Community hub. With smiles on their faces we felt very welcome. We divided into two groups. One group would be working on spurcing up the hub, cleaning windows, clearing the weeds from the car park and litter picking (let's call these the Hub Sprucer uppers). The other runners then took to the streets and took part in vigorous litter picking (Let's call these runners the Litterally Lovely Litter pickers).

Runners had half an hour to get as much done as they could! Lowri and Louise were armed with cloths, buckets and window cleaning fluid. They took to the task straight away without a moment to lose - They were a glass act! - If they entered a window cleaning competition they would've smashed it.

Fiona and Lydia got to weeding the car park. They were both having weedly good fun!

Claire, Daz, Su, Emma, Stuart and Mawgaine went litter picking crazy! They manage to bag over 6 bags full of rubbish - No, I am not talking rubbish... they actually did!

After 30 minutes time was up... REGROUP!!!! We gathered together for a group photo in front of the Hub - Although we did have to drag Darren away from litter picking as he was engrossed in the task having so much fun. Thank you to Lowri who was projecting our portable floodlight onto the front of the building in order to capture 'the perfect shot'!

Thank you GoodGym Cardiff runners!

Lorna thank us for our help litter picking in the Granegtown area and Lux also thanked the runners for their efforts too. The Grangetown Hub looks beautiful once more!

On the way back Stuart backmarked (You did a sterling job of it Stuart!) and Ben led with some assistance from Darren. Making sure everyone had a good workout, Ben got runners doing some interval sprints, 90% effort sprin followed by a 20% effort recovery run x 3.

THE SAMYE FOUNDATION RUNNERS - Written by Mikey

We went our separate ways, as ever Emma offering to back mark for us as Lucy and Jack took up the front. Jogging on the spot as we were stopped by traffic lights, Mikey decided to put a few extras in with triceps dips later followed by step ups. Everyone was on great form and we made brilliant time arriving at the foundation and waving at John through the window as we ran into the car park.

Now on our Sixth visit, the Samye Foundation has started to feel like a home from home. So after a little welcome everyone scooped up their tools and began the excavation, with the trusty ‘fork’ of depth being used as a measure of how far we had to dig down.

Like an assembly, line buckets were filled, Eleri did a sterling job of emptying them into the wheelbarrow before running it down to the ‘mindful mound’ of dirt in the back yard that we have been creating over the past month. Adam then took over duties of the wheelbarrow, as the rest of the group started to sink into the trench. At the back, Emma found herself ‘ditched’ and so unable to hide from photos tonight, secretly she loved it. Mikey certainly found it difficult not to ‘muck’ in, but took the opportunity to get chatting to John about the mindfulness half day that was so kindly offered to the GoodGymers - Already lots of us have signed up to attend. With the time going fast there was one last ditch effort to remove just that bit more dirt and put away the spades. As the work was so intensive we decided to concentrate more on the task tonight and run straight back. Unbeknown to the group, the lovely staff had once again put on a bit of a spread, with melon, chocolate biscuits, crisps and water to rehydrate. So after a bit more of a break than anticipated, the group finally began a nice direct run back to Yr Hen Lyfrgell.

We did a warm down and reflected on the evening's run - We all had a fun time!

NB. Louise who joined GoodGym Cardiff tonight found out about GG Cardiff through Lexi, who now runs with GG Bristol - Lexi, your red lace is ready and waiting for you to come and collect when you next run with us :)

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