16 action-ready Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k, cleared a community garden and played Exercise Roulette!!

With the monthly Social due we knew we had to work up a proper appetite!

Leaving the warm confines of the E5 Bakehouse we were joined by Goodgym tourist Joel (great name by the way) from Chelmsford for the evening. So with Peter leading the way we gave Joel a guided tour through the Hackney back streets.

A relatively calm but super social 2k run brought us to Chigwell House community garden to a resident-run garden. With the vast majority of residents over 60 we were undertaking an invaluable set of tasks especially in the cold of January.

We split up into multiple groups with complicated plant names and shrub description fresh in our head many of the group decided to go for the safe option and clear the fallen tree branches (ok twigs).

The lure of Sloe Gin in the summer was enough to get Roz and Amie-Jo to take a few risks in their pruning efforts!

Gavin, Rich and Ben worked their magic digging out a Palm tree while saving the Honeysuckle.

Piles of huge branches (twigs) were gathered and shifted on to the compost.

A lot of detangling setting free herbs and bushes later and we had completed a hugely valuable task for all the residents!! Rowena was so happy and looks forward to having us back and maybe toasting a late summer task with a little Slowe Gin!

With a bit more time to play with we ran the Ladder!! Working in Gear 2 (Tempo effort) up the road before cranking it up and smashing out a Gear 3 rep back towards Victoria Park then a walking recovery before we went for it again!! 4 sets of reps later we needed a recovery trot back to the Town Hall for at Anna's request we played Exercise Roulette!! 5 minutes of continuous high octane action with 30 seconds on before the next exercise was chosen blind and we dived straight into that one! Only a small amount of complaining when Gavin fouled up on the dreaded Press-ups and Eva was very unsure with my time keeping on the static wall squats.

A short recovery trot back to base with a few stretches rounded off a top session!!

On went 11 hungry runners to the local Vietnamese restaurant where we ate our way to success with lovely food and even better chat!!

Have a great week!! See you all next Tuesday where we head to Abney Park Cemetery for some more Spooky fun sign up here.

Smooth trails

Joel