13 runners ran 7k to garden and dig for patchwork farm and gardens

One by one the GoodGymers gathered in London Fields last night to do two physical tasks, 3.5km away in Stoke Newington. It was a nice mix of new and old faces. Good to know we'd not scared Simon off with the tough run last week, and it was lovely to welcome Laura, Alison, Jo and Jake on their first GoodGym Hackney run!

All running abilities were represented last night, and the group naturally split into 3 groups on the gentle run there. We ran north along leafy residential streets avoiding the traffic - first to St Paul's Church and then 1km on to Kynaston Gardens.

At St Paul's, with Niall the Rector, the team set about making the plant beds tidy with shovels, brushes and pickers - digging and sweeping mud and leaves and picking litter off the paths.

At Kynaston, with Sean the Patchwork Farmer, the GoodGymers jumped into the trenches to dig and bag low grade and to dig and distribute mulch onto the developing patch.

It was core core core all the way last night! Whether you were shovelling, brushing, digging, or bagging all your core muscles had to work to lift, bend and rotate your torso and stopping it from doing too much.

Who needs the boring old gym to develop a core of steel! These kind of every day tasks are effective in engaging loads of different muscle fibres in the core (at the same time) to help keep you stable and strong when moving. Feeling it today?

With the different running levels in mind, we split again into 3 groups for the run home (led my Lauren, Jasmine and Jason / Thomas). Following on from a running Gear session we did a couple of weeks ago, we ran at tempo speed. With 2 a bit miles back, people ran hard enough so they started to breath heavier (than on a normal run) and could only eek out the odd short sentence.

It took us between 9.24 and 19 minutes to run back to Coffee Is My Cup and Tea, and I can vouch little was said along the way.

Nice workout everyone, and see you next week!

Ade Aboaba (GoodGym Hackney Trainer)