27 of us gathered on this Chinese New Year to get fit by doing some good. And there was lots of new stuff:

New Sign In Sheets

After being stuck in traffic for over two hours Simon started worrying that he wasn't going to make it by 18.45, but a few texts to the brilliant taskforce and the brilliant Camden trainer Paul meant that everybody had their sign in sheets ready on time. Phew.

New People

Welcome to newcomers Max, Will and Debbie. Hope you enjoyed your first outing with us.

New Warm Up

Although the wind had died down it was pretty chilly, so with we began the evening with some high knee challenges.

• 1) Walking high knees. Aaaah, nice and easy
• 2) Running high knees. A classic, and gets the heart pumping nicely. Faster ... faster ... FASTER!
• 3) Coordinated high knees. Three mini steps and then a high knee. Oo-er.
• 4) Play time. Run high knees and stop and balance on command. Wobble wobble wobble. Harder than it sounds. Winner of this challenge was Claire.

New PBs

Patrick and Frances both got PBs at Highbury Fields parkrun on Saturday. Congratulations.

New Years

Simon and Frances celebrated their birthdays over the last week and were seeing in their own personal New Years. Lots of lovely comments such as "You look older" (Simon to Frances) and "You look worn out" (Sarah to Simon).

New Taskforce

Joining the current team of Caroline, Patrick and Steve this evening were new taskforcers Aidan and Graham who led a longer faster group to and from our ...

New Task

After a brief run and a longer run (slightly longer than expected) we met Anna at Thornhill Square Gardens. Our first team tooled up with wheelbarrows, buckets and spades and got stuck in to three piles of mulch that needed spreading. And the next group tooled up with gloves, headtorches and secateurs to set about de-brambling (by yanking, tearing, snipping, lopping and digging) around the garden. We got loads done and Anna is extremely grateful for our work. Hopefully we'll be back soon to even more mulch and good cheer.

New Paarlauf

There was a little break from work for some to get involved in a high knees paarlauf around the centre of the garden. It was of course a race, but I think everybody will agree that the real winner was our hip flexors.

New Biscuits

Due to the pesky traffic Simon didn't have a chance to pick up biscuits on the way over! There were a few worries that we might be mistaken for GG Camden, or worse GG Hackney, so superstar Caroline ran off to find some Chinese biscuits for us. She didn't manage Chinese, but got the next best thing: Party Rings. Graham got a mutant one where the icing had filled in the hole in the middle. Lucky sod.

New Debate

With all this traffic it seemed appropriate to discuss something road-related. Should there be markings on roads? Beth told a story of how they'd tried this in Cheshire and her first hand experience of it meant she was perfectly positioned to say it shouldn't be done. Put to the vote at the end of the night only three thought it was a good idea. Crazy or revolutionary?

New Recipe

Sarah made a lovely birthday cake. The lucky few that were left post stretches had good old nom. Thank you, Sarah. That even makes up for the "worn out" comment.

New Trainer

Well, sort of. Simon's away next week, so Hackney-ite Joel is filling in to take everybody up to Caxton House There's an old playground floor to be ripped up among other things

See you soon,

Simon