Nine runners, five kilometres, three jobs, one happy Wednesday evening!

• Loaaaads of news for you this week. Up for a community mission this weekend? You don't need to be DBS checked for this one. Come and help paint an at-risk scout hut in Putney on Sunday. For all the details sign up here.

• GoodGym is changing the way missions to help older people with one-off practical tasks are set up. Missions will now be listed on the GoodGym website with a description of the task, location and a selection of times. Don't forget to set up your mission preferences to receive mission alerts based on your location and availability.

• It's the GoodGym monthly long run this sunday! With two different pace groups, a lovely 15k route, and the promise of food and drinks to refuel afterwards, if you're in training for something specific, or you just want to get some miles under your belt, then sign up here.

• A huge congratulations to Fiona who smashed the Hampton Court half this weekend, and to Andy who got a PB at parkrun. Lovely running you guys!

Broom for improvement

After a warm up featuring heel flicks, high knees, hip flexor stretches and skips, we had a quick chat about the tips we would give a newcomer to London. With the vast majority featuring travel hacks, such as checking out the real distances between tube stops, making sure you're in the right spot for the tube doors to open, working outside of London, and cycling rather than tube or bussing, we certainly know our way round the capital!

It was a 2.4 km run down to Waterman's, so we set off at a nice steady pace keeping the group together and stopping for a breather at the world's worst set of traffic lights (or best...depending on how much you wanted a break from the running!). Our job was at this independent arts charity whose aim is to enrich local lives through art and creativity. It is a social enterprise so all profits are ploughed back into the organisation to help it achieve its aim. It costs a lot to run the building though, so they asked us to come and do a few jobs around the centre to help out.

After arriving we split up into three groups to tackle the various tasks. So, armed with tools and gloves, Natasha, Emily and Fiona hit the top deck to weed the welcome area, Remy, Andy and Jon took on the riverside space, and Eloise and Matt tackled the overgrown shrubs and bushes in the carpark. After half an hour of hard work the centre was looking a lot tidier, so well done on some tremendous efforts.

We took a slightly speedier run back to base, and arriving near the town hall to find we were just 400m short of 5km, we decided to do a quick speed drill. So dividing up into pairs, we took on a circuit of the common with a gear change half way. Then it was just a little jog back to the hall with a nice 5km done for the evening. The fun wasn't over there though as we still had our plank blast to do! Changing between various planks which we held for 30 seconds at a time, we knocked out five minutes of tough ab exercises - and as we know, a strong core is essential for good running form and to prevent injury.

Next week we're off to Cultivate London, an urban farm and social enterprise in West London which trains unemployed young people in horticulture and transforms disused space into plant nurseries. It's going to be a good one! Sign up here for all the Wednesday fun.