We were two-tasking it again this evening, and really putting the ‘earth’ into Earth Hour on both our tasks.

A secondary SOS task to Cranbrook Community Food Garden

In an eleventh hour addition to our planned activity, task force member Becky J headed up a splinter group of four to one of our longest standing, favourite tasks, Cranbrook Community Food Garden. Writes Becky, “Just a mini detour en route to Cranbrook this evening, as fellow Task Force member Bryon challenged me to attempt navigating our route without assistance (always a challenge...). This added just one small loop to the run, but I'm all in favour of a little extra (accidental) mileage.

On arrival at the garden, we witnessed Storm Gareth had indeed left a trail of destruction in his wake, felling a tree and damaging fencing in the process. Bryon and Eimear set to work removing twigs from a boundary fence, while Tom and I began the tricky task of untangling climbing plants from a now broken trellis, before pulling down the arch.

Having successfully achieved this, (and, btw, saving a tree we feared may have to be pulled up in the process), we were then presented with a flat pack replacement arch (turns out flat pack instructions are easier in daylight, with a mug of strong coffee, than in a dark garden, deciphered under torchlight alone).

But Bryon and Eimear joined us and together we got the arch standing, just in time to pose for a couple of pics alongside our evening’s handiwork.”

Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue indeed.

Potting at Parkview

Meanwhile, I headed up the Parkview crew who were Glasshouse-bound to this most wonderful community hall on the Parkview Estate. Task owner Catherine met us with two tasks – potting bee-friendly plants and leafleting for the upcoming Spring Fayre - leaving no preparation stone unturned as she presented a proposed plant production line of such efficiency, the likes of which I’ve never seen before; ditto leafleting instructions (think hand drawn maps of the estate).

Two leaflet teams were dispatched onto the estate's many blocks, while the plant-potters, headed up by Luke, and initially Dave (who was then demoted to deputy by young Connie, who joined from the Parkview residents team to instruct on best plant-handling practice) grouped in two different areas of the hall.

It was a race to the finish, but by the time we left all 800 plants had been potted, and the area swept and scrubbed down. Wow.

Tempo run and tree pose

And so we headed to Victoria Park, led by Steve, for some fabulous speedwork headed up by both Tom and Steve, and finishing with a couple of resistance exercises.

And then it was back to our beautiful hotel base, where we were lucky enough to have Christina, a regular runner and qualified yoga teacher, lead us through some fabulous yoga stretches to finish.

Another totally neat night. More missions awesomely accomplished. More thoroughly relieved and appreciative task owners. Well. Done. You.

Monday shout-out’s

A very big shout out to tonight's first time runners, Ridwan, Anais and Eirini – thanks for making such a huge contribution on your first run, and we hope to see you really soon.

And thank you to Becky, for enabling the second task to happen, and for kind of saving the day and for taking some great pics, and writing the report.

Now, don’t forget, we’re doing it all again on Saturday when task force member Bryon leads up a brand new gardening task in E3 – yes, we’re putting the ‘earth’ back into Earth Hour for the second time this week. More details and sign up are here.

Have a brilliant week, won't you all, and hope to see you very soon.

40 runners, 40 degrees…

40 runners gathered in a rather warm hotel room tonight, eagerly catching up on news, meeting fellow new runners – and expressing a strong desire to head outside to cooler temperatures. And so we promptly gathered on the steps of the hotel to run through our intros, and to greet tonight’s new runners, and welcome Rob, our new Solihull trainer, who’s very excitingly set to launch GG Solihull in the next few weeks.

Lean, mean cleaning machines

With tonight’s new task being just a short run from base, we soon arrived at Oxford House, a much loved, exceptionally well established community arts centre just by Weavers Fields. Sarah, our wonderful task owner, was well prepped for tonight’s task: a mammoth cleaning operation to prepare the entire centre for phase II, the decorating, of its extensive overhaul. Teams were dispatched all over the building: to the ramps for chewing gum-scraping; to the ramp railings for grime-blitzing; to the bar, gallery and stairwells for sugar-soaping walls and to the stairways for skirting board cleaning.

The work was tough going: cloths were left threadbare, walls were scrubbed (“We feel like we’re not making a difference, Laura”. “But you are, you are – there’s less grime, honest.”) It was a journey: of stoicism, strength - and sugar soap.

A January fitness session…

And then it was a task-wrap as buckets were emptied, cloths rinsed, floors swept and hoovered (thank you, Liam) and we were meeting in the beautiful theatre space for 20 minutes of balance and strength work. The runners’ faces were as usual a picture: the grimaces would make brilliant GIFs, let me tell you, but they got the work done – again. Obliques were obliterated; hamstrings hurt (in a good way); teeth gritted for glute-rinsing, and 2019 cores carved. Way to go.

And so we headed back to the hotel, for a final stretch and a cheerio, and chatting about the exciting things we’ve got coming up in the next couple of weeks...

What. A. Night.

A huge GG Tower Hamlets shout-out to our first time runners and visitors

Tonight we were joined by first time runners, Hannah, Matthew, Claire, Louise, Shweta, Jo, Emma and Rob.

Thanks for helping to make the night such a huge success – for all your hard work, and big smiles, and for getting so stuck in on your first run. We really hope to see you again very soon.

Thank you to Rob, obviously by no means new, just new to us, who was such an asset to last night’s task: for the chatter, the energy, the input, the ferocious guarding of the sign-in sheet and meticulous timekeeping.

And a massive thank you and big appreciation from the group to our utterly wonderful task force again this week. Behind the scenes of an operation like tonight, there’s actually a lot of careful planning, all assisted and supported by our truly wonderful task force, who are on board from the off, with everything from route-planning, backmarking, new-runner greeting - to reassuring a wide-eyed trainer just before the run…

We’re pub-quizzing on Sunday!

Talking of which, our latest task force member, Becky G, is also our new parkrun co-ordinator! Big, big hip hooray. So don’t forget, on Sunday we’ll be joining forces with the brilliant Mile End parkrun pub quizzers, at The Coborn in Bow, from 7pm – the more the merrier, so do sign up here if you fancy swapping trainers for trivia this weekend, and hanging out with some friendly faces.

...And we're doing it all again next Monday

Don’t forget - we’re back at Oxford House next week, when we’re lucky enough to be finishing the task with a Yoga for Runners workshop led by Emma Hopkinson. I’d seriously consider being part of the fun if I were you, so check it out here.

Right, that’s it from me for this week. Have a really great week, everyone - I hope January has started well for you - and we’ll see you very soon.

A good-sized group!

What a turnout for our last group run of 2018! A great sized group of us made our way at a speedy pace to our favourite city farm just over a mile away from our hotel meeting point.

Ha y & herding

On arrival, task owner Tom wasted no time in telling the team what was expected: mucking out the goat pen and herding goats. As you would expect in the middle of East London. And what fun it was.

The teams completed tasks ahead of time as usual, and so proceeded to the second pen to do the same all over again. Floors were swept, bins emptied, hay wheeled and piled high into compost bays, goats herded (sort of - they did nearly escape despite being surrounded by 28 runners. #YouHadOneJob).

We were all soon gathering for tonight's fitness session, The Great GoodGym Glute Off, where Chi and I led the runners through a fine selection of glute exercises leaving no buttock area untouched. The runners performed amazingly, none more so than Alfie, who effortlessly whizzed through speedy reps of pistol squats putting even the most decent of our infinitely shallow-er single leg squats to shame.

And then we congregated in the barn where Tom suggested a nice position on a neighbouring ledge, the other side of the stable, for he & I to take a couple of pics. After some nail-biting gate-climbing, we were soon perched on, well, the wall, it seemed, but we got some good pics.

We then promptly said our cheerios and headed back to the hotel, where Chi had brilliantly brought a selection of some of the finest spirits for us to savour alongside Sarah's delicious mince pies.

This week’s shout-outs

So a great big hello, and welcome, to Pistol Squat King Alfie,whose first GG run it was, and a massive hello to Debs and Paul, who joined us while visiting from Bristol. Lovely to see you both.

Thanks to Chi for delivering a fab fitness session, and for organising and supplying the most post-fitness fun we’ve had in a long time.

Thanks to Leanne for backmarking this evening, and a big thank you to everyone who brought food and snacks for tonight’s social.

And so to 2019

...when we'll be kicking off the New Year with a brand new task! Details are here.

Until then, have the happiest of Christmases, a wonderful rest, and I really hope to see you in the New Year.

21 runners on a damp December evening

A good-sized group headed back to The Royal London today to get stuck into a variety of very different tasks...

Perfect planning by Barts Volunteers team

Wonderful planning in advance by Nancy, and her team Marufa and Bernadette, meant that every last bit of kit and supervision was ready to go by the time we arrived.

A whopping FIVE tasks!

Nancy took 6 runners off to the volunteers office to give it a much needed coat of paint, while Marufa took 4 runners to various wards to hand out newspapers to patients. Bernadette took 4 runners back to the dementia wards, where the lucky runners, who'd previously completed the training at the hospital, got to chat and sing to appreciative patients. A fourth group of 4 runners were tasked with wrapping a hefty 26 staff presents.

It wasn't long before the reliable, productive runners had completed all tasks well ahead of time. The present-wrappers and paper-distributors gathered outside the volunteers office and proceeded to get stuck into an impromptu litter-pick. This task was soon hijacked by Chi, who kindly stepped in to offer a fitness session. Gloves were temporarily removed and the runners wasted no time in hitting the wet tarmac for the ultimate ab attack.

Great British Squat Off

And then we were gathering in reception for our cheerio pics, and another impromptu fitness session: while the runners queued for some last minute form filling-in, Chi and I challenged the team to a Squat Off ("Whose squat version is tougher - mine or Chi's?") and then we were racing back to base for some final stretching, tonight targeting psoas and biceps femoris.

What a night! What productivity! What a smiley, energising start to the week!

Thank you’s and shout-out’s…

Fantastic to have new runners Harriet and Laura join us this evening – well done for accomplishing so much on your first run, and we really hope to see you very, very soon.

Thanks to Chi for leading our impromptu abs fitness session on the steps of the volunteers building, and for tonight's wickedly cool pun.

And congratulations to task force member Leanne who hit 50 good deeds (two weeks ago…ahem).

Take a look at our exciting December line-up…

We've got some brilliant additional activities lined up for you to get involved with this month...

• We're making lanterns for the Aldgate Winter Parade, with Aldgate Community Events, this Wednesday evening, from 6.45pm. Task force member Becky is leading this, and the details are here,

• ...while on Sunday afternoon I’m heading to Cranbrook Community Food Garden from 3-5 to give a hand clearing leaves in advance of a big bulb delivery (and we’ve been invited to their Christmas party, which is happening on the same day). Details and sign-up for that are here.

• Meanwhile, next Monday sees us heading to our last trip of the year at Weavers Adventure Playground, where no doubt Alex will have us tearing our hair out with various furniture-building tasks, while Danny will be leading the HIP HIP HOORAY workout at the end of the task, so do come and show your hip flexors some love in this strength and flexibility session. Sign up today to come and be part of our penultimate Monday run of the year!

Okay, that's it from me this week. Have a great week, everyone, and really hope to see you soon.

21 keen runners...

We had a good sized team of 21 heading out tonight.

Painting SOS

Task force member Sarah, and runners Nikki and Eimear, came to the rescue yesterday (thanks to you all for being such a fabulous bunch for always getting back to me and the task owners on a Sunday, btw) and formed a breakaway party who were heading back to The Glasshouse Community Centre at the Parkview Estate to help finish the painting we started in the office last week. Task owner Catherine was just over the moon we were able to send in the troops at the eleventh hour again, and was delighted with what you accomplished this evening.

Feelgood farmyard

The remaining 18 runners headed to Stepney City Farm where task owner Charlie had a great variety of tasks for us. One team was dispatched to the donkey stable to muck-out, while another crew emptied and shifted bins, and another larger posse assembled in the outside shop and café area to undertake a big leaf-clearing operation. For 50 minutes the runners worked unbelievably hard, wheeling hay to the compost area, sweeping their socks off and lugging oversized bins from one side of the farm to another. It really was a GoodGym special as they sped through the tasks.

It wasn’t long before Charlie was leading the donkey team out to the field to bring the donkeys back in, and the whole team assembled in the stable for a little bit of background on the beautiful beasts.

COREporal punishment

And then we were gathering in the classroom where Danny had prepared a totally brilliant core session, that involved partner exercises and a smashing bit of teamwork. The runners retained their good cheer, buoyed on by Dharmesh’s Pokemon socks, and the unbelievably impressive plank-off which left Dharmesh and Becky G battling it out. Impressive stuff folks.

And then we were gathering for our last pics and cheerio to Charlie, who saw us all off with his signature high-five (and some music tonight) and we sped back to base.

Thank you’s - and welcome!

Welcome to Lucy and Carol who joined us on their first GoodGym run. It was really fabulous to have you with us tonight, and we hope to see you very soon.

Thanks to Sarah for heading up the Parkview operation tonight – the day saved yet again by our wonderful task force – and to Nikki and Eimear for joining her, and to Becky G and Bryon who were so willing to go too.

Thanks to Danny for our fabulous fitness session, and for some fantastic backmarking tonight too.

And, you have Dave, and Si to thank for tonight’s splendid pun.

The rest of the week – and next week…

Right that’s nearly it for this week folks, apart from reminding you that this Saturday is the GoodGym Christmas party, at The Old Library in beautiful Burgess Park in South London from 7pm, and for which the fancy dress theme is the first letter(s) of your GoodGym area. Please, please sign up if you’re going. And don’t forget to pay your £4 too! All details are here.

Next week, we’re back with Nancy and the team at the Royal London - check out the details and sign up here.