A Bed Every Night Charity supports people who are sleeping rough or at risk of doing so. It is a cross-sector, pan-Greater Manchester service that comes with a clear philosophy that everyone should have somewhere safe to stay.

A Bed Every Night has supported more than 3,000 people and pioneered improved access to health and housing. It has contributed to a reduction in rough sleeping of 67% over four years.

To support funding for the charity, each year in Manchester, a 24 Hour run is held and particpants' miles are donated to raise much needed support for the charity and those it helps.

Each year, GoodGym Stockport lace up our trainers, switch our group run day to a Wednesday and run 5km to help to raise money and awareness of this local and worthy charity.

This year, running clubs from far and wide collaborated, both in person and virtually for this annual occasion.

We got out in the cold, brisk night and bagged a respectable 18km for the charity.

Same again next year!

This week 16 marvellous GoodGym-ers ran 2.5km to move logs for Martin Primary.

We were joined by three GG newbies: Vicky, Gemma and Alice – give them a cheer!

This week's run comes hot on the heels of Race the Neighboours, where N2 took on N10 – but more importantly, where GG Barnet took on GG Haringey. Massive congrats to the team who WON, with Damian managing a ridiculously impressive time of 48 minutes something. Check out the race report here.

We started off this evening's run with a gentle jog down to Cherry Tree Wood for a quick warm up full of skipping, running and dynamic stretching to get the joints and muscles ready for the task ahead. Task Force Freya was my trusty back-marker. Once everyone was warm we headed to Martin Primary.

Once on site, we were met by Tristan and assigned our task: move all the logs from one pile to a new pile inside the forest so he can use them to build some things. It was a pretty hefty pile, but as always, we sprinkled that GG magic and had it all shifted in under 30 minutes – leaving plenty of time for our fitness session. Louis requested we have a go on the mini obstacle course, so we combined it with some sprints and abs work. Tristan's kids even joined us for the last part.

It was soon time to head back. Graham was our trusty back-marker, while Paul kept me company at the front.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was the viennese swirl

Shout out to Damian for this week's pun!

Next week we will be running to Meadway to plant some bulbs in a community green space. Sign up here. We'll then be having some drinks in the pub afterwards. (Feel free to drink water if you don't want beer.)

If you are free on Saturday, we have a mission for you in Kentish Town. Sign up here You'll be helping the Rainbow Trust at a concert!

There's also a mission in Haringey tomorrow, still needs two people. Sign up here

5, 6, 7, …14 steps (That's what it took to build a table tennis table).

Wake me up*

After a warm-up we set off on a riverside route to Transforming Lives for Good (TLG for short). Our run to the river was almost as long as the queue to see Evanescence* at Hammersmith Apollo.

Deborah and James greeted us once we arrived and gave us a rundown of what TLG do. They provide support, care and education to children in need. The TLG school we had come to help out at offers holistic 12 week programmes to help excluded teenagers aged 11-16. These centres are a lifeline, giving them the chance to catch up on missed qualifications, raise their aspirations and provide building blocks for a better life.

Divide and conquer

Our tasks for the night were to put together a new ping pong table and clear a store room of old furniture. A team of four took on the table and the rest quickly demolished the other.

Keeping out of mischief

Both Deborah and James were blown away by the speed the store room was sorted in. James then set about finding other things for the team to help with. This included fixing a shelf to a coffee table and starting to organise another cupboard.

I had planned to take this group off for a fitness session, but suddenly the table tennis team needed extra eyes and hands to find stray screws, washers and attach the table top securely.

Finishing later that usual, but with a brand new ping pong table finally complete we dashed back the short way to home and had a warm down.

Thanks to Debs and Jo for your GG touristing, it was lovely to have you along!

Happy running,
PSB out.

Things don't always go to plan and sometimes tasks fall through at the very last minute. But with some quick thinking and a bit of improvisation, good things always come. We did not run to BFC this week. Luckily, Hazel and I both had a bunch of GoodGym flyers in our bags. Quickly, Plan B was hatched.

As ever, the gang met at the Phoenix ready for the run ahead. We were joined by GG newbie Jack who had spotted us running about and decided to come and see what we were all about. Give him a cheer!

We congratulated Hazel and the other Jack for their great running in yesterday's 10km and gently ran down to Cherry Tree Woods to warm up. There was jogging, running and bear crawling. Nobody likes bear crawling, but I promise they're really good for you! In terms of efficiency, they're right up their with burpees – and you all know how much I love those.

We then headed off out of the park for a big ol' loop up to Muswell Hill before stopping for a few tricep dips and press ups at the top of the road while Amanda and Hazel caught up. The perfect spot to split into teams and flyer hard. In traditional GG Barnet style, we speedily flyered the whole road using our honed leap frog technique, making a huge loop.

Once the two teams joined back together, Nicola lead us up to Highgate Woods for an extended return to Cherry Tree Woods. The team were promised 7km today, and without the run to BFC, we wanted to make sure we still got close. We managed just over 6km in the end, including a really lush run through the woods.

I had to run up the hills in the woods as it was way to hard to scoot through the mud and can happily report that it didn't hurt! This is very exciting news indeed. (I will be testing out the running on Sunday for the first time in AGES – wish me luck!)

Once back at Cherry Tree, after six whole kilometres of hills, it was time for the fitness session. The group reported a knackered rating of 8/10, so I decided to be nice and stick to floor work. Everybody likes lying down, right? Abs it is. Shawn came out victorious with some very speedy ab work, winning him the honour of first dibs on the Barnet Biscuit.

This week Barnet Biscuit was the mighty Jaffa Cake, courtesy of Freya, who was with us in spirit.

Thank you for all your hard work tonight team. See you next week when we run back to Dell Fields to paint some garden furniture. Sign up here