17 runners ran 6 km to help clean at Sifa Fireside in Birmingham.

On a lovely sunny evening we were tonight joined by four fantastic new recruits, Brendan, Fiona, Rea and Andy. Give them a shout out fellow GoodGymers! Well done to Aron and Rhea on completing their events at the weekend too! After our intro briefing was complete we set off for Digbeth and the task. Around 2 miles later we arrived at our task for tonight - Sifa Fireside, a frequently visited one for Goodgym Birmingham. Drinks were kindly ready for us when we got there and much appreciated this evening as it was certainly a warm one! We were greeted by Andy who like myself was also filling in this evening. Although visited many times before with some new members tonight Andy gladly agreed to say a few words about the important work Sifa does in helping those who are homeless. He also outlined our task for tonight: 4 areas to clean – men’s and females showers and toilets, sitting area and a final one for everything else. The team split up and set about cleaning, shining, dusting and tidying all the areas. They did a brilliant job, 15 minutes blast of work and you could see the difference with everything looking spick and span!

A quick photo outside and we were on our way again, this time round the corner for our Fitness Session. Tonight’s location was a handily located, nearby, quiet car park. After firstly trying to go through a locked side gate we found the main entrance and headed through there. Once in we were straight into some HITT exercises, 1 minute of squats with a high knee lift followed up by scissor lunges. Great effort and energy shown by all! To break it up we then had a flat all out sprint to the other side of the car park. Two more sets of exercises followed, this time squat jumps and ski squats so all in all a lot of squats! A great exercise though to help those key running leg muscles. Another sprint back across this time focusing on posture and really pumping those arms, lung bursting performances all round. We finished with two partner exercises to work on our upper body strength, which we can’t forget plays an important role in running as well. First exercise was facing your partner hands flat together one pushes towards partners shoulders while the other resists, we did 10 times then switch. Second exercise dubbed ‘the titanic’ by the group involved one partner stood in front of the other, they raise their arms to shoulder height then release back down to the legs. Again, we did 10 times then switched over, great displays of effort and strength on show here! Rounded off with a final sprint then headed back to base. For the return run we split into two paced groups with Aron front marking the lead group and myself back marking it. Then Abbie front marking the second group and Garry back marking it. Thank you to all the markers!

Back at base we stretched off, shared some run report title ideas – squats, car park locked out, titanic poses and my suspect timing watch for the exercises were all mentioned! Top work all for this week, Jonny will be back with us next week after his holidays. Look forward to seeing you all on next week’s task where we will be off to do gardening at Stanhope Community Garden. Sign up for here

16 people ran 7k to complete a litter pick on the canal for The Canal and River Trust

Right first things first, this is going to be a short but sweet report as we lost the initial report as the pun suggests, due to a technical error! Bummer! We were completing the report as a group in the pub as part of our social with everyone adding their own time-trial time followed by how they felt after they finished only for it all to be lost!

So here goes......we all ran down to the canal armed with litter pickers. We split into four groups, each picking litter on a different section. We then ran to Millennium point, did a 1 mile time trial, most people achieving new pbs and everyone broke 9 minutes! Top work! The group then ran back to 1000 Trades and enjoyed a few ‘Ray Mears’!

As I said most of the group entered their times and how they felt after the time-trial in the initial report. I can’t remember what most put, but Lee mentioned something about being old me thinks and Morwenna was hacked off she got beat by Rob, oh and Karin didn’t make the time-trial as she was already in the pub! Apart from that I can’t remember much more!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

12 people ran 10k to Birmingham Mission

Tonight it was great to welcome Hannah and Aurelija to the group. It is fantastic to have you with us. Tonight’s pun is brought to you by Garry, more on that later!

Uh oh!

We set on our way to Birmingham Mission, Aaron led the way with Rob and Liam not far behind. On arrival we were greeted by John as usual, but unfortunately this time it was bad news. There had been a little incident outside the centre and therefore we were advised not to come in. The couple of local constabulary present, sort of gave it away. Oh well that’s only the second task cancelled in sixteen months of GG Brum so we aren’t doing to bad. On the positive side we could now do a slightly longer run then originally planned.

The group set off down the canals all the way to Aston Lock before leaving the canal to run through Aston Uni campus and then arrive at a brand new ‘hill venue.’

Loooooong hills

Now tonight’s hill was a virtually un-used road that ended outside the law courts. It seems the law in some form or another was following us around tonight! The hill wasn’t particularly steep but it was quite a long one! I set the group eight minutes of continuous sprints up the hill with a jog back down recovery.

What a great effort by the group. Aaron led the way, before Hasnain took up ‘the running’. Hannah put in a sterling performance showing a fantastic technique with an arm action virtually Mo Farah esk! Liam put in some top work. Garry was sprinting hard all the way and Aurelija put in some excellent work on her first GG outing. As ever the whole group pulled each other along, it was fantastic to see!

Once done the group found the steps outside the law court very welcoming, so that was this weeks group pic! That was when Garry came up with the pun….maybe something to do with the fact I didn’t run the hills, though my excuse is that I have the very important job of run photographer 😉

After the group had got their collective breaths back somewhat, We had a steady run back to 1000 Trades.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.