17 fabulous runners ran 4km to help out at the Deborah Ubee Trust!

We had LOOOOOOAAADS of new runners and GoodGym tourists with us last night! Big welcome to Beth, Callum, Tahni, Aiste, Zoe and Arba! Hope you had a lovely run with us!

We started off with a little warm up, a few walking lunges and some Indian file (the thing where you run in a line and sprint to the front!). After a few minutes we were suitably warmed up (and dizzy from running so many circles!) and we set off! Making the most of Greenwich Park still being open we headed up and out through the park which was looking a lot more green now which was nice to see!

Just over a mile later and we had arrived at the Deborah Ubee Trust. It is a lovely charity that provides counselling to those who are otherwise unable to access it in Greenwich and it's surrounding boroughs. We were greeted by Rory who had prepped all the cleaning stuff for us and explained the jobs that needed doing.

There were windows to be cleaned inside and out, carpets, tablets, chairs, desks... literally anything and everything! A few people got some buckets filled and headed out to do the windows on the outside. Everyone else grabbed a cloth and got scrubbing!

Literally after just 10 minutes, every inch of the room and office had been cleaned. Even tops of door frames! No speck of dust was left in that room!

The window cleaners were nearly done outside and just needed a tall person to do the bits higher up and then we were DONE! A super quick effort but that's what happens when you get 17 people on the job! Nice one!

We took a little photo and then headed back through the park for part 1 of our 2 part fitness session. We did some hills with a twist... usually in hill repeats you would run at a decent pace up the hill and then recover on the way down, but downhill running is just as important and a skill in itself so we practiced running fast on both with a flat section in between each one to recover. Some great efforts by everyone! Nice to see people FLY down (and up) those hills!

After 5 minutes we trotted back to the uni for part 2! A little core tabata featuring plank jacks and bicycle crunches. Having a strong core is super important for running as it keeps you holding good running form and posture for longer so you are able to run faster and further! And who wouldn't want that!?

After 4 minutes of work, we called it a night and had a nice relaxing stretch. Next week I'm away running up and down a few mountains but the fabulous Ben will be taking over and with a new task location too, what's not to love. Here's the link to sign up!

Also for the lovely new people, we have a GoodGym Greenwich Facebook group so please join if you want to keep up to date with any races or other bits and pieces that we all get up to!

And finally, the Parkrun that I was talking about is listed here, would be great to get a bunch of us down there! #redthunder

Great job last night everyone! You were super speedy with the task and it was great to see you give it some on the hills so well done! See you soon!

A smack-banging 21 of you volunteered your precious time yesterday, to invest in your communities and physicality.

With 5 new faces, 4 of whom were on their first GoodGym session, we had the most hands on deck all year (I haven't actually checked this stat). That's worth a notice. Hope you all had decent first experiences and we look forward to welcoming you back for much more. The random weekly question "What sound or noise really gets under you skin?" A somewhat surprising range of answers, with evidently differing auditory sensitivity. Nail clippings, people chewing, cutlery on plate (guilty), metal on metal, yappy local dog, cotton wool scrunching!, drilling sounds, anything near Kev's bedtime, sniffling, car screeching and my favourite: hearing the saliva when people talk (courtesy of Rob). I also have a couple to add now I sit down and think - any phone sounds on public transport - see ringing, gaming, music, incessant texts alerts etc. Plus fox foreplay in my back garden, what an assault on the senses that is.

Moving on....once we'd got that off our chest, we made it 2 miles down the canal to Cody Dock. Our beautiful local docklands, where we were instructed to re-seed some lawn, water the limitless planters and do a wee bit of sweeping. 30 mins later we'd done what we were asked, in no small part thanks to our bolstered numbers. "Many hands make...." yeah you know the phrase.

Thought it would be rude not to do a fitness session as we skipped it last week, plus Sharon was showing enthusiasm by the tonne, and I wasn't going to let her down. So we snapped out some glorious 20sec efforts, six of them to be precise. Before working our way into a couple of short, but intense, leg circuits. Developing power in the legs is vital for all sports. Only takes a few weeks and the soreness subsides, just a case of conditioning.

Thrustin' Justin kindly brought some cake along, like the hero he is, and we all scoffed a wee bit. Finishing with cake - that sentence always works.

Thanks again Team Newham. Stay on the aerobic grind and catch you mighty folk next week

Over and Out

B