7 runners ran 5.5 km to de weed and clear rubbish from the car park and area around the Birmingham Girl Guide Association. It was a bright and slightly windy evening for tonight’s task. This week our normal top trainer Jonny was off on his holidays –he kept that quiet! 😉 Therefore, it was over to me to lead this week’s task. It was great to see our regulars and as well two new faces tonight, welcome along to GoodGym Birmingham Maria and Morwenna! Be sure to give them a cheer GoodGymers! During our briefing I set the team a CoRUNdrum which was what year did the last Birmingham marathon take place and what was it called. However, it was probably the shortest one ever as it got solved straight away by Garry, who turns out ran it himself! Note to self for next time - must make it harder! Anyway, after all that set off onto the canal and headed around 2km to tonight’s task at the Girl Guides Association. We met Maureen from the association on arrival who gave out the tools and explained the job. Simply it was to clear rubbish and weeds from the car parks around the building. We gave ourselves 15 minutes to get the job done and the team set to work quickly on it. Everyone got stuck in with sweeping, shovelling, picking up rubbish and spraying weed killer, it was great to see the effort and meant we were got completed in no time.

By the finish, we had nearly 2 bags full of rubbish and weeds – fantastic work!

Without GoodGym this wouldn’t get done or would take one person a long time so well done all! We also had a talk from Maggie Jones the County Commissioner who told the group about how the organisation caters for girls and young women 5 – 25 in different sections across Birmingham. They provide a variety of activities for their members to become involved in including outdoor adventure as well as the more traditional badge collection. After handing back the tools we got in a picture with the sign and were back on our way. Taking a different route we re-joined the canal in the direction of Birmingham University…and also Worcester…..maybe next time guys?! 😉 We got a bit further along the canal to the spot of our fitness session for this evening which was sprints!

The group did 5 lung bursting sprints focusing on keeping the arms strong and powerful.

Really great effort and energy shown from the group. Charlotte powering through to the end, Gary looking strong, Maria working those arms well, Morwenna giving it her all, Carol with a good posture, Sam showing good technique and no one managing to fall in the canal!

We ran back along the canal through Brindley place and to base camp at 1000 Trades. Once back we went through the important post-run full body stretches. Thanks to everyone who came along, great run for my first as leader! Hope to see you all again soon. Next week Jonny will be back and leading the group and we will be off to Birmingham Mission Care giving out food to the homeless. Be great to see you there, you can sign up here

9 people ran 6.5km to tidy the canal towpath

On a rather wet and cold night we had 9 hardy souls looking to do some good. It was great to see Lee back after his first session last week and Phil back off his holiday. Once the introductions were done our ‘wombles’ got their ‘tidy bags’ out and off we went down to our adopted part of the canal. We split up into 3 groups each clearing part of the towpath, before meeting up in the middle to leave our bags to be picked up by the canal and river trust.

Interval training

On the way back we did an interval session, completing 6 heart rate soaring efforts. Phil showed us his 400m runner speed once again by leading the way. James, Eva and Shalini showed great effort and really worked hard. I took about 186 pictures, most were terrible, but what can I say you were all running to fast!

what no wall squats?

Once the intervals were complete we took a steady run back towards our base, Lee leading the way showing us a new route to leave the canal. Just before this we had a ‘quick’ or not so in my case selfie (we were missing Chan ‘the selfie king’ tonight, due to his weekend half marathon exploits) and we were on our way! On the way back we called in on our ‘second home’, St Paul’s square for a little fitness session. Everyone knows how much I love a wall squat so of course I didn’t want to disappoint and so on we got with them, 3 of the beauties to be precise, Carol and John held a great squat and you could see how keen Garry is to get that ‘Jennifer Aniston esk peachy bum’ putting in top effort to maintain his squat! After each wall squat we had a rest…… pull the other one! it was straight into some lung bursting tuck jumps…….and then we were done, well virtually, we just had the little jog-a-log 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

6 people ran 4k to clean the canal towpath

Right, first things first, thank you muchly to the 5 people who joined me for tonight’s GoodGym run in what were atrocious weather conditions, completely pouring down with freezing rain for the whole run! Give yourselves an ‘extra cheer’, pat on the back, an extra beer or chocolate bar, whatever you want, you deserve it! A very warm (that was before we set off!!) welcome to Garry and Sam our new GoodGym Brum runners tonight!

was it a run or a swim?!

So, on leaving 1000 Trades, we ventured out into the monsoon conditions and headed down towards the canal. The poor inclement weather didn’t faze our newbie, fellow Yorkshireman Sam, who was dressed in shorts and t-shirt, they don’t half make them tough up there ;-) Once we were on the canal we split up into two groups, each group clearing part of the towpath. Once this was complete, both groups met up at the Aston lock to dump the bags off.

No water under this bridge

Before heading back, we decided to get out of the rain for 10 minutes by doing a fitness session under the bridge, this included the bum and thigh burning wall squats, followed by some deep lunges, and finished off with some heart racing high knees running. Carol showed great form and determination with those wall squats and Rob and Garry gave everything on the high knees running segment! Once this was complete we headed back along the canal to our base, throwing in some lung bursting interval sprints on the way, with great work by John leading the way.

Drowned rats

Once back at base we pretty much all resembled ‘drowned rats’! So, it was a quick stretch off and back into the warmth.

Next week we will be out doing good again, going to Suited for Success, [sign up here] https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/we-will-be-running-5k-to-donate-clothes-and-accessories-to-suited-for-success please take a good luck at the items you can donate and get checking at home, ask family members, friends and work colleagues and let’s do as much as we can for this fantastic charity

6 people ran 6km to clean the gym at the Salvation Army

With ‘love being in the air’ we were slightly down on numbers tonight. Once assembled we left the love birds in the 1000 Trades pub to whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ear and we got on with doing some good. We ran down to the Salvation army where we were greeted with cloths and mop buckets.

GoodGym in a gym??

So, the task was to clean the whole gym area, getting it spick and span in 15 minutes! Everyone did a fantastic job cleaning the equipment, getting rid of finger prints off the wall and giving the floor a right good mop! Once the task was complete we had a quick selfie taken by the ‘selfie king’ Chan and we were on our way again.

Kenyan Hills

On our way back, again we incorporated some hill work. This time we did some Kenyan Hills, this basically means everyone runs hard up the hill, but instead of stopping at the top and jogging/walking back down the hill, you run hard down the hill focusing on staying relaxed. The theory behind this is that running down a hill you recover anyway so you don’t need to ease off! The Kenyan’s are famous for training like this, hence the name, so if it’s good enough for the ‘mecca of distance running’ it will be good enough for us! Everyone showed great effort, Aidan was springing up them like a hare, Carol showed great arm action powering her way up them and Charlotte showed great pace on the way back down.

We then finished with a short jog back to base, finishing with the all-important stretching.

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