Bed up? Well, let me tell you a story ...

One damp night in November, a massive number of Goodgymmers assembled for a brilliant task at the brand new Bristol YMCA (thanks Emma for sending me this one!)

After a highly unconventional follow-my-leader warm-up around Queen Square the group headed off on a short run to the old Police station where the hostel was to be situated. The hostel is to combine both conventional accommodation and a number of beds for young people who have become homeless with one providing financial support for the other.

The builders were due to finish in a week or so all that remained was to move a trifling 99 flat packed bunk beds from the ground floor into the various dormitories ready to be assembled. After a quick intro from our host Ben, mattresses and bed frames quickly starting disappearing from their respective piles as an eager army of red GG worker ants busily ferried them up two floors and distributed them amongst the rooms.

This was fairly physical work as the frames were pretty heavy so it was all the more impressive to have completely cleared the ground floor area after 40 minutes on the task.

Of course, now all that remains is the the trifling matter of assembling 99 beds -so do join us on Saturday for part two if you can!

Goodgym York - challenge accepted

Having bumped into GG York trainer Egg over the weekend and been filmed taking part in the November press-up challenge I was keen for the rest of GG Bristol to show GG York what they were made of. And even after carting all those beds around, I am proud to say that everyone still had some energy to complete the 14 press ups that were due today! Top work everyone!!

Mel - GG Bristol Centurion

And finally, congratulations to Mel for reaching 100 good deeds today. This was celebrated in some style with a GG Bristol arch through which she duly ran - along with Clo who was celebrating 3rd placed female in the 10k last weekend ... and a few other random people who happened to be walking through Queen Square

Mel then duly donned the GG Centurion outfit and happily had brought plenty of cake to celebrate!

Strong winds made our Saturday run to Bramble farm a little more challenging than usual - although I'm convinced it was behind us when we ascended that final hill :-)

Bramble farm was set up in conjunction with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as part of a televised project to convert an unused and bramble-infested space into an urban farm maintained by a group of families

Once there we were met by one of those families (Chris Kim and the utterly adorable Adeline) who split us into three groups.

Group one including our new recruit Ellie used wheelbarrows (jealous) to move muck from one end of the farm to the other.

Group two wielded forks and spades to dig out an extra planting channel.

Meanwhile group three worked on a few more of the eponymous brambles.

But the best task was left to last as we were all tasked with moving the resident saddle back pigs back to their new enclosure. Using gate sections to form a channel, we waited with considerable trepidation as Chris laid a trail of bread into the new pen.

Anticipating a bull-run style onslaught of ferociously hungry boars we worried over Chris' safety and double checked there were no gaps in the channel. Several of us put our affairs in order and made precautionary calls to our next of kin. I worried that my runners plaster kit might not be sufficient to tape closed the awful wounds left by the pigs fearsome teeth.

The gate opened!

And the two pigs ambled slowly and amiably up the channel, probably the least intimidating wildlife I have ever seen :-)

Our jobs done, we headed back to base, managing a few lunges and loop backs on the way.

With OPHELIA howling around the Steel City, blowing road barriers in our path and breaking Tom's camera, the @GGSHEFF crew still stood (and ran) firm last night.

With our planned task with Regather at Lynwood Gardens being in a wooded area, we thought it best to re-arrange this task for a more clam future night so headed of from the Showroom over to Mount Pleasant to see the infamous Jonny Douglas who gave us a brief about the Save Mount Pleasant project which for which we were flyering that eve.

After a brief sit on Jonny's comfey corner sofa and explanation of the project and it's plans we headed out into the wind with flyers tightly clutched destined for peoples letter boxes.

We split into two teams with 2 team captains* Bombacious Bash* and Sensational Sam (who was on his 50th good deed that night - Horrah!) The two teams the split themselves accordingly to ensure that no letterbox was left out and we smashed the following roads:

• Sharrow St
• Hobart St
• Salmon St
• Club Garden Road

We then headed for shelter from the wind in the Park Hill Flats complex which offered shelter, fantastic views of the city, famous historical public proposals and lots of letter boxes in a row!

Following the tactical completion of operation Park Hill we headed outside and onto the newly lit Cobbled Killer where some of the group ran hill reps whilst some other took on the Steel Steps and then we re-grouped at the top before returning to base to stretch, hear news and grab refreshment.

Until next time,

Happy Running :)

Fresh from our second place in Saturday's amazing GoodGym Olympics, Team Wandsworth met for our weekly run last night. I say 'fresh', but there were several 'sunkissed' (cough) faces, and a few minor injuries that had been sustained over the weekend. All in the name of a podium finish.

We had some lovely new runners to welcome to the team. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Jemma, Linda, and Ellie. Welcome to Wandsworth, Anthony!

As well as some cracking performances on the track on Saturday, we had some excellent park running, so well done to everybody that both volunteered and raced in Tooting on the weekend. If you are interested in doing a park run but you're still a bit unsure, just come and talk to me. It's such a fun, free and effective way to get into racing, improve your speed and get a tasty 5k PB.

We had a slightly different group run last night. Our task was for the amazing RSPCA -we were asked to stuff over 1000 envelopes destined for their donors. However, their Wandsworth shop was a little too small to fit us all in, so we decided to do the job at our home at the BAC, before heading out for a monster fitness session. Luckily we we were given our favourite room, and made ourselves comfortable among the rolling green hills and bridges of the indoor teletubby garden. After a brief intro by the RSPCA's Laura, we got down to business, smashing through the task in no time at all. Which left us a nice hour to do our session. Lucky us!

It was a lovely evening, so after a sunny jog up to the common, we started off the session with some Indian file running. With such a big group it was a hefty sprint to the front of the line, but it did the job and warmed us up nicely. Next up was Ring of Fire. It was based on the classic drinking game involving a pack of cards, each with a different forfeit. Except this time, instead of downing a shot, the cards all represented a different exercise - including nominating burpees, all men/women sprinting, under/over 25s planking/core triathlons, squat holds reciting the alphabet, sprint challenges, and people with birthdays in June (sorry Roshan and Jack) doing jumping jordans.

Then came the relay - with a difference. We split up into teams of five, and had to undertake a certain activity - including crab walks, plank walks, squat jumps and wheelbarrows - to the line, before sprinting back. I can't say with certainty who won, but the team names alone were pretty impressive.

We finished off with a game of Blow the Whistle, where Emma and Sam worked super hard to tag as many people as possible, sending them to GoodGym jail. All that was left was a nice run back to our starting point, and some cooling stretches to end the evening.

Remember those envelopes we stuffed? Next week we are going to divide ourselves up into teams, and with a member of the task force taking a group each, we are going to save the RSPCA a whole heap of money and deliver them locally. Sound like fun? Then sign up here!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/rspca-needs-our-help