25 bold and beautiful Hackney GoodGymers braved the summer rains to run 4K or 6k to The Bikery and brighten up the volunteer areas with a lick of paint.

Great to have a top turnout for the always fun Hackney Group Run. Lovely to see some GoodGym newbies coming to work their magic with the crew tonight! Lots of energy, smiles and high knees got us under way after the pressure cooker that is the dreaded Head Count. A short pulse raiser was followed by some penguin walking, bird walking and a combination of strength and balance improving exercises.

With our joints mobilised and our muscles massively activated we nimbly glided through the Hackney backstreets on the 2k run to The Bikery. We met the super accommodating Mark who showed us around before we split into teams to attack the painting in hand. With groups in the ground floor and first floor bathrooms rolling away in freshening magnolia we had the black board crew creating a blackboard on the wall of the volunteer room while the notice board frame got a striking black boarder. We were then able to create a couple of statement ceiling beams in a striking blue after an epic taping display by Liv and Hadrien. Was great to be able to help out an amazing charity who provide such wonderful work based opportunities to those recovering from mental ill-health. Click here to see all the great work they do.Hopefully next time the weather will be kinder and we can get to paint the stencil on the front of the building.

For the race back to base on Antonia's request the Speedy group set off first and took the longer 4K loop back. While after a last minute tidy up and test of some amazing seeded cookies. The SuperSonic group powered away on the 4K loop while the Sexy crew steadily ran the 2.5k route back. Some pacy running by all the team saw us all return back at the same time, out of breath having really worked hard on a top session. Some weighty bread aided static stretches finished off the evening before the team headed off into the night.

Next week sees us heading to the Caribbean elderly organisation to paint one of their meeting rooms. We would love to see again for another great session so please sign up here. Remember next week is our monthly social after the run where we will head out to refuel after the session, be awesome to have you along!

Have a top week!

Stride smooth

Joel

19 Hackney GoodGymers ran a speedy 4.5k to the Wilton Estate community Garden to dig, cut, plant and water our way to a stunning running victory.

On a night of almost ideal running conditions we were lucky enough to welcome back a few regulars from holidays, 3 amazing GoodGym newbies and an array of GoodGym glitterati.

We started the evening after a pressurised head count and pulse raiser with a series of mobilising dynamic exercises to get our key running muscles and joints ready for action. Once the joints were fully WD40ed up we moved onto some running form drills mixed in with a range of important lower body strength exercises. With our form tight, our core engaged, strength amped up and our running efficiency off the charts we ran 1k to Wilton Estate through the Hackney backstreets.

Arriving we were met by the always amazing Debbie who tooled us up and divided a range of great tasks to help maintain the ever expanding Wilton Estate community garden. With groups cutting back tree suckers, watering entire gardens by watering can and a hose, lifting and repositioning huge wooden planters, filling them with compost, trimming the orchard and finally planting hundreds of bulbs.

The gardens were a buzz of activity with the GoodGym crew flying around get Good done well, completing all the tasks in 35 minutes of top draw action.

A quick tidy up and we were ready to head on our way, but not too far as we explored the Wilton nearly 500 raceway. Lap 1 we got our running legs back under is, Lap to we ran hard along the short sides, Lap 3 we worked hard for half a lap before collecting ourselves for a monumental full lap timed effort on a super speedy Lap 4. A top lung busting effort by everyone and hope that we can see some speed improvements when we go back the the Raceway later in the summer!

A short chilled floaty run back to base followed by a series of static stretches saw us finish off a top notch evening of running fun!

Next week we are off to Bootstrap to lift, shift and team manoeuvre some big barrels. Please sign up here.

As I said in the into be great to have you all along to Hackney Marshes ParkRun on 9th of July to test out our Saturday morning Speed! For all the info and to sign up click here.

Until next week

Smooth Sprinting

Joel