While we've been waiting for summer to finally show its face, GoodGym Hounslow have been keeping themselves busy about the neighbourhood.

While a few of us supported the WLQP's 10km walk at the weekend (with the fading temporary tattoos to show for it), others of us have been focusing on raising money and awareness for the WWF (the animals not the wrestlers) by running 5km every day for a month. Go Gus!

Last night our attention turned to Chiswick House and garden, where we returned for our regular visit. We met Lauren, who took both us and her massive barrow of tools over to the gardens near the cafe, an are that we have been working on recently.

Our job for the evening turned out to be a very satisfying- if not prickly - one. The thistles are threatening to take over the beautiful garden there, having grown taller than the lovely aliums and grasses. So, donning our thickest gloves, we set to eliminating them and the suffocating bindweed.

Given the wet weather they came out easily enough, and we made quick progress. Just don't ask if I remembered to take a 'before' shot....(oops).

With several ton bags of weeds collected we called it a night and headed over to find a suitable space for our fitness session. No sooner had we settled in were we greeted by two sweet dogs who were keen to be part of our balance for runners drills. After a few tummy scritches they finally relented and we got started. The idea is that the stronger our balance, the better our running style, especially since running involves spending our time either propelling off one leg or in the air. If our balance isn't great, or weaker on one side, this can lead to overcompensation, and injury.

We covered various exercises, including single leg squats, lateral bounds, squat to calf lifts and more. It was interesting to have a think about which side was stronger - whilst trying to stay upright!

Great work everyone. We have a few things coming up, including an evening session tonight to help prepare the ground some more ahead of planting fruit and veg for Hounslow food bank.

Next week we're off to Harvard Hill to help the Friends group with various jobs. Looking forward to keeping our green fingers busy!

With spring in the air and a spring in our step, we headed off for our task for the evening at Strand-on-the-Green school.

It was great to have Ijo along for her first session in Hounslow, welcome! Also fantastic to hear all the news of the exciting events coming up as we ran along. From Alan and Stef taking on the Queen of the Suburbs challenge this weekend, Florian getting ready for the Kew Half next weekend, and all those training for the Paris marathon, there is so much going on. Well done on all that training, it takes a lot and you should all be proud of yourselves.

We arrived at our task and I could tell everybody settled in for the usual fight with the gate. Somehow, however, we got in first time! Maybe our run of bad luck with keys and locks is finally over?

We quickly found the barrow of tools left for us to complete the job, which was to remove ivy from the back fence along the wall. First we had to identify the problem areas using the photos we had been sent, and having cracked that we divided up into teams and began de-ivying. It was satisfying work as it came off pretty easily, but the challenge came when we had to stuff it into the flimsy bags. However, a bit of elbow grease, perseverance and experience soon meant we had most of it tidied away.

That left us just enough time for our fitness session which involved some cards, a stopwatch and more power squats that you could shake a stick at. Great work everybody.

After a nice steady run back we finished the night with stretches and a debate over which pub to head to now that the regular has shut for a very inconsiderate refurb. Next week we're off to Gunnersbury park, hope to see you there!

Last night we celebrated seven brilliant years of GoodGym Hounslow in our usual style - completing a local task which would have taken the volunteers many hours, some silly fitness which saw us running about like mad people, a trip to the pub and of course, many laughs. Long may it continue!

We started off by meeting Jan of Friends of Turnham Green, to scarify and rake a huge area ready for bulb planting. Rakes in hand we formed an efficient line along the grass and took turns getting the soil ready and picking up the waste. Jan was impressed with how much ground the team covered, remarking how much time we have saved the volunteer group. Great work everybody. We even had a surprise visit from Beth, fresh off the plane from NYC with her marathon bling around her neck - amazing job Beth!

Next we moved on to fitness, and a typically chaotic game. This year we played something I like to call 'Now We Are Seven', a challenge which consisted of two teams fighting it out to see who knows more about GG Hounslow and the local area. Taking it turns to grab a clue, the idea was that every does seven reps of whatever exercise was on the paper, and answers a tricky question. These included posers such as 'how many good deeds have been completed in Hounslow so far?' (an enormous 4545), how many underground stations are there in Hounslow, and how many bulbs are there to plant at this Saturday's mission. In a nail biting final, it was Team Awesome that won by a hair, and magnanimously chose to share their prize with everybody.

A huge thank you to each and every one of you for all your efforts and enthusiasm. Even when it's wet and cold, there aren't enough tools to go around, it's dark and we don't know what we're doing and I make you do some ridiculous fitness challenge, you always have a smile on your face and bags of energy. Thanks for being a great team that really support the local community. Here's to the the next seven years of GoodGym Hounslow!

It was feeling decidedly autumnal last night in Hounslow, so we made sure we had a brisk warm up and set off quickly for our task.

It had been a while since we'd visited Strand-on-the-Green school, and it's always exciting to see if the codes work and we can actually get in! Luckily we breezed straight in to tackle our two jobs for the evening.

The first group selected their brushes and wood treatment and made their way to the two sheds that needed a lick of paint. While we were just one brush short, GGers are always happy to share and there were even some scooters to entertain us in the meantime!

Across the playground the rest of the team was busy cutting back the hedges that had grown over into the carpark. The fading light meant that topiary art was out, but there was still some very smart and tidy bushes in evidence by the end of the session.

Jobs done, we found ourselves the perfect spot for our fitness and set about doing a lower body blast. Just as we were drawing to a close having done split squats, crab walks, single leg calf raises and more, we were treated to the sight of a beautiful old steam train passing right by us....or was it a ghost train? We finished off the night with a tough round of power lunges and a run back to base.

If anybody can spare an hour on Saturday afternoon, we need some more helping hands to plant snowdrops - sign up to bring a smile to local people's faces in Spring!

It was a great start to the group run last night as we got to welcome some lovely familiar faces we hadn't seen in a bit and there was also some GG touristing, which we always love!

Our job for the evening was back at Cultivate, helping this local community organisation in their epic task of moving location.

We divided ourselves into two groups, one to tackle the huge job of dismantling the polytunnel, the other to shift masses of plants to create space for a temporary gazebo. It soon transpired that both teams had some challenges to face!

While team Polytunnel had the satisfying job of cutting away the massive plastic covering, they also had to contend with some rusty and temperamental screws. However, Jonny was not to be defeated and put all his energy into bringing down the pole in question. After a good twenty minutes of elbow grease and persuasion, he was victorious.

Meanwhile, team plant shifting was trying to figure out the logistics of shuffling hundreds of pots and creating a space in a horticultural tetris style endeavour. Jo, Eloise, Alanna and Georgia quickly set about trying to fit in as many pots as possible while avoiding the rampant nettles. It was a physical and mental challenge that also involved convincing some huge and very stubborn trees out of their containers, but Alan, Divya and Florian were not going to take no for an answer.

Well done everybody, another night of using our time and energy to help out, and having fun while we were at it! Next Wednesday there is a community mission for our regular visit to Chiswick House. Good luck to Paul in getting closer still to his parkrun alphabet completion, and to everybody that did the Asics 10k last week. Have a great week, GG!