We ran around 3km to weed and litter pick for ECCO

A bit windy tonight so it was a good job we had an energetic task planned for the 16 runners tonight especially as the run itself wasn’t too long. Off we headed to Addiscombe Road via East Croydon station – for maximum GoodGym t-shirt exposure ably led by Amatare. We called in at Jerry’s to pick up the tools – shears, garden scissors, loppers, bags, brushes and a wheel barrow and then he led us to the @Boulevard@ which was in urgent need of a thorough weeding ald litter picking. The litter picks were brought down by Alex who was then persuaded by his mum to join in and help out – such a well brought up young man! We were also joined by a few of the ECCO gang who live locally and spend time helping make their community a prettier place for everybody.

We worked hard for almost an hour and managed to fill around 25 large bags with green waste and another 3 bags with rubbish which would all be collected the next morning by Veolia. We even got a few thank yous from commuters heading home for the evening.

After returning all the tools to Jerry we had the Pringle Challenge - strictly speaking it was the Walkers Stack Challenge but that really didn’t roll of the tongue as well. The story behind this drill is that a few of us spectating at the London Marathon noticed how people started tensing their shoulders and hands when they started getting tired and we discussed ways of reducing this. It got us to talking about the trick of pretending we were running with Pringles between our thumb and fore fingers with a gentle grip to avoid crushing them So tonight we used the actual crisps and not just our imaginations. There was a choice of Sour Cream and Chiles or Paprika to run with and the bonus of reducing the result of the times lap by 10 seconds for each crisp that returned unbroken. This was obviously far too easy as none were broken so next week it might have to be burpees while holding the crisps!

The was a big GoodGym welcome for two new runners, Emma and Louise - hope you enjoyed yourselves and hope to see you both again next week.

With it being the last Tuesday of the month it was time for our monthly social in BoxPark which was a bit louder than normal with the Liverpool game on very very loud – we were glad we were in the right colours though.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading to Park Hill Rec for another fun task with Josi.

We ran around help Saffron Central return its original condition

A sad night tonight as we headed over to Saffron Central where we have helped out on a number of occasions. Saffron Central is the baby of Ally and his many helpers and is the largest pop-up saffron farm in Europe. It's been on the site of the old Croydon council building (Taberner House) for over two years but sadly has to be handed back over this weekend for development. In addition to planting crocuses there has been a Pride flag created from flowers, artwork, herb growing and even yoga in this space and we will be sorry to see it go.

So off we headed from Solutions after the obligatory group photo ready to get down to some hard work. Our main task for the evening was moving pea shingle into bags for residents to take at the weekend. Two teams were formed and armed with spades, wheelbarrows, bags and elbow grease we got stuck in and bagged up around 2/5 tonnes - pretty impressive I thought. Once we'd finished we said goodbye to Ally with a promise to help him on any future ventures he takes on. His daughter (who was really the boss of the evening) came out to join us in the fitness session.

As the run was fairly short I sent the group to warm-up again around the new council building and back to Queens Gardens where Sally and I had set up the fitness session. Tonight we worked on agility by fast stepping along the ladder and also hopscotching - some with more grace than others! While one runner was scampering along the ladder the others were squatting, balancing, lunging and jumping - well we wouldn't want to get cold would we! We finished off with a quick game of Duck Duck Goose - lots of giggling and no slipping on the slightly wet grass.

It was lovely to welcome two new members tonight Daniel and Jonathan and hope to see you both back again very soon.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading towards Ikea to help Unique Roots in their community garden. It is a slightly longer run but don't be put off as it's pretty flat and there is the tram option for the way back if you need.

Finally... the monthly London GoodGym social in May will be hosted by our neighbours in Bromley so why not sign up and meet some other runners.

12 Runners ran just under 4km to help a local nursery school spread wood chippings

The evening was bright and warm when the group set off for the night's group run from GoodGym Croydon HQ - Solutions Fitness. We had our mandatory warm up session in front of Rennaissance House after which Ellie proceeded with a group of front runners while I led the rest of the evening runners. Running through East Croydon station was challenging giving the sea of people at the time and the group took extra care to avoid running into people. We received lots of stares from perplexed commuters as we snaked our way through the human traffic around the station.

We arrived at Tunstall Nursery School where we met Jane, the deputy headteacher and a jumbo bag filled with wood chippings and another tonne bag of coarse sharp sand. The first task for the night was to spread the chippings on a large raised bed about 10m away and Jane provided us with wheelbarrows, trolleys, baskets and shovels. The group got down to work with some runners filling the wheelbarrows and containers with wood chippings while another team worked as transporters moving the loaded wood chippings through a paved gokarting like path to the raised bed. At the raised bed three runners worked to lift the wheelbarrows and containers onto the raised bed and spread the wood chipping evenly. The runners regularly swapped roles until the task was completed.

Due to the enormous amount of wood chippings we were unable to embark on the second task of filling the sandpit with sand as all the time was spent on filling the raised bed with wood chippings. However a team of runners led by Sally helped move some used tyres from the front of the school to the playground at the rear of the school.

Task completed and with some runners looking forward to the social we departed the school. Our fitness session was a time trial with the runners running the loop between Addiscombe Court Road and Tunstall Road. After which we proceeded to HQ for mandatory stretches and onward to Boxpark where we had a splendid time.

Next Tuesday evening’s run we will be returning to Park Hill Recreation Ground https://www.croydon.gov.uk/leisure/parksandopenspaces/parksatoz/park-hill-recreation-ground tonight to help the Friends of Park Hill http://parkhillpark.org.uk. This is a beautiful park in the centre of Croydon and has a community garden inside the walled garden. Josi has a selection of tasks for us all which will all contribute to preparing the park for the Festival of Peace in the summer.

We ran around 3km to mark up the Peace Garden and deliver morer leaflets for Croydon's Bring and Take sale in March

Positively tropical tonight - well compared to last week at least! Tonight we had a double task so after welcoming back Dom and Carl and a quick head count we headed off for a warm-up and then straight to the entrance of Park Hill Rec. Here we met Josi and Catherine from the Friends of Park Hill Rec who unlocked the gates and we headed in with them to the empty and slightly spooky dark park. Once we got to the beautiful walled garden at the top end of the park Josi and Catherine told us more about the week long Festival of Peace being held in Croydon in June which is following on from the successful Summer of Love Festival held last year in Wandle Park.

The plan is to create a garden of peace in one of the middle beds in the walled garden which will have around 12 separate areas for local groups to plant with flowers that represent peace to them. There will also be a performance area, wheelchair access and rosemary and lavender framing the space. To help with the costs of the work there will be some Crowdfunding where residents and companies will be able to sponsor a tile/brick with their name on it which will be laid in the garden - we are definitely going to have a GoodGym presence there. The exciting news for us was that Josi and Catherine are going to give us one of the 12 beds to plant a GoodGym peace garden so we need to get our horticultural thinking hats on!

So back to the main task itself. Using long pieces of string, wooden canes and spray paint we marked out where each bed would be and also the performance area - there was a lot of giggling so hopefully our lines were straight! Half way through the task 4 of the runners headed off to deliver 50 leaflets to nearby houses promoting the Bring and Take sale in Surrey Street market on the 17th of March and next week we will be heading back to the same house to pick up any bags of donations they leave out for us. For the eagled-eyed amongst you you may have noticed Jim is back and joining in with us after his long sabbatical with Dom.

We didn't have much time after our task and the very welcome hot drinks and biscuits supplied by Josi and Catherine so it was a quick round of Heads and Tails before we headed back to Solutions for our stretches and debrief.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading back to the Park Hill area to pick up the Bring and Take donations.

We ran around 7km to sweep leaves and eat toffees in a community garden in Thornton Heath Rec

Nippy and a bit breezy tonight but good running weather all the same. Thirteen brave runners headed out tonight on a longer run than expected after a last minute change to the task but nobody was daunted and there were the normal smiles all round. So we headed off to our warm-up spot outside Tesco's where we received many 'admiring' glances as we high kneed, butt kicked and side stepped - although there was almost a pile up when I didn't explain well enough what I meant by change direction! Luckily they are all nimble and avoided each other! Once we were all warmed up we split into in two groups with Amatare and Ellie leading the first group and I followed closely behind with my chattier group.

Once we arrived at Thornton Heath Rec Atul explained that he's changed the task slightly as he was worried that there wasn't enough good lighting for us to dig a trench in the dark with pick axes - probably a good decision - so we cleared 3 huge bags of fallen leaves in record time spurred on by the two boxes of toffees brought by Atul. Next week however there will be better lighting and we will get to (carefully) wield the picks in small groups.

A big GoodGym Croydon welcome to two new runners Roy and Annegret who got stuck right in to the task and the run so hope to see you both back soon and also welcome back to Jen who has come back faster than ever after injury.

As I mentioned, next Tuesday we will be heading back to Thornton Heath Rec and combining it with delivering leaflets and collection bags for Croydon's Bring and Take event in March. And of course don't forget it's the last Tuesday of the month AND Croydon's 100th good deed since we started so a perfect excuse for a BoxPark social.

This evening we ran around 5km to deliver charity collection bags for the British Heart Foundation

Chilly, chilly, chilly is the only way to describe tonight but yet 10 intrepid and well-wrapped up Croydon runners still braved the temperatures and met up at Solution Health and Fitness for tonight’s task. It was difficult to leave the building and head off into the night but we off we went for a short jog and warm-up before splitting into five groups to deliver the charity collection bags. Taking care to avoid dogs, “No Junk Mail” households and well sprung letter boxes we delivered around 500 bags in super quick time and all met back up again.

As we hadn’t run very far we went for a run and then headed to the subway where we used the stairs for some training. The first couple of rounds were easy - jog up the stairs, sprint along the pavement and then a gentle run down the ramp to the stairs again. It got harder after that though…… squatting jumps, two steps at a time and the version that tested coordination and concentration – a combination of squats and two steps at a time. Good for the legs and gluts and keeping warm too!

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading for a longer run of 6 to 7km to a community allotment where we will be helping build a raised bed. to Birdhurst Community Gardens.

Rising to the challenge of winning our group in the January Challenge 18 wonderful GoodGym Croydon runners met this evening at Solutions for Health & Fitness to dig trenches to help lay some railway sleepers.

It was a bit chilly so we headed off for a quick warm-up then split into two groups with *Ellie and Amatare *leading the first group swiftly to the task while I enjoyed a chat and catch-up with the second group - well we didn't chat too much on the final hill though. Once we arrived at Birdhurst Community Garden we were told more about the task and got straight to work. It sounded pretty straightforward - dig a trench 4 inches wide and around 2 inches deep - that was before we encountered, rocks, roots and juicy worms! Still by the time we'd finished we'd made great headway and had even managed to lay some of the sleepers.

After we’d finished we headed off to a nearby street for some relay races where I kindly made sure none of those waiting for their turn got cold by making them do many variations of squats - they just loved the burn!

Welcome tonight to Jess who was brought along by Holly. She said she'd never run before and did fantastically well.

As it was the last Tuesday of the month we headed off to BoxPark for our social and bumped into one of our regular runners Rob and spent our time waxing lyrical to his friend about the wonders of GoodGym. A new recruit possibly?

This evening we ran around 4km to dig turf, weed, plant and litter pick in a local park

After promising an indoor task this week I had to break the bad news the evening before that the warm indoor task was cancelled and replaced by an outdoor task. The Croydon bunch are hardy runners though as we still had 22 amazing runners turn up for some running and hard physical labour

So after the group photo we headed off to White Horse Park via Tescos for our warm-up. Tonight the speedier runners were led by Ellie and Andy who did a fantastic job with their looping too and we all arrived safely. Charles was our task master for the evening and he explained the tasks we could help him with. The Friends of White Horse Park are planting round the sides of a large circular raised bed so he demonstrated how to dig the turf out neatly round the edges – he did make it look very simple – turns out it’s quite tricky! Others did some weeding and planting and the reset went rubbish hunting around the garden area. When we arrived it actually looked really clean but then we found the “beer can bush” - only 5 feet from a bin but an entire rubbish sack was filled!

By the time we finished it was bitterly cold so we headed off for a warm-up slow jog then to a quiet street where we practiced the art of accelerating -always useful for that last minute sprint to outpace your friends! There were some impressive increases in pace especially once the arms started driving back with real power. On the way back Ellie and Andy’s group headed off for a slightly longer run so we all managed to finish around the same time and cool-down as a group.

While we were stretching they were reminded of an extra session this Sunday – meet at Heathfield Gardens at 10.45am to help build a garden for the bees. We will do the task first and then go for a run in the woods if it’s not too muddy or locally if it is. It’s a great chance to do a deed in the daylight and also to bring along a friend or family member who might be worried about the whole running thing but would like to give GoodGym a try.

Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total. If you set it up yet then go onto your account, go to profile, settings and finally Strava/Runkeeper and follow the instructions there.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading to Lloyd Park

This evening we ran around 5km to move coffee grounds from a mushroom farm to a community garden

25 runners tonight!!! Fantastic to see some of the new runners from last week back as well six new runners so a big GoodGym Croydon welcome to Helen, Sarah, Tim, Claire, Iljeet and Kerry - look forward to seeing you all again soon.

We started with our customary group photo – needing to huddle together nowadays as my camera doesn’t have a wide enough lens to take in the whole group. Then off we headed for a warm-up in the nearby car park where we had to dodge a surprising number of workers heading home just as we got started – no collisions luckily. We headed in one large group, ably led by Ellie, Amatare and Andy and back marked by Sally and Rob down towards Reeves Corner to the Reuse Centre where mushrooms are grown and furniture made from pallets. Andrew met us at the corner and explained a little bit about what goes on in this well-hidden plot and then got us to work loading up the van with many many bags of coffee grounds which were heading to Wandle Park Community Garden to help fertilise the earth there. So with 25 runners in a chain(gang) formation we made very light work of moving the coffee and as soon as we’d finished we headed down to the park to help unload. Slight glitch with the key to the park gate not working and with discretion being the better part of valour we decided not to try and climb the fence so carefully threw the bags over for Andrew to sort in the morning.

Lots of time for a fun fitness session in the relative dry of the underpass. Amarate kept the group warm and moving while a few of us laid out the circuit – hopscotch, squats, hill sprints, lunges, chest presses and many more “fun” activities were done for 2 minutes each. We worked on strength, balance, speed, coordination and having fun which they were all very good at.

With burning muscles we finally headed back to Solutions gym for our stretches and a chat about next week’s task and also the GoodGym January Challenge – hope we are still leading at the end of this week. Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total.

I just had a quick flick back through some old run reports and apart from our very first run tonight was the largest run ever – Well done everybody.

Our next run is on Tuesday 16th of January - an indoor task!