Nineteen bouncing Hackney GoodGymers ran 5.5k to Hackney Downs to plant flowers in the HUG garden and clear the Old Park keepers lodge of 10 bags of rubbish.

On a Wild and Windy night in H- Town we welcomed 6 new faces to Hackney GoodGym and showed them how we do things.

We began the evening with a mobilising dynamic warm up where we got our lower body joints and muscles primed for action! We then bust into a series of strength building and core stabilising body weight exercises to get our muscles and joints robust and strong. We then bounced into action with some testing plyometric drills to activate a few fast twitched muscle fibres.

After the action packed start we headed off onto the Hackney back streets weaving our way 2k to Hackney Downs where we met Myra from HUG (Hackney downs User Group). We split into two groups the first began by ferrying watering cans to the garden to soften the flower beds for planting while group 2 headed to the Old Park Keepers Lodge to begin the first stage of regenerating the derelict building to hopefully being a community centre in the the not so distant future.

With both groups in full flow Christmas trees were being planted random single shoes were being bagged up. There were many weird and not so wonderful things found and removed in the Old Park Keepers lodge, a very satisfying task where we made a huge difference in a short space of time! With fence panels uncovering shoes and scorpions while suitcases didn't uncover any body parts but instead more single shoes. A fast and effective clearing pace was maintained and in 35 minutes the whole area was looking virtually pristine!!

In the garden holes were dug and soil was turned while an impressive number of plants were planted to brighten up the garden. In 40 quick minutes all the watering, soil turning and planting was complete and after a quick tidy up we were on our way!

The group chose to run a longer 3.5k route back to base so I added in a few loop de loop missions for those that wanted to increase the pace and distance! Special mention to Chris who was on fire and went on every special mission and lead the group home with a huge sprint finish across London Fields!

As I mentioned Saturday sees the GoodGym Parkrun Tour come to Hackney Downs and with so many of you in great form and fitness it would be great to see you there with many other GoodGymers from all over London and beyond! All the information is here about the Parkrun tour.

Next week we will be heading to Eco Active for a great task in their garden! We will be Digging up bushes, levelling off the ground, topping up raised beds with soil and making woodchip paths with so much to do it would be great if you came along and we had a monster turn out!! So please sign up here.

Silky Smooth Running

Joel

On a light bright Spring evening 21 Hackney GoodGymers ran 4K to the Wilton Estate community garden to perform a variety of physical jobs in the wonderful community garden.

We began the evening with an impromptu task at the E5 Bakehouse with the whole crew ripping and shredding the mountain of cardboard at the Bakehouse to help create a compost pile. A strongly therapeutic task that everyone got involved with and a couple bin bags full of ripped cardboard later the Bakehouse staff were really happy with our efforts.

We then welcomed to the Team some happy new runners for their maiden GoodGym Group run, a nicer evening they could not have chosen. A short pulse raiser to the amphitheatre that is the GG Hackney warm-up area where we congratulated Patrick of a year of monumental GoodGyming, a staggering 183 Good Deeds in 366 days!!! a staggering effort 👏🏻👏🏿👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾. With Hackney Half only a few days away there were many slightly nervous runners preparing for there last few runs before the race. So we got their legs turning over with 4 laps of the Wilton Estate priming everyone's legs with changes of pace between Easy, Race Pace (smooth) and Hard Effort. With the Team well worked out it was time to get to so serious gardening business on the every expanding community garden. We split into 5 pods and got to work weeding, pruning, hoeing, slab laying, water butt building and filling.

With DJ Pat on the decks there was a great vibe on the estate and was really nice to see a few of the estate's residents and their children coming out to join us for a hardworking 40 minutes of gardening action!!

With time ticking we picked up the pace and dominated all the jobs, a small issue with wild Poppygate quickly resolved and an epic Water Butt relay fill from Jack and James it was time to pack away the tools and get ready for some epic Cone Game Action!!

Patrick led the cone action splitting the crew into 3 colour-coded teams. The action was intense and the effort levels were high. A huge shift was put in by all and after a very close sprint relay and a dominant performance in Coney McConeFace Team White were victorious!!

A short warm down run back to base and an in-depth chat about the Hackney Half tactics, preparation and execution saw us on our way home with a really great evening's Running Fun in the bag!

Be great to see as many people as possible on Sunday for Hackney Half whether you're out running, volunteering or spectating come and join the whole GoodGym family for a refuel. All the information on what is going on is here.

Go well on Sunday everyone, trust your abilities and your training! Be positive and give the race your all! Really am looking forward to hearing about all your race stories on Sunday and next Tuesday. Tweet @GGHackney to let everyone know how you went and any pictures.

Next Week we are at the HUG garden for some Williow tunnel landscaping action please Sign up here. As is tradition for me we celebrate our races so we will be heading out to grab a bite to eat and a drink or two post run. Please join us for a bit or a lot of it we would love to have you along.

Until Sunday

Smooth Sleeping, Eating and hydrating

Joel