20 runners ran 3.5km to rip out weeds at the Christchurch Community Garden!

It was another warm summers evening at GoodGym Greenwich. We had 3 lovely new runners join us, Mani, Shelomoh and my probably one of my oldest friends Marina! Great to have you all along with us!

HAPPY PINEAPPLE DAY!!!

It was pineapple day yesterday so we went round and found out everyones favourite fruit, we posed like pineapples in our photos and a few people even went out for some post run piñas! Nice one!!

We did a little warm up and then made our way along the river to Christchurch garden. We were greeted by Kate who had lots of tools and gloves ready for us. And then it was all hands on deck, literally! Everyone took to the floor to yank out as many weeds as possible. Some of them were super stubborn but it was always really satisfying when they came out, roots n all!

After about 20 minutes, we could really notice the difference, patches of weed-free areas were growing bigger and bigger! And the buckets of weeds were filling up rapidly! By 8 o'clock it was time for us to leave. We gave the place a final sweep, had a group pic and then made our way to the park!

Hill repeats!

We had a bit of time to spare so we made the most of it with some hill repeats up One Tree Hill. We had 10 minutes to complete as many ups and downs as possible. There are quite a few steps and you soon feel the burn (I did 25 of these on Tuesday so I know how you guys felt!) but it's a great thing to incorporate into your training to build leg strength and strength endurance which will ultimately make you a faster and stronger runner!

Not sprints!

When you hear about hills you usually hear the term "hill sprints" so you often see people charging up a hill at full speed but that's not what we want to be doing! If you sprint up those hills, you will burn out and be too tired to complete more than a couple of reps, its better to just go up them at a steady speed and then recover on the downhills and do 6-10 reps rather than be completely wrecked by the time you get to the top on the first one!

So give it a go next time you're in the park. Ideally once a week you want to be getting in some kind of session like this is, whether it's hills or intervals and you will see dramatic improvements in your running fitness!

After 10 minutes, we had a nice little jog back to the uni with the sun setting ahead of us. LOVELY!

A little stretch and we were done!

GoodGym Olympics!

A few people asked me yesterday about the GoodGym Olympics, you can find all the info here and while there is no space for any events, it will be great to have as many of you down cheering and helping out as possible! It will be such a fun day with loads to get involved in! Hopefully see you there :)

Great work last night everyone! Well done for getting so stuck and for embracing those hill repeats! See you next time!

15 awesome runners ran 3.5km to help clean out the toy container at The Bridge Community Centre!

Another lovely evening in Greenwich last night. We welcomed two new faces, Kat and Imogen who actually spotted us in our red T shirts doing our litter picking last week! Awesome!

We were meant to go to Age Exchange last night but sadly it was cancelled, hopefully we'll go back in a couple of weeks. Instead, we went back to an old favourite of ours, The Bridge! Their toy container gets used day in day out during clubs, workshops and parties so the toys get very dirty and the container gets extremely messy so every couple of weeks we go back and help Raeleen sort it out and she provides us with biscuits in return!

We arrived and got going straight away! Two chains were formed to pass down the toys and clear out the container. Watering cans and buckets were filled with water and a mini carwash had been set up!

Once the container was cleared, it was time to give it a sweep and get rid of any litter and broken toys. And then the game of tetris began, trying to slot everything back nice and neatly roughly where it was before!

After half an hour we were done! The toys were clean and put away nicely and we were ready to head off... but not before a few biscuits and a photo of course!!!

We then set off back to the uni in time for a quick fitness session. We paired up with one person doing a 250m run/sprint and the other person doing some leg burning moves. 2 rounds and we called it a night!!!

By the way if anyone wants to write the run report next week, just let me know!

Great work everyone! Next week we will be heading back to St Lukes school so hopefully see you then!

8 awesome runners ran 4km to spread the word about Craft Central!

We had a nice tidy little group last night and welcomed new runner Jess to the gang who has her eyes on a place in the New York marathon... fingers and toes crossed for you Jess!

It was a pretty nippy evening so we got warmed up fairly quickly and then made our way over to the delightful Greenwich foot tunnel! The first part is always nice, a gentle downhill followed by a looooong straight and then the sneaky uphill the other end and the temptation of the lift! Which I'm very proud to say that no one took advantage of... well done team!!! You stayed strong!

Craft Central exhibition centre is located north of the river on Westferry Road and so we were targeting nearby roads which turns out was Dom's neck of the woods! We went in search for the first street and split up into to groups and got posting! We had some pretty strong draft excluders in some of the houses, real thick brushes which mashed up the leaflets a treat! Luckily Andy's fold technique worked pretty well!

The leaflets were dwindling pretty quickly and after 3 or 4 streets we were all out! We jogged back to Island Gardens for a little fitness session involving some more running.. yay!

A little bit of fartlek!

For the fitness session this week, we had some fartlek on the cards. Which translates to mean "speed play". We had one nice long straight and then a squiggly path back to the start. So it was fast down the straight and then a slow recovery jog back to the beginning for a 30 to 60 second rest. 3 times around and we called it a night!

A nice slow jog back through the tunnel and to the uni for a stretch.... lovely!

Great job last night everyone! Well done for making it out on such a cold evening when so many others didn't! Lots of great running from everyone, nice one!