15 people ran 5km to do a litter pick on our adopted part of the canal

On a Mediterranean esk evening in Brum we said a very warm (literally) welcome to Abbie, Amy and Tom who came on a group run for the first time! Tom possibly for the last time as well, as he’s moving to China next week, but what a great send off, being part of a GoodGym group run 😉 So after gathering our ‘litter picking’ equipment we were on our way.

What a load of rubbish

Once down on the canal we all went to one specific spot which gets full of empty cans. We spent 15 minutes clearing the area and then walked with the bags up to Aston Lock collecting a bit more rubbish on the way. In total we had 20 bags of rubbish! Top work guys!

Interval session

On our way back we did a lung busting interval session. This involved 2 sets of 4 efforts, with a longer recovery between the sets. Everyone worked hard. Neal led the way again, Andrew put in a great shift and Amy and Abbie did a great job of their first interval sess! Once done, as if that wasn’t enough we had a steady run back to St Paul’s square were everyone did four sets of 40 second wall squats. This was a great team effort on what would be rather ‘mashed’ legs by this point!

Once done and everyone exhausted it was time for a gentle run back to base, for a nice stretch. Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

14 people ran 5.5km to drop donations of clothes off at Suited for Success

Compared to last week’s very cold and extremely wet run, it was virtually tropical conditions for tonight’s group run! It was great to welcome newbie’s Shahid, Shalini and Karen on tonight’s run, along with many of our regulars. So, after our introductions we were on our way to Suited for Success, looking more like a bunch of campers with all our rucksacks carrying various items of clothing to donate. Once at our destination we had a very warm welcome from Patricia, plenty of photos were taken as we handed over our donations and Patricia gave the group a quick talk on why donating items of clothing were so important.

time to up the tempo

Once leaving Suited for Success we soon joined the canal. After reaching the Barclay Card Arena we split into two groups, one group going slightly faster than the other for the next 1.2km. I led the fast group, which became very fast! Everyone pushed hard, with Charlotte putting in a great effort leading the rest of the pack. Once at the entrance to leave the canal the group thought they would have a few minutes to get their breath back while they await the arrival of the other group……no such luck, they were straight into some high knees running efforts! Once the other group arrived we were all straight into some tuck jumps followed by some thigh and bum burning wall squats. The two Graeme’s showing great effort throughout the high intensity session and Karen looked like she could hold that wall squat all day!!

What no hill work?!

As everyone knows I’m a big fan of hill work, but we had avoided it all night, so not to disappoint I added in a lung busting hill sprint up to St Paul’s square, Graeme E led the way, Eva showed great arm work and Shalini showed great effort all the way up. After that it was an easy run back to base……oh go on then, just to keep everybody 'happy' I added in one final hill effort, I wouldn’t want to disappoint.... Now it was time for the steady jog back.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here