While everybody else was taking shelter from the high winds, nippy temperatures and driving rain that storm Ciara brought with her, 21 water-resistant GoodGymers met to lend a hand at a community garden and knock out a drizzly 5km. Well done, storm troopers!

We delayed the inevitable moment we had to face the weather as long as possible with a run through of the news. In case you missed anything:

• On 17th May we’re doing a GG aid station at Hackney Half again this year. You can sign up to volunteer at our water station here. Aside from doing a lovely thing for your fellow runners, you will also be rewarded with a free place in the Asics 10k, the Oxford Half or the next Hackney half. They're not cheap so it's well worth it!

• Now that the January challenge is over, it's time for the Extraordinary Task award. The award will be given to a group or individual who showed extraordinary effort in doing good in their community. If you would like to nominate a task or a person, you have two more days to do so, and you can do it here

• The Big Six races have been announced - these are events happening all over the UK where, if you fancy it, you can join loads of other GGers. Loads of them are multi distance, all of them will be a lot of fun. Check out the details here.

We welcomed Lisa to her first group run - give her a cheer! - and then headed outside for our warm up. It was pretty chilly, but we were happy to see the rain had stopped. A little bit of GG magic right there! After getting our heart rates up and discussing the last film we had seen - all the new one including Star Wars, Uncut Gems, Little Women and some classics like the Matrix - we set off into the eye of the storm. Which actually wasn't that bad.

After 2.5km we arrived at Bramford Gardens. This little community garden in the middle of a green space in Wandsworth is run by Sha, a volunteer who dedicates her time and energy to growing plants and creating a healthy little ecosystem in the middle of a huge junction. Our jobs for the evening include picking the leaves out of the flowerbeds to let the plants breathe again, tidying up the twigs scattered by storm Ciara, sorting out the compost and doing a litter pick.

After half an hour of work we had stopped being able to feel our fingertips, we downed tools, and instead of doing the conditioning session we had originally planned, opted for a heart rate raising and body temp increasing tabata work out! It featured high knees, the dreaded frogs, lateral lunges, powers squats and much more. It was a high intensity, but worked well getting us warm again after our task.

We took a slightly shorter route back at only 2km, putting on a bit of speed at the end of the run. Next week I'm away so you'll be in Chris' more than capable hands and hopefully be put through your paces with a good old fitness session! You can sign up for the run here Until then, run happy, GoodGym!

We started off our run last night with some stats from our month of doing good to kick off 2020. You did an incredible job in Wandsworth, racking up a brilliant 188 good deeds, and covering a huge 1821 kilometers. Seriously impressive. As a whole, the numbers are even more amazing - the GoodGym community managed 8646 good deeds, and ran 98521 in the process. What an incredible wave of good happening across the country!

• Welcome to GoodGym Christina, Emily and Karen. It's all about getting fit and adding purpose to your run, and we're really happy you've joined us!

• Well done to all of you who got out there at the weekend, including Caroline who ran her first parkrun, and to Kate and Diego all spotted covering the miles at parkruns across London!

The Venue is a community centre we visit fairly regularly to support - it is run by Hadas, who organises the Waste Not Want Not , the first project in Battersea which collects surplus food from nearby markets and distributes it through local community . The community centre is run by volunteers, so we were happy to run the 2km down there to lend a hand.

Before we set off we did our weekly warm up, and also discussed the objects in our life that bring us joy. Top of the list were bikes, food, our beds and of course, cheese. What more could we need?

After a quick stop to knock out a wall sit, we arrived at the Venue and split into groups to tackle the jobs. While one team set about giving the community kitchen a deep clean, ready for another week of cooking for local people, a human chain was quickly formed to transport crates of mushrooms and compost to the roof garden around the corner. Meanwhile, several GGers got to work emptying the storage room to be able to fit in some beds which will be going to a refugee family. There was also a spot of tidying up to do outside the centre, as well as window washing and hoovering. What a lot of elbow grease!

With all the jobs ticked off it was time for our abs blast, and we kicked off with a core triathlon, before moving on to various planks and other abs focused moves. Great for keeping our form in good shape when we run and preventing injury, it's good to make this sort of conditioning part of your weekly training. Hello abs of steel!

We finished off the session with a run back to base, a bit of a hill sprint, and some nice stretching. Great work everybody! It was off to the pub for the monthly social for some of us - watch out for March's post-run fun on March 2nd, and in the meantime why not sign yourself up for next Monday's run here. Hopefully see you then. Until then, run happy!

Cody Dock our run destination on a 'refreshing' kind of evening in East London.

Our intro chat covered: Hilary's 1st Female placing at Parkrun, upcoming Tree Planting and Fare Share Missions, welcoming Maria and Misbah to the GG lunacy (the runs get easier and easier, stick at it) and our Random Weekly Question. Courtesy of Melissa "what book are you currently reading?" Re reading old favourites from Harry Potter, Hitch Hikers Guide, history fictions and realities, Garcia Marquez Short Stories, Christopher Hitchens memoirs, An Orchestra of Minorities and adventure/travel tales loosely based on Tim's existence. As always, good range there team and sorry for the ones I forgot.

Fast forward 2 miles and we had reached the docks, our man Simon on call to lead from the front. With a distinctly cold rain making a cameo as we arrived - think we all did a silent "get in" when we were told the task was completely under shelter. Deconstructing gazeebos, removing furniture, rolling up temporary floors and rearranging the exhibition hall - all in a day's work, or to be more precise, 40 minutes.

Do checkout Cody Dock's website, we helped set up their Frost Fair, but their Burn's Night is upcoming too, another GGN social on the cards - get it in your diary.

That's all from me this week, look forward to seeing a buzz on whatsapp about your Parkrun target of choice this Saturday. And if you can't make that, maybe a longer more meditative run, keep the pace easy and just keep moving, a bit further than normal - getting fitter is that simple.

Till next week you beauts

B

A movie-themed run report by Andrea

Set free from our Office Space(s), eight My Fair Ladies and one Ironman came out for a night of running and gardening here in Brent.

Tonight we were graced by the leadership of Lisa, who’s set to lead the Ealing group come next week! The crew set off, undeterred by the wet weather (it was quite Cool Running). Two miles later we had made it to Kingsgate’s Secret Garden at Kilburn Grange Park.

We were led to the Temple (…aka Toolshed) of Doom featuring the best array of gardening equipment this team has seen to date. Though tempting, we avoided a Chainsaw Massacre by keeping to the equipment we (mostly) knew how to use – the highlight was definitely the giant eyelash -curler-esque weed scoopers.

In a quick break from gardening, we dashed through La Vie en Rose (…aka rose garden) in partner squat and sprint races. Soon it was time for the 2 mile run home, where we again incorporated some Speed work. Running like The Fast and the Furious, we found ourselves back at home-base with five minutes to spare… just enough time for the 100 squat challenge Bring It On. The A-Team pulled together in some of our best form yet to Power Ranger through this final piece of the workout.

Now.....That’s all folks!!!!!

Until next time