14 people ran 7k to do some gardening for Lillian de Lissa Nursery School

On a very hot evening it was great to welcome Natasha to GG Brum for the first time. Even more impressive was that she was fresh from completing a Triathlon on Sunday, who needs recovery 😉 We headed on our way to a new task tonight. Lillian de Lissa School was our destination. The run was just over three k down to the school, the heat making it quite hard work, so everyone was ready for a cold drink on arrival, which was kindly provided by the staff at the school.

The job was to trim lots of trees and plenty of weeding, the group spent a good 25 minutes doing our good deed, doing a rather grand job. After the task we had the usual group photo, Richard finding a puppet (or was that muppet?!) and apparently it looked like a mini version of me, hence the pun. Anyway, the puppet is in the pictures, so you can make your own minds up! Laura being one of the smaller members of the group was the one who got to try out the kids slide! After all that ‘Tom Foolery’ we had one last picture and we were on our way again.

never to hot for a plank

With it being on the hotter side of warm, I thought instead of some interval training tonight we would do some core work in St Paul’s square. The square also has the added benefit of having a bit of shade. It was side planks, followed by up and down planks and then to finish some high intense plank jacks! Top work everyone, as I’m sure you were all a bit hot and bothered by this stage, so it was great to see everyone still working hard and aren’t I pleasant not giving you hill sprints to do in the heat?!

Once done we had a few minutes of running back to 1000 Trades and that was job done for another week!

Next week we will be out doing good again, at the slightly earlier time of 5.45pm, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

13 people ran 6k to help feed the homeless and organise clothing

Tonight we welcomed Nick and Dan to GoodGym Brum for the first time, please give them a cheer.

On a lovely night for running, sunny and slightly cooler than recent days, we headed for the mission. Taking advantage of the light evenings we made our way via the canal once again. On arriving at the Mission the group were split in three. One group helped in the kitchen, another did the serving and the third group helped sort out some clothes and rather a lot of socks (hence the pun!) upstairs. I haven’t seen as many socks as that since Christmas!

Everyone ‘loves’ hills!

Once done the group gingerly headed to our fitness session destination, just around the corner for the dreaded hills! The task was eight minutes of the them! That was run up as hard as you can, then jog back down to recover, before turning for another oxygen depriving sprint! Dave led the way, showing fantastic form. Aaron, Rob, Dan and Richard were pushing him all the way. Nick was fantastic on his first session, showing great promise. Lee and Simon dug in towards the end on tiring legs, showing great determination. Karin put in a great effort, driving up each hill. Maria, Laura and Fiona, pulled each other a long, Fiona’s form getting better and better as the session went. After eight minutes, everyone was glad when I called ‘time’. Again it was a fantastic group session, everyone working hard and supporting each other. Top work!

Once done the group had a couple of minutes sat on the wall to get their collective breaths back, so it was time for a quick picture before heading back to 1000 Trades.

Ever present Aaron will be missing the next few weeks, as he’s on his holidays before going under the surgeon’s knife for a minor op, but he has promised he will come along to the World Cup social on the first Tuesday in July. Incidentally we have now got the upstairs room in 1000 Trades booked from 7pm onwards with a screen, so hopefully see as many of you there as possible :-)

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

15 people ran 7k to drop off Suit Drive donations to Suited for Success

After a rather chilly morning the sun shone down brightly on us GoodGymer’s this evening.

It was great to welcome Dave back after a while away for tonight’s run.

Karin led the way initially tonight as we had a very short 300 metre ish run to her place of work to pick up lots of donations for Suited for Success, as tonight was the GoodGym Brum/Suited for Success Suit Drive! These donations had been dropped off by various offices in the surrounding area. On arrival we had five flights of stairs to climb up to get to the office in question, so it all worked out as part of the workout. On arriving at the office there seemed tons of bags and we were unsure if we would be able to carry all of them. However never fear when GoodGymer’s are nearr, as we collected each and every one! Once outside the office, apparently called ‘The Peg’ due to its appearance we had a few piccy’s.

Next job was to carry the stuff to Suited for Success. It’s only around 1k, so with some of us carrying two bags it was decided we would walk this bit, well it was a lovely evening anyway!

Once at Suited for Success we were warmly greeted by Janice, having some more pics as we dropped our donations off.

Untimed time-trial

On leaving Suited for Success we were going to head to the Reservoir to do a one lap (2.4k) time trial. However Rob and David suggested doing the Soho Loop as a time-trial instead. I had never run this loop, as hadn’t most of the group, so we thought we would give it a go. As it was the first time and we were unsure of the exact distance, it was decided not to time it, but to just use it as an ‘effort run’. Dave shot off like a scalded cat, with Aaron, Rob and Sam not far behind. I got towards the front so I could catch some good shots of the group coming over the bridge on the canal. In the end the distance was 2.7k, so just over a mile and a half. Once done the group waited for everyone on another bridge which crossed over the canal, looking out over the gleaming canal water. You don’t get many nights like this in England, so it's good to enjoy them when you do! While the group were getting their collective breaths back Run Birmingham bumped into us, with Taz doing a bit of filming, so keep your eyes peeled as I’m sure we will pop up on social media somewhere!

After that we headed back along the canal, past Brindley Place, back to 1000 Trades and that was mission complete for another week.

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

10 people ran 7k to tidy up Stanhope Community garden

It’s Tuesday night which means it's GG Brum night! We had ten of us tonight ready to do good. The task was to run to Stanhope Community centre to help tidy up their garden. The group did a great job last year helping the garden achieve full marks in the Birmingham in Bloom competition! Therefore hopefully we can repeat it this year......no pressure! Anyway we got on our way, Lee did the back marking duties and myself and Aaron the front. It was around 3k in total to the centre.

Sandpaper gate

On arrival we were greeted by a list of jobs for us to do with a heading saying ‘jobs for fitgym’ hence the pun. I assume ‘fitgym’ was us! We had a load of sandpaper given to us to sand down the patio area. There was that much sandpaper I thought the Aussie cricket team had visited! There was also weeding to do and a general tidy. The group split up into two, half doing the sanding and half the weeding. We spent a good 25 minutes working hard, doing a great job. Sam Showed how hard he had worked by making a right mess of his shorts!! Once done we headed back ready for some interval training.

Intervals

We stopped on a quiet side street to do eight killer intervals. They all varied in length, some a short sharp sprint and some a little more endurance based. Aaron shot off like a scalded cat, Lee pushed on well, especially in the later efforts. George got on to his toes well and Laura, Karin and Maria pushed each other along all the way to the end. Top work team!

Once they were done we had the uphill run back to base (it’s always uphill when you're tired). On arrival at 1000 Trades we had some rather tired legs, but that was another run and good deed chalked off!

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