It was amazing to see so many volunteers give up their Sunday to help the Ukraine support effort with so many bags and boxes of donated goods. This was based at the Polish White Eagle club in Balham and I started off clearing the front car park to allow vans to load and unload before joining 'line duty' inside the large hall. I feel that my 3 hours was well spent with hundreds of bags and boxes passing through my hands down the various lines. A great community effort by people from all walks of life who felt compelled to help the Ukranians.

What a night in Wandsworth, with some great news and sunny skies for a task planting hundreds of bulbs at a local estate!

There's been some brilliant racing over the past weekend, including some trail running from Helen, Beth, John and Emily, and a half marathon PB from Morag! We also welcomed back our marathon runners - congratulations Lewis, Sam, Nicky and Phil!

We had a wonderful milestone to cheer, as James reached that magic 50 mark! Well done to excellent James for all the good deeds and miles covered - fantastic job!

It was lovely to welcome Henry to his first GoodGym run - give him a big cheer!

This Saturday sees the monthly long run. With a choice of 10k or 19k starting from either Brixton or Crystal Palace respectively, this is a good chance to get out and stretch your legs. No one, as ever, will be left behind. Sign up here for all the details.

Light bulb moments

During our warm up we talked about the best things that have happened to us over the past week. PBs, meeting puppies, good roast dinners, job interviews, successful missions, stag dos, wedding invites, good books and watching Beth roll down a hill - what a week it's been!

We took a quick run down to our task which was only a mile away, and found super organised Kambala Cares chairwoman Donna waiting for us. This non-profit organisation, run solely by volunteers who are committed to supporting the local community,helps with local problem solving, running projects, taking residents on day trips and events and providing the very best help and support for the community. It's a brilliant organisation that is really making a difference to local lives.

We divided up into four teams - three to plant bulbs in the various closes, and one to weed the main raised bed. With so many different bulbs to be planted - gladioli, tulips and many more - the beds are going to look incredible and make the estate even more welcoming when they bloom.

After 40 minutes of hard work, and a lot of 'is this a weed? I don't know!' the bulbs were in, the (hopefully) weeds were up, and our job for the night was done.

We ran the short way to a local green area and kicked off with a quick ball game to get our heart rates back up. The competition was to get each ball and your whole team to the end of the park and back - and in true GG form, it was a dead heat! We then moved on to pyramid sprints, which are a true toughy of speed work, but totally worth the pain for the results you can achieve. High intensity speed sessions increase anaerobic endurance, can help improve the efficiency of your stride, and changing paces helps you think about your running economy. It was great to see everybody pushing themselves - and we even got a sneak preview of the school garden we have been working on in previous GG sessions!

Next week we're back at the community garden we've been busy transforming from an unused and unwelcome space into somewhere the community can be proud of - sign up here. See you then!

Not even a sunny bank holiday could stop 14 community heroes from doing something positive for their community - and knocking out a nice 4 km run in the process!

Fresh from a long weekend of fun, we all met outside the BAC for a quick rundown of the week's news:

It's the GoodGym monthly social! This Thursday - and this time Southwark are hosting. [Have a look at the sign up page for all the juicy details] (https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-social-on-tour-southwark

Fancy a nice long training run with company followed by something to eat? Then look no further! On Saturday 18th May it's the monthly GoodGym long run. With options of distance and pace, everybody is welcome. Here's the sign up page with all the info you need.

It was the second week of a massive ongoing task last night. We've already been down to the Doddington estate in Battersea to start a job of transforming a community garden that has been shut for a number of years, and so we were eager to get back to the task!

It was a 2km run down to the Venue to meet Hadas, who runs a number of community organisations in the area. She had our tools waiting for us, so after picking up a selection of useful bits and pieces, we all walked over to the garden to get stuck in. It was action stations immediately, with people sweeping, weeding, litter picking, chopping down ivy, rolling up turf and cutting back brambles. There was so much to do, and it is very satisfying to see how, week by week, it is all coming together and will soon be a lovely place for the whole local community. We were even helped along by a new furry GG mascot who put our own energy levels to shame - check out the pics!

We were getting so much done that we didn't notice time flying by, and by the time we had packed up and returned the tools we found we didn't have time for the fitness games that had been planned. But don't worry - they'll keep for another week! Instead we decided on a quick plank competition which saw no fewer than five ab-tastic GGers reach that two minute mark - even with some, ahem, 'assistance' from Emily! She was allowed to do whatever she pleased last night though, as it was her two year GoodGymiversary! Two whole years of getting fit and doing good, nice one Emily!

We finished off our 2km run back to base with a hill sprint and some stretches and that was job done for the night. Well done everybody for some real bank holiday community spirit. Next week we're off to the Kambala estate to do some planting and other jobs and a good solid fitness session to make up for the shorter run. Here's your sign up page - see you there! Until then, run happy everyone.