It was a whopping three-task operation this evening in Tower Hamlets. Thanks goodness for a resilient, resourceful task force...

Lieke led to Look Ahead

We were lucky enough to have Task Force members Lieke and Sarah taking control of this new task. Look Ahead is based in Limehouse, and is a 24-hour service providing specialist support and care services to individuals with a variety of needs. Lieke headed up the slightly longer run to the venue, taking with her Martin, Miranda and Gabrielle, with Sarah meeting and greeting the runners at the task. Lieke writes, "We had a very warm welcome by Catriona and Laura, with some tea waiting for us on arrival (Autumn is really coming!). When the task was explained to us, we soon realised there was no time to waste, as both the front and backyard needed some TLC in time for Autumn. Five bin bags - and lots of trimmed plants - later, the clients can now enjoy the garden again. We even got a little bouquet out of it - see pic!"

Bryon tackled tricky trellises

Meanwhile, task force member Bryon headed up the crew consisting of Tim, Jess, Becky and Domitille, returning to Cranbrook Community Garden, to help continue work on the trellis construction. This was a fiddly affair requiring lots of creative thinking - and patience. Task owners Elaine and Janet busied themselves organising sticks and canes for the runners for this surprisingly complex little task, while Domitille and Becky headed to the borders at the front of the garden for a spot of weeding and pruning.

I weaved our way to Weavers

The remaining runners headed to Weavers Adventure Playground, via busy Bethnal Green Road, for the team to get to grips with some unfinished table business. Dave, Polly and Si settled into the serious situation of assembling the table from misshapen blocks and planks of wood, ("It's a bit like Ikea assembly, but without a manual.") while Chris and Emma lovingly painted the bright bench with a second coat, leaving it looking glossy and very inviting to a weary-legged runner.

...before we all met for Bethnal Green body weight moves

And so it was the entire team made it back to Bethnal Green Gardens to finish with our Summer Shred workout. In order to leave no muscle group feeling neglected, we ploughed through squat jacks, prisoner lunges, lateral lunges, single leg deadlifts, 'T press-ups, planks with knee taps, The Sprinkler, and the seated sprinter. Ouch - in a good way. All for the greater good (think injury prevention, washboard abs, stronger back muscles etc etc). And no sooner had we finished our last stretch, were we heading back to base - nearly on time, were it not for the slowest traffic lights in the world.

Extra-special shout-outs this week

Thank you on behalf of the group to the brilliant task force tonight, who have helped out with a lot of behind the scenes planning and enabled us to commit to three, very grateful task owners. Thanks to Sarah for helping to plan Look Ahead, and for Lieke for stepping in so quickly to lead the run, and for lovely pics and report. Thanks from the group to Bryon, who stepped in so quickly to lead Cranbrook, and who took lovely pics.

Massive welcome on board our Task Force to Dave - what a great start to the week to hear you've joined the TH Task Force - and for being up to lead the run to Weavers.

Thanks to Si ,for correctly identifying our workout spot, and navigating our route to Bethnal Green Gardens.

And a big GG welcome to Emma who was running with Tower Hamlets for the first time - was really lovely to have you on board and we hope to see you again very soon.

And so to next week

Next week, we're two-tasking it again: proficient painters you're needed back at the gorgeous Glasshouse Community Centre; green-fingered gardeners you're needed at marvellous Meath Gardens.

And then you're all needed for our Buns & Guns workout, as we focus on butt and biceps. Oh, and then we're going to head to the pub for a cheeky half to celebrate...(not sure what yet, but we'll think of some excuse - reason - by Monday). So sign up here for next week's run.

In the meantime, have a wonderful week, everyone, and see you soon.

A good-sized group on another balmy August evening

16 of us headed out this evening in a last minute task-change to Weaver's Adventure Playground, a short run away.

Jobs aplenty

On arrival, task owner Alex had quite a list of jobs for us to get involved with, from constructing tables from previously discarded furniture, to measuring, matching and sorting large planks of wood along with a variety of painting tasks.

The teams were soon dispatched to all four corners of the playground and, as usual, were soon getting stuck in. It soon became apparent one of the toughest aspects of the task was going to be seeing and freeing large nails firmly lodged into wood. Alex quickly came to the rescue with a crowbar crash course and Gabrielle wasted no time in showing a particularly stubborn nail who was boss.

The team worked quickly and effectively, exchanging drills for saws, as they motored through the large wood piles, with the painting crew barely stopping, other than pausing for a brief colour consultation.

Before we knew it, we were out of time and posing for our final pics before saying cheerio to Alex.

I feel the need, the need for speed

And so we headed to Weavers Fields to begin our speed session of the day. Brilliantly led by Chris, and speedily paced by both Bryon and Chris, the running task tonight was 400m intervals. This was broken up into 2 x 200m spurts: the first 200m at “your 7/10 pace” and the second 200m at “your 9/10” pace. The team sped through a total of three of these sprints – no mean feat as the temperature was hitting 26 degrees again – and we enjoyed some active recovery with our Ab Attack session, in between each lap.

We then sped back to base before heading to the pub for a quick drink.

Shout-outs galore

Great big thanks and massive well done to Chris and Bryon for leading the speed session again, and to Chris for distance-calculating and lap counting. Great back-marking this week from Becky and full credit goes solely to Clare for this week’s wicked pun.

And it really was very lovely to have Sam from Hackney join us tonight, and Nina from Islington back again. What a treat – please come again soon.

Next week: a Bank Holiday bonanza...

Next week, we’re set for a two-task Bank Holiday bonanza, when we’ll be finishing this week’s work at Weavers, as well as meeting our friends at Meath Gardens for more summer gardening and tree-watering from the canal, followed by a flexibility masterclass to keep those injuries at bay. Not one to miss, so sign up here.

The recent, much-needed rain was great news for plants and wildlife; less good for last night’s task…

Tunde to the rescue

Nice for nature, disastrous for our deed: the trees no longer needed watering by us last night. Thank goodness for Plan B’s. Our task owner, Tunde, from Friends of Meath Gardens, willingly found us a perfect Plan B, swiftly planning a big litter-pick of the gardens. The team were very willing to run through a variety of time-honoured lower body moves while we waited for Tunde (“Glute work’s good for your running.”) before teams were dispatched to all four corners of the park to fill multiple bags to bulging with a huge amount of litter. From coffee cups to cigarette butts (“It’s all going well, thanks, apart from the cigarette butts which are really fiddly.”) no stone was left unturned (literally).

Trash Stash of the Night went to Ruth’s cash-find (20p but don’t knock it – acorns & oak trees, an’ all that) and Anna’s slightly creepy, buried toy horse-head.

Time-honoured Tower Hamlets speedwork

Tunde was over the moon with the sheer volume of rubbish Team TH collected, and in true GG style, we celebrated with a little more exercise. Chris resurrected a terrific, time-honoured, TH speed session, introduced to the team in the earlier TH days by legendary Alex Eggs and Tom Scraggs. The session consisted of partnering up, and forming two teams to tackle a large lap of the park, high-fiving one another in the middle. A tough-but-fun end to trash-collecting.

Pilates follows plogging

We then headed to ‘the big bit of grass’ to finish with our Pilates for Runners part of the evening. Well done to the team for mastering the TVA vacuum (Friend: “What did you do on Monday?” TH GoodGymer: “So, I went to Meath Gardens and found my Transverse Abdominis muscle.”). After an already-tough evening of fitness, the team dug deep and performed some beautifully-executed Inchworms, Leg-Pulls Back and Front, Roll Ups and The Saw (“This game is called ‘Who’s got the tightest hip flexors’ ”).

We then raced back to base, stretched, ate some biscuits and headed home. What a wicked night. That rubbish, that care and attention to picking every last can and cup… What a contribution to the community. Team, you are truly terrific.

Thank you’s – and welcome’s

A massive welcome to Nazma, who joined us for her first ever GG run. Thanks for getting so much done, and for being so flexible with the Task-Plan B, and working so hard on your fitness. Do come and join us again very soon.

And what a pleasure to be joined by Lucy (by no means new to GG, but new to me) – please come back to TH soon.

And the thank you’s… Brilliant work from Chris for coming up with the idea and for leading the evening’s running session. Beautiful back-marking, there and back, from Leanne as usual – never out of sight - and hurrah for Chris, Bryon and Dave for leading the speedy runners back to base.

This week’s brilliant pun was brought to you by Bryon, and hurrah to the whole team for plenty of laughs getting us there.

And a big pat on the back (you’ve saved the day a bit) to Becky J, Gabrielle and Leanne for ideas and planning for next week’s task, when we’ll be helping out the utterly brilliant Acknowledging Youths charity, playing a running game and drinking, so sign up here to avoid missing out.

And lastly, 2nd September sees us heading to The Coborn with our newly formed quiz team, Let’s Get Quizzical (credit goes to Si for our ace team name) for some more school night drinking (and brainstorming). Do come and join us.

Two teams were despatched to two tasks this evening, getting a lot done in a very short space of time.

The proficient painting posse returned to Parkview

The all-female team, led by Leanne, returned to the Glasshouse Community Centre at Parkview Estate to give the storage space a second coat, thereby completing the job they started last week. Task owner Catherine was delighted that the GoodGym-ers had been able to help get the space looking so glossy and new in such a short space of time, and at such short notice, thereby completing the centre’s new look.

A drought is no match for the Good Gym-ers

Meanwhile, the rest of tonight’s running crew headed to Meath Gardens to help residents and Friends of Meath Gardens water the new young trees (who don’t appear to be enjoying our glorious summer quite as much as the rest of us). Meath Gardens has no water point and so watering the trees is a labour-intensive operation, requiring many pairs of hands to transport buckets of water from the nearby canal to the trees via trolleys.

The team managed to complete the required two-buckets-per-tree task with Bryon competently heading up the canal side of the operation. Heidi, in the meantime, joined task owner Tunde and resident Russell in staking and caging several new trees. This was a tricky balancing act accompanied by some impressive heavy lifting and striking by Tunde.

Two fitness tasks

At 8pm sharp the team rendezvoused at the flagpole in the centre of the gardens for a two-part fitness task. Danny led the group through some isometric, running-specific resistance moves designed to improve just about everything, from quad & ITB strength to balance and running form. I then stepped in to pick on the last remaining muscle group that was still standing: the abs. The team took some of the toughest abs moves I’ve scoured Planet Fitness for in their usual smiley stride, giggling and only collapsing when given the collapse-cue at the end of the session.

A mixed-pace run back to base saw us discreetly using a nearby wall for some effective static finishing stretches, before a small crew headed to the pub, for a cooling kraft beer and some pun brain-picking.

Thank you’s

Thanks to brilliant task force members Bryon and Leanne, for leading their runs, and to Leanne for leading the Parkview task. Thanks to Becky G, Gabrielle, Leanne and Miranda for committing in advance to returning to Parkview for an un-scheduled task.

Thanks to Danny, for a great strength and conditioning component: tough but really running-specific (with a level of intensity and detail one’s unlikely to commit to when training on one’s own…).

Thank you to the whole team for tonight’s pun.

And congratulations

…to our very own Becky G, who tonight hit 50 good deeds, and to Danny who this evening hit his 99th good deed (in an exceptionally short space of time…).

We're at it again next week

Next week, more fun and games (literally) as we’re heading back to Weavers’ to see what task owner Alex has in store for us at the adventure playground. You can sign up here, and I for one, just CAN’T WAIT.

Until then, have a brilliant week, and a great, big well done to you all, for another truly brilliant night.