25 bold and beautiful Hackney GoodGymers braved the summer rains to run 4K or 6k to The Bikery and brighten up the volunteer areas with a lick of paint.

Great to have a top turnout for the always fun Hackney Group Run. Lovely to see some GoodGym newbies coming to work their magic with the crew tonight! Lots of energy, smiles and high knees got us under way after the pressure cooker that is the dreaded Head Count. A short pulse raiser was followed by some penguin walking, bird walking and a combination of strength and balance improving exercises.

With our joints mobilised and our muscles massively activated we nimbly glided through the Hackney backstreets on the 2k run to The Bikery. We met the super accommodating Mark who showed us around before we split into teams to attack the painting in hand. With groups in the ground floor and first floor bathrooms rolling away in freshening magnolia we had the black board crew creating a blackboard on the wall of the volunteer room while the notice board frame got a striking black boarder. We were then able to create a couple of statement ceiling beams in a striking blue after an epic taping display by Liv and Hadrien. Was great to be able to help out an amazing charity who provide such wonderful work based opportunities to those recovering from mental ill-health. Click here to see all the great work they do.Hopefully next time the weather will be kinder and we can get to paint the stencil on the front of the building.

For the race back to base on Antonia's request the Speedy group set off first and took the longer 4K loop back. While after a last minute tidy up and test of some amazing seeded cookies. The SuperSonic group powered away on the 4K loop while the Sexy crew steadily ran the 2.5k route back. Some pacy running by all the team saw us all return back at the same time, out of breath having really worked hard on a top session. Some weighty bread aided static stretches finished off the evening before the team headed off into the night.

Next week sees us heading to the Caribbean elderly organisation to paint one of their meeting rooms. We would love to see again for another great session so please sign up here. Remember next week is our monthly social after the run where we will head out to refuel after the session, be awesome to have you along!

Have a top week!

Stride smooth

Joel

13 Braved all that Storm Katie had to throw at us to run 5k to create a Willow tunnel for the H.U.G (Hackney Downs User Group) garden on Hackney Downs and create an impressive turf mound in the process.

On a night not for the faint hearted we huddled together in the Bakehouse before storming down the streets of Hackney not doing a great job of dodging the rain or the puddles! Running the 2.5k to the newly formed HUG garden to get started on a big project. Meeting Myra who had unfortunately just had her gardening tools stollen, we were a little light on spades to turned our efforts to frantically sprinting the expertly cut bits of turf to the ever growing Turf Mound. In 4 small pods we soon got into a solid rytham of cutting, digging and running the turf to the mound to create a snaking Williow tunnel for the under 5's to begin their gardening journey in the HUG garden. As light turned to dark we picked up the pace with the rain easing off to aid our efforts and in 30 solid minutes of graft we had completed the first of many missions with HUG.

We zipped away into the night keeping a strong pace mainly to keep warm back to our semi sheltered warm up area where Patrick had a treat I store for us Cups vs Cones in a battle to the death the best of 3 duel was an epic emotional journey for both teams. Not only battling a solid Effort from team Cones as well as some dubious counting from Patrick, Team Cups won the hearts of the fans and take the emotional victory even if the scoreboard says otherwise!

We returned to base wet, muddy but feeling great after a run evening with a great group of Team Hackney GoodGymers.

Big thank you to Patrick for the games and pictures and Cecilia for a brilliant navigational skills leading us to and from the task.

Next week we are brightening up Daubany fields by giving it a well needed Spring clean, please sign up here for some more fun on the run.

On Jack's request Strava published their blog entry last night, take a look here. Not sure the pictures any any better than my highly skilled efforts to be honest 😉.

Until next week

Smooth Sunshine

Joel

Thirty One yes 31 Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to shovel tonnes of compost at the Rhodes Estate Food Growers group and clean the outdoor play equipment at Gillett Square.

On a fresh and breezy Hackney Evening Team Hackney were out in force! A new GoodGym attendance PB for me of 31, what an awesome turn out well played 👏🏽👏🏾👏🏻👏🏼👏🏿.

It was a very special evening as we had some double task action and some amazing visitors from the wonderful athlete connecting platform of Strava.

We took to the streets Lead by Clare on mass heading towards the beautifully lite warm up area by the Hackney Council offices, where we got to work mobilising those key running joints with a series activation drills to get us nice a warm and ready for the fun ahead! After some brilliantly balanced hip circles and leg swings we got into Hokey Cokey formation and Lunged Squatted, hopped and Jumped towards and away from each other.

With our legs pumping after some big time jumping we were lead through H-Town by another of the brilliant Hackney TaskForce team Cecilia who navigated the Squad just over 2k to our tasks in Dalston. We dropped of King Kev's compost crew for their task in Rhodes Estate Food Growers Group Before turning the corner into the Urban Amphitheatre that is Gillett Square.

We were met by Clarrisa who was excited to have Team Hackney along for the first time! We got straight to work splitting into 2 teams, the bulk of us unloading the colourful oversized outdoor play equipment from a huge shipping container. While 4 arty types began to restore the information board by cleaning and painting it, taking extra special care of the intricate lettering. The play equipment came out quick while there were a few bucket filling sprints to bring over the warm soapy water and cleaning kit. We got to work systematically cleaning the array of play equipment giving the weird and wonderful shaped apparatus names as we went, the "Cones" proved to create the most varied assortment of names (let's leave it at that). With photographer Kate clicking away to get some great snaps we got into a production line, cleaning and re loading the equipment back into the container at speed ⚡️⚡️🔥🔥. With the notice board re painted and looking gleaming in white a last push saw the equipment stashed away. 35 minutes of epic action and top job done by all!

Meanwhile the Compost crew were hard at work! Kev and the guys shovelling like crazy filling a big transit van fun of compost at a astounding rate!! 15 minutes of speed shovelling saw the van filled to the brim! Then came the glitch in the plan!! As the van drove around to the other side of the estate there was a Dalston traffic jam to contend with!! The Compost crew made up the time and even had to shovel the compost right to the back of the raised beds to add to the difficulty. To dominate a tough task in record time! A little late for the laps Kev lead the guys on a speedy 3k loop back to base to round off the evening!! ...

After a heartfelt thank you from Clarrissa we were again lead by Clare down to the World Famous De Beauvoir Track for Four of the hottest laps in town 🏃🏿🏃🏃🏽🏃🏻. In pairs we hammed a first lap with Walking Lunges thrown in then two tempo paced laps broken up by Tuck Jumps and Jump Squats before we High Skipped into a Max Power final lap which saw some Top quality effort and performance 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾👏🏿.

We then ran the 2k back to base including a final sprint finish to round of an excellent evening of GoodGym action!!

After few static stretches and huge round of applause for some top quality effort we headed home for a well earned feed.

Next week sees the Last GG Hackney Dance of King Kev before he leaves us for pastures new in the West Country. Please sign up hereand come along next week to rip up a barbershop Floor (as you do!) afterwards we will after much debate be heading to the Weathspoons on Mare Street for a Drink and Food to see Kev off in style. See you there!!

Powerfully Smooth

Joel

Twenty Four sensational Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k plus 5 laps of De Beauvoir Square to both shovel 10 tonnes of compost and lift shift and order a lot of wood.

On a windy night in H- Town team Hackney were out in Mega Force 💨💨💪🏽💪🏻💪🏾💨💨 to help make Hackney a nicer place to be while getting seriously fit along the way. We got our pulses raised with a short jog to our usual sheltered purpose built (well I like to think) warm up area. Then we began with a dynamic warm up to prepare the body for the energetic endeavours ahead before we started a new phase of our physical preparation with a series of Plyometric drills to increase Power, Strength and improve running Economy. We bounced, tuck jumped, jump squatted and jump lunged our way to Plyometric success before we split into two groups to take on this weeks Double Bouble tasks.

Seven fearless Runners set off to the Food Growers Group in Dalston lead by the superb Kev. Big question is will Kev make it to 100 Good Deeds before he leaves us for Bristol at the end of the month??? Just 4 Good Deeds needed!! Cheer Kev on to his Century of Good!! Here is what Kev had to say about the compost task:

Meanwhile a compost-hungry splinter cell of seven diggers dashed over to Dalston to assist Alex from The Food Growers Group shifting some compost out of the way of residents’ car parking spaces, it having been dropped by the council for use by local gardeners earlier this week. Eager to put their backs and cores to work to the familiar sound of spade-on-London-tarmac the group worked efficiently to 'find the line' while basking in the warming compost steam. Someone even speculated as to whether the emissions might be good for your skin, though the jury remains out on that one. Alex has a tonne of jobs lined up for a full crew and hopes to get us booked in for another visit soon. GGHackney’s gardening skills are in high demand these days!

Thanks Kev! We have another Double task in a couple of weeks with Alex and The Food Growers crew so look out for that one to.

While the bulk of the Team brilliantly lead to the task by Clare to the Hive where we were met by the usual array our alternative activities only found at The Hive. We bolted up to the top floor and began lifting, shifting and eventually sorting hundreds of pieces of wood. We got into the patented Daisy Chain to increase the wood movement pace and got stuck in! Then the call came as help was needed in the garden so 4 brave runners ran down to make pictured Totem poles from a series of tyres. The wood was sorted and moved created space for work to continue on the radio station, a last minute mission to pick up a door languishing on the 1st floor was complete before we set off on our way with a job well done.

We met up with the Compost crew at the beautiful De Beauvoir square, where they have kindly laid a perfect running oval primed for some lapping action! Building on the Plyometric techniques from the warm up we worked in pods of 3 bouncing, tuck jumping, lunge jumping and fast feeting between burning up the track with varying length tempo sprints around the track! ⚡️⚡️🔥🔥🏃🏃🏽🏃🏿🏃🏻🔥🔥⚡️⚡️. After a 5th and final all out lap the Team had produced a monumental running effort well played everyone 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. We had the small matter of a 2k cool down to contented with which was super safely lead by Cecelia.

We stretched out and congratulated each other on a top fitness effort before 13 of us attempted to get our Pizza 🍕🍕🍕🍕 fill at the local Pizzaria. Unfortunately after a long wait only 9 made it (next time we are going to the pub!). But great to see so many runners growing the Team Hackney community even after the run. ##Top GG Hackney Vibes##

Next week we are getting our Green fingers working in Wilton Estate community garden 🍃🌿🌱please sign up here and look forward to seeing you all next week!

Smoothly Jump

Joel

Twenty fighting fit Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to the Wilton Estate community garden to remove millions of shrubs, thousands of roots and turn over tonnes of soil.

On a beautiful clear full moon🌝🌝 lite evening we mixed things up a bit at GoodGym Hackney! As for one more week only we had access to the enchanting Disco Lights Running track in Victoria Park. So we were a little naughty and ran away from the task mobilising all the vital body parts on the way with a military style in line warm up. Side skipping, toe touching, walking lunging and even a few football heading ⚽️⚽️ got our bodies primed to throw down some speedily smooth accelerations down under the pulsating neon lights. Alternating power strength moves 💪🏾💪🏽 with balanced and coordinated technique drills our accelerations were silky smooth and Powerfully fast 🏃🏿🏃🏽🏃🏻🏃. 8 bursts of lighting speed⚡️⚡️ followed by a mini lungeathon to build on last weeks strength effort gave us a blood pumping start to the session.

As we were a little late we sent of 9 super speedy shrub excavation ninjas ahead to get started on the task, brilliantly lead by Kev (also Hackney Coach runner rep) the pack laid down a 2k burst at a scorching 7:30 per mile pace!! The sexy group made some strong running progress in pursuit, lots of running improvements shown with talk of wanting to do longer runs in lead up to the fantastic Hackney Half marathon. Special mention to GoodGym Hall of Famer Becky for expertly guiding a few GoodGym newbies on their first run. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

The speedy crew got down to business speedily as you would expect, uprooting shrubs, roots and anything else that got in their path to clear a huge flower bed in 20 hectic minutes of action! 🌳🌳 Looking for more work to be done they moved on to forking, shoving, Pickaxeing metre after metre of flower bed to prepar it for some beautiful wild flower planting 🌾🌼🌾. In 10 quick minutes the entire first section had been forked to death and ready to get flowery very soon. The sexy crew were busy getting tangled in ivy, battling roots and ripping out more shrubs to clear a 15 metre stretch of densely vegetated flower bed ready to become a beautiful and maybe tasty raspberry patch 🍓🍓🍓(near enough a raspberry). Becky was very unimpressed by my lack of Joni Mitchell hair knowledge!! So for anyone else who needed a pictorial reminded of how amazing Joni Mitchell's hair is click here Sorry Becky for my ignorance. A few epic root battles were had and after some brilliant team work the dream worked and after 30 minutes of action not a root was left or ivy steam to be found. Brilliant work team 👏🏻👏🏽👏🏾

After a massive thank you for brilliantly patient Debbie and Lisa we headed back the 1k to base basking in our task glory. After a stretch out we congratulated each other on a fun and fitness filled evening which greatly aided the wonderful Wilton Estate community garden.

If any woman would like to join in with a disco light running group this week check out the info here.

Next week we will be back to The Hive for another adventure in the most eclectic building in Hackney! Please sign up here it will be great fun and we will be running a few relays around De Beauvoir square for good measure!

Don't forget we will be going for a bite to eat after next weeks session if you fancy a bit for nutritional reward for your physical endeavours.

Until next week

Smoothly accelerate

Joel

More to follow

15 Hackney GoodGymers ran 6k to the wonderful Gascoyne Estate community garden to fill raised beds, move a mountain of wood and create an emergency fire truck access for the neighboring day nursary.

Lovely to see a GG newbie starting out on the road to Goodness, as well as a few returning Team Hackney members who we have missed for a few weeks and our beautiful regular runners repping hard as usual.

We had a new lead runner this evening Clare who did a great job of shepparding us through the main, the back and side streets to our warm up area and then around to the task. Well done Clare hope to see you back leading the tribe very very soon! 👏🏻👏🏽👏🏾

We had a warm up with a difference this week, continuing on our strength phase of training we wanted to really toughen up are key running muscles in our core and lower limbs. So inspired by the NBA all star game I went oldskool and back to my basketball coaching days 🏀🏀🏀, getting into a half squat we did the line drill moving in every direction possible, grabbing rebounds, diving to get loose balls on the floor and working those fast feet all in a half squat and with our hands defending the passing lanes. Obviously this was not enough for the now legs of steal ⛓⛓⛓ Team Hackney so the Team begged for more and we jumped into a Lungeathon where we lunged in every direction continuously for a minute with a controlled eccentric calf raises as an active recovery then repeated 💪🏼💪🏻💪🏾 We knew the legs had taken some punishment as the first few strides of the run to the task there was in unison a collective grown!

We ran the 2.5k to the task to meet Varda, and we set to work uncovering the raised beds by removing wooden palettes and rocks which help to keep the foxes out. We then started shovelling mounds of soil to top up the beds, we were going so hard at it the wheelbarrow couldn't keep up and decided to go into early retirement. But on we charged, filling up 15 flower beds with soil. Then we employed the devastatingly efficient Daisy Chain 🌼🌼🌼 to move tones of wood to make make a perfect insect habitat. The insects are vital for the health of the garden and the new log habitat will give many insects a nice new home. 🐛🐌🐞🐜🕷🐝.

It was all hands on deck for the final phase of the task where we cleared a direct path for a fire entrance to a neighboring children's nursary by separating a huge mound of wood chip and soil then freeing up a perfect path to the fire entrance. 🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒

In 40 minutes of fun filled, super productive action we had showed how great Team Hackney are and Varda and the rest of the Gascoyne Estate community garden team were extremely greatful. Everyone is super excited to get more great work down on a Tuesday evening very soon on the Gascoyne Estate.

We headed back towards base aiming for a 2k steady run after our earlier leg exploits but out the corner of our eyes we saw something too intising to ignore. Victoria Park had a special preview of their night running track so we nipped in and had a sped out and back on the amazing pschyodelicly lite up track to add another 1.5k to the run. There will be structured running groups running in Viccy Park for the next few days, check info. We will try and return next Tuesday to have another go!

Hope to see you all next week when we return to Wilton Estate for some serious cutting action!! Please sign up here.

Until next week

Lunge smooth

Joel

Great to get stuck right into a new task tonight! Showed how we roll b