26 awesome runners ran 4km to help St Mark's Church!

It was cause for celebration last night as our very own Steve was achieving his 50th good deed! Amazing!!!

We also had a few GoodGym tourists: Dan from Newham, and Rachel all the way over from GG Cardiff! And last but not least, we had new runner Vicky join us too... welcome to the GGG squad everyone!

National Pet Day ♡

We spent a few mins going round talking about our first pet, lots of fish and rabbits! Marta even wanted us to adopt a GG dog to bring on the group runs.... We actually did have a lady bring her dog to a group run once, but she didn't come back after the first one :(

Anyway off we went for a little warm up, throwing it back to when we were all 10 with a game of stuck in the mud! After a few minutes everyone was suitably warm and ready to run! Ben placed the ceremonial Greenwich cape upon Steve and off we went!

About 10 minutes later, we arrived at St Marks and were greeted by the lovely Tony who told us a bit about the church and the task at hand. There was some Ikea style furniture which needed assembling so Steve C and David headed off to do that. Everyone else grabbed a rake, a broom, a shovel, whatever they could get their hands on and started tearing up the weeds. There were 3 areas that needed attention and within minutes we could start to see a difference.

Lots of people paired up, one held a bag open while the other shoveled in the weeds. Good team work going on! After the weeds had been removed, it was time to hammer in the mini fence! Which actually proved harder than we thought with all the gravel embedded in the soil, but as always these guys got the job done!

Nina the best sweeper

The task was nearly finished, the place just needed one final sweep, and who better than the best sweeper in the world.... Nina.

The clock struck 8 and it was time to head off! We took a nice photo with Steve's cape flapping and ran off into the distance.

Strides!

Hill repeats were on the agenda for the fitness session yesterday but as always I changed my mind last minute and settled for some strides. As I mentioned, these are short sharp sprints of about 100 metres or 20 seconds ish and it's a great thing to add onto the end of your easy runs as they really help improve your running form, I'd recommend about 6-8 of them. Just make sure you bring your heart rate right down after each one, so a slow jog recovery or even a walk.

We only had time for 4 of them as the pub was calling! We headed back to the uni for a little stretch and then off to the Old Brewery for Steve's celebrations and the second edition of "Which twin?"!

Thanks for all your efforts last night! Great work on the task, you got so much done! And awesome running as always! See you next week!

12 awesome runners ran 6km to help out at St George's church in Westcombe Park!

We had two new runners join us yesterday, Fiona and Lucy.. welcome ladies! Hope you enjoyed your first GoodGym run!

Our evening started off with a mini adventure... our usual bag drop room was occupied so for the first time ever we got to go through the double doors at the end of the corridor and up the spiral staircase... this is about as exciting as things get for us. But then, in the end, our usual room freed up so back down we went, sticking with what we know!

After a little warm up, we headed up Maze Hill and down towards the church. We arrived about 15 minutes later and were greeted by Tim the reverend of the church. He had two tasks for us, one of which was raking the remainder of the leaves out front and bagging them up. And the second task was moving a bunch of stuff from a stairwell and into the basement.

To me, to you, to me

The group was split in half and everyone got stuck in. In the church there were lots of huge panels of wood that needed to go down which proved a bit tricky with the staircase but some excellent Chucklebrothers style teamwork came in to play and it was all dandy!

After 20 minutes, all the stuff from the stairwell had been cleared so it was all hands on deck for the raking and bagging up of the leaves! Although the hardest job seemingly was actually just opening up the bin bags! By 8pm, most of the leaves were bagged up and it was nearly time to go!

All the bags were put on the big blue tarps that we also filled with leaves last time, ready to hopefully somehow be collected over the coming weeks!

We headed back to the uni for our monthly 1km time trial. We usually go round anticlockwise but there was a guy running around giving it the beans so I didn't want to ruin his session so for a change we did clockwise! 4 laps of the 250m circuit and then we called it a night!

Great running last night everyone and thanks for putting so much effort into the task! It would have taken Tim forever to get all those leaves together but you managed it all in just a couple of minutes so well done! They can now start work on the community garden!

10 awesome runners braved the elements to deliver flyers for Charlton House!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE! Hope you enjoyed your evening on the lovely damp streets of Greenwich!

Huge well done for turning up, it's those grim miles that will make you a stronger and more resilient runner so give yourselves a pat on the back! Winter miles for summer smiles!

We had a nice tight knit little group but of course still went round the circle, this time talking about last night's pancakes and what we had on them. Sam's seemed especially extravagant... and then it turned out he didn't even HAVE them! Just 364 days to go Sam until you can make your dream a reality!!!

We skipped the usual warm up and opted for a slow and steady jog to get us on our way as quick as possible! We ran together and made our way up the hill towards Charlton, finishing at the beautiful Charlton House where we were able to thaw our fingers and toes for a few minutes and more importantly pick up the leaflets!

Once everyone had a pile of leaflets in hand, we set off trying to deliver them as quick as we could so they didn't get soggy! We lost Channie quite early on, think she had enough and just went home! Don't blame ya! After about 10-15 minutes, all the leaflets had disappeared (or disintegrated) and we were on the home straight back to the uni!

We arrived a little after 8 o'clock... nice and early! We did a mini fitness session comprising of some drop squats to work those glutes and some tricep dips because it's important that the upper body gets some love too! 4 minutes later and we were done! We walked back round to the classroom and treated ourselves to an indoor stretch! LUSH!

Thanks again for all your dedication this evening folks! Well done getting out there on such a miserable evening! Have a lovely rest of the week and I shall see you next Wednesday!

14 runners ran 4km to help with some gardening.

It was an extremely chilly Wednesday evening, but that didn't stop new runner Ana joining us on an outdoor gardening task.

After formalities and the obvious 'Name, number and... favourite part of the week' (Sarah I don't knowhow you come up with a new favourite -fill gap here- every week) we quickly warmed up with a fun game of 'stuck in the mud'. Alex and Steve did what they do best and teamed up to pick everyone out, with a little help from fellow GG veteran Ben.

Off went down a slightly different route lead by Matt to The Christ Church Community Gardens where we were met by Kate. Everyone was quickly divided up into different jobs such as sanding benches, digging holes and chopping up branches. I think the most rewarding job was completed by Andy who get to pull out the kale, which we were told we could take home with us, so Andy did just that, after sharing the goods with fellow GoodGymers.

Quadrangle of fun

A quick jog back to the University, and you guessed it, it's TIME TRIAL WEEK!! Max effort was put in by all runners, sprinting 4 times around the Greenwich Quadrangle of fun. With a bit of time to spare, we finished with a little ab blaster, pairing up - sorry I was a rubbish partner Christian - to (k)nail a set of sit ups and planks. All washed down with a beer or two at the monthly social.

Huge effort as always guys, and remember, usual service resumes next week as Sarah will be back.