7 Illuminated GoodGymers ran a speedy 4k smashing great Fitness 4 All session in Camden.

Arriving to a sea of people enjoying the bright lights of Lumiere meant we have to find an alternative location for our fitness fun!

Finding a perfectly formed lap of a park near by was a stroke of luck and with a body and mind challenge for the evening we set about honing our running paces!

After a mobilisation warm up we set a base timed lap to find our Safe pace rhythmical and calm with logged that pace in then backed it up with a sequence of faster and safe paced laps trying to nail out pace to the second!! Great to see everyone challenge themselves with the odd fast lap and really concentrating on running perfectly timed laps for the whole session!

Covering over 4k with half of that at challenging paces a great workout was had by all and the last lap everyone laid the pace down and to a person so bang on their self predicted time!!

Hope you enjoyed the session! We will be back next week meeting at the same place where we will do more running form and developing our conditioning for our key running muscles.

Be great to see you there or at one of the many GoodGym Group runs which happen Monday to Wednesday.

Smooth Running

Joel

Last night eight runners braved the rain to help out at a local foodbank, got completely soaked, and still ended the night with a smile on their faces. What a team.

It started at the Town Hall with a little light drizzle and a lot of good news. Well done to Dave and Andy who both did great times at the Gunnersbury parkrun this weekend, to Remy, who gritted her teeth and beat the grueling Winshester half marathon, to Natasha who smashed a 5k race, and to Will, who joined us after an intense 10k the night before. What a week of running.

With a short warm up and a quick discussion about our favourite chocolate bars - which ranged from healthy dark chocolate and lime to good old Lion bars - we set off on the 3k run to Ealing Road Baptist Church. Shout out to Jennifer who had a great run down there, and to Michelle for battling jetlag womanfully! We also saw some excellent fartlek from Andy, Will and Remy.

Roger, the Pastor, was waiting for us with water and jobs as we soggily trooped into the building. A quick shake off and we were ready to get stuck in. It started with stacking books and chairs, which we completed in no time at all, before we moved onto the foodbank which Roger runs for local communities in need. With Will and Adam skillfully dismantling a stack of shelves the rest of us formed a (somewhat chaotic at points) human chain to empty and pack up the food. It turned out to be a lot of fun as well as a good upper body work out. Even if we did have to have several attempts at taking the video. " You actually have to move" said Natasha.

By the time the jobs were done the rain was coming even more steadily, which gave us a nice opportunity to 'cool down'. We're fighting a embittered battle to 'Beat the Streets' in Hounslow at the moment, and each have a card which we tap against a whole load of stations across the borough to record how far we've covered. So, despite the rain, off we went looking for meters, happily tapping and squatting our way round and noting all the good pubs that we weren't stopping at.

Before long we had made it back to our starting point, and with a few stretches we finished the night, already anticipating hot cups of Yorkshire tea, warm dressing gowns, even warmer showers and cold prosecco. Next week, it'll be warm and dry as we tackle the fly posters and graffiti under Turnham Bridge, so go on, sign up here.

Don't forget the social next Thursday at the fabulously named Blacksmith and Toffeemaker in Angel, where we will represent Hounslow at the monthly international pun of the month competition!

It was looking pretty grim all day, but as soon as we all met at Chiswick Town Hall for our run last night, the skies brightened for us and we were treated to a beautiful sunset as we did our task. The sun always shines on GoodGym runs!*

We started off by giving the amazing Remy a big old pat on the back for absolutely smashing the Aberdeen half marathon at the weekend with her fastest time this year. She's a machine! Well done also to Dave for taking on Gunnersbury parkrun last weekend. Incredibly, this Saturday will be Dave's 150th parkrun, so if you see him crossing the line, make sure you give him a massive GoodGym cheer!

Welcome also to our lovely GG visitors Jordan, Amy and Matthew - lovely to have you with us.

What's your favourite curry? In anticipation of our social after the run last night, we found out everybody's fav before we set off. Rogan josh, tikki masala, dhansak and caulifower curry were all winners. Who's hungry?

The root of the problem

Outside the town hall we met up with local Jan, who organises the wild flower meadow and the rockery in Turnham Green. She provided us with gloves and tools, and we got stuck in clearing the thistles and mugwort that we didn't manage to blitz last week. It was tough work, for they are thorny little pests, but after double-gloving and giving it some serious elbow grease, at the end of 40 minutes we had a huge wall of weeds of which we were proud.

Thistle never end

We warmed up for our fitness session with a few rounds of knee fencing, fish and chips, and clusters - with varying successes. It did the job though, so with our heart rates up, we got stuck into our technical exercises. To improve our running style, helping to prevent injuries and increase efficiency, we went though a series of sprints focusing each time on a different aspect of form. These included thinking about low shoulders and high chests, knee raise, positive backwards arm drive and foot placement. To put it all into practice, we finished off with a pyramid interval session which saw some great running from the team.

The trouble with tribbles

After all that hard work, there was only one thing left - our curry social! But hold on a minute, half the group wants to run the two miles to the restaurant? Amazing stuff! You lot can't get enough of running. Not long after, we all met up at Waterman's art centre, where we had a lovely evening stuffing our faces. Hounslow, you rule. Sign up next week for more GG fun.

*metaphorically