A really sunny Wednesday evening, so I got an ice cream whilst waiting for the excited runners to arrive. Unfortunately, our planned painting task has been postponed, but luckily, Colchester in Bloom are always ready to give us something to do, and particularly since the judging is happening soon, we can really help them to spread their workload.

We welcomed new goodgymer Nafisa, and we reminded ourselves about Fay's Cake morning to send her off on her epic bike ride.

Our task was to dead head the flowers in the various border boxes in the town centre. These were at the top of Balkerne hill great, either side of Crouch street, the corner of Headgate and at the Vineyard Street Car Park. This allowed us to do a nice run around the original boundary of Colchester, before descending back to the River via Castle park.

As a warm sunny evening, we attracted a lot of attention as we made our way making Colchester more beautiful, and have a couple of recruits for Goodgym Ipswich when it starts and Goodgym Southhampton whenever that takes off.

When a teenager heckled us saying we were all really slow and ran ahead of us, Tommy and Chris accelerated to show just how fast we could be! All in jest of course.

On the river path, we did a drill where we took our arms out of running to focus on lifting the legs with the hip flexors. All of the runners found it really tiring, and it helps to understand just how a much stronger core can lead to faster running. It also helps to encourage you to engage your core more in running.

As we made our way back to Leisure World, in a slightly comical unfolding, David ran crash bang into Ian. It was comedy. David was looking behind him and Ian had come to a standstill as there was a stag beetle on the path. Using a couple of sticks, Ian rescued the stag beetle, so not only did we help make the town beautiful, we also protected the local wildlife.

Thank's to Sue for the pun!

As well as lovely Hounslow regulars Claudia, Dave and Andy, we had some excellent GG tourism going on last night in the shape of Debs all the way from Bristol, and Jo and Ella from Wandsworth. You are all marvellous and deserve a cheer!

Well done to Dave, who did Osterley Park Run last weekend - apparently it's a good one if you like running on grass - and to Jo who tackled (a frustratingly short) Southwark. Good luck to Debs, who has a 10k race coming up this weekend. Check out these speed demons! Don't forget park runs are a great, free way to improve your 5k time; they are all over the country and are really friendly events.

While we were doing our warm up, we discussed which famous person, dead or alive, we would like to take out for a drink. We got David Attenborough, Al Pacino, Terry Pratchett, Bon Jovi, Thierry Henri and Stephen Hawking. Now that's a dinner party I'd like to attend!

We set off for Ealing Road Baptist Church at a nice trot, with Andy and Dave leading the charge. We usually help the pastor, Roger, out with the homeless shelter he hosts every weekend for local men, but this week we were doing a few jobs in the church building. While Ella and Jo got to work shifting a whole load of chairs (and haing a philisophical discussion about heartbreak with the pastor), Debs, Dave, Andy and Claudia were led down the stairs into a small, dusty cellar. You brave people. The job there was a tough one - to clear the cellar of junk and debris. It was really hard going, dirty work, and a bit confined, so we swapped over halfway (apart from poor Dave who heroically did both shifts!). Well done team, you earned your stripes tonight.

Cleaning up done, we set off back to Turnham Green to do a quick but intense fitness session. The run back was quicker than the outward leg, which is great going. We kicked off our session with a quick game of chase the hare. The idea is that nobody knows who the hare is except the hare themselves. Everybody sets off on a loop, and at any point the hare makes a sprint for home, and the other runners have to chase them back. Jo was our speedy target, and everybody made a jolly good effort chasing her down. It's a great way to do a little speed work. If that wasn't enough, we then took on a round of upper body circuits. These included press ups, both wide arm and diamond, tricep dips, side planks and regular planks for 45 seconds at a time. This is a difficult session, but really effective for toning up those upper body muscles.

All that was left was some nice stretches and a quick relax on the grass to end off the night. Well done to everybody who came from near and far, the goodest of gymers! Same again next week? You can sign up here

Welcome first timers Tim, Alicia and Catherine joining us this evening.

A late cancellation meant that instead of heading back to Ealing Road we went flyering around the streets of Hounslow to let locals know that GoodGym is happening nearby.

Members Andy and Lily ( in brand new red t-shirt) led teams of three for a bit of a leafleting competition. Points were awarded for getting rid of flyers most quickly.

With local streets covered we turned our attention to some fitness and another chance to win some points.

First the step-up challenge. Who can do 40 steps the quickest? Andy gained a point for his team when we led with the right leg but Donna came out on top for Team Lily when it was left leg first.

With the scores at 4-2 to Andy's lot we had a go at a couple of relay races. Team Lily grabbed victory for the first round while Andy's came out on top for round two.

The prize? Andy got to cut Simon's leftover birthday cake back at base.

We had a munch and a bit of a stretch, left some leaflets at reception and headed home.

Great night of getting fit and doing good.

We are definitely at Ealing Road Baptist Church next week. See you there!

Simon