Leeds Little Leeds Libraries are usually maintained by the host household....but what happens when they move out? Hartley Crescent library was in need of some TLC so GoodGym Leeds listed a mini task to give it a spruce up and a lick of varnish. It now looks loved and hopefully will be adopted by the new residents.

On what started out as a very wet Saturday, 5 Goodgym Leeds runners met outside the Leftbank.

After catching up, Helen chose a scenic uphill route to the first Little Librbary located on Stanningley Road. We noted that the library needs topping up with books as the top shelf was bare!

After recovering from the steep climb, we made our way to the second Little Library on Armley Ridge Road. This pretty library was in good condition and had plenty of books.

We made our way back to the Left Bank via the famous Armley steps and rewarded ourselves with a hot drink before commencing with the gardening mission.

What a lovely day for a run! We started in the centre and took a leisurely pace eastward to our first little library.

The library at St Hilda's Church was one of the first we've seen that actually needed a top up of books - so we've passed that on to little libraries and they should add some more soon!

We then took a lovely little detour down the canal path to reach another library near the armouries (which is open now!). We have this one a little clean before going on towards the centre and then going our separate ways.

Thanks for coming all!

6 GoodGym Leeds runners ran 7km to check two little libraries in Allwoodley.

The mission began on a bright sunny morning outside Adel parish church. We were all excited to run in a socially distanced group. We ran past the church and the beautiful York Gate Gardens before entering Adel woods at the bottom of Stairfoot Lane.

Helen navigated the group through the fantastic woods bringing us out into King Lane in Alwoodley where we located the first beautifully painted Little Libraries. we stopped to check and we were pleased with the condition and quantity of books on display.

We then made our way down Nursery Lane to the second box, if it wasn't for Helen's eagle eye we would have run straight past the second box as it was located in the middle of a tree. We noted that the Little Library was in good condition bit could do with a latch on the side.

we then made our way back though Adel Woods stopping to admire some of the wonders within.

We all really enjoyed the Saturday morning run and we all went our seperate ways to enjoy coffeee and cake!

On one of the wettest Saturdays of the year, 6 brave Good Gym runners took to the streets of Headingley to check the Little Free Libraries. We checked 3 boxes - all fully stocked and looking good. Ellie took some great photos too :)

We ran in the rain through the woods, in the park and along the roads, exploring the area as we went. As if the run around Headingley wasn't enough, Helen had already been out for a 10km run challenge in the morning and Liam had run from the city centre. Nice work guys!

Tonight's run included our longest ever run (by some runners), some orienteering style skills, hundreds of books, and an appreciation of some incredible art. 24 runners came together for a bit of a check up on the Leeds Little Free Libraries, with a fun build-your-own workout thrown in too!

Tonight involved lots of pre-run admin, with loads of different route choices on offer from a round trip of around 5k to over 15k! This meant we kept the news brief, but well done to anyone who ran at Liversedge Half at the weekend, some brilliant running in tough conditions.

We had one new runner joining us this week, welcome Sarah! We also had a Caroline on her first visit to us from Sheffield, and a few faces back for the second week. Great to have you all!

The plan for tonight's run was to split up into small groups, and try and reach as many of the Little Free Libraries as possible. They're all quite spread out, so it was no easy task! After deciding how far they wanted to run, everyone formed into groups with an assigned leader who had a map in hand and a little condition sheet. Some groups were heading for just one box, others two different boxes, and one group was trying to hit three in one session!

The Little Free Libraries are an amazing resource, that as the name says are completely free! They're essentially small cupboards that are spread about all over Leeds, and the idea is that you can borrow a book, or leave a book that you no longer want or need, and it just creates an amazing book-sharing community that hopefully gives more people more access to books.

When a group arrived at the box they had a few things on their list to check: * Is the perspex window free of cracks? * Is the post/wall mount secure? * Is the door in good condition? * Are the shelves loose or damaged? * Is there any other obvious damage?

Then they had to count the books in the library and it was time to build their own workout! The number of books defined the number of reps they had to do, and they would pick their own exercises, 3 in total. If you only went to one box, you did 3 x the number of books, with the reps reducing for the numbers of boxes visited. Easy! (Once I'd explained it a few times!) This was a great excuse for me to turn the fitness session over to the group to see what sort of exercises you would choose to do, and it's really interesting to see what you all came up with!

With everyone off in different directions, each group had their own challenges tonight. Some groups had big distances to cover, others had city-centre traffic to negotiate and others had some complicated navigation through winding suburban streets. For Paola, in only her second week, she loved the opportunity to challenge herself, picking the longest route on offer:

"I just thought, why not push myself?!" That's the spirit Paola!

As each group arrived at their boxes, they mostly found that they were in great condition, with only a few minor defects to reports. Mostly they were all pretty well stocked, with a good number of books and they all had some amazing artwork.

"Looks pretty spankers new" Riobhne

"The painting is glorious!" Adam

Then it was time for the workout! The books were counted, with reps therefore ranging from 18 to 50! It was great to hear afterwards how loads of you had made use of your surroundings incorporating the urban landscape into your drills. There were some repeats in the workouts but you did all of these amazing exercises:

*Push ups *Squats *Star jumps *Boxing punches *Wall sit *Step overs *Single leg romanian deadlift *Toe taps *Tricep dips *Lunges *Reverse lunges *Dynamic balance (writing with toes) *Pull ups

Unbelievable stuff! I'm very impressed with the variety in the exercises, and in most cases they looked like they were well thought-through with a mix of different muscles worked.

Everyone made their way back to base, in some cases finding the hills that little bit harder on the way back! One group even used the fair that is set up right near our base as a beacon to guide their way home. Beautiful!

We all reconvened back at base, with a healthy group stopping for a quick drink to swap stories catch up on the evenings events. Another fab session everyone, hope you all enjoyed it!