Tonight's task was to carry a load of clothes that had been collected by the Big Peg, to Suited to Success. The suit drive meant that there was at least a bag or two for everyone to carry, but of course GoodGym don't drive, all was done on foot :)

We met Matt at the Big Peg, had a quick couple of pics, then walked around 1.2k to Suited for Success, were Patricia was delighted to see us for the first time since Covid and even gave us a quick show around. Then it was time for a picture before heading off on our run.

We ran along the canal, through Brindley Place, then back through the city centre, up to 1000 Trades. The weather was that preferred by ducks, so we all were a little damp on arriving back, but that didn't dampen any spirits on a job well done :)

Tonight was ‘Karin’s task’. Yep she had organised a suit drive at her place of work. The task was to collect the donations and take them to Suited for Success. On arrival the whole group were shocked at the amazing amount of donations. We collected as many as we could then ‘humped’ them to Suited For Success, this was a fitness session in itself as everyone’s arms were ‘killing’ as Rob described on arrival at our destination.

We were warmly received by Patricia and Tomas who were very happy to see all the donations. Plenty of pictures were taken and then we were ready to head on our way once again.

Rob led the way taking us through Ladywood and back to Brindley Place. We then followed the canal back to St Paul’s Square. Next Liam took up the reins taking us a longer way back via the Jewellery Quarter museum, just to get a bit more work into those legs. We arrived at 1000 Trades, having ran and walked with the donations near enough 6k. Oh and a special mention goes to Laura this week, who was doing her 100th group run, everyone give her a cheer :-)

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

Tonight we welcomed Chloe too a group run for the first time after she had her documents checked last week. It’s great to have you with us.

Task destination tonight was Suited for Success for the first time since early spring. We walked the half mile there as we had donations to handover. On arrival, Thomas greeted us and he informed us that tonight’s task was to carry a load of sacks full of clothes they had collected to a recycling bin about 1k away. We all took a sack each, so that meant a little more walking, hence this weeks pun thought up by Miriam. Once we ‘binned’ the clothes, we could get running! We headed towards the canal and ran via Brindley Place to St Paul’s square.

On arrival at the square, it was fitness session time! We haven’t done circuits for a while, so I thought tonight was the night to change that! Press ups, squat jumps, high knees, a tough core exercise, followed by some sprints around the church were the order of the day. David showed great form with the high knees, despite his run at the Birmingham (11 mile!) Half Marathon at the weekend. Annie showed a fantastic technique with the squat jumps and Chloe put in some great work in her first fitness session, not to mention she helped out with a timing device when my phone decided to go to sleep (hence the lack of fitness sess photos!). The core exercise was tough, but both John and Sam showed great form with this one and then the sprints around the church were a fun finisher!

Once done we just had a few minutes to run back to 1000 Trades and that was tonight’s shift done.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

On another lovely evening for running we welcomed Rati to GoodGym for the first time, we also had Lisa visit us from GG Barnet and had Annie back with us for the first time in a while, so it was great to have you all part of the run.

We set off on the short journey to Suited for Success, Tom and Liam taking up the front runner role and George the back stop. On arrival, we gave our donations and Tomas showed the Suited for Success first timers around. Then the task was sorting gillets and jumpers into size order, as you can see there was plenty of sorting to be done, the team doing a fantastic job.

Once done we headed to the canal bridges to do some hill interval work. The challenge was three times three minute efforts, running up a bridge hard, across the top hard, then down and on the flat easy, before running up the next bridge hard! Three minutes of that is pretty tough, especially with only one minute rest between each set! Anyway Tom shot off running a great session, John ‘fresh' from his exploits at the London 10,000m yesterday wasn’t far behind along with Liam. Will showed great form on those hills. Morwenna and Laura pulled each other along putting in some great work. Lisa was excellent on her first GG Brum workout. Rati worked hard all the way to the end of each repetition, putting in a sterling effort, but as ever I could mention everyone as the whole group were fantastic, pulling each other a long and with an added bonus of no bother from those pesky geese!

Once done it was just a mile run back to 1000 Trades and that was us done for another week.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

15 runners ran 5k to drop off donations and do various tasks for Suited for Success

We had a fantastic turn out at GG Brum tonight, considering the snowy weather we got in the afternoon. Joining our lovely group for the first time were Liz and Mel. Liz is the new trainer for Coventry GG, so was shadowing tonight’s run in preparation.

We set off on the short journey to Suited for Success with our bags full of donations. On arrival we were warmly greeted by Tomas. We had a few pictures, the Rob 'mug shot' being my favourite! After handing over our donations there were two tasks to do. One group took a load of clothes to one of our other favourite task sites, Birmingham Mission whilst the other group organised clothing, therefore we had a double whammy of charity helping tonight! I stayed at Suited for Success with the group sorting clothing. Laura telling us some interesting facts about our Solar System, I never knew it would take 50 years to reach Pluto in a rocket!! Once done we set off to St Paul’s Square for an interval session, hoping to meet the other group as they ran back from the Mission. Somehow we missed each other, the other group went to St Paul’s, then back to Suited for Success only to find we were now in St Paul’s! Oh well they had a decent run around anyway!

On the arrival of half of the group in the square, Liz took over. She had us (yes I even joined in this week!!) doing some pyramid intervals, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute, then back down all off 30 secs rest. We did it on a nice loop using half of the square, which incorporated, some up hill, down hill and some nice tight turns, definitely a decent loop, oh yes hence this weeks pun! Everyone worked hard, even me, especially on the last rep trying to chase down Sam....I didn’t quite make it! Anyway it was a great little workout, which certainly got us all out of breath!

We then headed back to 1000 Trades were we caught up with the rest of the group and Liz got us all stretched off and that was job done for another week.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

13 people ran 7k to drop off donations at Suited for Success

Tonight we welcomed Junaid and Balal to the group, it is great to have you both on board.

Without further a do we set off to Suited for Success with our sacks full of donations, as it’s less than a k away and we were all weighed down with our big bulging sacks with all our donations, we took a steady walk down there. We were warmly greeted by Janice, who explained what the charity do and then after dropping our donations off we had a few pics and we were on our way again.

The group headed along the canal taking in the Soho Loop before stopping at the bridges near were we entered the canal. This was our interval workout destination. A brand new session of using the short, sharp inclines of the Bridge’s as hills. The plan was four sets of two minute ‘efforts’ with 1 minute rest between. The idea to keep to the left, run up the bridges hard then run down at a good pace, as going down hill you naturally recover anyway. Therefore it was basically four lots of two minutes of hard graft. The bridges meant the group went from one side of the canal to the other and then turning back again until the two minutes was up. Just before we started we saw Taz and a couple of other lads from Run Birmingham who were out for a run, so of course they joined in, the more the merrier! Taz even took a few pics for us.

What a workout!

Now I say this most weeks (and it is true) but the group were fantastic tonight, I would even go as far as saying it was the best fitness session at GG Brum yet! And that is saying something as we have been going over a year and a half now! Everyone was fantastic, I won’t mention you all individually, as honestly everyone put everything into it and it was great to see! The whole group really did push themselves to the limit! You were all running that fast you were 'just a blur' on some of the pictures! The only downside (or maybe not for some of the group!!) is that due to the dark nights we probably can’t do that exact session again until next spring. But anyway something to ‘look forward’ too! We just got the session completed in the last of the light, after which was around 1.5k back to base on some rather ‘cream crackered’ legs!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.