Nevermind the wild weather of the afternoon, a group of hardy GoodGymers met up to tackle a big leaf problem at a local park last night - and despite frosty fingers and dark conditions managed a whopping total number of bags!

Great to see us all meeting up to run down together to Christchurch Gardens - there's no better way to stay warm! Before we set off we did our usual warm up and this week's question involved predicting how many bags of leaves we would collect over the course of the evening. The guesses ranged from 7 and 40, but that was without having yet seen the scale of the issue...

A mile of wet and windy running later we arrived to meet Nigel who provided us with some excellent leaf scoops, rakes and no fewer than four rolls of bags. While Abby and Steph started work on the front area, which was very clogged with wet leaves, the rest of us disappeared to the back of the church where we found even more thanks to several massive trees. Knee deep in fallen leaves, everybody rolled up their sleeves and started on the job. The leaves have proved to be a bit of an issue because not only do they stop the bulbs coming through and the grass growing underneath, they're slippery and creating drainage problems in the car park. So the small group of Friends of Christchurch Garden welcome our help sorting it out.

Half an hour later the group had made a big difference - not an easy job so well done team! As a reward (!) we opted to do a short leg blast, which featured wall sits, lunges, progressive squats and those NFL fast feet.

I can also reveal that it was Jordan who won this week's challenge to predict how many bags we'd collect - the total was a massive 36 bags full of leaves!

Great work everybody. Next week we're going to Paradise Cooperative Garden to help shovel some horse manure. Perhaps not one for your finest footwear but definitely one that will benefit the local community. Hope to see you there!

We have loads of fun stuff coming up over the run up to Christmas, including a festive social, so keep an eye on the website and socials. Have a great week, GoodGym.

There was loads happening in Battersea for our GoodGym group run last night- not only did we have two different tasks to choose from, we also got to welcome Calum and Kavya to their first ever sessions. Give them a huge cheer!

It was the twice the fun and opportunity to do good on a Monday with one task at Waste Not Want Not, a local charity which saves food from being wasted, and at Sound Minds, an organisation which supports good mental health for people across south west London through arts and music.

We did a speedy warm up and a lightening quick poll about Marmite - love it or hate it? With love just pipping hate to the post, Jonathan told us that it was all just a clever marketing campaign and according to a national survey most people don't mind the stuff. Who knew?!

After a quick run down to Waste Not Want Not we arrived to find the shutters down and nobody in sight. Not to be deterred we made the snap decision to take everybody to Sound Minds, but before we could get even half way there we saw Hadas on her trusty bike and trailer wheeling towards us. So after splitting the group, half of us stayed to do a good clean down and loading up of the van, while the other half sped off to Sound Minds where we were welcomed by Chas who got us started on the painting. We were soon met by Calum and Jamal who got stuck in with a mountain of shredding. As the painters rollered the walls and created Battersea's answer to the Sistine chapel on the ceiling, the shredders reduced a huge pile of papers down to nothing, carefully stuffing bags ready for recycling.

After 45 minutes of hard work we called it a night after having made a difference at two really important local charities. Next week we're going to a small park managed by volunteers to collect leaves and litter pick, you can sign up for more Monday fun right here.

Don't forget that tonight there is another chance to help an environmental charity pack up clothes, and it's an inside task! Sign up here for all the details, plus there is our weekly session serving hot food at a local homeless centre on Friday lunchtime.

Have a great week, GoodGym!

Despite it absolutely pelting it down just as we started our group run last night, the wet conditions did not dampen our spirits! Perhaps it was because we had lots of new faces to welcome to their very first session - put your hands together for Alice, Abigail, Stuart, Jamal and Abby!

After a bit of a drenching on the way down to Balham, we arrived to find some of the group meeting us there had already started on the various jobs for the evening. So while Jamal and Abby had made a good inroads smashing up an old shed (good for releasing stress on a Monday), Richard from Transition Town welcomed the rest of the group. He explained that a group they wanted to create a beautiful learning space for the children, but given the size of the project they needed as much help as possible.

So while a few of us joined the wrecking crew, another group went out to the back of the school to carry on emptying the leaf pens so the lovely rich mulch could be used to grow plants in the raised beds. Meanwhile the third lot of GGers tackled some serious tonne bags of soil, doing an excellent job on mixing it all in.

After three quarters of an hour of hard work, it was great to see how much we could get done together. Hope you've all dried off!

Next week we're off for hopefully a bit of a drier task painting a room at Sound Minds. There are also two missions going on through the week - our regular Friday lunchtime mission to help serve lunch to homeless people and one to deliver hot meals to vulnerable families in the area on Sunday. Have a happy week, Goodgym!