It was a great turn out as 19 of us huddled into Daveena's cafe at 6.30pm tonight.

It was so lovely to see two new faces join us - Sarah and Ella. So fab to have you along ladies!

Sarah is in the process of setting up a new run group that we will fully support here at Goodgym Poole. It is Run, Talk, Run. The concept is that a group meets for a 5km run (or a 2km walk) to have a chance to chat to others to improve their mental health. It will be on a Monday in Creekmoor so spread the word! We hope we can work together with the group in the future. As we all secretly know - our mental health is really improved by feeling part of the community at Goodgym and even more so when we feel we are making a difference in our community as well as looking after our health. We all have our own 'why' for coming to Goodgym and what it offers us! (What's your why?)

Onto tonight's run - A quick warm up on the forecourt before taking on the mound of opportunity that is Fernside Road! Onwards to Ringwood Road and another opportunity! We found the small path that leads to Dorchester Road and it was a chance for a bit of form coaching. Each person had to think of an area of form they need to work on and run the distance (with acceleration / deceleration) working on that form. So perhaps standing tall or using those arms or just working a bit of head up. After 1 repeat, the scores were in. Either we are all terribly British or not trying hard enough as scores of 5/6 were given to themselves! Well practice makes perfect and after 3 of them the scores were more of an 8 so on the right path.

Onto the school where we have been over the past few months with painting, gardening and even moving a library of books around! Tonights task came with the promise of stickering and in a bizarre way this had been a real draw! We were met again by the dedicated Mrs Armstrong (Head Teacher) and Mr Thomas (Deputy) with a big stack of stickers with labels for books for a new reading programme. Sounds simple enough! However as we all quickly discovered, there was no order on the sheets so each time we had to go through the lists and try and find a book in the entire library with often little idea where it actually was! Well this has got to be our most frustrating task to date - it was a bit of a needle in haystack for some of the books! Elizabeth suggested another way to try it - call out authors on the shelf and like a game of bingo we could match to our sheets. This worked for a few but it was still not moving very fast. In the end we settled for calling out popular authors or books and seeing who could help. Sadly we left the school, with many sheets barely touched as we could not find them! Nicola topped the leader board with 8 books found and stickered! Tim was heard loudly saying he was 'looking for bad girls' which I hope he found before we had to go, whilst in the depths of despair at lack of progress, Richard was looking for a book on euthanasia! Fiona who has hidden knowledge and background - knew a fair bit about how libraries run so was more helpful than many of us wondering aimlessly looking for a random book we had never heard of! Time ticked on and Sarah asked me if we had to stay till they were all done - It would have been a very long night!

We decided to give it a end point and took our lack of satisfaction of not completing out into the fresh air, for a quick run back to base. We left on the promise to return if we can help further! Leaving behind Mrs Armstrong and Mr Thomas scratching their heads at the system that had been created!

What a change from last week!

It was dry, crisp and even a little icy tonight as we all met inside the cafe, those that came last week just a little smug against those that bailed due to pretty horrendous weather! (Tim you had that look!:)

First off - Great to be joined by a fellow runner Marie who is new to Poole but not new to Goodgym! Marie has run some good deeds already up in London so we are really pleased she has looked us up here in Poole. We hope you come again soon to join us all!

We were really pleased to be able to return again to St Mary's School - each time we have had great tasks and we had no real details of this one so it was hotly anticipated!

But first there was 30 mins for a run and some warming up to be done! Onto the back streets of Heckford Park for some running! Having found a nice dark block - we got to go round it a few times. Job Done! All about adding those little bits of speed in! Sarah then took us around the dark back streets of Poole till we appeared at a pitch black alley way she assured us was our way to the school. Thankfully she was the local of these parts and we appeared just outside the school a few minutes past 7 where Andrea was waiting for us having taken a shorter run / walk.

This week we were met by Mr Simon Thomas, acting Deputy Head of the school. We were delighted to hear that we were in fact working in the library tonight to move books. It sounded simple - empty all books off shelves, move cupboards, put books back on shelves! Just with a little rule to follow - the books must go back EXACTLY in the order they were originally in! Two teams were formed and it was clear thatSian had found her calling with her organisational skills! 4 shelves to each bookcase and each bookcase was a triple case. A couple of tables to place books on - stacked high, low and to the sides. It appeared chaos but 5 mins later, shelves were empty and cupboards going back against the wall. 10 minutes later than that and books were back on shelves! There was a few moments o f 'which pile' and 'was this left or right' followed by '...are you sure?' If Mr Thomas was fearing for his next liaison with the librarians he did not show it! Two triple bookcases moved and books back on it. It was a brain teaser as well as a physical task! A final little bookshelf to go (which nearly got jumbled up with the others) and the room looked very different. The plan was to create space for a whole class to come into the library instead of just 10 or so in a small area. Pushing the book cases back against the wall create a huge bit of floor space! It was task complete and ready for the librarians and TA's to make it their own again tomorrow. With 2 ex-teachers in the group, those that sent there kids to this school and those that hope to - it was a great to help a school again, especially one like this!

Quick piccie before a heading towards our infamous Birds Hill. Quick check it wasn't slippy and there was time for a few hill sprints. Richard showing his strength up the hills leaving the rest of us behind him...although Robert as ever giving it his best shot whilst Elizabeth showed us what good form was all about.

Nicola was happy to have achieved her desired mileage as part of her 2020 challenge - and a bit more, it was time for home!

The school have asked us tonight if we can help with stickering! Well, we are quite looking forward to it. We will be back in two weeks to sticker some books!

Great task tonight and made enjoyable as ever with great company!

It is the last task in November and it turns out to be surprisingly warm evening as we gathering in the back yard at Daveena's.

This weeks planned run had some last minute changes as I was unable to park at the task as planned, so it was a new place to complete the fitness session and a last minute car move.

It was great to have 3 new faces with us tonight - Chris, Ian and Becky who was yet another friend of Nicola, our internal recruiter! Chris and Ian came along with a link to Bournemouth Goodgym with a twin brother over there as a regular.

Thanks to Andrea and Sarah for being back markers tonight!

Onto the fitness session first and a short run to a small close off Sandbanks Road. This was a spot picked to work on threshold pace for some short (approx 30 sec) intervals. The groups quickly divided into two (not sure if one group noticed they did an extra lap!) with the aim to get a pace that starts to feel 'uncomfortable' to try and hit that threshold. This enables a real improvement in fitness, even if just short distances! Finished with a approx 90 sec interval down the road, it was onto the task!

We visited this task two weeks ago to start clearance around the back of building, this week it was to work on the front bushes and trees. Richard was very soon in his element and found chopping down the biggest trees he could find and often found deep in a bush! Meanwhile Tim was found quietly cutting back a tree by the window on the other side of the car park.

Nicola was a runner with a story tonight as she had run with the amazing and inspiring Anna McNuff who has been completing marathons barefoot all over the UK (check out her story at www.annamcnuff.com). Thanks to heads up to Nikki also for the book being free on kindle currently so go and download it if you haven't already!

Congratulations to Patricia who completed her 10th Good Deed and this morning has already become one of the task force! Also it was deed number 10 for Sarah who quietly sneaked that one in!

Plenty of laughs tonight, not all of which are printable but Sian you did a great job of cutting and pulling!

Lovely to have the ever wonderful company of Ali, Jane and Hilary for bringing in the Irish!

It was a great task to really hack back and see the difference just 30 minutes makes, it was hard to tear away a few of the runners, but we will be back again in the new year before they move in. Lewis-Manning will be doing a lot of internal work in the new year as they have a new day service that will be operating from there.

There was no task owner there tonight was we already knew what we were doing and just needed the car full of tools to do it so today I will let Lewis-Manning know of the progress we have made!

Only 3 runs left for 2019! Next week I need your best singing voices, chatting lines and social sides as we go off to something very different!

Ps: My Photography skills are still needing work with the headtorches and flashes making it tricky!

We all met in the darkness, too tired to plot against Westminster so thought we could go for a little run instead!

Andrea and Anne set off 5 minutes before the rest of the pack for a walk / run option up the incline route to the church whilst the rest of us took a spin around Ashley Cross green tonight. In the future we will try and organise any walk / runs in advance, as not all our runners are on Facebook we may look for a special whats app group for walk / runners!

Tonights warm up drills involved a bit of balance! It was a superman move and lunges with a twist to have a go at - lets say we need to work on these a bit more yet but it was a start! Don't forget how important it is to work our trunk area as this holds the rest of our body when we are running and makes us a lot more efficient! A couple of 5 second blasts to keep us warm and then it was up the inclines of Branksome we head!

Onwards to the church and David was busy sweeping away in the church grounds and he was all prepared for us! Three stations with brushes, spades and wheelbarrows it was all ready to go, all we had to do was pile up the barrows high! Or in the words of David, 'Make Safe the way of the Lord' by irreligiously misquoting John the Baptist - His words not mine! But good to ensure all areas are cleared and safe for the church attendees!

The bashing of the spade could be heard clearing as Richard scraped away last few years of leaves and mud into the leaf pile. He made up a team with Elizabeth, Andrea and Katy who all worked there section.

Anne, Robert, Christine (sorry about the damp gloves Christine!) and Sarah worked the side of the church - fortunately there was no frogs founds as it turns out Sarah has a serious phobia of them - ranidaphobia is the correct term according to Dr Google!

Tim, Fiona and Ali worked like troopers however filling 5 huge barrows to the brim!

30 minutes later, all of us were meeting in the mid point so we left David with tools, a giant pile of leaves and a slightly damaged eye sight from all our head torches :)

I hope you all enjoyed the fireworks that I put on for you on route and return!

AKA Captain Pudwash and 1 shade of Grey!

Another new venue and task tonight!

We set off into the park for a warm up with team relays including hopskotch, skips, fast feet and shaloms! Unfortunately Pat started with warm up with us, but her calf gave out whilst warming up and she had to make the wise decision to go home as it did not like any attempt to run. I hope the principal of RICE will do the trick Pat!

Time flies when you are having fun so it was suddenly off to our local task, via the Quay for a bit of scenery! It is the first time I believe that our entire run was in the dark! Poole Park has a lovely feel to it at night, it feels calm and reflective with the lights across the water.

We arrived at Sea Scouts to Anthony, one of the many volunteers that work to make Sea Scouts run on a weekly basis. There was a clear list to do for us, benches to sand and paint - planters to plant and weed and a sweep up.
So into groups we went and pleased to see that we have many organisers in the group and even a few keen gardeners who know a lot more than I do! Robert and Tim were keen to get on and sand along with Elizabeth. It became even more serious as Julia stepped in face mask and all onto bench number 4! Jayne and Hilary were quite carried away with puns around Mr Grey whilst painting the benches!

Our newbie for tonight was Christine who I hear had been recruited by Robert at the Monday Plod - Well done Rob and tonight was his 11th run - Only the second person to achieve more than 10 in Poole! Christine it appears knows a little about gardening so took a little more thought into those bedding plants along the front so will be interesting to see how they grow! Jane and Sian owned the window boxes at the front so we can drive past and see how they get on!

Great to have Andrea back for third week in a row meaning we have a run / walk group with Jayne as well to backmark.

The benches after the sanding were given a fresh coat of paint - it was all hands in by the end to get all the benches done (I have never seen someones face light up so much over a paintbrush Sarah!)

All done - It was home via the shorterst route through town. A run via the Dolphin Centre for a quick piccy in the shop - no doubt seen on the CCTV in the shopping centre!

Sadly as we were leaving Daveena's tonight, there was a number of youths across the road in the College carpark displaying anti social behaviour. In true Goodgym style, Christine who was due to get a bus home was bundled into Hilary's car and given a lift to ensure that everyone was safe. (Police were contacted and incident raised).

Next week we head off for a task all about Bluebells - More info will follow soon!

The task owner tonight joined us for her first group run - Great to have you Leah, I hope you will come back again to join us! Leah, a school teacher at St Mary's had seen our other achievements at St Josephs and got us booked to help with the memorial garden. We were also joined by a parent helper, Alison, who despite not being a regular runner herself, wanted to be part of the task so well done for joining us all!

Our third new runner tonight was Claudia who certainly gave Richard a run for his warm up! Finally we had the lovely Katy who is completing a couch to 5k programme so she can get back into her running. Hopefully she will use Goodgym to help improve her fitness whilst doing these great tasks!

After the drills and warm up lap (and running into Lytchett Striders!) were done, there was time for a quick game of Rats and Rabbits - a good way to get some speed in around the park for a few minutes! Birds hill was split into a walking group on one side and the runners on the other as we got to enjoy the lovely steep part of Birds Hill a couple of times!

Onto the school and we were met by the Headteacher, Mrs Armstrong, who was delighted to have us to help.

The memorial garden was started a number of years ago following the sad death of a pupil at the school. It has some beautiful herbs and smells but has grown over the years. The school wanted it all cut back so they can work on it and relook at what to do with it (with the help of the pupils). So 15 pairs of hands made light work of clearing back the plants, clearly around the borders and making it 'tidy'. 20 minutes later and the bags were full, there was a huge pile of branches and cut backs and a much clearer garden area. It was time for Mrs Armstrong to head home for a cuppa!

Both Fiona and Jane came back tonight form a sense of duty as they had kept the gloves (!), I hope you find anther excuse to come again soon!

On the run home, there was the chance to take the high road (literal sense!) so well done to the 4 that tackled the full constitution hill, 2 took the low road and a bunch of us sat on the fence by going in the middle area with half a hill. All arriving back similar times to Daveena's and catching sight of a gorgeous round low moon. And yes we were back on time today!

What a fabulous bunch of runners this group is!

Wahoo - Great to have 3 newbies tonight! Jane, Fiona and Andrea all came to join us at Goodgym.

Fiona heard about us from a conversation with Ali at parkrun so love how the word is spreading.

Andrea, a previous couch graduate is fit, active and loves to walk / run where she can so it is great we have these local tasks coming up now with this option!

Tonight was the return to St James taking our new lights and thankfully not the rain (Brian said he had a word with the boss up there to keep it dry for us!). We started with our warm up in the park doing a bit of indian file to get the heart pumping - followed by the introduction of a couple of drills. It all remained highly serious and focused at the point of doing the A-Skips - well sort of - there was singing, dancing and far too much fun for a drill session! (I am sure it was all led by the ever so lovely Hilary!!!) Also another chance to crack those heel pulls - that part looked pretty pro!

Onto the Church it was and few bits of looping back gave us all a chance to pace as we wanted. Thanks to Andrea for being the back marker and Fiona gets kuddos for all the looping back she did! Richard had volunteered (sort of) to head up the front!

At the church Brian (Hence the title!) was found around the back, ready with a green bin and some tools! We had a new area to work on tonight, outside the back entrance, the paving was pretty overgrown in between all the stones. Lights up and gloves on, it was a matter of only 20 mins before the area was clear! We managed to do a few extras around the entrance as well and quite an impressive change could be seen!

We have already recieved an email from the office Admin, Sharon, who was very impressed by the amount of work achieved last night!

If you look closely, you will see which runner has the light shining out from within (no names - eh Richard!)

Great to welcome back Tim for the second time who quietly listens as the rest of us babble on the background! Elizabeth tan fortuately was limited in its ability to show off given the now dark nights! The rain held off the the entire task as predicted by Patricia after we got pretty wet last time on route to the church!

Well done to Nicola, Ali, Sarah and Jane for runs at the weekend including a 2 min PB for our Ali!

Great atmosphere again tonight - I came back home feeling incredibly energised from the postive vibes!