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

Back and ready for action this week were Simon, Andy and Deepa. And joining them on her first trip to GoodGym was Lily, who'd spotted one of GoodGym's tube ads on the Victoria Line. Welcome, Lily.

Our task this week was aother 2.5k run over to Ealing Road Baptist Church for more clearing. A small and dusty room that was filled with... pretty much evrything you could imagine, had to be cleared out.

We set about the task, removing pots of paint, pumps, tools, shelving brackets, poles, magazines, old books, tool boxes, curtains, clocks, lightbulbs, screws, brick mortar and lots and lots of dust.

Then after shifting a few fold-up tables we were done.

Deepa took us through the "Sun Salutation" yoga moves again, Roger gave us an assortment of food to take home (tuna, Indian sweets, Jaffa Cakes, biscuits, and a pot-noodle-wannabe) and we were off.

En route we conducted a little experiment to work out if health food or junk food was better for running. The test was a four-person relay first using a tin of tuna as the baton, then using a pot noodle as a baton. Tuna time came to 1 minute exactly, whereas pot noodle saw us smash that with 55 seconds.

There you have it. Eat junk and prosper.

Thank you Roger for hosting again.

We are back next week for more of the same.

See you there,
Simon

Three of us were keen to do a nice long run over to The Bridgelink Centre in Isleworth this evening. Joining regulars Simon and Andy was Matthew from Wandsworth doing a spot of tourism and in the mood for getting a few miles in the legs.

We worked our way through the streets, chatting about running, and counting down the kilometres, occasionally mentioning that none of us knew where we were or had been in this area before.

And finally we made it. We went in the centre to find Kevin, the caretaker, who we'd been told had lots of jobs for us. Except.... he didn't :( Nope, apparently there was a bit of raking to do earlier on, but somebody had already done it.

Any window cleaning? Sweeping? Tidying up? Nope, 'fraid not. Any leaflets we could drop off on the way back? Nope, 'fraid not.

So, we had a tour of the centre, a glass of water and then headed back.

This time our attention turned to food, which is unsurprisingly quite a common topic for runners on longer runs. And what are our favourite post-run foods? Porridge and Peanut Butter for Matthew, Peanut Butter and Jam on Toast for Simon and Jacket Potato with Tuna and Sweetcorn for Andy.

Why not all three?

We are doing a shorter run of 2.5k to Ealing Road Baptist Church next week where there will definitely be a task and there's loads for us to do, and where Roger (former chef) has promised to cook us up some takeaway food. The last batch was delicious.

So, get down, get fit and get fed.

See you there,
Simon

15 goodgymers run 10k delivering posters and fliers for CoHoC

This week we had a sequel. Like any good movie sequel, it was bigger, better, longer faster with more special effects. No seriously, the firework going off just as I got to the turning off Ipswich Road was really a special effect I hadn't bargained for!

Tonight we welcomed 6 new runners from the Emmaus community. Because of some task jiggling, what would have been a shorter run on the 2nd November actually became our longest run to date, but that didn't detract them, and there was the usual chatter and anticipation as we set off on our run.

Because it was a long run and relatively short task, the fitness session took place on the run, and Angela explained an uphill running technique at the base of Ipswich road which will become key for those planning on doing Colchester Half Marathon Sign up here

Ian was so excited about this new technique as it made running up Ipswich road a breeze, and he will definitely be using it going forward.

We got to The Crescent to deliver the posters, and unlike last week, some businesses were still open so we could go in and tell them about the Santa run as well. Once the posters were delivered, we said good bye to Sue and Helen, (as they had already run from Severall's to meet us at Leisure World - they did the run in reverse), and made our way back to Leisure world.

This time we ran via Mill Road and Northern Approach, and Angela managed to even include a jungle adventure detour on what most thought was a completely residential route.

We made our way back to Leisure World for a stretch and debrief, and Angela reminded the runners about the DBS Doc Check Party taking place at parkrun this week You must sign up if you intend for your docs to be checked.

Next week, we'll be returning for some Wombling for Rivercare - Sign up here - Make sure you bring your gloves and headtorches!

Run Report written by Angela Isherwood

19 runners deliver 100 posters for CoHoC

We gathered together for our longest run to date. Sue and Lucy had completed the Chelmsford Marathon on Sunday, and Tav the Greenwich 10k. All had had very successful races and were looking forward to a gentle run to help ease their aching muscles.

In our pre-run briefing, we learnt about Colchester Hospitals Charity, and how they are raising money for the Time Garden - a garden for End of Life Patients at Colchester Hospital. Whilst many of our tasks involve gardening, and we will no doubt be called in to help maintain the Time Garden, Wednesday's task involved delivering posters to the businesses on Whitehall Industrial Estate.

I made sure to mention the risk of paper cuts in the pre-run risk assessment, and then proceeded to demonstrate that risk by getting a paper cut whilst putting the posters in my backpack!

Genius!

The posters were to advertise the Santa Run in Castle Park, a great event, and I'm sure some of us will take part.

We made the longer run to Whitehall Industrial Estate, and regrouped to come up with a plan to cover the area. We split in half taking opposite sides of the road. Unfortunately, parts of the industrial estate were locked and we couldn't deliver posters to them. In addition, some places didn't have post boxes. But, we made sure that those that did have delivery slots were adorned with a lovely poster!

We got 100 posters delivered in 15 minutes actually it was more like 17 but still good going, it would have taken one or two people much longer than that.

After we'd finished the task, half of us ran back to Leisure World, lead by Lucy, and half of us ran to the New Inn pub for our monthly social. This was a welcome change of scene organised by Ian. I think everyone was really impressed by the good value and good quality food, as well as being able to move onto cozy sofas after we'd finished eating.

Well done every one!

Run Report by Angela Isherwood

Next week, same task, different location - we'll be running up to Severalls to deliver more posters - an even longer run than this week. Sign up here

For this week's run we returned to one of our regulars, the Salvation army in Camberwell.

After a quick warm up outside the Roastery, Helena led the way up Chadwick Road. On the way down Camberwell Grove there was plenty of chat, almost all Great British Bake Off related. Once we arrived at the Salvation Army we were greeted by Janet who told us that there had been a bumper turnout at their recent anniversary celebration, thanks in part to the flyering that we had done on our last visit. This visit was all about the kitchen, the whole place needed a good clean. A low ceiling and Matt's height advantage meant that he was tasked with trying to get rid of the grease and grime from up high while others cleaned shelves, the floor, the hob and any other surface we could reach. While we cleaned we had a serious chat about organ donation before returning to the topic of TV. Most of us had been enjoying the sheer incompetence of the Apprentice candidates but only Beth and Hanna had fallen a little bit in love with Married At First Sight.

Janet has a habit of treating us with sweets when we go to visit but this week had decided we needed something healthy so had some seeds for us to nibble on. After some gentle persuasion she did produce some sweets but she wasn't convinced they had any real sugar in them.

On the way home we Indian filed back up the hill and once back at the Roastery didn't hang about as we were all keen to get home and watch the bake off semi-final.

4 awesome Greenwich runners ran over 5km to spread the word about the Big Bike Ride in aid of the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice

Last night we were joined by Stacey who came on a few runs earlier in the year and is now back woohoo! Welcome back Stacie! It was lovely to meet you! We also had the lovely Simona back after a few weeks off and brilliant Ben and his head torch!

We did a little warm up and got going relatively quickly as we had a lot of leaflets to get through! Even if we were to only deliver half of them it would have been a success but we had quite a bit of time so I was hopeful! So we set off towards Maze Hill station. There is a good cluster of residential streets around there and the plan was to hit as many as possible in the 45 minutes we had. So off they went, running between each house.. AMAZING! Good interval training right there!

There were some pretty annoying post boxes. Those ones with the brushes in are a real pain and the ones really low down on the floor as well. Ben and I got stuck on the high side of the road for a good 5 minutes with each door having a flight of stairs leading up to it! What a workout! And then the houses with the gates... urgh! #postmanproblems.

After 15 minutes everyone's flyer pile was noticeably smaller, and the end was in sight! Just a few more houses to go! Simona struck gold with a block of flats with all of the postboxes on the outside.. Nice one! A few minutes later and they were all cleared! Amazing! We took a group photo and headed back for the fitness session.

Even though we were running and walking the whole time, it was at quite a nice chilled pace so we finished off by a little track workout! We did 5 sets of 30 seconds at 80-90% effort and 30 seconds rest in between and the idea was to run further round the track each time. We used the quad back at the college which made a pretty good makeshift track! This is a pretty hard workout but everyone absolute nailed it!

Really well done guys, hopefully the event will have lots of attendees now! Thanks so much for all your hard work and see you next week!