A huge task, a monster fitness session, and cheese jokes. What more could you ask for from a Wednesday night?

With a lovely turn out of excellent Hounslow regulars and some GG tourism from Wandsworth (hello Jordan, Matthew and David!) it was set to be a great night as we said our hellos and well dones. Please give Andy, a cheer, for he has nailed no less than eight good deeds this month - way to go! Great job Jo, Adam and Dave who all took on Gunnersbury parkrun last Saturday and produced some great runs. Finally a massive congratulations to Andreea who rejoins us after getting married!

We had a bit of an upside down night, as our task was just opposite our start location on Turnham Green. So after our news and a quick round of 'what's your favourite cheese?' (halloumi coming in at number one) we met up with Jan (favourite cheese - pyrenean mountain) who provided us with gloves and tools and headed straight over to the task before our run. This was not before we were treated to several of the cheesiest jokes we could hope for from Adam. Let the record reflect the best of them:

Did you hear about the explosion at the cheese factory in France? All that was left was de-brie. How do you approach a Welsh cheese? Caerphilly. What did the cheese say when he looked in the mirror? Halloumi.

Lovely stuff.

Off we went with Jan, who showed us a huge wild meadow section of the green which had a rather intrusive thistle problem. After demonstrating what exactly was a thistle, we donned some pretty hardcore rigging gloves and got stuck in. There was some unfortunate thistle throwing incidents, a blanket refusal to film a video which showcased our work, and a few scratchy-bitey things, but after half an hour, the area looked much better. It's great to be able to help out in an area which we use so often for our fitness sessions, and which is enjoyed by so many local people. We'll be back next week to finish off the job.

Next was our tough fitness session. After a dynamic warm up, we kicked off with a very speedy Indian file fun around the green (and a bit of playing chicken with the traffic) before launching into our monster circuits session which featured no less than 15 stations. It sounds like a lot (it was) but each cardio-based exercise was interspersed with a strengthening drill. After toughies such as sprints, squat jumps, reverse crunches and mountain climbers, we finished off with the killer plank twists. Fantastic work, team. All that was left was a quick game of Bulldog which saw the super speedy Natasha claim the title - and not for the first time! She's the one to watch.

Don't forget that next week we have a curry social next week - everybody welcome, please join us at Waterman's for some well=deserved fun and food after the run, for which you can sign up here. You just Gouda be there.

ps Kudos to Adam who came up with this report's killer pun!

I noodled these runners would love my usual post run haunt.

The soup was as plentiful as the chat.

Thanks everyone!

24 lovely runners ran 8km to help clear weeds and paint at the Scouts in Charlton!

Well the weather was a lot kinder to us last night in comparison to a week ago where it absolutely hammered it down! It was such a perfect evening for a run!

Another long one last night though as we headed back to one of our favourite tasks over in Charlton 4km away, the New Greenwich Scouts! Last week we started on some paint work inside and didn't quite get to finish it but thankfully Alan let us come back and have another go!

We were joined by a fair few new runners again which is always amazing to see! Please give a big cheer to Seb, Florence and Tasha! Welcome guys and gals! Hope you enjoyed your first run with us!

Chips n gravy!

I've been a bit slack recently on the old warm up games so decided to bring a firm favourite out of the woodwork. CHIPS & GRAVY which just involves a lot of running around and if you're quite unlucky, a lot of burpees! But there were also a few smiles so it was definitely worth the minute or two of pain!

After all those burpees, it was time to go, we were already a bit behind schedule (my bad). Ben C led a speedy crew and they were gone in a flash! By the time the rest of us had arrived, they had already got stuck in with some painting and weeding. AWESOME!

Everyone made themselves useful and either grabbed some tools and gloves for the weeding or armed themselves with a roller/paintbrush and began to paint! No hanging around for this squad!

After 25 minutes, the whole area outside had been cleared and Alan FINALLY managed to get the lawnmower on it which he looked VERY excited about. Health and safety siren was going off having seen all the bits flying out the back of that mower.... it looked like a rocket about to take off! But thankfully everyone took a sizeable step back!! It nearly clogged the mower and it sounded like it was going to blow but Alan did NOT care, in fact, I've never seen anyone look so happy! Great job gang!

Over in the paint corner, room 1 was looking lovely and pretty much done whereas room 2 still needed a bit of work. The girls were absolutely going for it! and when it was time for us to leave, I couldn't get them away, they were determined to finish! But sadly we had to call it a day. Until next time...

Sprintervals!

Since we were running short of time, we incorporated the fitness session into the run back in the form of a few sprints between different landmarks meaning we would get home quicker AND get a decent workout at the same time! Double win! It was great to see you pushing yourselves so really well done!

We had a nice little stretch when we got back, ate some cookies and called it a night!

For those of you who are new, please join our GoodGym Greenwich Facebook Group where you can keep up to date with all the races and other fun runs and things we plan. Also if you want to check out Oli's books, here they are on Waterstones (aka everyone's favourite shop!), have a look here! No I'm not on commission but maybe I should be.

Thanks so much for making it last night and putting all your effort into the task and the run! You got so much done so give yourself a pat on the back! See you next week for some more painting action (hopefully).

OR [alternative pun title]..

Ooooh you mean nothing to me, oooh THE WEATHER!

Yep, that's just how we roll in Hounslow - two puns, one run. Kudos to Michael (who joined us for the first time in Hounslow, hurrah) and to Adam who came up with these corkers.

Soggily we met last night for our lovely Wednesday group run. Well done team, it's not easy to get out the door when it is properly tipping it down. A special cheer goes to the lovely Michelle who braved the apocalyptic rain for her very first GoodGym run, and smashed it! Give her a cheer, Hounslow.

We had some big well dones to do before we stepped out into the monsoon, including to Jo, Adam, Natasha, and Andy who all made a very impressive GoodGym showing at the park run in Fulham on Saturday. Some fantastic times there people, excellent work. For those that can make it don't forget the park run takeover this Saturday in Tooting. We also have our monthly social tonight, no PE kit required, just your party boots!

While we did our dynamic warm up, we conducted a quick poll of what makes people shed a tear. Homeward Bound and the rain almost threatened to set us off, so instead we cracked on with our run down to Ealing Road Baptist Church. At a nice quick pace Andy took us on a scenic route and we rocked up at the task in record time.

Roger, the Pastor, got us to work quickly doing various jobs - sorting out tins in the food bank, packing up chairs, shifting bits and pieces and cleaning the shower room. Oh, and moving a huge fridge across the church- well done Andy, Adam and Michael - hope your arms aren't too sore this morning. At least not too sore to stop you lifting a drink at the social tonight. There were also some impressive moves shown by slinky-hipped Adam and Jo who managed to lay their hands on a hula hoop.

With our jobs done, we enjoyed a nice steady run back to the park, stopping only to smash out some squats, wall sits and sprints along the way. By this time, we had expected the sky water to have stopped so we could do a nice dry fitness session. It hadn't. But we didn't let that stop us - dividing up into two teams of three we alternated sprints with drills written on pieces of paper. The team that had got the most pieces of paper at the end of the session won. It was very close -there may have been some shoving, some free styling with the drills, and some flagrant cheating, but - drum roll please - the victorious team was Michael, Remy and Michelle!

Don't worry, there is a chance to win the crown back next week when rumour has it we'll be having a plank-off....sign up here