Fourteen amazing Team Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to and from the Wilton Estate community garden to turn over the soil in the Paddock and remove some really clingy Roots.

On a not so Spring like March evening Team Hackney were ready for action! We met ask usual at the Bakehouse before speedy off into the night to our warm up track behind the Town Hall. Where we got our key running muscles and joints mobilised with a series of exercises to enable us to dominate our second instalment of our Plyometric training block. Plyometrics have been shown to improve runners Balance, Power, Strength and Flexibility so a really good way to getting us well on our way towards our running and fitness Goals. We had a special Super Set action going on with first multidirectional both single and double legged hops straight into some brilliantly executed lower body strength exercises. We hopped both high and long and we squatted and Lunged strong. After 15 minutes of pulsating leg action we were ready to roll. We were lead to the task expertly by Cecilia who navigated the streets of H-Town perfectly. We met Debbie and Lisa at the ever expanding community garden to gave us the tools for task success. Armed with Hoes, forks, spades and some lean mean Mattocks we split into two units and went into battle. Unit one hacks away in the dark corners of the garden and some of the most determined roots around but hey were no match for Team Hackney's might and the Mottcks proved their worth to remove all the roots for the soon to be raspberry patch. Meanwhile with DJ Pat spinning the illuminated Decks the Paddock's soil was being turned over at a majestic rate. The pace increased as the first unit came to add their force for a final push to task glory. 60 metres of soil turned over to allow some beautiful wild flower planting over the weekend means a job well done 👏🏾👏🏼👏🏻. Debbie and Lisa thanked us for our efforts and we split into the familiar Speedy and Sexy groups for a game of Chase back to Base!!. Team Sexy started with a 4 minute cushion on our 3.4k run to base, with an ever improving band our runners it would require a Herculean effort for Team Speedy to catch up but with some real tight lines run at the front by the the Speedy Leader Cecilia the ground was being made up with every stride. As we entered Broadway market Team Sexy could not hold them off any longer and after a super sprint finish everyone was was applauded in after giving their all great running Team 🏃🏽🏃🏿🏃🏻🏃.

As few cool down stretches and a reminder about all the options for running and volunteering at Hackney Half Marathon we were on our way after a great Tuesday night GoodGym fix.

Next week we are Double tasking at Gillett Square and with the Food Growers Group so please please come along, bring a friend! We have a few Super special guests from the amazing training platform that is Strava as well as a huge treat for the Sexy crew as they will be Super smoothly lead home by GoodGym founder and all around top guy Ivo. Please please sign up here

Until next week,

Smoothly cruise into your half marathon training

Joel

Fourteen Hackney Goodgymers run 4K to help St Luke's Church set up, sort out and sand down. On a beautiful January evenening GoodGym Hackney was in full swing on the first of our winter indoor tasks 👍🏽. After meeting at the Bakehouse and getting aquatinted with some amazing GoodGym first timers, we heard about the amazing feats of the Hackney crew putting the the pedal to the metal this week and zooming 💨💨 to a fantastic 534k and 49 GoodDeeds so far in the GoodGym January Challenge. Remember to keep on recording those runs and Good deeds even if you are crazy enough to break your watch! We need everyone to reach the overall GoodGym target and also our Hackney target of 1000k and 100 Good deeds so run long and do good this week 🏃🏼🏃🏽🏃🏻🏃🏾.

We set off in search of our new warm up area and it didn't disappoint, thanks to Google maps we have discovered a flat, bright and covered warm up and drills area just outside of the Hackney council offices (if you are ever late you know where we will be). To to really road test the new area we go going with a series of drills and skills to focus us on producing the most power 🏋🏼🏋🏼 so we can propell ourselves onto to some fantastic PB's and the upcoming Victoria Park 10k. We drove our knees up to 90 degrees we dorsi flexed our feet and as speed is nothing with out control we balanced on one leg with military precision. With this fine tuning to our already honed running techniques we left scorch marks on the pavement with a series of searing change of pace intervals.

We made the short run to St Luke's with expert navigation up front by Hackney Coach run rep Kev to meet Keli who had a quartet of tasks for us to attack! Upstairs we cleared plates, box's and anything else we could see to make additional seating space, Antonia was not happy only doing this she turned into the spider detective 🕷🕷 to protect the team from our eight legged friends. Downstairs precision chair arrangement was in order as geometry skills were to the for as we followed the pictures to transform the church into an amazing play area for the most exciting toddler group in Hackney. While the chairs were being arranged the toys were being brought in at a great pace! Every toy ever invented came in and from the sheds outside to make a race track, building site, story corner and craft studio. Out the back first timer Scott and returning GoodGymer Jack got seriously stuck in sanding and scraping the walls of the toilets in preparation for an upcoming repaint.

Soon after 40 minutes of furious activity and a minute or two road testing the toys we had completed our tasks. After a big thank you from Keli we headed over to work our magic on Stair Mountain where we used our high knee power to powerfully bounce up the 12 flights of stairs then do punishing short stair sprints in pairs. As I offered mercy this didn't seem enough for Hackney's finest who begged for a mini circuit to finish! So begrudgingly I agreed 😜😜 and sets of tricep dips, modified press ups and alternating lunges were being pumped out at an impressive rate. With amazing postural technique being shown we finished off with a super charged leg blast with eccentric squats, pulse lunges to get us fit and strong 💪🏽💪🏻💪🏾 for adventures ahead.

A warm down run back to base followed by a series of stretches finished off a fun and rewarding evening.

Great job Team Hackney!!!

Next week we start the preparations for the amazing Re:Generation festival at the Hive. I have seen it at we have an epic task ahead so please sign up to help make this social enterprise, community integration festival great!!!

Keep it smooth

Joel

20 Ninja Gardeners gathered on a not to cold evening in wonderful Hackney to help show what can be done when Good(Gym) conquers evil (well Christmas food 🍫🍰🍩 and alcohol consumption🍾🍺🍷).

An injection of new Hackney GoodGym blood was mixed in with some returning friends and some die hard regulars so get 2016 started in spectacular fashion. A brilliant and informative guide to Coach runs and Missions from Hackney Coach rep Kev who is working his way very nicely towards the magical century club of Good Deeds. We got the scores on the doors of the January Challenge, where we lie 6th a 10,000k and 150 Good deed target in the challenge but think GoodGym Hackney is looking strong💪🏽💪🏻 and fast 🏃🏾🏃🏿 So let's smash through the 1000k 100 good deed barrier by the end of the month!! Make sure you log all your training runs and coach runs!! If you need any help with this just drop me an email (Joel@GoodGym.org). The Victoria Park 10k is approaching on the 24th of January if you would like to start the year off with a traffic free, flat road race sign up here. If you would like any training advice come and have a chat to me next week.

We set off skipping down Mare street after a mobilising dynamic warm up getting our walking lung and side to side squat on, looking a bit like we were playing the old computer game space invaders with the passing commuters. We were talking about this weeks Triple T (Tuesday Talking Topic) strangest food we had eaten in December. Keeping together and getting aquatinted we kept a steady pace as we took in the various sights and sounds of our tour of Hackney on our way to the marvellous Wilton Estate community garden. Where we meet Lisa would took us through all the areas needing to be weeded and cleared so that more local residents have space to join the community garden. As quick as a flash we were off! Gloves on, head torches turned up 🔦🔦 we split into 3 groups of Ninja gardeners and got to it. The first group made light work of a weed dense flower bed and were soon filling up the bins at a great rate.
Group 2 were hard at work battling with big tree and bush roots calling to tool reinforcements to really work hard to get the unwanted roots out! Group 3 were having a bit of a party in the original community garden, head torches flashing and DJ Pat rocking the old school 90's tunes on his water proof speakers showing all the new comers how at 113 Good deed vet gets it done while having fun.

As quick as that in just 35 minutes of lung pumping root pulling work the fearless Hackney GoodGym team had cleared 3 flower beds filled 2 huge bins and only left 1 pesky root! Great work team 👏🏽👏🏻👏🏾

We cleared the tools back to shed and Lisa thanked us for our super speedy work and we headed on our way. We tested the Wilton 500 meter track to make sure it would be ready for our next time trial when I noticed a few runners chomping at the bit to go a bit faster and longer on the way back so we split up with Kev leading the long range tribe on a speedy 4K loop back to base past Hackney Downs with a super sprint finish from first timer Amy breaking the finish line first 🏁🏁. The sexy crew knew they wanted to have so speedy fun but in the more refined 2k glide back to base. We set the streets alight with some land mark Fartlek bursts and we took to the back streets to get one last interval in before a calm and relaxing warm down at base before we said our goodbyes and disappeared off into the night having done Good had Fun and started 2016 in a great way!

Hope to see you all again next week, same time same place where we will be off to St Luke's to do some more great work and get fit! Sign up here.

Keep it Ninja

Joel