** The cold, wet weather and the upgrading of Covid-19 to Pandemic status seem to have combined to reduce our numbers, but we still had a small but perfectly formed group of 16 tonight.**

For the first time in a long time we had no newbies, so it's probably a good time to remind you to tell your friends about us and bring them along! We've had loads of new people get involved this way, and it's great to see our ranks growing. It was also fab to see some returning faces tonight, with a few back for their second runs, after a break of several months in one case, which is awesome! Great to have you all back!

We started off tonight with a bit of a round up of the weekends events as there was loads to share! Liz had organised a fab parkrun at Potternewton for International Womens Day which was very well attended (and even got our picture in the local paper!) Then on Sunday, Alex had organised an awesome-looking hike with loads of people joining in for a walk up to the cow and calf and the twelve apostles before taking in a pub stop on the way home. Hopefully if people enjoyed it and are up for it again there will be more opportunities for fun stuff like this in the future!

Tonight's task was a return visit to Growing Better, where this time they'd promised us that we would definitely get to make the compost bins. It was about the fourth attempt to do this, so we weren't too optimistic, but there's always hope!

We had a quick warm up and then set off towards Kirkstall at a steady pace. A smaller group seemed to mean an even chattier run which made for a lovely atmosphere!

We arrived at West Leeds Activity Centre to find Dorota prepared for us along with our little friend Flavia. As well as the compost bins, we had lots of bulbs to plant, which would hopefully bring a bit of colour to the allotment come late spring. Dorota suggested that we might want to arrange the flowers in the GG symbol, so I'm expecting big things when they eventually bloom!

The ground was much softer this week, a combination of the weather and the area of the plot we were digging in. We were digging holes 10cm deep, dropping in our Crocus bulbs (with a bit of help from Flavia) and covering up with soil and patting it all down. This led to one GoodGymer to come up with a surprising comparison:

"It's just like baking a cake!" Carol, who I trust is an excellent baker

Over on the other side of the allotments, we had a crack team of four ready to finally build the compost bins. Armed with strong twine and a pile of wooden pallets, they summoned their best engineering skills to tie the pallets together in a way that they wouldn't just blow over in the stormy weather. Evidently this was taking a lot of concentration.

"It's unusually quiet over here" Dorota, task owner, enjoying a rare bit of peace and quiet in amongst the GoodGymers.

Unfortunately the planning hadn't gone quite as well as hoped and we ran out of rope after completing two compost bins, with a third left unfinished. We'll be back!

Back at the bulb planting, the team had made excellent progress and had almost run out of bulbs. With the last few going in, everybody seemed pretty pleased with themselves.

"Another day of productivity, just not on my dissertation!" Ella, taking a 'well-earned' break from her studies!

We love that GoodGym is a welcome distraction from whatever else you've got going on in your life at the moment, but we take no responsibility for your grades!

We'd got wind that it was our little helper Flavia's birthday, so we squeezed in a quick round of 'Happy Birthday', before we cleared away the tools and began to make our way back. The fitness session and the run back were a little different tonight, with them both combined into a race! As this is a route we all know well, we decided we would attempt to 'Beat the Clock'.

The general idea is that in order to officially finish the race, you need to be in the car park at HPBC before the time runs out (in this case we had an extended deadline of 8:15). You can set off whenever you like to ensure you're finished on time, but your finishing position in the race is decided by the order you set off. The last person to set off will be in first place, but only if they finish in time. It's sounds confusing but it's actually great fun!

As it was a little dark and it's all uphill, most people set off in pairs or small groups, but it was fun to see everyone looking around and working out how much time they needed! The idea should be that everyone arrives back at (or very close to) the same time, so hopefully with a few more attempts this can be a fun GoodGym Leeds staple.

The last two runners came in with just under a minute to spare, meaning everyone gave themselves loads of time! I expect a bit more tension for our next attempt! Adam was our first ever winner having been the last to set off, and this was celebrated with a beer or two in the pub!

20 incredible runners and one amphibian joined forces to give some trees a temporary home

For some reason last week feels like an absolute age ago, so it felt good to be back amongst the red heroes tonight. We welcomed one new runner Frances, who got proved straight away that she's one of us by providing our frog-based pun (more on that later). Welcome Fran! Go and give her a cheer!

We started out with some news, letting everyone know about all the awesome stuff that been going on in the last week, including a big kitchen clean, a big parkrun trip and an awesome hilly training session! The fun doesn't stop there either, with a parkrun at Potternewton park this Saurday to celebrate international women's day, and our first social hike on Sunday organised by Alex. Check the event listings for more info.

Tonight's run was to take us back to Growing Better where we've been heading to quite regularly. They always have big ideas but we're never quite sure what we'll end up doing till we get there! We started out with a quick warm up, which was a brief preview of the running drills they'd be doing in the fitness session later (but of course they didn't know it at the time)!

The run down was more eventful than usual, with Joe admitting that he's been out for a 'practice run' yesterday to make sure he was up to GoodGym after not running much recently. Suzi was lamenting the lack of half-time oranges during a GoodGym group run (so if anyone wants to bring refreshments for her sake then feel free! Finally Riv had just got her layers all wrong...

"I'm so hot, I think I need to take my thermal off! Can I just take my clothes off at the lights?" Riobhne just stopping short of causing a scene!

Luckily everyone remained fully clothed and we arrived at West Leeds Activity Centre ready for a fun session of surprises. The first surprise was a cute little frog (or toad, we weren't entirely sure) that came out to say hello when we were all gathered round to find out what we had planned. Dorota had two main tasks for us, the first was to build some compost bins, but after showing us their existing ones that we wanted to emulate, she realised she didn't have strong enough rope, and so this task has been pushed back to next week.

The main task for the evening then, was to plant a huge number of saplings in big bunches, to help keep them alive until they were ready to plant them properly. Carol decided they were actually Mandrakes (from Harry Potter), which mean the bunches now came with added screaming!

We headed over to the allotment area and got to work! The trees didn't need to be dug in particularly deep as this was just a temporary solution before they found their 'Forever home'. Dorota explained where the trees would end up.

"We've just got an additional site at a Farm near Harewood House, so a lot of the trees wil end up there, ans we're also working with three schools in Kirklees" Dorota, task owner.

As we were running low on tools, a few people broke off to rearrange the ground covers which had been thrown around in the recent storms. It also gave Riv the chance to discover her "favourite stick" (see photos for evidence!) Suzi also had a lovely moment where she felt really connected to the trees she was planting.

"I thought this tree was called Hazel but I realised it's just a type of tree" Suzi, showing that we're always learning at GoodGym!

After all the trees were planted, we had time for a quick session, consisting of 30 metres of running drills with walk-back recoveries. We focused on form, fast feet and getting a good spring from our strides which should really help our running form. The drills were:

• High knees
• Heel kicks
• High knee skipping
• Side skips

There was some really great work on show, with everyone really committing to the drills (with varying success rates!) The side skips in particular take a little practice, so we'll definitely do these again soon.

After we were all wrapped up, we said our goodbyes before starting the long slog back up the hill. Katie and Carol took up back-marking duties, and everyone took it fairly steady on the way back, where we all regrouped and finished off with a quick stretch.

You were all on excellent form tonight, with everyone getting stuck into the task, and too much silliness for me to include it all in the report! See you all next week!