Four of us paid another visit to Ealing Road Baptist Church last night. After a 2.5k jog we met with Roger outside the premises who was wearing a new hat and explained how his wife often hides the hats of his that she doesn't like. I don't know why I included this in the report, it just seems funny :-D

So, to work...

Graham and Alicia set about emptying two large cupboards of various tinned food, packets of pasta, biscuits, tea, a dodgy perfume set and some strange biscuit/cream cheese combination that looked a bit scary.

While at the same time Andy and Simon carried some chairs upstairs and then organised a bookshelf.

As usual we got loads done in a short space of time and had a little while for Roger to offer us various items of food that were unsuitable for the food bank, such as out-of-date mince pies, which we sampled for a bit of fuelling for the journey back.

On the way home we stopped for a mini "leg-buster" challenge. A short lunge walk, followed by five squat jumps up and down a kerb and then repeat twice more. Gets you to just about the point where you don't want to walk any more. Ow.

That's it, I'm off now. Thanks for having me GoodGym Hounslow. It has been great fun and I'll see you at Gunnersbury parkrun on the 4th March

Ana from Wandsworth is taking over next week. Sign up here

Simon

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

30 GoodGymers and a dog named Bunty ran between 5-6km, made beds for the homeless and helped garden for a sheltered housing association

Welcome along to the newbies this week: Amanda, Amelia, Nancy and AraKang! Thanks for coming along :)

In the news this week:

1. Tom Benson is organising a 5km and 10km time trial this Sunday in Regents Park at 10.30, get along it's gonna be good! More information here.
2. Also as GG Camden we are organising to do Regents Park 10km together on April 2nd, watch out for updates.
3. The first GG Social is next Thursday at the Joker of Penton Street in Angel, sign up here
4. Lastly the amazing Polly Skeats-Beswick got her wings today (100 good deeds), she has been running with us for two years and has a coach she has been seeing since June!

After the news, headcount and an active warm up we split into two groups, one helping C4WS and the other going to the sheltered housing.

PB Sheltered Housing report:

16 of us headed North running 2.6km to Kentish Town, the air was cold but the GoodGymers were spritely!

We arrived and met the wonderful Cathi who explained that the block of flats at Ashdown Crescent has over 40 people over the age of 65 living there, she helps look after them and the garden we worked on is used by them.

Barking!

Our tasks for this evening were as follows:

• Steve led a team of sweepers to clean up the garden, paths and general space.
• A team of six planted flowers and plants in a flower bed.
• Polly, Chris and Jess shifted mulch over the plants and bed.
• Kat led on planting in another section of the garden.
• A team of four, including Mi put together a bird feeder

Everyone did brilliantly and we finished everything in great time to help this fantastic project!

We ran 2.8km back home and stopped off to do four Strides. These are good to do at the end of a run because they stimulate fast-twitch fibres, running faster increases the range of motion and they're a great opportunity to practice good form. Read an article on Strides here.

Frances' report here:

Frances and Pritesh led 14 runners to the American International Church to help set up beds for the homeless shelter again. The good news was that there were fewer beds than last week as some of the shelter users had found some more permanent accommodation! We added a bit of a twist to the task by also helping to shift some chairs to the hallway, but we still finished in super quick time.

Good news!

The task completed, we headed to Russell Square for a fitness session. A relay seems like it should be a relatively simple thing to arrange, but it turns out a three-point continuous relay with only three teams means that some people are going to have to run some extra turns – SURPRISE! Hopefully it kept you all warm!

We followed this up with a slightly longer route home than normal, via Gray's Inn Road, and made it back with plenty of time for a thorough stretch!

Thanks for leading Pritesh & Frances and thanks for coming everyone. Sign up to next week here, we will be helping Abbey Community Centre and continuing to help C4WS at the homeless shelter.

PB out.

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

On the last run of 2016, 6 intrepid runners ventured all over Southwark to deliver Christmas leaflets for Time and Talents.

Despite Christmas Party season being well underway and, supposedly, half of London out boozing, we met up at Old Spike anyway. A quick check: one cold and one hangover but lots of enthusiasm between us all.

We were leafleting for Time & Talents, a brilliant community organisation based in Rotherhithe, who run projects for vulnerable people with high levels of need in the area and building a strong community with all of their amazing activities. Jemma gave us the leaflets with a giant hug of gratitude so it was ace to do a task that meant so much to an organisation as our last task of the year.

We had a group who ran the longer route to deliver up to Russia Docks Road Estate and around - an epic effort given that the hangover and illness resided in this group. They totalled an incredible 13.5km GoodGym run...

Superhero Christmas Elves

The second group still totalled an impressive 8.5km around Southwark Park Road and got to admire all of the pretty Christmas wreaths and the view of London's skyline from some of the higher blocks.

Given that it was 14th December, we all arrived back very sweaty but pleased with our efforts. A quick stretch off and then it was off The Rye Pub for our Christmas social. Not so raucous as the Big GoodGym one but a time to be grateful for a wonderful year or running, volunteering and making new friends.

GoodGym Southwark Runners: you rock

xxx

After a night of gardening and a 4K run didn't even know it was winter!!

St Catherines Church is a hidden away gem, a beautiful church that were grateful for some help maintaining their grounds. Well done to Andy and Ivo with keeping a good pace during the aftermath run, sight seeing the streets of Chiswick on our route back to base. We even got to see a work of art - please see photos!!

Chiswick Buzz joined us at St Michaels to get an insight into GoodGym and how we like to help the community. I will be sure to get the Link out to you guys when the article is released.

As we ran through the streets of Chiswick we found a house that had images projected on it. This form of art was refreshing and looked amazing. I recommend anyone in the area to take a look!! Heading back to base we finished up with some wonderful squats during our fitness session to ensure that cold wasn't getting to us!

Join us next week for another run and task !! Remember come rain or shine we are there!!!

Happy running, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!!

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