What a fab evening at Bexley Gooodgym last night. Yes it was the hottest Bank Holiday we've had for a few years but that didn't stop us doing our awesome in Bexley............. We were greeted by three new faces at Bexley this evening. A massive welcome to Lucy (you were brilliant tonight) and Goodgym tourists Sarah and Johnny who joined us from Hammersmith Goodgym, yay!! We started off as usual with our group warm up and in this heat that didn't take long. After a quick safety briefing everyone grabbed their pickers and we headed of towards the beautiful Danson park. As we arrived at Danson i wanted to to add a training into the task so the goal was to pick and jog and quickly as possible onto the next piece of litter. It turned out to be quite a good fartlek session. For those of you who are wondering, fartlek is a Swedish word meaning speed play Its an awesome training session for anyone wanting to become a better runner. It involves running and moving at different speeds during your training, and we did just that this evening.

Fartlek is a Swedish word meaning speed play

Well it has to be said we were extremely busy for over 35 minutes, and in this time we filled seven big black sacks of rubbish. We even had to move a portable BBQ that had been left and that had actually started to set the grass underneath it alight. As our challenged drew to and end we looked over the park at the task we had just completed with a great sense of accomplishment, and as the sun was coming down it was a perfect time to have a group run around the lake before heading back to basecamp Crooklog.

Coaches Tip Running with your litter picker sticks should not be seen as an inconvenience but as a great arm and chest training. Many of us run with our arms swinging side to side and crossing the centre of our chest. Doing this makes you body rotate with each step instead moving moving efficiently forward. It also closes our chest making our breathing labour. Use the stick with your hands as wide as possible. By doing this your arms can't come across your chest so your lungs / chest will be open, so making breathing and posture a lot better.

It wasn't long before we were back a Crooklog talking about the great task we had done, and what we had planned for next week. Thanks again for you help and company Sarah and Johnny. Tonights Bexley Goodgym Heroes Sarah, Susan, Janine, Caz, Johnny, Sarah, Lucy and Tim SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.................