Wall of Honour

• Thanks to Emily for running back to retrieve my bag and keys for the cafe!
• Big Shout to Hayley, Imogen, Victoria, Olivia & Saoirse for completing their first run with us!
• Pat on the back to Dom & Emily for completing another Half Marathon in under 2 hours despite the puddles last Saturday!

Let’s have a Recap

Last night a whopping 27 runners ran 5km in total to TRAID store in Peckham, a charity whose aim is to stop clothes being thrown away reducing the impact on the environment.

After welcoming all our new comers, we stepped out into the fresh winter evening and began a swift warm up learning everyones names! We took a back street route along Bellenden road and up to the store at the top of Rye Lane.

Jose the store manger was pleased to welcome us indoors and slightly shocked at the size of our group as the 27 runners descended into the store! Having arrived soon after the shop had stopped TRAID-ing we were able to assist their task of removing all of the end of season stock from the many display rails in the shop. Large boxes were placed nearby, and once we were shown how to pack and fold the items, it wasn't long before the boxes were filled and more had to brought out. In total 6 boxes were filled to the brim and carefully lifted and stacked using true GoodGym 'We can do this!' spirit, much to the surprise of the store staff who thought it might be too challenging! Whilst this was going on we had extra hands sweeping the floor, wiping shelves, polishing rails and cleaning the store from back to front. After 30mins the store was transformed and now completely empty, ready for the staff to restock the new season styles in the morning.

FACT OF THE DAY Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) often used to make the mid sole of athletic shoes can take up to 1000 years to decompose!! try donating your old shoes!

To finish the session off we ran back to Peckham Rye park and split into groups for some Kilometer loops, throwing in lamppost strides, out and backs and finishing with a sprint finish lead by Danny, and some Sally Squats lead by Dom. After a quick stretch it was time for our monthly social (walk to the pub)!

Next week we will be running 5km overall to Crisis Camberwell working with a local charity to help sort out their donations and tidy up stock.

See you next week Team. Wrap up!

What a start to the week, perfect weather, great company and a tonne of hard work completed in the name of GoodGym!!

3 new runners joined us this evening and I’d like to offer a huge GoodGym Wandsworth welcome to Ellen, Kimberley and Melanie, go ahead and give them a cheer

NEWS

There's lots going on at GoodGym through August, here’s a recap of last nights news

• The GoodGym Olympics are on Saturday 3rd August and team Wandsworth are aiming to better last year's silver medal. Whether you’re competing or would like to come down and support, it would be great to have as many GG Wandsworth faces there as possible, details here

• For those that cannot make it to the GG Olympics, there is an Olympics National Race which you can get involved in via Strava, all details for getting involved are here

• Next Monday, 5th August is GoodGym Wandsworth’s 3rd Birthday and we’ll be celebrating after next week’s group run with a picnic on Clapham Common

• Anyone looking for a race? The next GoodGym race team event is the Bath 2 Tunnels race which is coming up on the 18th August. The race also coincides with the GG West Summer party, details and sign up here

• 2 new areas will be joining the GG family in August. Exeter starts on Tuesday 20th August and Trafford on Wednesday 21st August

• If anyone has any tales of inspiration from Team GB athletes and would like to share them, please email rebecca@goodgym.org and tell us who inspired you the most and why

DO GOOD

This week’s task was helping at a local charity called Leonard Cheshire Disability, who work to support individuals to live, learn and work independently whatever their ability

So, with building work in progress outside BAC our usual warm up area was unavailable. We relocated to a small car park opposite and went though some low impact warm up drills. Our warm up was cut slightly short when we were interrupted by a slightly disgruntled neighbour who took exception to us being there. With that we swiftly set off for the first leg of our run. We covered the first 1.5km of the night in good time and even managed some wall squats along the way

On arrival we headed to the back entrance of the centre and were greeted by a huge teddy bear guarding the gate. Once inside, our tasks included washing the mobility buses, weeding the car park area, cleaning the windows, a general tidy of the garden area, clearing plant pots at the front of the building and replacing old with new plants. We quickly split into 5 smaller groups and 40 mins later we’d satisfyingly ticked every item off our task list, leaving the buses gleaming, the garden raked and tidy, the new plants potted, the front area weeded and windows shining. Great work everyone!

GET FIT

After a quick tidy up, we jogged a short 0.5km distance over to Battersea Park, where we completed our fitness session.

This week’s fitness required 3 teams, each working through either a run, a core exercise and a body weight exercise then rotation through each of the 3 stations to complete a round. The soundtrack for our workout was provided by some quite interesting park users and 5 rounds and 15 sets later, all that was left was our 2km journey back to BAC, with a final set of wall/fence squats on the way

The night was capped off with a sprint up our favourite hill and Strava segment. Well done to everyone for that final push at the end and great work on the technical running points!

So, we completed our tasks, ran a total distance of 4km, completed a tough fitness session and a hill sprint. Amazing work all round team Wandsworth!!

COMING UP

Next week we head to the Salvation Army in Balham, to help with various tasks, as well as our 3rd birthday celebrations which is not to be missed, sign up here

Have a great week and thank you for all you hard work!

Happy Running!!

A beautiful summer's evening, lot of lovely faces both returning and new, and a task in Paradise (cooperative garden...!) all added up to a fantastic night of GoodGymming!

Welcome to:

• Emily, Imogen, Amy, Natalie, Ashlyn and Maurice, who all came for their first GoodGym run last night!

And in case you need a reminder of the news we started off the night with, then here it is:

• If you're looking for a beautiful 10k trail run then check out the Morden Park Trail Run - every last Sunday of the month in this lovely National Trust park - it's even free!

• We've got an aid station at the British 10K on Sunday 21st July from 7.30am - volunteers get a free place for the Oxford Half, Hackney Half or the next London 10K. Sign up here - today is your last day to sign up so get in there quick!

• Well done to Oliver who did the Shoreditch 10km on Saturday, to all those who volunteered there, and to all our parkrunners too!

After a warm up outside and a quick survey on our favourite breakfast dishes - eggs well and truly topped the pops, but there were also votes for waffles, rice crispies and of course bacon sarnies - we set off for Paradise Cooperative garden, and arrived 2.5km later to find chairman John waiting for us with a list of jobs.

This organisation aims to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening, and has transformed an overgrown and derelict site owned by Wandsworth prison into a beautiful space which includes an orchard, poly-tunnels, raised vegetable beds, a fish-pond, bush-craft area and community celebration area with pizza oven and running water. All this takes hard work though, so we are happy to lend a bit of GoodGym muscle!

The first group got straight on with shovelling gravel and woodchip, unloading bags of clay, shifting pallets and logs - all amazing upper body work! Meanwhile, the weeding team tackled the raised beds and paths and watered, while the third group spread the new pond liner and started filling it.

After 40 minutes loads of jobs were done, and John said that we had achieved a month's worth of work for them in our time there - many hands make light work! For all that effort we were rewarded with beautiful fresh basil, carrots and herbs which as well as being delicious, made for an unusual and highly fragranced run back!

But first we stopped at Wandsworth Common to do our fitness session - I had planned one that featured running drills, but the tasks at the garden had overtaken us a bit, so this was replaced by some high octane tabata instead. It was only 4 minutes of hard work split into 20 second segments, but it was tough! The idea is that you raise your heart rate during this time which increases aerobic performance and burns fat effectively. Those frog jumps though...

We finished off the evening with a motivational hill sprint led by Chi, and some stretches back at base. Next week we're going to Harding House, a residential home for deaf people to help sort out their garden. You can find out more and sign up here. Until then, have a week of happy running GoodGym!