21 fantastic GoodGymers ran 7k to Wilton Estate Community Garden to bag 3 tonnes of stones ready to be transported on Saturday.

Beginning the evening by welcoming GoodGym first timers MJ and Jennie and bigging up The Shindig! (Remember to register your interest if you fancy coming along, no matter how long you have been GoodGyming).

Heading out on the scenic 3k route to Wilton Estate, keeping it 100% social along the way! A nice distance at a nice pace got us warm and pumping the distance up for our Spring fitness goals.

Meeting Ulus from the Wilton Estate he assured us it was a tinny task that would only need 5 or 6 people. How wrong he was!! Seeing the 3 huge tonne bags of stones we got bagging!! Shovelling the stones from the big bags into the smaller bags so that they can be transported on Saturday to a different garden. The stones are redundant after our heroic mulch shifting efforts in January!!

Getting into a strong rhythm of shovelling, bagging, carrying and wheelbarrowing the stones 100 metres to the garden store cupboard. With 35 minutes of heavy lifting and shifting we had cleared 3 Tonnes of stones in 50 bags. All ready to go to there new home on Saturday!!

With a thirst for miles with so many of the squad heading towards Spring Half Marathons we split into 2 groups for the dash back to base! The first group dropping some serious pace on a 4k loop managed to catch up with the 2nd group on our 3k route back to the Bakehouse.

Great to get some nice distance in the legs at whatever pace felt good! Look forward to seeing all our has training pay off in the coming weeks!!

Mireille has got the ball rolling getting our monthly social back rolling in 2018!! So next week after the Group run we will be heading out for chat, drink, eat, be great if you joined us!!

Thanks for coming along, see you next week!

Smooth Running

Joel

25 Super GoodGymers Ran 5k to Wilton Estate Community garden to shift a tonne of wood and 3 tonnes of Mulch.

A crisp evening in Hackney brought out a top quality squad!! Great mixture of some GoodGym first timers through to some seasoned GoodDeeders.

Not wanting to stay still for long we jogged over to the Town Hall for a very active intro speech! Combining everything we needed to know with some mobility and strength developing exercises! Rocking some strong Team Press Up reverse pyramids to wake up our core and upper body. Then ring and ring a rosing some tough crab squats. Before a well executed Press up Head count!!

With our bodies ready for action we ran the 1.5k up to the award Wilton Estate community garden. A firm Hackney GoodGym favourite so great to be back for 2018!

Splitting up into 3 groups, first carrying 8ft by 8ft metal sheets over to the greenhouse where they will be used for cordoning off flowers beds from pests.

Group 2 had a formidable challenge ahead with a huge tree having been chopped up into big heavy logs, the crew used team work to make the dream work and carried the huge pile of logs 100 metres over to the Green House where they will be used in the coming weeks. Some really strong power moves on show and in preparation for the Hackney Highland Games a lot of practice was had tossing the logs over the 5 Foot high fence!.

Group 3 had a mammoth task!! Shovelling, shifting, tipping and spreading on thick 3 tonnes of prime Hackney Mulch!! Using Trugs and Barrows to transport the mulch to 2 different gardens to relay the worn away garden floor.

With such hard and fast working GoodGymers we flew through the tasks!! And in 30 minutes of all our action the logs and metal had been moved so Phil lead the charge from 17 of the squad back to base on the long 3.5k loop back. Throwing in some serious pace for good measure!!

Ros’s Rebels were in fine form powering the last of the mulch onto the gardens to complete the task! With time to spare they were not content and with a sprint finish shovelled the last of the mulch so seal the deal on a masterful performance!!

Next week we are off to Clissold Park to help Hackney Parks with the renovation of the running track!! A 3.5k Run each way awaits!! See you there!!

Have a top week

Smooth Running

Joel

P.S big up to Phil for this weeks pun!!

23 GoodGymers ran 6k to Abney Park Cemetery to shovel, barrow and tip mulch to create 80 metres of woodland foot path.

Great to be back in Abney!! And awesome to have so many new runners along for their maiden GoodGym voyage!!

With January Challenge Miles at a premium we set to work on the 3k Run to Stokey. We must have done something bad wrong last week as we had some bad traffic light karma. The Green people were not our friends! But given the amazing work we put in am sure our luck will change next time!

With the run under our belts we met Park Ranger Tom who locked us into the Cemetery, grabbed a barrow each and followed Tom deep into the Cemetery to find the biggest Mulch pile in London no doubt!!

Splitting into Barrowers and Shovellers we set up a slick system to ensure maximum impact! With 6 Shovellers going like the clappers and 20 barrowers zipping deep into the undergrowth to save the path with much mulch reinforcements! The steam was rising from the huge mulch pile and only served to fire up the squad to work even faster!!

Tipping faster and faster I accurately counted 554 barrow journeys completed in 40 minutes of lighting quick action!!

With 80 metres of path locked in we steamed out of the park (after saying goodbye to Tom) and continued our New Years resolution to get a little stronger by crushing 5 minutes of perfectly performed body weight strength exercises!

With body popping we cranked up the pace for the 3k Run back to base!!

All stretched out and smiles at the end after a top GoodGym evening!! Sign up and come along next week for a trip to the award winning Wilton Estate community Garden!

Anyone fancy joining me on Saturday for Hackney Marshes Parkrun? If you have one get your Red T-shift on and I will see you on the start line!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel