A baking July eve with a warm and tight knit group of GoodGymers. New task excitement was in the balmy air, our canal adoption first task up ahead.

Of course we headed out for a habitual chinwag, paired warm up and Random Weekly Question. " Besides your own team what other football nation would you get behind?" Started off with a thoughtful answer from Lakhvinder, Sweden, for its progressive public health policies. We then somewhat descended into Spain and Iran's 'sexiness factor', Shaz and Siobhan casually objectifying males. We also had another couple shouts for Spain, Kev going for the Dane's viking spirit. And a dithering non response from me, until I decided that I too like Sweden for it's public health policy, of course.

We headed north up the canal and around The Olympic Stadium, before doing a light sprint session. Managed to find a segment that was surprisingly unpopulated, had an endorphine boosting and technique sharpening few minutes there, before jogging a few more mins to our task. We met Ross, a lovely chap, who works for the Canal Trust. Armed with bin bags, high vis jackets, litter pincer thingys, gloves and shears... he set us off in groups to clear up a small area around Old Ford Dock. Alice scooped out a Kiwi flag and Welly from the canal, Sharon and Paula got proper into their weeding and refused to come back, and the rest of us became mildly proficient with those litter picking tools. It was actually rather satisfying, I had my hesitations about doing a litter task - but I think 'the claw' is a bit of a game changer.

Lovely work out there yesterday team, a shorter contrasting task to last week, we've got it all at GGN.

Sign up here for next week's task. It'll be an oldie but a goodie. Just putting together our summer to autumn calendar.

See you beauts next week

B

Are evenings in Newham always sunny? Every week I make the easterly journey it's always under brilliant sunshine, or maybe it's just my modified memory of a positively cheerful and exhilarating Wednesday evening amongst good company? No, I think it's actually just really sunny....though the previous still holds true!

With a cancellation at our favourite local school it was time to blitz through some fitness. Upon receival of this news I sensed a visceral excitement amongst the team, although it was masked extremely well, cool east london cats. Another man may not have been privy to such a strong undercurrent of zeal.

A Random Weekly Question courtesy of Dan this week, "where would you zip line to?" It was a quick response to my call for a question this week, feel free to come prepared with a couple of you own questions next week. We had zip lining off massive buildings, big mountains, mother's roof, massive canyons, into the mediterranean (from your living room) and much more.

Terrific efforts out on the session guys, starting on the short hill sprints. You worked your way through these brief bouts and came out smiling. Working the glutes and overloading the quads - hills are a staple part of many a successful runner, from sprinters to distance runners. It puts less stress through your joints and tendons and provides a muscular stimulus as you battle gravity. A set of five tough exercises came next, mixing plyometrics with with core stability. I was corrected for my counting, twice, unfortunate as that's THE key skill for a Personal Trainer. I'm coming with my abacus next week. You'll be stronger for that little strength stint on the stairs, consider tidying up your technique and trial some of them at home, whilst they're still fresh in your mind.

Our now ritual Relay to finish, with some hardy displays, athletic sprinting and raucous cheering. Always a pleasure to watch - unfortunately Dan tweaked his calf and that put an end to proceedings. Give it a couple days, then roll it out thoroughly on Friday (sat + sun too) big man.

Also a huge GoodGym Newham welcome to Albert and Lakhvinder. Really hope you enjoyed your first session and our Wednesday slot can become a useful part of your training regime...and potentially more.

Cheers for a lovely evening and being a pleasure to train - see you all for our longer run next week. We're back at Parkside Allotment, which helps people with mental health issues. It's a long run, but a nice one - mostly on the Greenway. I believe there's a social after as well...Sign up here

See you beauts then

B