The evening was a bit grey and I need to wake up before the training task was about to start. I thought it would be a great idea to stretch the legs before the task. Quickly realising that I would not be able to do this and the task, I decided to get to the leisure centre a little early to grab a caffeine boost. Already there were James, Anne, Claire, Karen and Laura. Quickly having a chat I told them I needed a coffee and does anyone else want one. James said he would and to usher out both Nadia and Luan who had done the same thing.

After the coffees were drunk and everyone had arrived, Kirsty enthusiastically started to welcome all the runners to the session and went in to some details about GoodGym and what the groups is all about. When Kirsty had finished and there weren’t any questions, James, who put on the session went into the details on what we were going to do. James took his time to clearly relay the instructions for this session. The session starts with a light warm up, 1 or two laps of the park, during this time he will put markers to show the turning points for the distances to cover. He said, it will be 6, 3, 3, 6, 3, 3 , 6 with a two minute recover time after each distance completed. James clearly went into detail on how this type of run will help build muscle fibre to both help build speed and endurance ability.

As the session started, I lead the warm up by running a few laps of Woking Park. This was a light run just to activate the muscles and to get the blood pumping around the body. Making our way around and being conscious of the reps we were about to start on I thought that taking a shorter route around the park would be kinder for all of us, while James marked the distances. Heading along the shortcut took us to a flooded path so with a quick turn around we carried on following the outside path of the park. Just after half way round and to let everyone have a little change from the slow running we paused and started to do reserve lunges. After that we went into squats before returning to running back to James where we can start the session.

So having all arrived at the start, James kindly went through what was to be done again before we all heading off for the first 600 meter run which involved running to the marker placed by James and then back to where we started. Everyone went off at their own pace so everyone was able to maintain a pace that was going help push them to the next level. After the first 600m I quickly realised I had gone off too fast and was gassed out before I had even started!! Lucky Nadia had followed with me and was able to help me maintain that pace. Anne and Karen grouped together as there running speeds were very similar, although they were steaming through the recovery times!!!!!

Laura, Claire, Luan and James were all making great gains with their running speeds and keeping to the distances really well. I kept hearing lots of cheers and words of encouragement as other runners were taking their recovery rests, but not too sure if that is the best way to recover? But it didn’t seem to effect the runners and for me, it gave me a huge boost to find the will to keep going at a difficult pace. As we were all drawing to completing the interval session, everyone was giving it their all to finish on a high.

Brilliant, determined and gritty run from all the GoodGymers that did today’s session and we all went celebrate Anne in being awarded with the Sean Coxhead Inspiring Individual Award 2024 for GoodGym. Inspiring Anne, keep being brilliant 😊

Until the next session.

It was a chilly and rainy evening, but that didn’t stop the fantastic Woking Goodgym members from coming out in full force to wrap up the year with a final mission!

This evening, we were thrilled to welcome Chris, Karen, and Laura for their first time with us. We’re so happy to have you on the team and hope you enjoyed the mission as much as we did!

Tonight's adventure was organised by James, who brought along his Christmas backpack packed with 1,300 leaflets for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice fundraiser.

Shooting Star is collecting and recycling as many Christmas trees as they can this year in exchange for donations, which helps support children with life-limiting conditions and their siblings — what a wonderful cause!

Our determined group of ten set off toward the town centre, running through Woking Park, with Quinn, the dog, wagging his tail even harder in excitement beside us! We decided to extend our session tonight to get as many leaflets delivered as possible.

The GG army arrived at our first stop, and thanks to James and his magical keys, we quickly accessed 7 of Woking's apartment complexes to fill their letterboxes. It was like witnessing the world's most efficient production line!

After we finished there, we agreed to keep the leafleting going on our way back to the leisure centre, targeting both sides of Hillview Road, White Rose Lane, and Ockenden Gardens.

By the time we regrouped at the leisure centre, we were all buzzing with excitement after delivering a whopping 1,240 leaflets in just over an hour!

Karen, Laura, and Nadia took a few leaflets to share in their neighbourhoods, tonight, Anne, Wayne, and Alys had fun taking turns as backmarkers. Kirsty played the role of the unofficial lollipop lady, making sure everyone crossed those busy roads safely and struggled to keep up with the current, "not a runner" Agathe who whizzed through the streets.

Wayne captured some fantastic photos, and Alys Alys them on social media to spread the word about Shooting Star's cause.

James led the way as our fearless run leader tonight, and as a fun twist, Nadia still has some burpees to do in the new year as her penalty for not wearing her red tutu, Anne narrowly missed her penalty by nipping home and picking up hers to wear.

We missed our lovely regulars Katie and Becky this evening, who both are recovering from illness, and we look forward to supporting them back to full fitness in the new year.

On Saturday and Sunday, GG Woking is supporting the Woking District Rotary Club, James has arranged a group social 10k run at Polesdon Lacey on Sunday for members who are not volunteering at Woking Junior's Parkrun.

On Christmas Day, several members are meeting at Homewood Parkrun to build up a calorie deficit ahead of their Christmas lunches. Merry Christmas everyone!

It takes a special kind of people to make it out in the freezing rain on a dark Monday night to rake leaves and chop wood. Luckily GGers are made of tough stuff, and a group of 14 of the toughest were not put off by the conditions last night.

Special kudos goes to Stephen and to Veronica who came along to their first GoodGym session - give them a huge welcome! We also cheered Paul and Dylan for smashing the Fulham 10km this weekend. Amazing stuff.

We kicked off with a much needed warm up, discussing the upcoming missions such as this amazing one to sort donated coats for Wrap Up London on Thursday in Morden. There is also a great session helping make the nature reserve in Streatham more accessible on Saturday. Lots of fun stuff to choose from! We also debated the most important issue of the hour - what is the best condiment. It turns about we are passionate about our favourites, from mayonnaises including truffle and garlic, various mustards, olive oil and BBQ - and in a shock twist no one went for ketchup!

There was no time to waste before setting off in the increasingly heavy rain for Paradise community garden. Through the puddles we splashed, arriving not long after to meet even more GGers.

We divided up into two teams; one to take on the challenge of clearing the leaves that were clogging the pathways and transport them to be turned into mulch, the other to chop the wood into manageable sizes.

The leafers got busy, fueled by Steve and Dylan's kind contribution of sweeties, while the axers were contemplating the best method of effectively breaking down the wood. Ali and Pritesh copied what they'd seen in the films to great success, while Beth guided using her recent impressive axe throwing prowess!

It soon got too damp to continue, but we'd made a big dent in the jobs, so all that was left to do was vote on fitness (no surprise on which way it went) and then head off back into the night for warm cups of tea and hot showers.

Well done everybody! Next week you'll be in the super capable hands of our newest run leader Catherine, who will be taking you to help out at Waste Not Want Not for a warm inside task!