12 awesome runners ran 4km to help St Luke's school with their new garden project!

After two weeks off from GoodGym, it was great to be back! And lovely to see so many new faces! Welcome Tina, Helena, Elle & Kat! Hope you had a nice first run with us!

We started off as we always do with a little warm up and then headed off on our run... this time it was north of the river, through the foot tunnel and into Tower Hamlets.... shock horror!!!

So down the steps, through the tunnel and up the steps the other end... they never seem to get any easier do they! But anyway, we headed through Millwall Park for a lap and then through the residential streets of the Isle of Dogs to St Luke's School!

We were greeted by Myra and her lovely team who explained the amazing creative vision they have for the space and how we were going to help make it come alive!

Our first task was laying down a layer of sandy gravel in designated areas which would form the base. Half of the group grabbed a shovel and a wheelbarrow and got stuck in! The rest of the group were tasked with filling these "living" sandbags with soil which they would then use to stack on top of one another, cover in soil and put some plants on them all. I think it's going to look spectacular!!

There was a lot to get done so we ditched the fitness session to allow us to do as much as possible and spent 45 minutes trying to get through it all. After half an hour, it was coming along nicely! The sandy gravel had been laid and it was now just filling the sandbags and placing them around the edges.

In the last 5 minutes it was all hands on deck to try and get as many bags filled as possible to get the job done! We took a group photo, placed the last few bags where they needed to be and then had a nice little jog back to the uni for a stretch after all that heavy lifting and upper body work!

Amazing job everybody! It would have taken them a whole day to do what you achieved in just 45 minutes so really well done! Hopefully we will be back in a few weeks time to help with the next stage of the project!

It was a lovely sunny evening in SE10, and with our running coach, Sarah, literally on the other side of the world it was chance for all of us to top up on our tans.

Unfortunately not, diligent as she is, Sarah had left Vickie and myself strict instructions , and there was to be absolutely no lazing about. Sorry.

To start, we went round the circle and said our name, and the word we most overused. (For those that attended, how many can you count in this report?) Most interestingly Nina couldn't think of one word; she likes all words and uses them freely ;-)

As a warm-up game we played dishes and domes. On one foot, it's a good game to promote agility, balance and coordination, and on the other foot, it can seem a bit of a futile pursuit as you turn over a cone, and then immediately thereafter someone from the opposing team turns it back over. The game seemed to trigger an existential crisis for some people. Indeed, after the three minutes of the game had elapsed, it transpired it was a dead tie. 11 domes. 11 dishes. So, you really have to question what was the point? *(Note to self: to avoid a tie in future use an odd number of cones.) *

What if...there is a tie? Well, Rob and David faced off in cone sprint decider to win to their team's honour. A dramatic slide from David clinched the golden cone. Nice!!!

We decided to hug the river to get to our new task. We were going rogue as we were just stepping over the borough boundary into Lewisham, so wanted to keep a low profile, ignoring our bright red coloured tees.

Tonight's task took us to St Nicholas Church, Deptford Green. Despite the imposing skull and crossbones entrance we dared to entered. Also, it was quite light so there really was little to be afraid of.

Maureen, the church warden met us. WWS. Watering, weeding and sweeping were the order of the day. We broke up into groups. The weeders, on their hands and knees, worked nimbly and mindfully. Lee, pictured with a hose, is never happier than when in a garden, was heard whistling as he watered the plants. And Ophelia and Sara swept the ghosts away.

Good work everyone. The churchyard was looking on point.

Note: It is a beautiful churchyard, and well worth a visit.

Feeling adventurous still, we went under the foot tunnel to Island Gardens to do our fitness sessions. I boomed out my playlist of two songs: 1) James - Sit Down and 2) The Police - Roxanne. Suffice to say, it was a squat session!!! However, in the instrumental section people didn't seem to quite know what to do with themselves. There was a forced awkwardness, except for Rob who just danced the whole way through it. Magic.

At the end of the day, running wouldn't have its reward if you didn't stop every so often to take in the views. Boom times.

Happy running everyone,

Ben

12 awesome runners ran 6km to help out at St George's church in Westcombe Park!

We had two new runners join us yesterday, Fiona and Lucy.. welcome ladies! Hope you enjoyed your first GoodGym run!

Our evening started off with a mini adventure... our usual bag drop room was occupied so for the first time ever we got to go through the double doors at the end of the corridor and up the spiral staircase... this is about as exciting as things get for us. But then, in the end, our usual room freed up so back down we went, sticking with what we know!

After a little warm up, we headed up Maze Hill and down towards the church. We arrived about 15 minutes later and were greeted by Tim the reverend of the church. He had two tasks for us, one of which was raking the remainder of the leaves out front and bagging them up. And the second task was moving a bunch of stuff from a stairwell and into the basement.

To me, to you, to me

The group was split in half and everyone got stuck in. In the church there were lots of huge panels of wood that needed to go down which proved a bit tricky with the staircase but some excellent Chucklebrothers style teamwork came in to play and it was all dandy!

After 20 minutes, all the stuff from the stairwell had been cleared so it was all hands on deck for the raking and bagging up of the leaves! Although the hardest job seemingly was actually just opening up the bin bags! By 8pm, most of the leaves were bagged up and it was nearly time to go!

All the bags were put on the big blue tarps that we also filled with leaves last time, ready to hopefully somehow be collected over the coming weeks!

We headed back to the uni for our monthly 1km time trial. We usually go round anticlockwise but there was a guy running around giving it the beans so I didn't want to ruin his session so for a change we did clockwise! 4 laps of the 250m circuit and then we called it a night!

Great running last night everyone and thanks for putting so much effort into the task! It would have taken Tim forever to get all those leaves together but you managed it all in just a couple of minutes so well done! They can now start work on the community garden!

Last night in Hounslow started with party rings, marshmallow cakes and by welcoming lovely new runners Audrey and Saule to the group. Give them a cheer, Hounslow!

After a run down of the week's news, a reminder that the Christmas party is going to be on the 8th December at the Battersea Arts Centre and a quick talk about the task, we moved outside to brave the cold and do some dynamic warm ups. And also to find out what everybody's favourite crisps are. All the important stuff.

With our heart rates up, and having discovered that we love skips, kettle crisps, vegetable crisps for the health conscious, and tortilla chips, we were ready for the off. Tonight's task was just over 2.5 k away, and we took the outward leg nice and steady, just stopping for a few wall sits and quick jumping jacks.

We made it to Ealing Road Baptist Church, which also acts as a food bank and homeless shelter, in no time at all, and were greeted by one of the men who uses the shelter. With Jeremy and Saule taking on the toughest job in the very dusty cellar, Andy, Natasha, Will and Audrey started on the various tasks in the food bank. Jo (whose high point of the night was discovering a chocolate unicorn - did anyone actually see where that went?), Jennifer, Remy and Alex tackled the cleaning jobs in the kitchen, hall and bathroom. There was also clothes to sort for the community, including a rather nice cape (we think) and lots of other little jobs that the team smashed through super quickly.

Which meant more time for the core blast. Hurrah! We were lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the lovely warm room to do our fitness session tonight, rather than yomping about in the mud outside. So we thought we better make it count. With two sets of five exercises aimed at working our abs - essential for efficient running and helping to prevent injuries - we spent 15 minutes doing planks, crunches, reverse crunches, Russian twists, bicycles and much more. Who is feeling it today?

With another 2.5k run in front of us, we hit the road and used the long straight section to the half way point to do some fartlek. This speed work is tough, but great training. We ran the last section as a team to finish off the night with some stretches and a well-earned pat on the back.

Next week we're tackling some tasks at a charity which supports people with long term mental health issues, Friends of Cathja. Sign up here to lend a hand.

Knock, knock. Who's there? Hydrate. Hydrate who? Hydrate you 10 out of 10, Hounslow!

Ahem. Last night's sterling effort from Hounslow saw 12 runners tackle a local resident association's rubbish problem, run just over 5k, and smash out some conditioning exercises along the way.

First we cheered our lovely new member Hardip who joined her for her first run last night. Great to have you with us Hardip!

We also said a big well done to Remy who nears her epic goal of 24 half marathons in one year by smashing a cobbly Lancaster course at the weekend (way to go!) and reminded everyone to sign up for the GoodGym Christmas party on the 8th December.

During our dynamic warm up we found out what everybody eats on Christmas day, or the celebration day of their choice. Yes, there were a few turkeys, but there was also duck, goose, a veggie alternative, pigs in blankets, pasta and a chinese takeaway. Delicious.

Then it was time for the run. Our first stop was 2.5k away where there was a pile of litter pickers, bags and gloves waiting for us. The local residents were fed up with their roads being covered in rubbish, and we had been given three areas to tackle. We split the group into two, and got stuck in.

Working hard in our red and black tshirts it seems like we were a pretty good advert for GoodGym, as several people stopped to find out what we were doing and say thanks, including one women with three amazing dogs that we all decided was a very good reward for our work. Five full bin bags and a whole load of cleaner streets later, we returned our litter pickers and set off back for home. There was some nice sprinting along the way, and only that pesky train could stop us in our tracks.

5k later we were back at our starting point and stretching out all our hard work. Next week we're beating the cold at an indoor task with a nice 6k run in total. Sign up here to spend your Wednesday the GoodGym way!