With world travelling trainer James caught in airport delays, it fell upon the rest of us to improvise and enjoy ourselves in the sunshine. A visit to 'our' allotment was on the cards, but at the last moment a more urgent matter popped up, who are we to decline to help a lady in distress!

Anna from the Wanstead Community House, our base, showed us how caterpillars had been going after several of her previous plants, decimating the foliage to the point of no return. Best option was to dig them out and dispose of them, so armed with a shovel, pitchfork and a bin for transport the team got to work removing about 8 bushes. Especially Matt seemed to enjoy himself with the shovel, leaving a trail of (planned) destruction in his wake. Helen & first-timer Lauren followed his example in removing some more bushes, with Cedric & Kris tidying up behind them.

Part 1 done, Matt & Kris took over watering the plants from Anna, who led the rest in searching through the remaining plants on the soon-to-be-butterflies' menu to pick as many as could be found to stop those plants falling victim as well. Numerous hungry caterpillars were caught and efficiently disposed of. Fingers crossed those remaining plants will survive!

Tidying only took seconds, after which we found our feet following the familiar route towards Eagle Pond. Now the evenings are longer, a meandering route across Leyton Flats was definitely the better option. Moving smoothly past the Green Man roundabout Matt led us through the edges of Wanstead Flats before returning to familiar roads and a way back to base. A few stretches later, a happy squad split and made their way home, ready to return another day.

On a sunny spring evening, four of Goodgym Redbridge's finest runners did not one, but two, tasks and ran 6.5km in the process.

With many of the regular crew preferring the pub garden rather than getting fit, it was down to four of the team to get fit and do good in the area. With a last minute request from Anna at Wanstead House Community Association to help with unloading and restocking the bar, the team were immediately in the thick of it.

Five minutes later and some heavy lifting done, the task was complete and the team were off down the road to Redbridge Community Allotments to for the night's second task and to see what the recent sun and rain had done to the site.

The allotments are a place dear to our heart, having been our first ever task and the site of many a sweaty hour. Unsuprisingly, Spring had sprung and the weeds had firmly taken a hold of the area. A perfect job for Goodgym!

With gloves donned and armed with trowels, the team were quickly pulling up weeds and sorting the place out. 45 minutes later there was a huge difference - though much work remains and this is likely to be a regular spot over the summer months.

With two tasks complete all that was left was a run around Epping Forest and Eagle Pond and a return to base for some easy stretching.

Great work team!

On a chilly but surprisingly pleasant Spring evening eight of Goodgym Redbridge's finest met to spring clean and ran 6km in the process.

With Will joining is for the first time it was crack squad meeting help earn our keep at Wanstead Community House Association. This is our regular home and in return for free lodging we do tasks around the house to keep things spic and span. With the recent rain and wind, the gardens were looking a little unloved, so it was down to the team to sweep things up and make the place look beautiful again.

As is the GG way, the team got to work and within 40 minutes the grounds were transformed and almost half a large wheelie bin was full with leaf fall and rubbish. All this left was a pleasant run around Eagle Pond. Even better our efforts were rewarded with a stunning sunset.

Well done to Will for joining on our first task. Hope to see you again soon!

This seems to be a month for Plan B's... Ignoring the persistent drizzle, Matt, Jay & myself were all ready to go and visit Forest Recycling Project for some more paint related adventures, but unfortunately something came up. So again it was Plan B to the rescue.

With a hint of foresight we did bring along some Goodgym cards, so a visit to Leytonstone Station to spread the word on Goodgym was a decent alternative, with the added bonus of being dry indoors! After some lovely conversations and a stack of cards later, it was time to make our way back to base. There we found the lovely Anna waiting for her document check!

Apologies for the few images, trying out my big camera I didn't bring a smaller lens for the close quarter work!

Next week James will be back from his adventures. Perhaps we can reschedule visiting FRP, or maybe James has something else in mind. As soon as we know more, we'll update the info. In the mean time, you can sign up here

For a first time being official Run Leader in James' absence there was no time to be nervous how things would go. Within a few minutes of arriving the lovely Rosemary & Lindsay popped in to have their documents checked and chat about the different sides of Goodgym. Unfortunately they couldn't stay but by the time they were done the others started arriving, ready for the group run, including new runner Cedric, who just came round curious what Goodgym was all about.

With Beth checking to see if my welcome speech hit all the right notes we were off for our jog over to the Forest Recycling Project. Chatting away the 2 miles disappeared and we met up with Nilesh, who had just the right amount of things waiting for our team. Maja, Sabina, Matt & Cedric went upstairs to help Sarah-Jane and continue with sorting & cleaning the toys, which apparently included steam cleaning a fluffy pink bunny! The remaining 2 went back down to the familiar painting department, with Beth tackling some doors & myself painting the toilet room floors. All too quickly the clock sped past 8pm, meaning it was time to say our goodbyes and make our way back.

Returning to Wanstead House we stretched some stiff muscles before parting company, tired but happy with a job well done!

Next week we once again will be doing some good around Wanstead with James back in charge, exact details yet to be confirmed. Keep an eye out for more info and sign up here to join in.

Last but definitely not least, thanks for making my first time in charge a nice & smooth running experience!

Eight runners met up at the Queensbury for the short run down to Willesden Green's former police station-cum-community hub in the making to brush up on their painting skills.

We welcomed Lucas to his first GG run, and Simon who was out doing a bit of GG tourism for the evening - and seems to have bagged most of the boroughs already! They were joined by Simon H, Tabitha, Debbie, Coralie, Liz, and deputy run leader Claire, who all already had an idea of what was in store...

We were met by Colin with his usual bags of energy - despite claiming to be knackered, he still managed to get us all tooled up, find lights, find power sources for said lights, show us what to do, not trip on any cables, and all whilst regaling us with fantastic and incredible stories of parties to end all parties... and probably managed to apply more paint to walls than the eight of us put together!

We rolled up our sleeves and got out the rollers, brushes and trays and set to work to transform the indoor space into a symphony of white and orange - seriously, our painting and decorating talents are wasted in our day jobs!! We left, paint spattered but happy to see how the place is evolving, it is almost unrecognisable from our first visits here a few months back, especially the beautiful gardens. It gave us a warm glow inside to think that we had contributed a bit to this transformation. Inspirational!

A wee run back up the hill to the pub, with a few stretches, and off home to wash paint out of our hair, aaah....

Thanks everyone!!

What a brilliant evening last night. Thirteen awesome Goodgymers signed up to help Danson Youth Centre fight back their over grown bushes and hedges. As Danson Youth centre is just opposite our meet location we started running out up towards Welling then looping back to get in a nice 3K run in by the time we arrived at the youth centre. After a quick briefing on our tasks we split into two groups. One tackling the bushes on a walk way at the front and the rest of the crew tackling the leaves, hedges and planting boxes in the back gardens. What makes Bexley Goodgym evenings so awesome is the way everyone comes together to get the jobs done. The great conversations and laughs we all have, and the motivation from everyone when running in our group.

What makes Bexley Goodgym evenings so awesome is the way everyone comes together to get the jobs done. The great conversations and laughs we all have, and the motivation from everyone when running in our group.

So here is what we manage to do in such a short time. We cleared and cut back bushes that were impeding on a foot path. Clean up rubbish that had blown into the garden. Racked up a tone of leaves in the garden. Cut back bushes in the back gardens. Removed weeds and turned over the soil in two big plant boxes. The whole area basically looked brand new when we finished.

I want to welcome Deborah for joining us for the first time. i hope you enjoyed your evening, and hope to see you again next week. Big hi 5 to Neil for looking after the front runners this evening, and looking after the gang at the path tasks as i moved between the two. Much appreciated. I also but really don't want say a sad goodbye to Tanya who is moving to Brighton. Our loss is definitely going to be Brighton Goodgyms gain(look after here guys). Thanks so much for all the hard work you have put in over the months, its been a blast.

Tonights Bexley Goodgym Heroes were:- Tanya, Neil, Deborah, Sharine, Janine, Peter, Akay, Charlie, Lucy, Cheryl, Rose, Fiona and me.