It was party night in Hounslow yesterday as we celebrated three whole years of doing good and getting fitter.

In that time we have planted trees, painted scout huts, picked plastic along the river, learnt how to prune roses, shifted several tonnes of soil, dug flower beds, weeded (and weeded and weeded), delivered leaflets and litter picked. In some of our stranger tasks we have even transported bamboo across Chiswick, washed baptismal pools, cleaned murals and dug in the snow!

Over three years you amazing people have clocked up a whopping

1772 good deeds!

We've also run countless miles, entered races, finished first marathons, done many parks runs, got PBs over all the distances, and gone to the pub together a lot. Perhaps most importantly, we've made new friends.  Here's to the next three years and all we'll achieve at GoodGym Hounslow!

We started off the celebrations with sweets, party hats, balloons and congratulations to Andy and to Mikaela for a 5km and half marathon PB respectively. Brilliant running. 

After our birthday themed warm up, we discussed what we'd most like for our next birthday as a present. Some were more attainable than others, from chocolate and wine, to a brewery, time machine and summer.

Our task for the night was at a local school that are creating a green wall to protect the children from the air pollution which is a real problem in the area. So we set off at a good pace, and arrived after a few pit stops for tricep dips and squats, to find Kate, a member of the PTA, and headteacher Debra waiting for us.

We got straight to work weeding and clearing the borders ready for the trees, and got the job done in no time at all - next week we're back at the same place to plant the 25 hawthorns and spread wood chip. Sign up here to get involved.

After a run back to base it was time for a birthday party themed fitness session. We started off with Over and Under, which the aptly named Team Winner won, then moved onto Squat Squat Goose which saw some suspect moves, followed by Planking Lions (with a fantastic show of strength from Alan, Naveed and Alex), and finishing off with Stuck in the Mud.

Happy Birthday GoodGym Hounslow!

After a weekend of incredible racing where humans ran faster than ever before, we celebrated our own GG talent...

• Well done to our runners who did the Oxford Half, the Cabbage Patch 10 and the start of cross-country season!

After a quick warm up where we warmed up our muscles and tested our coordination, we just had time to tell the group what one word our friends would use to describe us. Bossy, tall, short, awkward and um....indecisive. You all missed out brilliant.

Our task last night was for Brentford Residents Association, an organisation set up after Grenfell to improve the lives of people living in the tower blocks in the area.

We set off a nice clip, stopping for a few one legged squats on the way. Myra was waiting for us with lots of spades and wheelbarrows and a massive tonne bag of soil to shift.

Dividing into three groups, shovellers, spreaders and barrowers, we got started on the shifting, while Alan and Jen worked on the woodchip in the very pretty area. The garden is looking pretty great following our last visit a few weeks ago, and is a really lovely place for local people who might not have access to a garden to spend time.

Just over 30 minutes later all the soil was shifted, the spades were put away and we were ready for the off. We made such good time on our run back that we had just enough time for a tough speed session. This week we tackled tabata sprints - exactly the same concept as normal tabata but perfect for us runners! We alternated 20 second hard sprints with 10 second recovery, which means that we reached higher levels of intensity in shorter spurts in a really effective workout. Great work everybody!

A quick cool down and stretch and we were done - are you up for more next week? Hope so! We're off to a local school to lend a hand. See you then gang.

18 GoodGym'ers shaked, appled and rolled as they apple-y got stuck into a heap of jobs at the Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden

GoodGym H&F...the best way to conquer jet lag and post-holiday blues! Big thank you to Catriona for leading these past couple of weeks 😊. Despite the darker and colder evenings drawing in, tonight we were treated to a dry (rare as late!) evening for our run up to lend a hand at the Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden. With everyone ready and donning their GG tees we headed outside for our news round-up and warm-up...

A round of apple-lause for...

We started off the evening by first congratulating our very own ‘Speedy Jonzales’ Jonny Knight on his 50th good deed! 5️⃣0️⃣🙌🏼. A nice new black GG tee for you to speed around in will be coming your way!

The weekend saw lots of racing, very wet racing!...a big well done to Eloise, Matt and Steph who ran the Oxford Half, and to Tom and Jonny who ran the Cabbage Patch 10. Congratulations to Eloise on the PB!! 🙌🏼🥳

In other news...

1. Unofficial GG10 party 🔟🎉 - Friday 8th November at Topolski Bar on the Southbank. All the details are here.
2. 1. H&F Community Mission - Saturday 9th November at Wormholt Park. Please sign up here if you can lend a hand anytime between 11am-3pm.

Warming up to the core

Before we headed off on our run we began we some heel flicks, jumping jacks, and both mine and Johnny Wren's favourite, spotty dogs! With everyone nicely warmed up we headed off through the busy streets of Hammersmith up towards Shepherd’s Bush, pausing briefly for the beloved weekly wall sit en route.

Juiced in time!

We weaved our way around all the pedestrians and it wasn't long before we reached our destination for the evening, the Nubian Life Centre; and in perfect synchronisation, both Susannah and ourselves arrived within seconds of each other. The team gave Susannah a hand with all the equipment from her car as we all headed inside to the Josiah Briathwaite Community Garden.

The (apple) pressing jobs

The Josiah Briathwaite Community Garden is part of the Nubian Life Centre, which provides adult day care services for the Afro-Caribbean community with health issues such as Dementia and Alzheimer's. Susannah explained that the garden was full of colour so as to provide a high sensory element for those with dementia; the garden is also used by the elders at the Centre to grow food and provide a space for children to explore and find all the bugs!

Tonight we had a nice long list of tasks to be done that Susannah ran through with the group:

• Weeding of the patio and paths, using the favourite ‘deadly pointy weeding tool’ 🌱
• Sweeping of the patio and paths 🧹
• Tree pruning ✂️
• Raking leaves from the grass 🍂
• Wooden edging and stone rearrangement 📏
• Fixing up of the trellis 🔨
• Picking of apples 🍎

An 'in ciders' viewpoint

Jonny took on the ‘gram duties for the evening, capturing the team’s hard work and asking everyone ‘what does GoodGym mean to them'? - if you haven’t already, be quick to check out the stories on @goodgym_hf! Answers to the latter included friendship and community, and of course, biscuits! (no prizes for guessing whose answer this was!!). While Mo was on hand to take the 'smouldering' snaps for this week's vogue magazine...well the run report and the 'gram 📷.

Trellis again, how many GoodGym'ers are needed for the job?

In the age old question of 'how many GoodGym'ers does it take to put a trellis?' we confirmed tonight that it is in fact 5! Mo applied the final rotations of the screw to the trellis to ensure it could stand unaided and later tested out his handy work in a photoshoot of his own - you've got to know the face behind the camera after all!

Swept away by the appeel of ‘the deadly pointy weeding tool’!

With the 'deadly pointy weeding tool' in hand, Will ensured he weeded between the lines to eradicate the unwanted and unsightly weeds so they could be swept up easily.

Broom raiders, a cut above the rest!

Tom, Eloise, Matt, Johnny and Sarah armed themselves with brooms to sweep away all the up-ended weeds and leaves from both the patio and paths into neat piles so that Lucy, Arba and Naveed could ensure a clean sweep of them all with their trusty and effective dust pans and brushes.

As the others swept, Maddy eyed some bunting that needed to go, using a plastic chair to gain some leverage, and with no scissors in sight, secateurs provided her with the cutting ability needed to remove the tackled bunting!

Heart raker!

Bex and Alice got stuck into the raking of the grass, providing some top quality punning which raked my day as they got stuck into what they described as 'the great rake up!'...

With weeds and leaves being raked and swept up at an incredible pace, the garden was beginning to look nicely spruced up, you wouldn't have believed it was Autumn!

Rocking out

As Andrew finely pruned an overgrown tree, Steph and Sarah began 'rocking out' on the flower bed edging, working until the bitter last few seconds to ensure it was fully completed.

Core blimey!

With the time coming to call it a night, everyone finished up with their jobs and gathered in the tools. Susannah kindly offered everyone a reward for the fruits of their labour, apples fresh off the tree! With the lighting perfectly set, the team posed for a group photo, or two (well ten!) with their apples before getting stuck into them.

After some quick calculations, Susannah worked out that we'd saved her 9 hours of work tonight, and as there isn't the staff to do that much work she was incredibly appreciative of the teams hard work and efforts to get the entire list of jobs completed.

And they all lived apple-y ever after....with biscuits! 🍪

Once everyone had cruched their way through their apples we began our run back to base, and to the highlight of the evening, Lucy's scrabble biscuits, delicious and iced to perfection!

The perfect way to end a fun and successful evening. Amazing work as always! Arigatō chīmu! ❤️ Thank you for the lovely welcome back.

Next week we’re heading to Eloise’s workplace, John Betts Primary School to lend a hand with some painting and organising of their cupboards. Please sign up here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend!

Tonight, 18 brave runners turned up to help Petersham Common. Our task tonight was to move bundles of fencing from the bottom of the hill to the top, ready to be put in the ground tomorrow.

We started off the night with a fun and fast paced warm up on the green. Head-torches were necessary as it was already dark, but thankfully the rain held off.

We set off along the river on our run. As it was very wet & slippery, we hard to be sure of our footing but we soon got into a good rhythm with everyone chatting away as we ran. We passed by the 3 Pigeon Plot and noted the newly installed flowers. Then we headed to the bottom of Nightingale Lane. Most people battled their way to the top of this mega hill not once but twice, which is no mean feat! We were joined by a fellow runner doing sprints up the hill, so we gave him some encouragement too.

Thoroughly worn out after that, thankfully we didn’t have far to go to meet Ken at the task. He handed out orange hi-vis vests and showed us to the mountain of fencing bails. We were prepared for this though & keen to get on with it, we knew we had a big task ahead of us! We took the bails in pairs, making sure at least one of us had a head torch, and climbed the hill through the wooded pathways of Petersham Common, following Ken’s trail of hi-vis vests hanging in trees. Progress was slow and steady, with plenty of stops to adjust hand holds or swap arms. The bails were heavy & awkward plus the paths were dark, muddy & narrow, it really was a meaty task!

There was much discussion over technique, with some preferring the bails on shoulders or heads, others carrying them in their arms with one person walking backwards (impressive) or a simple one handed affair so long as you could get good purchase on a stake.

Each pair managed to make 2 trips to the top, with Emily marshalling us across the busy road. We didn’t manage to move them all but Ken still estimated we’d saved him a full days work- not bad team, not bad! I’m certain we’ll all be feeling it tomorrow :)

Well done to Harry on his second run & welcome to Charlie who joined GG Richmond for the first time, glad to have you with us tonight!