That was a cold one!

...but that didn't deter 13 of us from lacing up, heading out and helping in our local community! We were also joined last night by 3 new runners, big welcome to Alex and Riya on their first ever GoodGym experience and a lovely warm welcome to Anwen who is the new trainer for Oxford which will be up and running early next year!

Starting with a whip around of names and favourite things to eat if we are doing a longer run (lots of your fueling on jelly babies!) on this very cold and wet evening we were in need of a warm up so we headed over to Haven Green to jump up and down and get ourselves moving! It was then just a short run up the hill to Hestia's Ealing accommodation site where we knew we'd be nice and warm for the duration of the task which this week was helping with some cleaning tasks around the facility.

Hestia provides housing support and empowers vulnerable people to enable them to make positive changes in their lives!

Sandra welcomed us to the site and split us up into groups doing a few cleaning tasks, this little bit of help we provide doesn't seem like much but it really helps free up the staff there and enables them to focus their energy on other areas of the organisation where it's needed most.

So a little bit of scrubbing here and there really does make a difference, what we do in half an hour could take one member of staff a full day, that's a whole lot of help!

With a lot of man power between us last night we got all the areas scrubbed up in no time at all which (much to some of the groups dismay) left us with lots of time for our planned hills session. Off to West Walk we went! For those of you who've been tortured by me here before you'll know this little path provides a great area to complete a hill sesssion! It's just steep enough to keep your efforts strong throughout, it's a little sheltered, well lit and pedestrianised, PERFECT for what we had planned this evening! Normally we'd run up fast and recover down but this week we mixed things up with power walking or light jogging up for the easier effort and pushing hard on the downs.

Every lit-HILL helps!

We aimed for between 4-6 reps each with everyone working hard at their own pace and despite the miserable weather we all battled through! Even those who didn't take part due to injury (there's a few of us a bit benched at the moment!) stayed and cheered on the other runners keeping everyone motivated to get the session done!

With warmth on the horizon it was just a quick jog back to the start for stretches and a debrief. Thank you all for coming out in that miserable weather and hopefully see you all again soon, I can't promise the weather will be any better (fingers crossed it's not worse!) but I can promise we'll be back at the same time next week doing some more good and getting fit!

We were a small team of 8 last night but we still made a big impact down on the waterway last night with The Canal & River Trust!

We started out the evening by talking about lots of exciting things that are happening at GoodGym Ealing:

• Shan & Tash have now joined the taskforce.
• We spoke about lots of exciting community missions on the horizon, with a few festive ones in the pipeline!
• And finally we also spoke about potential new partnerships I've been working on with Ealing Half Marathon on thier CIC arm and being able to do more in the community, watch this space!

A few warm up exercises while we discussed our favourite past GoodGym tasks and we were off in a new direction for the evenings tasks. Jack (fellow GoodGymer and Canal & River Trust extraordinaire) had identified a new section of canal for us to visit up by Hanger Lane that really needed some attention. We only had a few runners on board last night as a few of us made our way on wheels due to injury, but it was lovely to know that people are really dedicated to the volunteering aspect of GoodGym, so much so they will come even when they aren't able to run!

After a little safety briefing, high vising up and arming ourselves with pickers we were ready to attack the can situation on the approach to the canal!

Modern life is rubbish...BUTT we CAN try to fix it!

We swept a hell of a lot of cigarette butts, cleared hundreds of cans, found a few pairs of discarded knickers and a bra(?!), so many crisp packets, a mystery parcel that turned out to be empty (throughly disappointing as we were hoping for gold) and so much more.

Our hope is that if we keep trying to improve the area eventually it will have an impact and make people think twice about littering in such a beautiful space!

We could have stayed all night but we'll be back in a few weeks to continue our good work and help support this charity in maintaining our canals!

Just a jog back (I think everyone was very excited to run DOWN west walk instead of up like we did on the way out), a few stretches focusing on calf muscles and we were done and dusted!

Thank you to everyone who came out for this rubbish task (pun intended!) and hopefully see you all next week when we'll be inside with The William Hobbayne Charity doing something slightly more glamorous! It's also Steph's 50th good deed and we'll be heading to the pub afterwards to celebrate, there will be cake so sign up now!

It was a chilly Halloween eve in Ealing last night but we didn’t let that deter us from running to do good at the wonderful Westcott Park Community Garden. It was our first time visiting the project and it was lovely to get involved with this brilliant space.

Welcome to Artin who joined us for the first time last night, he wasn’t afraid to get stuck straight and was a great asset to our task!

Heading towards North Acton we had a slightly longer run ahead of us last night so after a few introductions (and in the seasonal spirit a whip around of our favourite pumpkin recipes!) we headed straight out to get going on the jobs that local volunteer Asha had waiting for us upon arrival.

Better crate than never…

Disaster nearly stuck as we arrived at the garden gates to find a locked up site and no sign of Asha but thankfully after a few minutes she arrived eager to get us going on some tasks to transform some disused wooden pallets into planters ready for a group of children to fill with flowers the next day.

It was lovely to hear all about what happens at the space from Asha and how it really benefits the local residents and the community in the area

A beautiful space built from derelict housing land, Westcott Park Community Garden is used for gardening sessions, regular school visits, to deliver training courses and practical workshops and for the training of beekeepers.

Everyone played a strong role in getting our task done last night as there was lots to do, we had hammering, cutting and preparing the lining, nailing and stapling. The end result was three glorious pallet planters ready to be filled with beautiful plants! Such a great thing to come and do!

Pass the pumpkin!

After working in the cold for 40 minutes we were all raring to get moving and get warm again so it was a quick run back to base before ending the evening with my pass the pumpkin fitness session! We got a few strange looks as everyone completed a set of pumpkin squat and presses! Those who completed it were rewarded with a toffee apple treat!

Best outfit last night went to Steph who came in a full cape and made a special effort for halloween and her 49th good deed, that 50 t-shirt awaits!

See you all next time!

15 Runners came out to sow broad beans, run 6km and talk about mental health on a mild autumnal night in Ealing!

This week's group run was a #RunandTalk special and we kicked things off by talking a bit about the campaign and trying to break down the stigma around mental health. Myself and Larissa both started proceedings by explaining how running and socialising through exercise has helped benefit our mental health in the past few years and then we went around the rest of the group talking about the different reasons we run. So many for us said we run for headspace, to relive stress and to take the time for ourselves as well as socialising and being part of a group. It was great to hear all the positive reasons we run and come to GoodGym and we all agreed we ALWAYS felt better for getting out there for a run!

'I feel really bad after that run...' Said no-one ever!

And with that in mind we were off to meet Rosie from Cultivate London down at the DIG site for Mencap in Hanwell. This week we were working on a new plot doing a bit of weeding and planting up lots of broadbeans, October is the perfect time to sow these and hopefully they'll be ready next spring and we can come back and see our handy work! Working in rows we planted the seeds a foots width apart to give them space to grow with some of the group tidying up the weeds in between.

Grow grow grow your beans, gently via the beam...

We had lots of head torches of the go last night so working under the beams we managed to get the full plot sown in just over half an hour between us, great work everyone!

A few special mentions last night:

• Thank you to Larissa for her help with leading the discussions about the #RunandTalk campaign, I find her openness about mental health inspiring and I'm so happy to have her as part of our team, read her piece from earlier this year here.
• Michelle completed her 25th good deed with us last night, half way to that ninja tee!
• And finally Steph is 2 deeds away from 50, we hope to be celebrating her 50th good deed at our November social which will also be another bake off special to coincide with the finale of the show!

Happy Running!

12 runners met to drop charity bags and volunteering leaflets to the houses near to SCOPE charity shop in Acton!

We had two new GoodGymers with us last night, big welcome to Hannah and Jelena who both got straight into the GoodGym vibe and brought cake and biscuits along to their first run with us! Every first Tuesday of the month we have our GoodGym Ealing social and head to a nearby pub after the run and task and this week in honour of The Great British Bake Off being back on our screens we had a cook off of our own and encouraged everyone to bring down a treat for the group to try!

With this in mind we were all keen to get going and get back for those tasty treats so after a quick name check and whip around of favourite cakes (well what other question could we have this week?!) we were off! Thank you to Chris who was backmarking for us this week as he was in need of a recovery pace after his amazing half marathon PB on Sunday!

We’ve got this one in the bag!

With a big bag of donation collection sacks to deliver and a handful of leaflets about how you can get involved with volunteering at SCOPE we headed east towards Acton. Upon arrival in the vicinity of the shop we split into pairs each taking a road and delivering our bundles as quickly as possible!

In no time at all we were done and met back up for a jog up to Ealing common for a fitness session to really earn those cakes!

A core partnership!

We did a mix of partner core exercises with lots of planking, sit ups and burpees. Everyone did really well even if we did have a couple of fallers during the back to back wall sit, it's a toughie! All suitably puffed out we headed back to base for a few stretches before collecting up our cakes and heading to the watering hole!

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for... Who would be star baker?!

• Steph made a delicious vegan blueberry and banana loaf which she thought everyone wouldn't like but we all thought was delicious!
• Jelena brought lots of cookies along which I'm sure were finished up in offices around London this morning!
• Tash bought a lovely chocolate cake, lovingly hand finished with smarties
• I made vegan chocolate and beetroot cupcakes (which were much nicer once we scrapped off the excess frosting!)
• Hannah made a lovely peach and apricot bakewell tart cake
• Lauriane didn't make the group run as she was resting after her first half marathon on Sunday but she made a lovely french chocolate concrete cake
• And finally although we're all winners Jenni made an all round favourite of carrot cake and I think takes the crown this time round!

Happy 50th good deed to Alex!

Finally just to finish by saying congratualtions to Alex who completed her 50th good deed on Saturday and it was lovely to celebrate with her surrounded by cake!