With 44 runners ready to run to an amazing community café, we kicked off the week good and proper last night.

We had some great parkrunning over the weekend from the Wandsworth troops - don't forget to wear your tshirt if you're heading to a parkrun this weekend, and you'll be almost guaranteed to find another GG buddy there!

Nicola, Flora, Chris, Matt, Olivia and Martynas all came for their very first GoodGym group run and for that they deserve a massive cheer. Well done!

Before our run down to Caius House, an amazing community youth centre, we had a warm up outside the rapidly refurbishing BAC. After getting our heart rates up, we asked everybody to tell the group one nice thing they planned to do this week. From treating friends to meals, to ringing elderly relatives, to making a cup of tea for flatmates and baking cakes, you lovely lot have a week full of kindness ahead of you.

With a shortish run we set off down the hill, and it really is heartwarming to see the general public's reactions to the sight of almost 50 runners streaming through the streets of Wandsworth on their way to do good. We soon arrived and met Aisling from the Grub Club waiting for us with a list of jobs.

There were lots of painting jobs to do, so we split into teams to tackle furniture, walls and those lovely murals, while one massive group set about giving the kitchen a huge clean ready for the café's upcoming inspection ahead of the big opening. The Grub Club will run free after-school cooking courses for disadvantaged families who wish to improve their cooking skills, confidence and knowledge, and we've been helping them set up this brilliant initiative for a little while now. With the opening in sight, Aisling has promised us an invitation, so watch this space!

With all the jobs done, we enjoyed the watermelon and cola bottles that the Grub Club had laid out as a reward, and headed off for a nearby park for a quick fitness session. Dividing up into small groups we took it in turns doing sprints and thinking up fiendish exercises for the rest of the group to do. After that we nailed a little abs blast featuring a variety of planks, before heading back up that hill to the BAC.

Great job everybody! Next week we have a massive community garden to help out - sign up here.

The past two years have flown by in a blur of gardening, painting, human chains, cleaning, sanding and many, many squats. Last night we celebrated our second birthday in Wandsworth!

In this time we have done a colossal

3707 good deeds

184 jobs for older people

62 runs to our coaches

37 413 kms run in the process

That is pretty inspiring stuff!

It was a first group run for a some lovely people. Put your hands together and give a huge cheer for Alice, Emily, Alex, Isabelle, Rebecca, and Emma!

A huge shout out to Anil who reached a very special milestone last night, having clocked up a massive 50 deeds. Next time you see him in his black 50 tshirt, give him a high five for all the good he's done! A special mention should be given to Matthew who has not missed one single Wandsworth group run since we very first began. Way to go!

It was also lovely to have some great GG tourism from Lewisham, Hounslow, Westminster, Haringey and Lambeth - great to see you all!

Our task last night was a very well timed one given the ongoing heat. We had been asked by Leonard Cheshire, a fantastic organisation in Battersea that supports disabled people, to come and wash their fleet of mobility buses. So after a nice steady mile run down, we arrived to find buckets and sponges and a list of jobs to do.

While half the group got started getting those buses squeaky clean, and themselves a little dirtier, two other sets of runners got stuck into sorting out the garden and washing windows respectively. Forty minutes later, the place was looking much tidier, and we could see our hot and sweaty faces in the shining buses! Setting off for the park we were even 'treated' to a surprise watery ambush by Chi and Andrew from behind the fence. Naughty!

After a little jog over to the park, we eschewed the usual fitness session for a series of party games that still managed to get our hearts pounding. There was some excellent action from the ladies in the biggest British Bulldog game of all time, so amazing super strong Planking lions, and a semi successful game of Blob Tag.

All that was left was a run back to base, a good stretch and then to head over to the common to celebrate our birthday with a special Wandsworth picnic. There were laughs, there was cake, there were party poppers and hats!

Here's to you, GoodGym Wandsworth, for making our borough proud and putting so much into doing good. Happy birthday!

ps our special birthday video will be making an appearance on twitter and facebook, so keep an eye out for it!

OK, Wimbledon is over, the football is done and the hot weather continues - the rest of summer is all about running!

We had a minor set back yesterday with our task being cancelled thanks to the hot weather and a bit of a drought, so there was no splashing about washing mobility buses for us. But we had another lovely task lined up at the local Omnibus theatre, just over a mile away.

It was lovely to have some new runners join us for the first time. Let's give a massive Wandsworth welcome to Arabella and Laura who came on their very first group run last night.

We also did some cheering for those who ran the British 10k on Sunday, like new PB-holder Emily, and those who gave up their time to volunteer there like Madison and Matthew - way to go gang!

There was also some very exciting news that GoodGym is going to join Monty Don and his lovely dogs on the inimitable Gardeners' World. NO WAY. Way. Keep your diaries free on the 1st August to appear on this iconic program, represent GoodGym and have a jolly fun evening out. More details and timings coming soon.

After a warm up outside, we discussed where we would choose to be if we weren't at GoodGym. The themes of the night were Love Island, the beach, watching Gardeners' World and, predictably, the pub.

With that decided, it was off to our task for the night, which was at the Omnibus Theatre. This amazing place was saved from closure by local people, and now keeps its doors open as a charity thanks to donations and volunteers. It offers loads of programmes and workshops to local communities, and is a really valuable resource in Wandsworth.

Our jobs last night were varied - washing windows inside and out, sanding down and painting tables and benches, and giving the theatre a good old clean. Dividing up into teams, we got straight in and with half an hour of elbow grease, Seb, who manages the place, had a massive smile on his face and let us know what a difference the hard work had made.

Waving goodbye to Seb and the theatre, we headed off for a very dry and yellow Clapham Common where we smashed out a tough circuits session, with two options at each station. You guys really worked hard, choosing the tougher of each. Thanks to those who gave up their shoes to weigh down the flimsy pieces of paper!

With only just over half a mile to run back to our start location, we took it at a nice clip, and arrived back sweaty, happy and having worked hard! For more of the same next week, sign up here!

With the sun out, a great task ahead of us, and some lovely new runners, last night GoodGym really found its happy pace!

Team, show some Wandsworth love to Elle, Timothy, Oli, Matthew, Stephanie, Madison and Beth!

After our weekly round up, which featured a round of applause for Morag, Chris and Paul (in absentia) for some great racing over the weekend in London and Swansea and a reminder that the Goodgym Olympics is THIS SATURDAY! Have a look here for all the details and do come along to cheer on the Wandsworth team and for the social afterwards even if you're not competing!

It was hot, hot, hot last night, but we still needed to warm up our muscles ready for the 6k run ahead of us, so we headed outside to begin with lunges, squats, fast feet and other dynamic exercises. With our heart rates up, we were ready to head to our task, but not before finding out everybody's worst habit. Now, there were several of us who are terrible at time management, one naughty tupperware misuser, those who constantly hit snooze and don't empty the bins on time, but by far and away our biggest collective bad habit is biting our nails! If that's as bad as it gets, I think we're alright, Wandsworth.

Our task tonight was at the beautiful Paradise cooperative garden, right opposite Wandsworth prison. This once abandoned piece of land was taken over by a charitable organisation, and the hard work of their volunteers has transformed it into a beautiful small-holding including an orchard, poly-tunnels, raised vegetable beds, a fish-pond, bush-craft area and community celebration area with pizza oven and running water. The place is much loved by the community but relies on volunteers to keep it running, which is where we came in.

It was a warm and sunny run to the site, and we stopped along the way to knock out a few wall sits and one legged squats. Once we arrived we split up into three groups to tackle the list of jobs. While the first team started immediately on spreading the wood chip all over the pathways, the second took on the massive watering job on the beautiful raised beds. The third group's job was to weed all the areas around the plants, and just half an hour later the place looked so much tidier, well-hydrated and re-chipped.

After a little jog over to the common we started on our short but not-so-sweet fitness session. Our pyramid workout involved doing a series of different exercises in decreasing reps until we reached one sprint, before having a little breather and working our way back up again. Short bursts of high energy like this is great for increasing our aerobic capacity and burning calories.

We finished off the evening with a nice steady run back home (downhill until that last stretch) ending up hot, sweaty but having worked hard both for ourselves and our local community. Way to go! Sign up here for next week's run when we'll be lending a hand in Battersea Library's outside area.

What a way to kick off National Volunteering Week, with a massive 42 runners meeting up to sprinkle some good over Wandsworth - covering 6k and a knocking out a core blast in the process!

We had some excellent new faces join us for the first time this week. Please put your hands together and give a massive welcome to Tom, Chris, Gaby, Rhoanna, Chris and Katie! Also lovely to see Catriona from Hammersmith doing a nice bit of GG tourism at her first Wandsworth group run.

Well done to all those amazing people, including Beth, Helen, Jessie, Paul and Luke who turned up for their second run of the day, after going to the Mayor's Run to Do Good at City Hall earlier that day. Nice work!

Also don't forget that we have the monthly GoodGym social on Thursday in Farringdon - your chance to catch up on all the GG news, meet up with other GGers and see who won that all important Pun of the Month. And there's no need to wear your kit!

After all that cheering and news, we headed outside to do our warm up, increasing the level of work incrementally until we were breathing more heavily and our heart rates were up. We had a quick discussion on our fav films - Gladiator, Bridget Jones and even the Lion King all got a mention, before setting off to our task with Helen and Emily kindly backmarking.

Three kilometres later we arrived at the Rose Community Clubroom, a lovely community centre for local residents - and with a beaut view of the power station. It hosts music lessons for local kids, is home to a choir and other groups, and even has an outside pizza oven and barbeque which the neighbours can use. Waiting for us with brooms and cleaning equipment was Glenn, who manages the place, and we soon got into cleaning, weeding, sorting and shifting rubbish and outside furniture. Half an hour later the place was looking great, and we were rewarded with chocolate treats and water. Lucky us! Waving goodbye to Glenn we set off for a short run to the beautiful Battersea Park for our workout.

We started our fitness session with a plank race which engaged our cores to the max, before moving on to some tough but effective conditioning exercises including side planks switches, frog jumps, low squats and wide leg jumps. Then Chi took over for a serious abs blast designed to give us a core of steel. It featured scissor kicks, leg holds and ankle touches and put us all through our paces. Thanks Chi!

With a 3k run still ahead of us we set off back to the BAC, taking on that last hill with some real power. Next week we have got a cracking task finishing off the decorating of a lovely community café in a Wandsworth youth centre - you can sign up for it here. Expect more fun, more fitness and a lovely sense of having done some real good. Well done team!