One big task, seven excellent runners, 180 seconds of plank and six confusing maps!

It all began at Chiswick Town Hall, as shown by the GoodGym poster on the wall which has categorically never covered any other poster on the noticeboard. Just saying.

You've been dong some great running this week, Hounslow. A big well done to Adam who has been notching up the runs, with a new parkrun PB on Saturday. Must be the beetroot bread! A hat tip too to Jo and Andy who are sailing through the good deeds. Don't forget that we might have our first 50th good deed to celebrate next Wednesday, so stick around after the run for a little fun to mark this great milestone.

This week's task was leafleting for Waterman's Art Centre. Not everybody's favourite task, but a very useful one for the charity. This weekend is the centre's River Weekender - a festival inspired for the river packed with free events for the whole community. Our job was to spread the word in the local area, and it began, as all good things do, with a run.

After a quick warm up featuring a rather natty side hop ("isn't this just...running?"), we set off on the 2k run down to Waterman's. But not before finding out our favourite condiments! There was no stand out winner this week, but ketchup, Lea & Perrins (other brands are available), dijon mustard, mint sauce (from the veggie), pepper, chutney and BBQ were all contenders. Lovely stuff.

A nice speedy run later we arrived at reception to be presented with a bulging trolley full of leaflets and a series of highlighted maps. Cue several minutes of trying to figure out what to do next ("isn't this the same map? Turn it upside down. No, the other way"). We soon cracked it though, and split up into groups to start putting leaflets through doors, into hands, pubs and travelodges before meeting up towards the end of the run to smash out a few door to door sprints.

We finished on a bit of a high after having delivered countless leaflets and enjoying a nice stretch when we were brought up short by the angriest flamenco teacher in town. No we didn't move your poster, mister. Still, we had the plank off to make us feel better, and what a plank off it was. The seconds ticked by and everybody was going strong - who was going to emerge victorious? Some great work from everybody, but this week the crown goes to Andy with an impressive 2 min 37 plank. Wowzer!

Next week it's going to be all sorts of fun planting bulbs and hopefully we'll have something to celebrate too. Sign up here for your Wednesday dose of goodness and fitness!

It was looking pretty grim all day, but as soon as we all met at Chiswick Town Hall for our run last night, the skies brightened for us and we were treated to a beautiful sunset as we did our task. The sun always shines on GoodGym runs!*

We started off by giving the amazing Remy a big old pat on the back for absolutely smashing the Aberdeen half marathon at the weekend with her fastest time this year. She's a machine! Well done also to Dave for taking on Gunnersbury parkrun last weekend. Incredibly, this Saturday will be Dave's 150th parkrun, so if you see him crossing the line, make sure you give him a massive GoodGym cheer!

Welcome also to our lovely GG visitors Jordan, Amy and Matthew - lovely to have you with us.

What's your favourite curry? In anticipation of our social after the run last night, we found out everybody's fav before we set off. Rogan josh, tikki masala, dhansak and caulifower curry were all winners. Who's hungry?

The root of the problem

Outside the town hall we met up with local Jan, who organises the wild flower meadow and the rockery in Turnham Green. She provided us with gloves and tools, and we got stuck in clearing the thistles and mugwort that we didn't manage to blitz last week. It was tough work, for they are thorny little pests, but after double-gloving and giving it some serious elbow grease, at the end of 40 minutes we had a huge wall of weeds of which we were proud.

Thistle never end

We warmed up for our fitness session with a few rounds of knee fencing, fish and chips, and clusters - with varying successes. It did the job though, so with our heart rates up, we got stuck into our technical exercises. To improve our running style, helping to prevent injuries and increase efficiency, we went though a series of sprints focusing each time on a different aspect of form. These included thinking about low shoulders and high chests, knee raise, positive backwards arm drive and foot placement. To put it all into practice, we finished off with a pyramid interval session which saw some great running from the team.

The trouble with tribbles

After all that hard work, there was only one thing left - our curry social! But hold on a minute, half the group wants to run the two miles to the restaurant? Amazing stuff! You lot can't get enough of running. Not long after, we all met up at Waterman's art centre, where we had a lovely evening stuffing our faces. Hounslow, you rule. Sign up next week for more GG fun.

*metaphorically