It was an epic showdown last night, when GoodGym Hounslow came up against (possibly) the world's biggest pile of woodchip...

But first it was a run down on the week's news, including an update on our fabulous new GG Hounslow flag (thank you clever Amanda!) and our invitation by the Red Cross for reduced entry to the Royal Parks Half in October - let me know if you want to enter as part of a team and get a bargain deal on your place.

Our warm up last night was as public as always, and involved high skips, lunges, the ever-popular grapevine, high knees and heel flicks. With our muscles primed and ready to go, we headed off for our task, which was just over a mile away.

It was all going so well and we were running at a nice pace when those pesky trains conspired against us again, and we were held up at the red lights while not one but two trains took their sweet time to pass. We made the most of it though, as, much to our fellow pedestrians amusement, we knocked out a few wall sits and one legged squats.

Chippin' away at it

Soon we arrived at our task, which was for the amazing Cultivate London. This organisation is an innovative urban farm and social enterprise based across multiple derelict sites in West London. They train unemployed young people in landscaping and horticulture, and work to engage the community in food growing. They also aim to have a long term impact on the lives of young people and change the way Londoners think about their fresh produce and where it comes from. So we're only too happy to help with any jobs they have for us!

And last night's was a biggie. There stood before us the biggest pile of woodchip that ever was, and our task was to bag as much of it up ready to be spread as we possibly could in half an hour. Pairing up with one bagger and one spader per team, we got stuck straight in after taking our prerequisite 'before' shot.

Half an hour of furious shoveling, shifting and one hell of an upper body workout later, we had managed to fill a colossal 120 bags of woodchip! Nice one team. We'll be back later in July to finish the job.

Short circuits

Back to Turnham Green, we were again help up by the train, but after an intense task, we were ready for a little breather. But not for long! For tonight's fitness was circuits with a difference. The length of time for each station was determined by the control group, who had to knock out 40 jumping jacks and a sprint before we could all move on. Each station did have three options based on growing intensity though, so there was a choice on how hard to work. Great to see you guys giving it your all with the harder options!

All that was left was a good old stretch, and of course a trip to the pub for the arts and craft section of the evening. Next week we have a fabulous new task for the Rhythms of Life charity, which provides healthy and nutritious meals, as well as toiletries, clothing and sleeping bags to London’s homeless. We'll be working in their local foodbank, sorting out supplies - this is a task that we can make a real difference with, so sign up here for more doing good and getting fit!

ps This week's excellent punspiration comes courtesy of Jennifer!

When National Volunteering Week and Global Running Day converge on a sunny Hounslow group run Wednesday, we have reached peak GoodGym.

We had a great task to celebrate, and some lovely new faces to welcome to the team. Please give a massive cheer to Eva, Emma and Sam who all joined us for their very first group run.

Before we left for our job, we had a quick run down of news and achievements. It's been a good week for Andy who not only got a new 5k PB but also achieved a 12 month mission streak - that means he has not missed one single month without doing at least one good turn for an elderly or isolated person, and that is something to be applauded! Well done Andy.

Don't forget that if you'd like to hear about all the good stuff that has been happening across all the GoodGym areas then come along to the social tonight at 18:30 in Farringdon. All details are here - would be great to see you there. But if you fancy a challenge (and some free drinks apparently!) head down to Richmond where there will be a GoodGym team competing in a massive tug of war. So much good stuff happening!

Our task tonight was for the amazing Whale Organisation, a charity whose mission is to lead us to a more sustainable future, promoting connection to nature through sports, the arts and craft. They are working on a Source2Sea project and needed some help cleaning up the shoreline of the Thames and asked us to help them out with a big running clear up. However, our projected spot near Kew Bridge was - happily - looking fairly clear, so we had a last minute change to Hammersmith Bridge which was not looking so plastic-free. After a quick check with lovely Hammersmith & Fulham trainer Polly to see if was ok to work on our neighbours' turf, we had a 3.5k run ahead of us.

Before we left it was time for our increasingly public warm up. Our perfectly-executed squat jumps, twists and fast feet caught the attention of one tot, who gleefully joined in and, quite frankly, showed us all up with his great moves. Youngest GGer ever? While we warmed up our muscles, we also discussed what we'd do if we got given a million pounds and only half an hour to spend it. Most of us would book the heck out of a massive holiday straight away, there were some kind donations to charities, some even kinder offers to take us all to the pub, and Adam said he would buy much KFC (and then fritter the rest away...!)

With a beautiful evening stretching ahead of us, we set off for Hammersmith Bridge, making good time, and only stopping for some conditioning exercises along the way. We soon found Carolyn and the team from the Whale Organisation waiting for us on the slipway, with two sites to clear. While one begloved team set off five minutes further up the river to work on a polluted area, the other half got cracking on the first spot and started to pile loads of plastic and other rubbish into bags. While we worked the guys from the Whale Organisation told us about the amazing stuff they had been doing - in fact they had come straight from Parliament where they had been meeting with MPs to talk about their Source to Sea project. They have made a huge rafts out of plastic bottles they had pulled from the river and will be paddleboarding down the length of the Thames to raise awareness of the huge problem of plastic pollution in our waterways.

Half an hour later, we were posing for a photo with one of the rafts when who should walk by but Hugh Grant and Jeremy Paxman. We were so engrossed in our task that we missed them, but running under Hammersmith Bridge a few moments later we stopped in our tracks as the two of them passed above us. Unfortunately our brush with celebrity ended rather abruptly as their mate greeted us with a less than friendly hand gesture (SO un-GoodGym!) and walked quickly on. I guess he's not going to be our new GG Hounslow ambassador then!

We stopped off at Furnival Gardens to knock out a little fitness session which featured plank, squat, and side plank races and an extra abs blast led by Chi. Thanks Chi! With our major muscle groups worked hard, we ran the 3k back at a good pace and finished off the night with some stretches. Next week we are going back to a (very) local school to paint a massive wall, and need all the help we can get. Hope to see you there gang!