An intense summer sun accompanied by a soft breeze last night, dreamy conditions for an evening of goodwill over in East London. New runner member Gabriel, weighing in at ~ 5kg and with exceptional flexibility, came down with parents Victoria and Rich in toe. What a great surprise and we can't wait to have the new mother back, as and when you're ready. After much baby swooning, we warmed up and did our RWQ "If you could ban anything, what would it be?" Whilst we usually like to focus on the positives in our intro, there's no harm venturing into a more cathartic space. As always, we had variance in our answers. From spitting and snotting to short termist politics, tinny phone music on public transport to an outright ending of golf. People chewing gum loudly to cars overtaking too closely. Socks and sliders a big no-no, as was flip flops not being worn at the beach and also just generally wet feet (difficult one to ban, but start a petition, I'll sign it). Lots of very powerful emotions regarding feet, interesting.

Some real grunt work at the school, moving 5 tonnes of bark chip and laying 3 of them. Plus carrying numerous sleepers, a thick highly dense wood, over to the other side of the playground. We (surprisingly) got it all done, with just the 14 of us this week. Muchos kudos, everyone rolled up their sleeves and chipped in, pardon the pun. That was a lot of watts there people!

Once back at base, Ounie thoughtfully brought us some brownies, fluffier than a cumulus cloud and brimming with deep velvety cocoa. I'm not sure who started this baking at 50 deeds trend, but my oh my it's a good tradition. Ounie did a large number of her deeds back in the day in south london, but then returned, over to the east side. We're chuffed to have your energy and honoured that your big 5-0 was with us.

On the off chance you don't know, i'm helping organise the the fastest 10,000m race in europe this saturday - with my bro and my club. If you you were ever to come to a track race - this is the one. The only time I invite my non-running geeks mates. Gin bars, craft ales, fire dancers, DJ's in scissor lifts, pyrotechnics, live bands... get onto lane three in touching distance of the runners. This Saturday, hampstead heath track. It's worth coming even if track running ain't your bag. GoodGym are owning one 100m section. You don't have to volunteer, but if you want to chip, always appreciated, just be good to have y'all. sign up here

Have a wicked week and see you all this weekend or in 6 days

ps almost forgot, next task is Cody Dock and outdoor social after using their pizza oven. A couple of drinks and some alfresco dining awaits. Awesome it shall be. sign up here

B

Well that was a lovely eve. I'm going to just do a short report this week, I usually spend a disproportionately large chunk of my thursday morn writing it up, today I'm on a bit of a tighter schedule.

Hats off to Helen for the RWQ, she's good at them -"what sport would you put into the Olympics?" Netball, obstacle course race, cross country relays, 5-aside, GoodGym, Base jumping, computer games, eating competitions and much more. Seb Coe will be at The Night of The 10ks, July 6th, Parliament Hill. For the best race/event you've never been to (shameless plug) see you there.

We had a good old workout at the playground, with our mate Ange back in action, after a predictably awful thumb injury that ruled our visit out last month. You guy's dug, shovelled and forked with grit - turns out house foundations are quite solid, who knew.

Chi ever so kindly put the squad through one of his famous AB workouts, high intensity, great bang for buck. I was glad to slink into the background for once, as the big man took the reins.

Next week we need closer to 20 please team, as we're over at Newham Hospital, sign up here

Have a stunning weekend one and all

B

Yesterday's close knit clan used their Wednesday to rack up some easy conversational miles, help out a local school and do a little speed work to finish. Quality evening if you ask me.

A random weekly question this week that made us trawl through our previous GG experiences "what's your favourite GG task?" Throwing furniture off a stairwell came up several times, painting a shipping container at mobile garden city, a few keen on adventure playground's mulch workout, a couple of Cody Dock fans, some luckily liked the bench painting at the school (coming up) and we even had a non Newham task to mix it up, cue faux outrage!

With Paul away, Mark led us at the school, essentially painting, all pretty straightforward stuff - great headway made. Two benches finished very neatly, a couple of planters given another lick of paint and we commenced painting a shed for good measure. Effort!

The team dabbled in a bit of a speed session to finish, 5 reps with a roughly 2min recovery. Some of you went out fast and dug in. Others worked their way almost academically into the session, finishing with some monumental sprints. Both methods get a bravo, all about pushing harder than normal, creating a stimulus and having fun. Maybe tie that loop into one of your runs, and do a couple of fast laps when you fancy it?

Just another quick reminder that the GoodGym Olympics is under two months away, i'd love our awesome group and unique team spirit to be represented on the day. see details here there's a range of events from serious to downright silly and everything in between. Or just come down and have a drink and a cheer. Get it in the diary now guys 3rd August

I'll wrap up my ramblings now - see you next week squad, at Cody Dock, sign up here

Have a goody

B

Another stupendously sunny eve in Newham and our clan saw some solar based expansion, very useful for our trip to local primary school, Manorfield.

Post warm up, we did a run through of mentionable points. Welcoming new runner Hannah (wish i had a symmetrical name) all the way from Bromley! Doffing our caps to both Jades and Helen for their PB's at Hackney Half. Not to leave out Kevin and Shaz's epic cheering, how's that for being part of a team, eh? We also congratulated 50 deed runner Ruth, what a milestone, fantastic work Ruth.

Random Weekly Question was "what's your celebrity claim to fame?" Almost cycling into Keira Knightley, getting confused for the son of a King due to your surname, nearly getting into a scrap with Liam Gallagher, meeting the fabulous Joanna Lumley, seeing a Brazilian poet (yesterday), bumping into the Muse's main man, almost getting on Made In Chelsea but for a pesky bush, having a selfie with slam dunk hero Kobe Bryant plus a few others containing Dick & Dom and Ian Mckellen!

A simple paint and stain task at the school. Headteacher, Paul gave us a quick tour of the new nursery, it looks mightily impressive, your consistent efforts and fundraising was all part of that. You guys wasted no time in painting two benches and staining 4 planters, working with efficiency in your mini-teams. Cherry on the top was the recycling/re-use of brushes and rollers, a positive forward step from last session.

With everyone still looking fresh faced and a majestic dawn sky above, we all lay down in a lovely park and ploughed through some classic core exercises. No complaints this week, just quality execution and top effort, respect!

Ruth (and Dan) baked a gorgeous blueberry vegan-gluten free cake, the fruity delight was well received with impeccable decoration - bravo. Our favourite Junior Doctor and toast lover, been a joy to have your cheery nature along on 50 tasks and witness your progress over multiple running distances. Here's to more deeds and PB's.

Next week we go to Abbey Gardens, apparently there's a whole host of stuff to do, it's also our social, i'll see if we can do it in the gardens, picnic and drinks styleeeee Sign up

Thanks for a great Wednesday, till next week