Lovely to see you all last night, GoodGym!

Wandsworth, please give a big cheer for our new runners last night. Hello to Alex, Laura and Caitlin - and welcome to the group!

News

It's BACK! The great GoodGym Tooting Common takeover. It's going to be massive (we hope), it's on 17th November and you can choose your role. Sign up here to get involved.

It's a sad goodbye to Tessa who is off for new adventures. Thanks for all your hard work Tessa, we'll miss you in Wandsworth!

In happier news, it's Tom's birthday today - why not give him a birthday cheer! Many happy returns Tom.

While you're there, wish the best of luck to Emily and to Helen and to everybody else racing in York this weekend. We're behind you every step of the way!

Weed did good

Last night we were back at a local school, but not in the garden we had been working in last week - instead, we had a series of jobs to do in a secret garden the children use to grow their own fruit and veg. This is an amazing space that gives the children the opportunity to learn about plants, and as research has shown the benefits on our health of spending time outside, the school believes that by giving them the chance to learn outside they will be healthy and happy.

So after a nippy jog down there, stopping for a few reverse lunges on the way, we arrived and split up into groups to tackle all the different stations. They included watering, weeding, composting and clearing and we cracked right on accompanied by music provided by Chi (thanks!). Half an hour of work later, we downed tools and made our way out of the lovely space, and after stopping for a quick photo, headed for Battersea Park for our fitness session.

Fast fit fun

We had a tough session last night in the park, starting with a pacing exercise that saw us pair up and vary between 50-90% work. We then divided up into groups and took on various conditioning and strengthening drills while one group acted as our running 'clock' . After that, we just had time for our weekly minute plank, before heading back to the BAC to stretch it out.

Next week we're just waiting on confirmation for our task, so keep an eye out here for all the details. See you then gang!

36 amazing runners, two huge tasks, one great Monday evening.

We started our run last night with a bumper week's worth of news. A big well done to Emma who smashed a hilly and warm Richmond 10k on Sunday, Frances, who ran the Rutland half, and to Helen who racked up a new 10k PB at the Richmond duathlon. What a great weekend of running.

A huge welcome to our lovely new faces, Liv, Kate, Alexandria, Eleanor and Ros. It's great to have you running with us - give 'em a cheer GoodGym!

As mentioned in the intro last night, we have a special buddy-up run happening on Thursday in conjunction within Ideal Flatmate. If you're looking for a new flatshare or the perfect flatmate, then come along to this run to meet others in the same position, and even to get a good deed in at the same time!

We also have a community mission coming up - you don't have to be DBS checked for this one, so if you fancy helping out the lovely Balham and Tooting Community Association put on their Fun Day, helping with jobs like serving tea and coffee and welcoming people, then sign up here - all proceeds from the day go to St George's Hospital, so you'll be doing some real good.

Double the Task, Double the Fun

It was a two tasker last night, and a special night as we celebrated newly qualified Chi leading his first run. Go Chi! So after a warm up, where we got our heart rates up and discussed our favourite sandwich fillings (cheese winning by a massive margin), we split ourselves up into two groups.

The first group was running down to Paul's Cancer Support Centre, a charity which offers support through alternative therapies, counselling and other services to people living with cancer. After a 2k run, we arrived to find two rooms that needed emptying to make room for more services. We got cracking, only to find that it was slightly more complicated than first anticipated. Not to be put off, while a few people played car tetris trying to get all the furniture in, others started dismantling a couple of massive tables that were two big to get through the door. We managed to sweet talk a lovely local bike superstore to take the furniture, saving the charity a trip to the dump, while Clare and Hanna got the tough job of putting the tables back together in their new home. Nice one team!

Meanwhile, Chi was leading the second group on a longer run down to Balham, where Kate, the secretary of the Tooting and Balham Community Association was waiting with 500 (!) leaflets ready for distribution ahead of the Fun Day this weekend. In a huge push, the group managed to cover 8 kms and got rid of all of the flyers. Was it the pumping music? Was it the challenge of getting rid of so many leaflets? Was it because it was Chi's first run as leader? Absolutely amazing work guys.

While group one finished off their shorter run with some gruelling hill sprints and the burpee challenge, group two polished off 8k and we arrived back at the BAC almost simultaneously. GoodGym win! Next week it's another two tasker (fingers crossed), so we need as many of you lovely people as possible - sign up here.

It's always brilliant to see so many lovely runners meeting up on a Monday ready to devote their evening to making Wandsworth a better place to live, and last night 37 excellent faces were eager to run 5k and lend a hand at two community spaces. And please give a special cheer to Claire and to Alice who came along for their first GoodGym experience last night - welcome to the gang!

A big well done to James and to Hanna who took on the Hampstead Heath Duathlon on Sunday, swimming all the ponds and pool, and running over 5k between each swim. Amazing stuff!

If you want to hear more of the incredible good deeds racing that the GoodGym crew across all areas has been up to in the last month, then come along to the social on Thursday. This month it is going to be in Hammersmith at the Rutland Arms pub. Everybody welcome!

Fitness First

We turned our session on its head last night - our task owner couldn't make it to meet us until later, so it was fitness first, doing good second as a one off. So after a warm up where we found out all the nice things that had happened to us over the weekend - booking wedding venues, dancing, lots of great meals, racing and puppies, puppies puppies - we set off for Battersea Park. A short run later, we kicked off the session with a couple of technical points. Important things to remember are:

Run as though you are falling forward slightly and by bringing your legs through quickly stops that

Your legs should mimic the movement of a cyclist

Your arms drive your cadence, not your legs

Next we moved on to a tough fitness session which saw us alternate between sprints and conditioning exercises such as planks, diamond press ups, sump squats and supermans. Is anybody feeling it today? ;)

Finishing up in the park we took a gentle run over to a local garden where we got stuck straight into the first task of shifting compost into raised beds, while the second group went over to the Venue - a community centre for local people that feeds the homeless and manages an amazing zero food wastage program. After half an hour cleaning windows, the kitchen and bathrooms, it was time to hit the hill on the way back to the BAC and to stretch it out.

Most of you will remember the huge fire that ravaged the grand hall of our beautiful meeting place, the BAC, in 2015. Well, the amazing news is that the Grand Hall is about to reopen and will be celebrating next Thursday. More details to come, but let's support and celebrate this wonderful place that is our home every week and allows us to go out and do our thing!

Next week we have a big run and a massive task. A local community association has asked us to come and help them plant 100 trees. It's a longer run - don't let that put you off because it's only half way in one go, and the good news is that there will be no fitness session! Sign up here to start your week off by making a huge difference in the local area.

Another Monday night in Wandsworth, another chance to meet up with some ace people, make a real difference in the community and to knock out a few planks.

And it was a extra special one because we celebrated the 50th good deed of one Ms Morag - that's a huge amount of doing good and commitment to others. Way to go!

Hannah, Karen, Zoe, Emily, Hannah and Charlotte all came for their first GoodGym run last night - people, give them a massive cheer!

Before our task tonight we popped outside to knock out a warm up which fired up our muscles and got us thinking about coordination and balance ahead of the run. We also did a quick poll to find out which object we simply could not live with out. It quickly became apparent that food and drink topped the list (with beer, wine, cheese and peanut butter the hot favs) and as well as our indispensable phone, Helen's hugs, and trainers, we had a very sweet moment from one corner of the group who decided they could not manage without eachother. Ahh!

Our job tonight was at Bramford Community Garden, which is managed by volunteers and especially Sha - a tireless lady who can often be found gardening into the night with the aid of a headtorch in order to make the garden a nice place for everybody to be. So, after a 2.5 km run down there we found her waiting for us with gloves and a list of jobs.

While a big group got stuck into picking up the many, many cigarette butts (non-biodegradable!) and scraps of plastic around the garden, a few people used troughs to fetch water from across the road for the desperate trees and plants. Other jobs included crushing cans for recycling - universally agreed to be a great stress reliever and perfect for a Monday!

After half an hour of hard work, we got stuck into our fitness session, which last night focussed on conditioning exercises for three main parts of our body - arms, legs and core. Many press ups, plié squats, planks and bridge lifts later we left the garden behind and made our way back to the BAC. Great work everybody!

Next week is a bank holiday, but we will still be running to a local rooftop garden. What better way to spend it?! Sign up here to do good and get fit on your day off [https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/lending-a-hand-at-rooftop-community-garden]!