Another glorious evening with the perfect combination of bright and sunny but not too warm for our Goodgym run, and we were returning to one of our favourite tasks for Colchester in Bloom up on Bergholt Road Allotments.

17 merry runners joined us, including Sue and Ian. There was the usual chatter in advance of the run, and we congratulated Chris for his first Marathon, Ian, Nicola and Hannah for their Alton Water 10kms, all under the hour, and Tav and Fay for completing their Leadership in Running Fitness Course.

We made our way to Bergholt road, though we did confuse Fay as backmarker when we circled back to bring the group together - clearly they're teaching something different on LiRF these days! Then we made a snake up Bergholt Road to finally arrive at the allotment.

This task was hard. The soil was really hard, and our task was to break it up and turn it over to create a bed for plants - we had 2 examples that had been completed by the Gurkha's the previous day - and we weren't to feel bad that they had managed this well when most of them were over 70. Almost everybody had a go at using the pick-axe, and we learnt the importance of bringing your hips into play to generate the power needed to break the soil up. And I even taught some of the runners what my dad taught be about using a fork to break down and turn over soil, by jumping on it to get it further into the ground to create more leverage.

As well as creating a new plant bed, a shed was built, and hundreds of bulbs were sorted. A really great array of things in 30 minutes, and as always Pam showed her appreciation by asking us back - we'll be doing another task for Colchester in Bloom next week, but she asked if we could come back every Wednesday!

After the task we got on with our impromptu social at the Bricklayers - a very last minute arrangement, but we will have our proper social next Wednesday, so please let Emily know if you'll be coming so she can book a table.

See you next week!

Four of us paid another visit to Ealing Road Baptist Church last night. After a 2.5k jog we met with Roger outside the premises who was wearing a new hat and explained how his wife often hides the hats of his that she doesn't like. I don't know why I included this in the report, it just seems funny :-D

So, to work...

Graham and Alicia set about emptying two large cupboards of various tinned food, packets of pasta, biscuits, tea, a dodgy perfume set and some strange biscuit/cream cheese combination that looked a bit scary.

While at the same time Andy and Simon carried some chairs upstairs and then organised a bookshelf.

As usual we got loads done in a short space of time and had a little while for Roger to offer us various items of food that were unsuitable for the food bank, such as out-of-date mince pies, which we sampled for a bit of fuelling for the journey back.

On the way home we stopped for a mini "leg-buster" challenge. A short lunge walk, followed by five squat jumps up and down a kerb and then repeat twice more. Gets you to just about the point where you don't want to walk any more. Ow.

That's it, I'm off now. Thanks for having me GoodGym Hounslow. It has been great fun and I'll see you at Gunnersbury parkrun on the 4th March

Ana from Wandsworth is taking over next week. Sign up here

Simon

Three of us were keen to do a nice long run over to The Bridgelink Centre in Isleworth this evening. Joining regulars Simon and Andy was Matthew from Wandsworth doing a spot of tourism and in the mood for getting a few miles in the legs.

We worked our way through the streets, chatting about running, and counting down the kilometres, occasionally mentioning that none of us knew where we were or had been in this area before.

And finally we made it. We went in the centre to find Kevin, the caretaker, who we'd been told had lots of jobs for us. Except.... he didn't :( Nope, apparently there was a bit of raking to do earlier on, but somebody had already done it.

Any window cleaning? Sweeping? Tidying up? Nope, 'fraid not. Any leaflets we could drop off on the way back? Nope, 'fraid not.

So, we had a tour of the centre, a glass of water and then headed back.

This time our attention turned to food, which is unsurprisingly quite a common topic for runners on longer runs. And what are our favourite post-run foods? Porridge and Peanut Butter for Matthew, Peanut Butter and Jam on Toast for Simon and Jacket Potato with Tuna and Sweetcorn for Andy.

Why not all three?

We are doing a shorter run of 2.5k to Ealing Road Baptist Church next week where there will definitely be a task and there's loads for us to do, and where Roger (former chef) has promised to cook us up some takeaway food. The last batch was delicious.

So, get down, get fit and get fed.

See you there,
Simon