Today was a pleasant sun-soaked Sunday, not what we have been used to of late. So, with no Storms in sight, 12 Goodgym runners took to the streets to do some good and get a bit fitter.

Today's task was back at Wales Millennium Centre where they were hosting a Community Banquet for International Women's Day. We hadn't been there since the first banquet that they did last year, this was such a success that they now plan on hosting them regularly each year.

Wales Millennium Centre's aim is to be a home for the arts in Wales, to fire imaginations by curating world-class, critically acclaimed touring productions, from musical theatre and comedy to dance, cabaret and an international festival. They work with emerging talents with fresh, provocative and popular pieces rooted in Welsh culture. And ignite a passion for the arts in young people with life-changing learning experiences and chances to shine in the spotlight.

Today is all about Inspirational Women and the local communities, over 200 invited people would be coming to the Centre for a banquet provided with the help of Oasis, another wonderful charity that gives a warm Welsh welcome for refugees and asylum seekers. There was a group that had worked hard to create the food, as well as their World Choir and drumming group who would be providing some of the entertainment.

The Centre staff would be playing hosts and serving the local communities with the Welsh based menu, before the entertainment from local community groups and choirs for the evening. The night will be completely free and in celebration of inspiring women.

It was a short run from town, and straight to work. 34 trestle tables, 204 chairs, plates, cutlery, elderflower presse, napkins and the menus were all ready to lay out. So, like busy ants we got to work, tables went out quickly followed by chairs and then groups began laying the tables. It was quick work whilst staff from the Centre chatted with Goodgym runners, getting to know each other.

Then it was time for the final job, people at the Centre and some local groups had been busy creating images of Women that inspire them, from family members to celebrities and Women through the ages. They had been hand designed on A4 transparent film and then finished in bright colours, our job was to thread and peg them onto lines which were going to be hung off the banister on the higher levels onto the lighting truss. The truss was raised back into a safe position, a few tweaks were made to the lines and it was time for our final photo. Gemma, who manages the community projects gave her thanks for how much had been achieved and our task was complete.

But wait.........there's a peg missing. Where's the peg????????

Can you spot all of the Oasis song titles? - There are quite a few!

It was wonderwall to see so many runners at GoodGym this evening. There were 22 in fact!

We gradually did our warm up this evening. progressively making the warm ups more active, little by little some might say. We played a game of 'Captain's coming', A fantastic game that gets hearts racing and ready for exercise.

We said a humongous welcome to Lexi who joined us this week for her FIRST EVER GoodGym run! Lexi is from America and was introduced to GoodGym by Skye. This means Skye has earned herself a red lace #LifesGoals #FashionAccessory

Ben also mentioned some important information relating to the coronavirus and the current outbreak that is causing concern All Around The World as it is no longer half the world away. Click here to read about the GoodGym information concerning coronavirus.

Achievements this week

• A huge well done to Lucy who ran a half marathon in Paris despite the Paris Half marathon event being canceled due to the Coronavirus concerns. #RunNoMatterWhat
• A MASSIVE well done to Mikey who was presented with his 250 good deed t-shirt (Check out the photos - It looks good!) #250Legend
• Lowri has no reached 100 good deeds!!! Llongyfarchiadau. Lowri has earned her wings and this evening ran with the multicoloured wings #WhatAStar
• Imy made the most scrumptious Welsh Cakes for St. David's day for us all to try - There was vegan and non-vegan... Nom Nom Nom!

Let's get our run on

Ellen led the walk runners and Ben led those who wanted more of a continuous running pace.

Let's get good deeding!

Share Bower, our task organiser this week, unfortunately wasn't able to be at the centre to do the Talk Tonight (explain about the charity itself), however Ben explained on her behalf. Ben also explained that Share Bower actually gave us a reason to run when we helped out Cardiff Foodbank in early 2019.

Anyway, this week's task was to help advertise one of Oasis Cardiff's upcoming events by handing out leaflets to the local community. Oasis Cardiff is an non profit charity that aims to help Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Cardiff. The aim of Oasis main aim and vision is to help Refugees and Asylum Seekers integrate within their local community. Not only do they encourage integration within our own community and culture but they are also keen to learn and be inspired by the cultures and traditions of the individuals who use the facilities at Oasis.

Inspired by the Oasis initiative we couldn't wait to get stuck in. We split into 2 separate groups and then quickly got stuck into the task. It was Darren's team vs. Ellen and Ben's team. The question was... who could post all the leaflets the quickest?

Darren's team got back first! Wow, speedy work... Supersonic work, even! Well done guys. Ellen and Ben's team got distracted by a husky... It was worth the distraction though, Ben said, who is a BIG lover of huskies.

Fitness exercise

After handing out leaflets promoting Oasis runners were then invited to decide individually whether they wanted to do the normal, but still challenging fitness activity, or up the ante and do the more difficult one. After runners decided which group they wanted to be in the task was then announced. It was the Bring Sally up, Bring Sally down challenge. Normal = Squats; Increased Difficulty = Press ups. Doing this activity felt like 10 minutes and certainly not 3 minutes 24 seconds. It was painful but we stopped crying our hearts out.

Time to go home!

Now it was time to head back. Running up and down many streets in Splott before reaching Newport road and continuing on into town.

After the run we headed to the Glassworks, as is the tradition, for post run drinks and a chat.

Anyway, don't go away! Join GoodGym again next week when we will be helping out Sustrans.

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2020 Tweet Off

Marie is back in the lead, for now! That won't sit well with Megan, though, who will up her game next week. Good luck for next week everyone. Let's see if someone else can get on the leaderboard.

• MOH - 5
• MJ - 4
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

This week Lowri came up with the Pun! A HUGE well done to you. Da Iawn!

• LD
• BA - 4
• MO- 1
• IH - 1
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

Whatever the weather... we shall attend GoodGym together!

The weather at the moment is VERY Welsh. Within the past 2 weeks we have had 2 storms, Ciara and Dennis, and it feels as though the rain has been non stop! Today Cardiff had more rain but, undeterred by this, 34 runners showed up to GoodGym ready to walk/run to do good!

Welsh Dave started the warm up this week. He got everyone doing high knees, butt kicks, side steps, you name it he did it. We had 4 new runners this week! A HUGE welcome to Sylvie, Beatrice, Bethan and Helene :D It was so lovely having you join this week and we really hope you come back!

Achievements this week

• A HUGE well done to Nathan who has reached the 100 good deed milestone!
• Congratulations to Ted who earned himself a red lace for bringing a friend to GG this week #LifesGoals
• Welsh Dave and Matt got engaged - Congratulations :D
• Darren turned 40 - but he doesn't look it!

Let's head to the task!

This week we planned to meet Ash Wales, our task organisers, at Cardiff Castle. To get warmed up, we had a 10 minute run before meeting there.

Hello GoodGym, we are the Charity 'Ash Wales'. It is lovely to meet you!

Kimberly greeted us at Cardiff's iconic landmark, Cardiff Castle. She was there with her team from Ash Wales. They had warm smiles on their faces which warmed us all up in the cold weather conditions. Kimberly then told us about Ash Wales and explained to us that the Ash Wales charity aims to increase awareness of the health, social and economic effects of smoking in Wales - The mission of Ash Wales is to achieve a smokefree Wales!

Did you know? 83% of the population of Wales is smoke free and, of those who smoke, 60% want to quit.

The Ash Wales team then kitted us up with gloves, bags and cigarette butt picker uppers. It was safe to say we looked like a force to be reckoned with.

Before heading off we had a quick group photo... Smiles! And, of course, HANDS IN THE AIR! hahaha

Off we go!

Continuing in the 4 teams, each group still led by Ben, Aimee, Welsh Dave and Ellen, we began picking the cigarette butts off the streets of Cardiff. Each group targeted different areas of Cardiff city centre. Ben's group went down Womanby Street. Nathan, with his wings, was flying around from butt to butt, just like when he plays his Pokemon Go, he was collecting them all!

"I couldn't believe how many cigarette butts there were. We could have spent the whole of the time on just one street" One of the runners said.

Thank you GoodGym

The whole of the Ash Wales team thanked us for our efforts. They said they couldn't wait to team up with us again in hopefully warmer and less wet weather conditions.

After we stretched to cool down, Nathan reminded everyone that we go for "drinkypoos" at the Glassworks to celebrate doing good in the community, Peter and Nathan both brought delicious treats this week which we subsequently devoured at the pub... Nom Nom Nom!

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2020 Tweet Off

Jiminy cricket - Marie is a fighter! Well done Marie for retweeting quickest this week. Let's see if next week someone else can get their name on the leaderboard.

• MJ - 4
• MOH - 3
• Razzle Dazzle - 1

RunPunStiltskin award

A triple whammy! The combined efforts of Ben, Andrew and Martin made this weeks pun possible, a point for each of you!

• BA - 4
• EW - 2
• AS - 3
• MG - 1
• GD -1

Our morning started with a mixture of running and volunteering at Parkrun in Cardiff. Guaranteed to be one of the biggest of the year, there were well over 800 runners making the most of a beautiful day.

Having completed volunteer duties and caught our breath after running, we gathered near the finish line to commence our litter pick. Moving our way up the Taff Trail, we gathered an array of rubbish. As we picked, we had positive comments from cyclists and runners who went past, grateful for our efforts to improve our local area.

We gathered at a bench with a view of Llandaff Cathedral, noting that it had been placed in memory of a lady who enjoyed sitting there to watch the world go by - what a beautiful place to rest. We'd gathered multiple bags of litter and left the path a much tidier place.

Across Cardiff, fellow GoodGymmers Ben and Ellen were also completing their own litter picks - well done guys!

A great way to start the weekend and another day ticked off for REDJanuary.

On the Saturday of Earth hour Goodgym Cardiff joined forces with WWF to celebrate, 7 runners got together at 15:00 to do some good with Plasnewydd Community Garden. The garden has been running for 10 years, and over the years the local community has come together to grow vines, flowers and vegetables which they can then use in their cooking.

We all began our day at Chapter arts centre, where we met up with Will from WWF, our first run was 2 miles out in what had become a beautiful sunny day. Although it was a Saturday, and a busy shopping day we chose the shortest run through the bust City Centre to get the Goodgym shirts on show. It was a nice run and soon we were there.

We met up with Dan, photographer for Earth Hour, who took some quick photos before we then went to meet Martin who told us a bit about the gardens before putting us to work. The gardens were beautiful, but the raised beds needed a bit of attention. We had weeding to do so that they could start to use the beds.

Lucy and Emma got the joyful job of planting spring bulbs, armed with dibbers they got to work. Martin and Tom were straight into one of the beds, forking and digging, pulling up the unwanted plants. Myself and Adam started on another bed. Ben arrived to join in after getting back from his skiing holiday, and he got stuck straight in. We managed 5 raised beds, lots of bulb planting and Adam even managed to repair one of the beds. As sunny as it was, and as much fun as we were having, we had to bid farewell and make our way back in time for the seed bomb making workshop.

We detoured back through the castle grounds for some great scenery and nature on the Earth hour day, and for some more photo ops.

This evening 24 GoodGym runners got their plog on, running the streets of Cardiff cleaning rubbish with each stride.

It's Tuesday which means GoodGym is in town! (This makes it the best day of the week!). This week we went plogging. Before our run we put our gloves on and got some empty bin bags.

Warming up before the run!

It's important to limber up and get our bodies ready for intense plogging, and what better way is there to do that than with some games!

• In the Race / Over the line
• Pirates life for me!

We then did a headcount and welcomed new runner, OLI to GoodGym. Welcome to GoodGym Oli!! I know we're a very enthusiastic bunch and we really hope you come running with us again :)

Let's go plogging!

Mikey was ready to lead the plog. Armed with the route he led the runners towards the Castle. They were going to continue following the route however the perimeter of Cardiff Castle had been littered following the heatwave we've experienced in Cardiff over the past couples of days. After a few minutes of plogging along the grass, the grounds were beautiful and they carried on following the designated plogging route.

The plogmentalists, Adam and Chay, couldn't stop themselves from picking up even the smallest pieces of litter. The ploggers also ran past hundreds, thousands? of football fans who appeared to have no idea what on earth we were doing... (((Nathan - did you see us???))) Runners then split into teams, taking one side of the road each. FIona was quite territorial not letting any plogger from the other team collect litter that wasn't on their side. There were THANK YOUS from many members of the public, who appreciated our efforts.

Fitness session

With plogging done it was time for some fitness! A 1 mile sprint around Victoria Park was in order... 321, GO. Blink and you would have missed them.

Cool down

We then ran back to Big Moose where we reflected on the evenings plog which was PLOGTASTIC!! We ARE going to do this again that is for sure.

33 GoodGym Cardiff runners celebrated Christmas in style at The Classroom - Y Dosbarth

Everyone began arriving at about 7.15pm into The Classroom. The first thing everyone had to digest about one another was the fact that people were wearing clothes other than GoodGym t-shirts! Firm believers of the work hard, play hard principle, after an incredible year of running and helping others it was now time to let off steam, and the bar staff were challenged to make a whole array of cocktails to satisfy taste buds.

Let's get quizzical

Ben planned a quiz for the Christmas do; There were 2 two picture rounds (Guess the breed of the dog, and name the artist) and 3 question rounds (How well do you remember 2018, A Christmas round and Miscellaneous round - You've got to love a bit of everything).

Martin and Ben both facilitated the quiz. The team names... The Goodgym Guys, Tom to the power of 9, and two other team names I cannot remember! (Apologies :) ) Many teams had an extra team member, Google - You know who you areeeee! The winners were Tom to the Power of 9 - Well done folks.

Thank you everyone

I had been quite unwell with flu symptoms over the past few days so I didn't plan a script for the evening's speech. What I did say though, and what I will echo again now is, thank you. Over the past year at GoodGym Cardiff and Vale we have achieved incredible milestones, both personal and as a team, and these deserve recognition. I say thanks because being the lead of GoodGym Cardiff is made an absolute pleasure because of each and every one of you - you make it all worthwhile - your determination and tenacity to made Cardiff and the Vale a better place inspires and motivates me.

Where to?

After The Classroom people went in a few different directions, but many went to Bootlegger in town and the hardcore amongst the group headed to Clwb Ifor Bach until very late!

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The Classroom is a wonderful place to go for food and drinks. The Classroom has a vision and passion to develop future talent for the hospitality industry. They have a team of industry professionals with a wealth of experience from Michelin Star and multiple AA Rosette awarded establishments. Led by these experts, the Classroom is staffed with Cardiff and Vale College students who are keen to hone in their skills and experience to start their careers in the profession. Former students who attended the college have progressed into top professional kitchens and venues across the region, UK and beyond!

9 runners hung up their running shoes to enjoy an evening of ice skating, mulled wine, mulled cider and mulling about with one another.

Meg and Martin both copied Bambi on the ice and ended up on their bums at one point!

For the whole time, Adam's concentration levels were unwavering as he tried his up-most to stay on his two feet... which he managed to do! Hip Hip Hooreeyyy! - He did however end up with a blister on his foot because his skates were rubbing... Awwww :(