HAPPY NEW YEAR GOODGYM WANDSWORTH!

We really started off 2019 with a bang - no less than 46 amazing runners ran 5k, smashed out a whole range of jobs for a community garden, and took on a tough fitness session all in the name of getting fit and doing good.

The January Challenge!

As some of you know, every year we take part in the January challenge. This is a bit of (friendly!) competition between GoodGym areas to see who can rack up the most good deeds and distance in the gloomiest month of the year - it's a really good motivation when it's a bit dark and cold outside. This year our goal is a biggie! We have no less than 220 good deeds to reach, and a whopping 3000 kilometres. We can do it! Just make sure you're connected to Strava so all your training miles are counted, and come along to as many group runs and missions as you can squeeze in - everything counts towards our target. Go team!

Well done to everybody who did races and parkruns over the festive season - don't forgt there is a parkrun every Saturday morning at 9am. It's a free, timed 5k and a great way to get fitter, improve your times and also to meet up with your GG buddies - wear your red tshirt with pride!

Need for Speed

After a quick intro and catch up in the BAC we headed outside for our warm up which got our muscles ready for the run ahead. We also found out about eachother's resolutions for 2019. There were a happy number of running and GoodGym goals (hurrah!) as well as promises to cut down on plastic, drink more, drink less, remain fabulous, eat less meat and read more books. You are an inspiring bunch!

Our task tonight was at Doddington and Rollo rooftop garden, a space which has been transformed from a neglected multistorey roof into an amazing community garden for local residents to grow their own fruit and veg. So after a stead run down there, stopping only briefly for some conditioning reps, we arrived to find the volunteers waiting for us with a list of jobs.

Tasks included cutting back vines, weeding, shifting heavy pots, sorting compost, turning over soil and we quickly divided up into teams to tackle them. It was incredibly seeing you all work so hard - looking round the garden is was a buzz of activity and so impressive to see what a big team of people can achieve in half an hour. That work would have taken the volunteers a significant chunk of time, so well done for making such a difference.

Tools down, we jogged over to Battersea Park for our fitness session. We kicked off the first one of 2019 with everybody's favourite/worst challenge - Sally Squats. This is a serious bit of thigh-burning conditioning, and we all found ourselves how blimming long Sally was going to be up and and down - was it the extended version? Was it on a loop? Finally it came to the end with everybody gritting their teeth and nobody giving up. If hat wasn't enough we then did a total body workout circuit, which sadly (I can tell you were devastated) had to be cut short because we ran out of time.

After a speedy run back to our starting point we paused at the bottom of the hill at the BAC for a final tough sprint before Danny kindly led us though our much needed stretches. What a brilliant way to kick off the year, team. Next week we're back doing the same and edging ever closer to reaching our January target! Hope to see you - until then, happy running!