Brand new task this evening at Freightliners Farm!

We welcomed first timers Ben, Pippa and Christina, read the news and then did a backwards head count. Steve's idea. What's more amazing than Steve having a good idea is it actually worked, counting all the way down from 37 to 1.

With all that stuff done we scurried off to the farm as one gigantic group on possibly our shortest run to a task ever.

The enthusiastic Liz of Freightliners met us there and since there were a whopping 37 of us divided us into various smaller groups.

We set about various jobs for 20 minutes or so. One group shovelled ____ *, another did some weeding and sweeping, others carried and shifted packs and stacks of hay and a small group painted a wall. As usual we got loads done in a short amount of time. As we put the call out for people to start wrapping up there were come confused looks and questions. "Isn't it a bit early?" Yes, it was early, but that's cos the best bit was about to begin: putting the animals away :-D

There were sheep, goats and a couple of cows to move from fields to pens. The problem with animals is they can be a bit cheeky and try to go where they're not supposed to. For this reason you need a HUMAN WALL! Most of us blocked off various gates, exits and openings while a few other fearless folk got hands on and helped direct the animals from A to B. Tip o' the GoodGym bravery cap to Rebecca who doesn't let goats get the better of her.

The cows were very well behaved. The goats were cheeky little buggers, running this way and that, trying to chew on the cherry tree and climbing up things. The sheep were a bit confused at first, but when Caroline started bleating they all followed like sheep.

Animals all put away, hands washed and group photo taken, we zoomed off to Emirates Stadium for the first "monthly" time trial for 5 months. There were so many of us we did it in two waves. Fastest lady over the line was first timer Pippa in a joint women's record of 2:40. Can she beat it next month? Fastest geezer was Hugh with 2:15.

Nice work everybody. We'll be back next month, or maybe in five.

Just enough time for a animal-shaped biscuit before jogging (apart from that hard run up the hill) back to the pool.

Something must have been in the air because on our cool down back down the other side of the hill Steve and Meredith started racing each other, then John and Jackie joined in, then loads more. Maybe this sprint down the hill should be a thing. It seems more fun than running up them.

So, the debate. Last week we all voted and decided on this week's debate. The big question: should headphones be allowed in races? Answers:

• It's dangerous and distracts
• I always train with music and it'd make races boring if I couldn't
• During a race you don't want to be distracted by music. Better to focus on the race

We put it to the vote and it looked like "no headphones" won, but then we shouted louder and loads of people that were distracted for some reason joined in with the vote and the winner was a yes for headphones.

We have three tasks next week. See you there,
Simon

• Sorry, had to censor this out, cos you're not allowed to say "shit" in a run report.

Lots of Bank Holiday goodness done and fitness gotten this eve.

Welcome

Welcome to Ruby who already volunteers for Age UK and Send a Cow but wanted to do even more, and welcome to Simon F on his first visit to Islington after visiting GG Hackney once before. We also said hi to Marco, the first ever member of GoodGym Islington, who hasn't been since our launch event back in January 2015!

Unobservant

Nobody noticed the "mention this line and get a prize" bit on the sign in sheet. What am I to do with these Curly Wurlys I got as prizes?

Anyway, we had two tasks this evening. Six were needed to go and tackle some elder roots over at Thornhill Square Gardens. Here's Aidan's account of the evening:

Thornhill

6 eager GoodGymers took on the challenge of the longer run this week...well a bit longer...nearly 2km. Dropping off the main group at Barnsbury we continued on to Thornhill.

The task at hand was removing the unwanted plants and roots from around the garden, plenty of challenges for us to get stuck in to. We definitely had the right equipment for the job with a variety of saws, shovels, forks, secateurs and an axe. We all got stuck in and showed those roots who was boss. Everyone had the satisfying feeling of triumphing over nature, with Steve commending newbie Ruby on her upper body strength for launching some roots out of the ground. We did have one casualty, sadly one root was too tough for the fork and we had to say goodbye to one of the tools, RIP fork you did some great work.

After a quick tidy up and photo we headed off ready for the hill training!

B. Square

The rest of us nipped over to Barnsubry Square to meet Lucy, Carmela and Wesley the dog. We had a few jobs to do: getting rid of weeds (so many weeds), doing a spot of watering, a little bit of mulching and a dash of pruning. Most of us had a biscuit. Graham didn't cos he was feeling ill and delivered the line of the evening: "Well, I bought some reduced pineapple juice from Lidl..."

Hills

There's a little hill by the pool. It's hardly even a hill, so we figured nobody would notice if we made them run "up" it. The prescription was simple: run up to that bin hard. When you get there turn around and jog back down and repeat for 7 minutes.

Heroes of the evening: Marco and Jill who were the only ones hard enough to chuck in an extra rep when the 20 seconds remaining call was put out. They won a Curly Wurly (Marco didn't even know what a Curly Wurly was until about 20 minutes prior to this)

Meta

We went meta with our debate this evening: "What should our debate be for next week?". Some awful suggestions and some good ones:

• "Would you rather have no legs or no arms"

• "Best time of the day to train?"

• "Cyclops or uni-boob?"

• "Blackpool or Brighton?"

• "Should headphones be allowed in races?"

• "If you wake up late - say at midday - then you eat, is that breakfast or lunch?"

Marco suggested "Who will win the Euros" and Ruby thought a discussion about The EU would be a good idea. Clearly they weren't aware of things we should never debate at GoodGym Islington

Anyway, the headphones one from Simon F got the most votes, so we'll be discussing that next week. Then we'll do all the others.

See you next week for a brand new task and the re-introduction of our monthly time trial. Oooh.

Simon

The good weather clearly brings high spirits as an impressive 32 of us met up at the usual spot. The reguIar runners were delighted to see some new faces, both to Good Gym and to the Tower Hamlets group. To warm up, we set off on a gentle 2.5k jog down to Stepney City Farm where we were greeted by Simon who had plenty of tasks to divvy out. One group set off to shift some hay across the farm, merrilly jogging their wheelbarrows along. Another picked up some pitchforks to aerate a field, while the remaining few turned compost and shifted rubble.

On the way back, we split into three groups. Alison led the first down the canal at a more leisurely pace, Tom took the medium group through Mile End Park for some hilly intervals and Andy steered the final group at a dust lifting speed. We all met up again at base for a final cool-down stretch.

Isabel

BYE BYE, SUMMER

So, summer's over.

But that didn't stop 33 of us, including 5 newcomers who don't mind braving the rain. Welcome to Vicky, Jill, Sarah, Shirin and Katie.

Double Tasking tonight!

Barnsbury

Simon describes the trip to Barnsbury Community Centre:

It was just under a year ago that we first visited Barnsbury Community Centre to start helping with their project to transform the vacant green spaces on the Barnsbury Estate into sustainable, community-friendly gardens.

Over the last year we've paid several visits. We've hammered in stakes, we've dug rings and circles, we've shifted tons of soil, we've filled raised beds, we've hammered in nails, we've painted, we've weeded, we've stapled, we've watered and we've constructed raised beds and a gigantic "S"! The project has really taken shape now and it's so nice to see such a big transformation. It was basically a big patch of grass when we first visited.

We were supposed to be doing a bit of painting and watering of plants tonight, but the rain stole the job of watering and ruined the possibility of painting. Thanks a bunch, rain! However, there was plenty still to do. The recent hot spell meant that weeds have sprung up everywhere, especially around the beautiful S-shaped feature in the garden, so a big group set about weeding and making sure that stays looking lovely. Another group had the task of transporting gigantic sacks of soil from one side of the garden's back gate to the other. Then local resident Elizabeth appeared and asked if she could have the soil transported round to the estate gardens next door. No problem. We were happy to oblige and wheelbarrowed like crazy.

We did get a little soggy, but spirits were not damp as we worked hard for 30 minutes and enjoyed a delicious malted milk biscuit.

On the way back to the pool we split into two groups. Patrick and Steve led an easier-paced group back for circuits/cones and Simon worked a group hard with lunges, high knees running, hops, skips and pogos. We discovered that pogos are even more fun if you add sound effects "boing boing boing".

WPCA

Whittington Park Community Association needed some folk to help keep the ground of their newly-refurbished One O'Clock Club weed free. John led the group up for this one and Aidan describes their evening:

9 Goodgymers took up the challenge of a longer run and with the rain and humidity it was a bit tougher than normal! Arriving at the task we were ready to start weeding, but we had a massive shortage of gloves between us. Luckily Alex had an improvised idea which led to the creation of some waterproof gloves with a sleek design (a ripped up black bag tied at the wrist) but they worked great and we set to work.

The heat and rain had brought the snails out so we had to be careful not to step on them and we did a bit of rehousing, bringing snail families back together. This led on to a question no one could answer, how do snails reproduce? After a quick bit of googling our weeding turned into a biology lesson (FYI they lay eggs, up to 100 a time!). Next we had a few Goodgymers who were keen to do some quick exercises before we headed back. But what to do first, biscuits or exercises? Lucy thought exercises, Frances thought biscuits. Most people agreed biscuits first which Lucy wasn't happy about! (see photo)

A quick round of exercises included some planking, burpies, press ups, high knees and many more with a favourite being John's karate style kicks and punches. With the rain still drizzling we headed back with Frances egging Graham on to a sprint finish up the hill before getting back for Tim Tams at Highbury Pool (Thanks Alex!)

BEING IN LOVE, STRETCHING, TIM TAMS AND IMPERIAL GETTING LEATHERED

Courtesy of Patrick's 3G and famous speaker we had a nice listen to Ivo's interview with Chris Evans (it's at 2 hours 21 minutes) while stretching and enjoying one of Alex's Tim Tams all the way from Australia. Thank you Alex!

The big question for the evening was metric vs. imperial. We had a lot of "it depends" answers, but when we limited the question to distances - actually, just running distances, metric was the clear winner. BY MILES! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!11!!!

See you next week, Simon

P.S. Tip o' the GoodGym cap to Patrick for Run Report Title

RAIN

Rain doesn't stop play at GoodGym, and 21 of us were brave enough to face the elements this evening, including first timers, Adam, Matt, Rebecca, Edith, Ellie, Pam and Parveen.

LOST

For our journey up to Barnsbury Square Gardens Simon led a group on a direct route, while Graham took a bunch on a very very very scenic route. BUT, we all got there in the end and Lucy, Carmela and our canine chum Wesley were top hosts.

WORK

As usual, there was plenty to get involved with. As it drizzled and our hands got colder and colder we turned soil underneath trees to allow rain to reach the roots more easily, removed some horrible weeds and engaged in some "edging" (using spades to cut a nice straight line along edges around the garden).

FUEL

Following last week's bourbon adventures, we decided another hydrogenated fat filled biscuit would be the ticket and munched on custard creams to keep ourselves going.

SPEED

Post-task it was back into two groups. Graham promised his run back would be no more than 4k, while Simon took a group for a few sprinty sections and finished off with running relay and finally a skipping relay (which was more fun than the running relay, as promised!)

DEBATE

Following a bit of twitter banter between GG Islington and GG Camden, we decided to debate "What's the best way to get fit in North London?"

Answers:

• Cycling to work
• Skipping (this lot had just done a load of skipping)
• GoodGym! (no particular area specified)

So, there you have it. We're all one big happy family.

THE END

Have a wonderful week all and see you next Monday,
Simon

This week 25 glorious good-deeders graced the streets of Islington for our third journey to Sunnyside Community Gardens. An amazing community garden in Archway that is for all to enjoy and specialises in therapeutic horticulture for those with physical and mental disabilities.

Among us were first timers Nadia, Del, Katherine, Ceiran, Kim, David and David. A very warm welcome!

We split into three groups for the journey up: fast feet folk led by Graham, medium men and women taken by David and philosophers with Simon.

On our journey up we discussed how we all had an axe to grind with drivers. Apparently lots of things bug us about them: not indicating, tailgating, middle lane hogging, opening car doors on cyclists, stopping for no reason, not stopping at zebra crossings, not pulling over far enough, speeding, cutting up cyclists, and simply existing. Stupid drivers.

Anyway, we made it to the task without getting run over and met our hosts, the ever-keen Yvonne and Alan, who had plenty for us to do.

Half of us continued cutting back brambles and branches from the garden's corner. Loppers and secateurs were in action as usual, but some of the slightly thicker branches needed an AXE. Check out the photos and tell me these guys aren't having fun. There were a couple of wheelbarrows and buckets in action as a few of us carried the discarded foliage to its resting spot.

At the other end of the garden the rest of the GoodGymmers wielded shovels and spades (yeah, axes aren't the only things you can wield) and set about clearing a path of woodchip and made a gigantic pile held in place by some of the logs we shifted a couple of weeks ago.

Today's biscuit break took the form of a Bourbon Cream. Quite a popular choice.

Before heading off Richard showed Simon the "Skunk Cabbage" (Lysichiton americanus) in the garden's pond (see photos). I've read up on it and apparently "... it contains calcium oxalate crystals, which result in a gruesome prickling sensation on the tongue and throat and can result in intestinal irritation and even death if consumed in large quantities" Glad we remembered the Bourbons.

For the journey back we got into the same three groups. David's group sped off, Graham added in a few hill reps before zooming home and Simon's group played secret surges and took the blurriest selfie ever.

Another week of getting fit and doing good. Excellent tasking and running everybody. That's what it's all about.

Next week we're off to Barnsbury Square Gardens. Don't miss it!

Simon

P.S. William's head was not chopped off by an axe in the group photo.