(B)raking the bank

Last night was full to the brim with bank holiday heroes spending their evening doing good in the local community and getting themselves a nice old workout in the process!

• Welcome to Paul and James who both came along for their first run last - give them a cheer!

• A huge well done to all of you that got out there running this weekend. Especially to Sam who did his 50th parkrun, Stephen and Oliver who incredibly raced at lunchtime in the Vitality 10k, John who smashed the Vitality Westminster Mile on Sunday and Matthew who did a half marathon lap race.

It was brilliant to see so many of you last night given that it was a day off for most of us. We kicked off proceedings with a warm up that featured a range of dynamic movements, and an equally important discussion about our fave ice creams. In this very official poll, it was - drum roll - Solero that came out top. A true classic!

Our job last night was at Paradise Cooperative garden, a charity that was set up to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening. They combine participation, education and celebration in cultivating under-used land in Wandsworth. It was a 2.5km run away, so we set off in the last of the evening sunshine at a good pace.

We soon arrived (after a few squats and planks along the way) to find trustee Brendan there waiting for us with a list of jobs. It was great to see the place in the light as we have often had to rely on our headtorches, and discover all the beautiful things that the team there have been busy with. Most noticeably is the new pond, which we were tasked with raking around, and all the gorgeous plants coming into fruit and flower (noticeably some quite delicious strawberries that miraculously survived our visit!). We also got stuck into moving huge logs, creating new seating areas, weeding. moving railway sleepers and having a go on the rope swing. Hard work, but a lot of fun, too!

Before we left Brenda thanked us, and let us know that the work we did tonight would have taken two regular volunteers a week to complete. What a brilliant way to spend a bank holiday -well done gang!

Next up was a quick fitness session in Wandsworth Common, starting with a game to get our heart rates up, then moving on to some tough clock sprint circuits where some teams were kinder to others when it came to keeping time! With squat holds, planks, press ups and mountain climbers, this was a good all over body workout, so well done team.

A quick run home was all that was left of our bank holiday GoodGym fix. Nice running everyone. Next week we have our final visit to the community garden in Battersea that we have been helping transform into a safe and welcoming place so it can be opened to the local residents. Sign up here to see all the details. Until then, have a great week GoodGymers!