Something old, something grew, something barrowed, something broomed

Last night marked the official astronomical first day of spring - so with blossom on the trees and the promise of lighter evening runs, GoodGym Hounslow cheerfully sprung into action!

• This Saturday there is a great community mission near Tooting for a community centre that needs help with their space for children. It includes painting a pirate ship - tempted? I know you arhhhhh! Check out the sign up page here

• A big well done to Remy who earned her self a new half marathon PB last weekend, way to go!

• Welcome to the group Georgia - lovely to have you join us for your first run!

Keeping a hoe profile

After a run down of the week's news we headed outside to warm up and talk about our irrational fears. There was a bit of debate over whether a fear was rational or not - dentists, heights, spiders etc - and those that fell firmly in the camp of irrational - the poles on tube trains and bellybuttons.

We had a new task location tonight at a local school, so after a 2k run down there and a short stop for some step-ups, we arrived to find a bag of tiny tools (nicely branded in GG red) and a big weeding job.

The school is very close to a main road in an area which has been identified as at high air pollution risk, so they are making an effort to create as much green space around the school as possible. Our job was to weed the border around the playground so that it can be planted with more climbers and plants which will form a barrier, and to prepare some other space for gravel spreading.

Gloves on, With some friendly support from passersby we worked hard for half an hour, until the borders were clear. It was amazing just how many bin bags we filled in such a short time! Hopefully we'll be back to see how the school progresses in its challenge, and to help out greenifying the area!

After saying our goodbyes we took a short run to a local park, which Emily reliably informed us was officially the coolest park in West London because it had a helter skelter. Good enough for us then! We started off with a quick plyometrics drill involving some balls and some impressive hand to eye coordination, before moving on to a tough challenge which was a twist in the bleep test but involved burpees. This short but not-so-sweet type of high-energy exercises improve athletic capacity and condition in a short amount of time, so well done for maximum effort, team!

There was just a short run back to the Town Hall to finish off the night, along with some stretches and Remy's delicious hamantaschen. Great work everybody! Next week we're sorting clothes donations for the homeless at Ealing Rd Church - sign up here.