Taking things litter-ally in Hounslow

Hump day in Hounslow is the best day of the week, and last night was no exception. A group of six runners met up in the sunlit Chiswick Hall to do good and nail one mutha of a fitness session.

We had some lovely new faces join us for the first time last night. Give a cheer to Gioacomo who, fittingly, flew round Turnham Green like a finely tuned Italian sports car, and to Alanna who, given how quickly we smashed our task, brought with her more than a touch of the luck of the Irish. It was great to have Donna back with us after a few weeks away, and Andy and Alicia both deserve huge cheers for doing a mammoth 3 hour mission this weekend. That's a whole lot of good!

After all those hellos we trotted over to Turnham Green, where we to be continuing some of the good work we had done for them before. It wasn't the longest run to a task we've ever had (ok, so it was actually the shortest on record), so we had a good long warm up in the park first. What a difference a bit of sun makes - there's no excuse for getting out and doing those evening runs now Spring is well and truly here. We started off with a few dynamic exercises to get our blood pumping, then had a couple of laps of the park in Indian file - each one of us taking it in turns to sprint to the front of the line. That was followed by a quick round of clustering, with three burpees as a forfeit for those who couldn't get themselves into groups of the correct number in time. After a short burst of the fish and chips game we were rosy cheeked and ready to start on our task.

With the arrival of warm weather there are going to be more people using that lovely bit of green space in Chiswick, so we donned our plastic gloves and grabbed some bin bags and set about clearing the park of litter. One group took half the park, the other group crossed the road and tackled the second half - even having a few people stop us to say thank you for our efforts. Ahh, doesn't it make it all worthwhile? The first team won the challenge of getting the most litter , mainly through scoring a last minute pizza box . Way to go, GoodGymers!

With the park looking sparkly, all that was left to do was begin our monster fitness session. And man, was it a toughie. We started off with a few coordination and conditioning exercises , which included heel walks, toe walks, walking lunges, hopscotches (mostly) and the dreaded bear crawls. We then moved into a circle and took turns choosing the drill while one person sprinted to the tree and back. If that wasn't enough, it was time for pyramid intervals -the king of speed training. The team ran laps of the (litter-free) park alternating between either a minute or two minutes of hard running. We had to think about pace, and really work on changing speed. After a few pointers on technique, we just had time to squeeze in a few core exercises before stretching it out, and calling it a night. Well done Team Hounslow, you made a tangible difference to a well-loved community space last night, and then nailed a great fitness session. What a way to spend hump day! Same again next week? You can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/help-out-in-hounslow