One for tool, and tool for one

Energy levels were high last night, great to see so many of you for 5k and a big task in Wandsworth!

Here come the headlines

• A massive GoodGym welcome to Abi, Mercedes, Lauren and Hannah who all came for their first group run last night - great to have you join us ladies!

• So nice to see GoodGymers from lots of different areas paying us a visit, from Lambeth to Stockport, it's lovely to have you visit us!

• Last night Danny told us about some great volunteering opportunities. If you volunteer for either the Adidas City Runs or the Hackney Half not only will you have a fun day out and be a great support to runners, but you'll also get some nice freebies including free entry to a future race and a tshirt. What's not to love!

• The Capital Ring is a fantastic series of linking routes around the entirety of Central London and this Sunday you can run one stage of it with GoodGym. The long run starts near Wimbledon Park tube station at 10.30 am for a total run distance of 13 miles at an average pace: 9.30-10 minute/miles or 6 minute/kilometer approximately. The short route meet up point is near Richmond Bridge at 11.40-11.50 am (total distance 7 miles) - sign up here for all the details

With a bumper week of news out the way, we headed outside to do our warm up and get on the road. So after a series of high knees, some lunges, fast feet and tuck jumps, we finished our heart rate raising exercises with a snack based poll - savoury snacks came out on top, with cheese, humous and crisps all firm favourites. Good to have the important stuff cleared up.

Our job last night was at the Salvation Army in Balham - their HQ here is enormous and needed a bit of love. This organisation has been very active with the homeless population in Wandsworth, especially supporting refugees, and run a lot of their operations out of the Balham branch. So after a 2.5 km run there, stopping along the way for some tricep dips and squats, we arrived to find Ailsa waiting for us with paint brushes, sandpaper, secateurs and a long list of jobs.

The first group set off to tackle a huge bramble problem ( and I mean seriously huge...check out the pics), while another large section went upstairs to paint the meeting room. There were also several doors to sand and paint, and a few jobs in the charity shop to tackle as well. So while I pogo-ed around the building, everybody got stuck straight in, working hard to hit the 40 minute deadline. It was a blur of activity, so well done everybody for all the efforts!

Sadly this meant we had no time left for a proper fitness session, but we stopped along the way for a quick plank pit stop and then finished off the run with a good old stretch down. Great work everybody! Next week we're helping out a community garden with a big leaf pick up, so bring gloves and a head torch if you have them, and I'll see you there for the return of the fitness session special! Sign up here for all the details.