Fully Armed and Co-operational

Monday Blues? Never again thanks to GoodGym Islington. Last night we did things a little differently. 16 runners gathered at our task location, Waterside Adventure Playground for our task. After finishing, we headed off to Shoreditch Park for a technique session and to get our hearts pumping.

Waterside Adventure Playground provides a free, safe space for children in Islington to play. And boy do they love it!

Dawn at Waterside explained our mission to us: pull up weeds from the entire area; sweep up the old water balloons from a long-gone water balloon fight; and most importantly - turn over all the compacted earth and wood chips beneath the highest point on the climbing frame.

The reason for this last one? The kids just love to somersault off the tallest point heedless of breaking any bones! When the ground beneath has been freshly turned over it cushions their fall, when it hasn't been, it’s dangerous. One group got to work on each task and in no time Dawn was marvelling at the revamped playground. We’ll be back Dawn, don’t you worry!

With the playground now safer, cleaner and tidier, our work here was done. We munched some biscuits, took an all important group photo and headed off to Shoreditch park, Steve pointing out some of the sights to us (Gainsborough studios - where Alfred Hitchcock shot his early movies and is now a block of luxury flats) as we went. On arrival at Shoreditch park we went through various exercises that prove the power of your arms when running. Often forgotten about, arms have an incredible power potential.

To prove this we sat on the floor with our feet straight out in front of us and pumped our arms at 90 degree angles. Try it! When you pump really hard, you bounce off the ground - that’s how much energy we can get from using our arms.

We did some more exercise showing the best way to get the most out of your arms when running and then it was time to put the theory into practice. The group paired up and each pair went opposite ways around the park, when they met they high fived and shifted up a gear using their newfound arms and sprinted until they met their partner again where they high fived and switched back down to an easy pace. Speed work and technique. Two for the price of one!

After three rounds each runner sprinted victorious (and sweaty) to meet me back at the start for a high five. Hearts pumping, arms tired, we headed back gently along the canal to Waterside for a stretch and to thank the lovely Dawn for hosting us.

Thank You Waterside. We came, we saw, we conquered.