By the skin of our Meath

Many hands...but still not light work

The heat was on tonight as we watered 18 trees, spread out over a large area, and planted bundles of new shrubs in a very short space of time...

Two teams, two entirely different tasks...

A team of 11 headed to lovely Meath Gardens this evening for two, very different gardening tasks.

Task owner Tunde headed up the tree-watering team, who split into a further two groups: one headed canalside to fill large, empty bins with water; the other team went on a tree-recce of the park with Tunde to establish which trees needed the water.

Meanwhile, the second team of 5, led by task owner Joanna, busied themselves with planting new shrubs after weeding out stubborn dandelions (you have to show the dandelion who's boss, we learned tonight - it's all about the lengthy tap root, FYI).

Task time extension

A few minutes before we were due to start our speedwork, both teams requested an extension to enable them to complete the tasks. Speedy, productive and thorough - that's a GoodGymer through and through, and so we mutually agreed to push back our fitness session a few minutes, to enable the gardening team to complete the border, and the tree-waterers to cover every tree, even those outside of the park.

"This lap will be run at your 'on-finest-parkrun-form' pace"

And so a,little later than planned, we moved to the centre of the garden for some speedwork. Using what can only be described as a giant molehill as our lap marker, the team sped brilliantly through three, 'scenario-led' runs to the molehill and back. We combined, "Run there at your 'quite-hungover-gentle-jog' pace, then run back at your 'sprinting-for-the-very-last-night-bus-home pace'". Thank you for giving it your absolute all and for being such good fun.

And so to the soleus

And so we handed over to Danny, who was joining us tonight to deliver some fabulous flexibility content. Danny took us through a great selection of stretches, for the adductors, glutes, ITB and soleus - muscles that often get overlooked for better-known stretches, but that can play an important role in preventing and alleviating runners' twinges such as Achilles pain, plantar fasciitis; knee, hip and lower back pain.

Back to base - nearly on time

We then sped back to base making really good time, finishing with a couple of effective static stretches, thereby leaving no flexibility stone unturned for the evening.

What a great night, everyone!

Big shout-outs to...

Danny, for researching and delivering some lovely fitness content and for back-marking; Si for pun assistance and inspiration, and to our very own Chris , whose 50th good deed it was tonight. Lovely, lovely stuff.

Don't miss out on next week's fun - sign up for our NEW TASK now!

Next week, we're two-tasking it: back to Weavers Adventure Playground, to finish the furniture we started last week, and, for those who fancy a slightly longer run, we're also heading to a new task at Look Ahead, on Commercial Road, for a lovely bit of straightforward gardening. Don't miss out - sign up now.

(...And don't forget we're pub-quizzing it this Sunday.)

And lastly, don't forget we're heading to The Coborn on Sunday with our newly-named Let's Get Quizzical team, so do come and join in the fun, and celebrate the start of September - you can sign up for that here.

Right, that's it from me - have a wonderful week, everyone, and hope to see you soon.