A Few Wood Men

A lovely sized crew of 34 gathered for tonight's two tasks...

Stitches in Time SAVED by nine...

Following a recce of our new task at Stitches in Time in Limehouse, our wonderful Task Force were heading this one up like a military operation: numbers were planned, runners assigned, task owners instructed, routes mapped...It was all systems go from the weekend! And so a team of 11, headed by Lieke, headed to this fab new task along the canal. Writes task force member Dave, "Community arts charity Stitches in Time is worth nine plucky Goodgym-ers taking a scenic 7km circuit along the Regents Canal to the deceptive Limehouse Town Hall (which has never actually been a Town Hall, FYI).

On arrival at this new task location, task owner Paul quickly set us to work removing a lot of lengths of wood, screen-printing materials and some large wooden structures, to make way for the dismantling of shelving and a tougher-than-it-looked dark room.

The sound of creaking crowbars and banging hammers soon filled the building in a hive of activity, and excellent team work, making a very large dent in this terrific task. Time ticked on, our planned fitness session came and went, but finish we did, before the team returned to base along the dusky canal, for some final mileage for the day."

Glossing at Hollybush Gardens

Meanwhile, I took the rest of the team around the corner to Hollybush Gardens where Michael and Margaret had some fun outdoor painting work to do. Due to the recent rain, the outdoor furniture still hadn't received a lick of summer paint, and so 22 runners were put to work with pots of gloss to get the chairs, planters and outdoor benches looking bright and shiny for the Autumn months ahead.

A splinter crew of 3 headed to the garden for weeding, and industrious they were filling bags and bags before we wrapped just before 8.

Fabulous team fitness work

With a few minutes to spare for this evening's task, the team did a superb job taking the fitness reins: Si headed up the route operation, taking us straight down to Bethnal Green Gardens, while David took creative cardio control and led this evening's speedwork, planning and directing a tough lap of the park, with teams divided into two. And what fitness work it was, with all runners arriving back at The Fitness Clearing panting for breath and begging not to brave another lap. And so we settled for a real full-body blast of a workout, with plank-and-pushups, jumping single leg deadlifts, abs cycles and the sprinter lunge to name a few. Incredible work, yet again, from everyone. Your fitness - cardio, balance, flexibility, and strength - really does seem to be improving by the week.

And then David led the crew back to base, and through some brilliant calf and quad stretches on our favourite hotel stretching steps.

What a night.

Great big, glorious Monday shout-outs

Where to start this evening?

First up, welcome and thank you for a wonderful first night to our new runners, Victor and Kerenza. You were amazing and we hope you'll come back very soon.

A big pat on the back to our David who last night celebrated his 50th good deed and our Chris who celebrated his 70th. Thanks for being a great, big part of our group.

Thanks to David and Si for their fabulous fitness input tonight.

To Joel for pretty spectacular pun input as usual (and sorry for my eleventh hour change...).

Now. A huge shout out to the totally brilliant team who headed to Stitches in Time, including Leo and Dave for pics; Dave for report-writing and leading the runners back to base at 9pm, and Lieke for heading up. And to our wonderful task force who were all on board with planning over the weekend. Thank you from us all.

Next week sees a fitness double bill!

Yep, come out and celebrate the Bank Holiday Monday with a fun leafleting task, followed by running and Pilates: swap sofa for sweat and strength work at this fun Monday session. Details and sign up are here.

Right, that's it for this week. So until next time, have a thoroughly good week everyone!