A good deed dung

16 Goodgymmers were back at Stepney City Farm on Monday night for another round of compost shifting.

Simon at the farm was concerned about safety because at the last minute, we had no lighting for the task. So, to appease his fears, and to prevent any potential running with manure filled wheelbarrow slips, which nobody wants to experience, we improvised: those of us with head torches wore them while others took their bike lights from their bikes and attached them to themselves. We did a pretty good job of lighting in the end as there were no pitchforks through feet or wheelbarrow crashes at all.

Our task for the evening was to shift two big piles of manure from one end of the farm over to the compost heaps at the other end of the farm. Three of us set about forking the manure into the wheelbarrows at one end, three of us forking the manure out of the wheelbarrows at the other end (and turning the compost so the wheelbarrowers could get a good 'run up'), with the rest of us on wheelbarrow duties, transporting the manure across the farm to the compost heaps. We very quickly fell into an efficient feedback loop: full wheelbarrows travelling one way up to the compost heaps, empty wheelbarrows travelling a slightly different route back for re-filling, thus avoiding any potential wheelbarrow collisions.

The manure shovelling guys did not falter in their work, shovelling hard and fast throughout the task until both piles were completely cleared. In all my times at the farm I don't think I have ever seen the compost heap at the other end piled so high. The wheelbarrowers did a fine job of running up the heap to empty out their barrow as close to the top as possible, whilst the pitchforkers dug a sort of ramp for them to run up. Despite our initial lack of lighting concerns, the whole task was really well coordinated and swiftly carried out.

On the return run, Tom found us a new little park to train in, and we completed the evening with some sprint intervals. We paired up and ran 5 minutes of constant sprints; one partner sprinting to "the third lamppost" and back again, hand-tap your partner who then set off sprinting to the third lamppost and back again. Recovery time between sprints was anything between 25 - 40 seconds, depending how fast your partner sprint. A good interval session had for all, and another good deed dung.

Andreana