Have it Four Way

FOUR! Yes, four post-task running options! We think that's a GoodGym first.

Speaking of four, we had four newcomers this evening: Oli, Dina, Suzy and Hannah. Then they were joined by Lenny, who we stole from Boot Camp. Welcome!

We ran as one large group - something we haven't done for a while - on the very short journey to West London Mission on Highbury Grove. They offer two services at this address: a counselling service and a hostel. The plan is for the services to be able to eventually use the garden in some way, with plans to plant flowers and grow vegetables among other things, and it's up to us to get it into shape. We'd been down about a month ago in the dark for a good tidy up and tonight we were continuing to help. There were weeds to pull up, brambles to chop and drag, rubble to collect, litter to pick, earth to turn, leaves and needles to rake and heaps to carry.

Patrick provided choonz as usual and we worked hard for a good 35 minutes, stopping only briefly to chew on this week's biscuit: Ginger Nuts. They were only 25p from Tesco, beating last week's low price record of 40p. If anybody knows of any cheaper biscuits, let us know. How low can we go? They were yummy though and it was a massive packet.

We got loads done. A massive thanks to Colin and Hannah for hosting us.

After the task we split into four groups led by Patrick, Simon, Kike and Aidan. Each group leader explains their activity:

Patrick

Eight intrepid runners joined DJ Patrick for short circuits and cone games.

Firstly there was three rounds of High Intensity Interval Training comprising 30 second blasts of:

• squats
• touch your toes then the sky (burpees would be cruel on the muddy ground)
• vertical mountain climbers
• running in between

After the hard work came the games.

Firstly team orange raced team white as a relay to collect their own-coloured cones. Team white won 10 cones to 9 though perhaps Patrick's idea of the half-way point was questionable!

Lastly Patrick tested mental and physical agility with his inaugural game of rock, paper, scissors. Winners chase the losers up to their safe zone and draws mean squats all round. Team orange managed a lead of 6-2 but team white staged a mighty fight back to end on a draw.

Good games all. They will make a return!

Simon

Technique time. Sometimes you need to take a step back, break down the running action and practise it with drills. We got seriously academic and discussed the stretch-shortening cycle, elastic strength, dorsi- and plantar-flexion, pre-loading and dissipating heat before getting physical and trying out some Running A-Drills: Leg cycles and A-walk and some Running B-Drills: Marching and B-walk. We then got more physical with 10 stride outs putting our new mad skills into practice and finally got really physical with a jog/sprint/lunge/high knees/skip mash-up back to the pool. Excellent running form from everybody involved.

Aidan

The four of us set off with 20 minutes to run for as long as we could. Setting our pace we headed the long way around Highbury fields, passing Kike's groups as we looped back around. We set our sights for the Emirates Stadium and kept our pace steady making it there in great time. As we looped around the stadium we realised how wet it was and counted ourselves lucky we had missed the rain. Shooting back towards Highbury fields we battled the infamous hill of Ronald's Road and made it back bang on time. Stretched aaaaand relaxed.

Kike

Hill sprint Heroes Eight intrepid and eager Goodgymers decided to opt for hill sprints. After a gentle jog and some all important dynamic stretches we embarked on some pretty tough hill sprints. Using some helpfully located bins, the drill was to do three sprints up the hill ,each one longer than the last followed each time by a recovery jog back down. Three sets later we were all pretty knackered and sweaty but there were smiles (or perhaps they were grimaces!) on faces and everyone had definitely worked off the ginger biscuits from earlier and we were all hill sprint heroes.

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Back at the pool we voted on the super hot topic: should Graham keep his moustache? You can look at the photos and come to your own conclusion, but despite a few thinking he should shave it off, the majority reckoned he should keep it with a couple of cheeky handlebar and Hitler comments thrown in.

Check in next week for a furry update when we're back at Sunnyside for a longer run. See you there,
Simon