Spaghetting fit by doing good

Four fast-footed fartlek fans ran swiftly through Bromley, covering 3km, delivering food to the collection point and fearlessly tackling a high intensity fitness session.

I went on tour to Bromley tonight, to catch up with how it's all going over there. I was met by regulars Sarah and Stania and we welcomed Jacqui along for her first ever GoodGym group run.

First things first, we had to load up our bags in the little office where we store our belongings. Simon had been given some surplus food by a foodbank in another area (yes, sometimes a foodbank will have a glut of items that they don't want to go to waste) and we were planning on ferrying this over to our nearest collection point, at the big Tesco down the road. Of course, the kind of items people donate to foodbanks are non-perishables, so this meant lots of tins (of spaghetti, lots of spaghetti!), bags of rice, that kind of thing, you know, the heavy stuff.

Loads of fun

So, bags packed, we headed outside to warm up a bit. We're still on the look-out for a bit of sunshine and warmth if anyone knows where we can find some...We paired up and raised our heart rates (and some laughs, this always seems to make people giggle) with a quick game of shin/knee-tag. I was with Stania, who turns out to be pretty stealthy with the moves. Finding a post or railing, we then fired up our muscles with some dynamic stretches, always good to do before a run (legs swings, hip openers, arm swings).

(make) Time to run

As soon as we set off, we realised just how heavy our bags were AND HOW NOISY! Any pedestrians in our path quickly stepped aside to let the clunky-clanky runners through. We enjoyed the lovely gardens en route, met a few cats (it was clearly post-cat-dinner-time in Bromley) and chatted parkrun and running goals - Stania had been to her first ever parkrun at the weekend and really loved it.

We only got a few funny looks, traipsing into Tesco to find the donations basket. Out came the tins and boxes and up went our shoulders in relief! We felt like we had wings! I don't know how those army folks do all that running with great big packs. For our return run, we were playing around with a bit of speed-play (or fartlek, as it's amusingly known). I led the way, choosing a lamp post to run to, then everyone took it in turns to set the pace and choose the goal, there were some very speedy legs out there tonight!

Just across from our start point at the Civic Centre is a lovely little park, so we headed in for a bit of HiiT. Our breathless runners listened carefully, as I explained the exercises and then set to with 30 second rounds of squats, push-ups (using the bench, knees or going all-out for a full push-up - well done Stania!), walking lunges, tricep dips and planks. Pity the couple on a nearby bench who turned to see this lot stalking towards them in a walking lunge!

Aaaaaaand streeeetch

Plenty of time now for a really good stretch - our shoulders were definitely in need of it after lugging all those tins around. On our return to the centre, we realised we had left one tin of spaghetti, maybe a little treat for Simon to look forward to when he comes back. I will be leading the group run next week and the week after, so sign up and join us for some running goodness.