Storm Troopers

Storm Brendan made a bit of an unwelcome appearance at our run last night, but that didn't stop 30 slightly damp GoodGymers running 4km to a community garden to lend a hand.

• Welcome to the group Anna, Calanna, Becky and Emily - lovely to meet you all!

• January challenge update! We've still got along way to go, so we need to keep those missions, group runs and coach visits going. Check out where we are on the rankings here. Let's go, team!

*If you know of anybody who wants to join GoodGym but is a little nervous to come to a group run, or you simply want to do a bit of good on a Saturday morning, check out this starter session this weekend. All welcome for a big litter pick and circuits session.

After a warm up where as well as raising our heart rates and getting our systems warm and ready to run, we talked about the nicest things we had to eat over the weekend. Ikea meatballs, steak, vegan pizza, lobster (veganuary fail!), and cheese cheese cheese. Sounds like a weekend very well spent!

We took at gentle (wet) run for 2km down to the Venue community centre where we picked up some tools for our night's task. It was then just a short walk over to a local community garden which, before this summer, had been closed to the public for many years. We had previously helped local residents get it ready for opening, and our job for last night was to give it a bit of a spruce up.

With Brendan showing no signs of shoving off, we got stuck in to the jobs, which included clearing leaves, weeding, litter picking, cutting back ivy and sweeping. Half an hour of elbow grease later and the place was looking much tidier. Check out the photos to see the phenomenal number of bags of litter and leaves you cleared - great work!

We returned the tools to the Venue, got rid of the rubbish, and took a nice steady run back to base, stopping only for a few wall sits. The original plan to do hill reps was scrapped in favour of a nice inside abs blast session, so after a five minutes of intense core exercises and one plank, we were done for the evening. Well done everyone!

Next week the BAC is shut so I'm busy finding a one-off alternative starting point for us nearby. If you've got any ideas let me know - I'll keep you posted when we've got something sorted. You can sign up for what's going to be a cracking task at a children's adventure playground here. Have a lovely week, and until then, run happy!