What a start to the week, perfect weather, great company and a tonne of hard work completed in the name of GoodGym!!

3 new runners joined us this evening and I’d like to offer a huge GoodGym Wandsworth welcome to Ellen, Kimberley and Melanie, go ahead and give them a cheer

NEWS

There's lots going on at GoodGym through August, here’s a recap of last nights news

• The GoodGym Olympics are on Saturday 3rd August and team Wandsworth are aiming to better last year's silver medal. Whether you’re competing or would like to come down and support, it would be great to have as many GG Wandsworth faces there as possible, details here

• For those that cannot make it to the GG Olympics, there is an Olympics National Race which you can get involved in via Strava, all details for getting involved are here

• Next Monday, 5th August is GoodGym Wandsworth’s 3rd Birthday and we’ll be celebrating after next week’s group run with a picnic on Clapham Common

• Anyone looking for a race? The next GoodGym race team event is the Bath 2 Tunnels race which is coming up on the 18th August. The race also coincides with the GG West Summer party, details and sign up here

• 2 new areas will be joining the GG family in August. Exeter starts on Tuesday 20th August and Trafford on Wednesday 21st August

• If anyone has any tales of inspiration from Team GB athletes and would like to share them, please email rebecca@goodgym.org and tell us who inspired you the most and why

DO GOOD

This week’s task was helping at a local charity called Leonard Cheshire Disability, who work to support individuals to live, learn and work independently whatever their ability

So, with building work in progress outside BAC our usual warm up area was unavailable. We relocated to a small car park opposite and went though some low impact warm up drills. Our warm up was cut slightly short when we were interrupted by a slightly disgruntled neighbour who took exception to us being there. With that we swiftly set off for the first leg of our run. We covered the first 1.5km of the night in good time and even managed some wall squats along the way

On arrival we headed to the back entrance of the centre and were greeted by a huge teddy bear guarding the gate. Once inside, our tasks included washing the mobility buses, weeding the car park area, cleaning the windows, a general tidy of the garden area, clearing plant pots at the front of the building and replacing old with new plants. We quickly split into 5 smaller groups and 40 mins later we’d satisfyingly ticked every item off our task list, leaving the buses gleaming, the garden raked and tidy, the new plants potted, the front area weeded and windows shining. Great work everyone!

GET FIT

After a quick tidy up, we jogged a short 0.5km distance over to Battersea Park, where we completed our fitness session.

This week’s fitness required 3 teams, each working through either a run, a core exercise and a body weight exercise then rotation through each of the 3 stations to complete a round. The soundtrack for our workout was provided by some quite interesting park users and 5 rounds and 15 sets later, all that was left was our 2km journey back to BAC, with a final set of wall/fence squats on the way

The night was capped off with a sprint up our favourite hill and Strava segment. Well done to everyone for that final push at the end and great work on the technical running points!

So, we completed our tasks, ran a total distance of 4km, completed a tough fitness session and a hill sprint. Amazing work all round team Wandsworth!!

COMING UP

Next week we head to the Salvation Army in Balham, to help with various tasks, as well as our 3rd birthday celebrations which is not to be missed, sign up here

Have a great week and thank you for all you hard work!

Happy Running!!

We had so much news to kick off the weekly run with last night, but firstly

• Give a massive GoodGym cheer to all these lovely new runners who came for their first group run last! Hello Hannah, Sina, Rafaella and Kate!

This week's roundup included:

• The monthly social! This Thursday, on tour in Brent. Here are all the details - come along for pun of the month, to hear about all the good everybody has been doing, running achievements and all things GoodGym

• Did you happen to catch the Guardian magazine this weekend? If not check it out here. We had a Guardian journalist along for a run with us a few weeks ago, and this was the lovely write up. Share it with everybody you know!

• There's nobody yet signed up for this community mission in Merton on Saturday - this is one you don't need to be DBS checked for but it will really help out a local school so if you are free why not check it out!

• Congratulations to Beth who organised an amazing park run takeover for Fulham Palace's 300th event! A brilliant 38 of you turned up to fill all the volunteer and pacing roles. Check out the run report here

Providence House

Last night's task was at local charity Providence House - this amazing organisation is putting on a program of summer activities for local young people aimed at combating antisocial behaviour and social isolation.

But before we could set off we did a warm up outside and a quick survey on the best things to put on a BBQ - you guys are all about the protein, but also recommended halloumi, asparagus, shrimp and aubergine. Delicious!

With just a short run to the charity, we soon arrived to find a very cheery welcome from the kids who were waving and singing from the window! We got a short talk about the brilliant work Providence House is doing. For the last 50 years, Providence House Youth Club has been passionate about improving the lives and outcomes for young people from North Battersea, and has created a strong sense of belonging and heritage and is open to all. They had hundreds of flyers printed to spread the word about the work they are doing, but as they rely on volunteers, asked us to help.

We set off straight away clutching at least 400 flyers and started distributing in the surrounding houses. This was a real testament to the fact that many hands make light work, as it took us less than half an hour to deliver the lot over the course of 4km. Amazing going team!

We then popped over to a local community space to do a conditioning session which featured glute bridges, planks, single leg squats and other strength exercises that all worked on the important muscle groups for runners and focused on our ABCs (agility, coordination and balance). This sort of strength workout helps prevent injuries, improve form, increase efficiency and generally helps turn you into a better runner - so do try and get in one conditioning session a week!

You can sign up here for more doing good and getting fit next week. Until then, run happy GoodGym!

It was a whopper of a night in Wandsworth last night, and good job too as we had a massive task!

Welcome to Marika, Ben, Ingrid, Emma, Emily, Chloe, Karen, Thomas, Izzy and Guy - give them a big cheer GoodGym!

We started the night with a round up of the week's news:

• Congratulations to all those runners and volunteers at the Hackney Half on Sunday!

• We have been invited by one of our task locations, Elay Networks, to their Ramadan Iftar on Friday. If you would like to go, check out the details and book your place here. Elay is an amazing organisation founded to provide a community support structure for young people and students at risk of exclusion from school, and not in employment, education or training.

• Plogolution is coming to Wandsworth. Fancy running (5k) or walking (2k) whilst picking up rubbish at the same time? Get that double endorphin hit of not only keeping fit but also making a massive difference at the same time. Everyone welcome, pop along and make some friends! Sign up here for all the details of these event on 8th June.

• A big welcome to Klara, who is the new trainer for GoodGym Exeter - spread the word about GG's newest area!

Next stop was to head outside for our warm up, which featured lots of dynamic moves designed to get our heart rates up, and a very quick survey to find out all the places we'd like to go that we haven't visited yet - New Zealand came up pretty high, as did anywhere hot and tropical, and even the moon. Better start saving those airmiles!

It was week three at our massive ongoing task last night, so we ran down to the Venue Community Centre to pick up our tools, then headed over to the Doddington Estate in Battersea. This huge space right in the middle of a big residential estate has been shut for many years, but we have been helping with the project to transform it into somewhere that can be opened up for the local people, is welcoming and safe for everybody.

The garden is already looking much better, but there is still a lot to do. So we got straight into weeding, clearing, pulling up astroturf and plastic, cutting back shrubs and ivy, scraping moss, litter picking, sweeping, and digging over. After 40 minutes of hard work, the garden was looking even better - there is still some stuff to do including painting benches and planting, so we'll be back in a couple of weeks to the last few jobs before the big opening. We even had Chi there taking some pretty amazing pictures to document our work!

So after returning the tools, we jogged over to a nearby green space to do a bit of a fitness session, which last night focused on a variety of unusual planks. Not only does a strong core improve your running posture and speed, but it increases stabilization in the torso, keeps you upright, reduces rocking and so lessens the energy you need to maintain form, and improves balance. For 30 seconds each we held bear, reverse, X, side, single leg and dip planks and gave our abs and proper good work out.

All that was left was to run back to base, tackle that last hill, and do some stretches kindly led by Klara. Great work everybody! Next week it's a bank holiday - but don't worry, you can still get your GoodGym fix! We'll be meeting at the BAC as normal, although there's nowhere to leave bags on this week only. Spend your day off doing good and getting fit - sign up here for all the details. See you there!