24 wonderful runners ran 5K to revitalise the railings at the Ballast Quay Garden!

It was a beautiful evening over in Greenwich (although still a bit cold for my liking). We welcomed the lovely Nina to the gang and saw a comeback from the speedy Simon who ran with us last summer! Good to have you back Si! Finally we saw the return of everyone's favourite threesome (or trio should I say), Steve who has just finished his exams, Christian who has finally recovered from that nasty cleaning injury and Alex who managed to roll out of work on time despite being in an ice cream coma. And Laura was back for more after her first run last week. GREAT TO HAVE YOU BACK GUYS :)

The favourite part of your day!

Favourite thing this week required a little more thought than normal but it was nice to hear snippets of everyone's day!! We had people playing with new cafetieres, eating pecan slices, drinking champagne at work, walking in the park, sleeping in the park (although not whilst walking Linda), leaving work on time, eating Lindt bunnies and copious amounts of ice cream. LOVELY!

Cone flipz!

We did a little warm up in the form of the cone flip game. We split into two teams - one team flipped the cones the right way up and the other half flipped them the wrong way up then we counted to see how many of each there were at the end! This one really gets your heart going as you're constantly going up and down and running around! Mike and Katie were on opposite teams but Mike was hot on her tails flipping over everything she did, undoing all her hard work! No boyfriend points for you Mike! After a few minutes we were good to go.

Since the garden was only a few minutes away, we decided to run the time trial loop that we would be doing in the fitness session so everyone knew roughly where they would be going! Ben P led the way in his little GG race vest (you can join the GG race team here!) and 1km later we were back where we started. A little group photo (the first of many of the evening, sorry it was just too nice not to) and then we set off for Ballast Quay to meet the amazing and super lovely Diane!

We came here last summer to shift some bricks on the shore and this time it was some railings that needed a bit of love. We split into two groups so Ben C took group 1 away for a little jog along the river whilst the others got sanding! Fence dust was flying everywhere and people's faces began to look like the chimney sweepers in Mary Poppins so at least we knew the sandpaper was working! A few wipes with the white spirit and it was ready for the paint!

By this point, group one returned and we switched over. Alex took the other group for a little run whilst the others got stuck in with the painting! Steve was using all of his manipulative skills to try and coax a swap with Clare for her larger brush. "This small brush is really good, you can get all the corners" but Clare was having none of it. George and Christian got more paint on each other than they did the fence but their input was still appreciated. 15 minutes later and the fence was looking BEAUTIFUL. Plus the sunset in the background made it even better. Another group photo and we said our goodbyes to Diane. Hopefully we will be back in the next few weeks to do the other side! STAND BY!

GoodGym Greenwich TT Strava Segment!

We ran back for the fitness session which was a fast version of the run we did earlier that evening. So the idea is we will do it once a month to see how everyone is improving! I think people were a little nervous but I hope everyone understood it was not a race against each other but more a race against your future self :) So stopwatch at the ready, Ben P gave a brief briefing (a short briefing not a briefing about briefs) just to clarify the route and BOOM, away they went!!!!!! Just a few short minutes later and the leaders were coming into the finishing straight. Some really speedy running from EVERYONE! I was blown away, especially with all the corners you had to go around! I hope you all remembered your times. Write it down so you don't forget for next time. We have the official Strava segment leaderboard here which Simon and Amy are currently top of! Congrats! Also massive well done to Linda who pushed super hard and got an amazing time! So chuffed for you!

A little stretch and some Percy piglets and we were done :)

Finally here are a few handy links: Here is a link to the Victoria Park 10K that a few of us were talking about last night if anyone fancies it! It should be relatively flat and fast! Here is a link to our GG Greenwich Facebook group, please join and get involved! Here is a link to the big monthly social which is tonight!

Massive well done last night everyone! Thanks for putting all your effort into the task and the TT. It was awesome and hope you had a great time! Oh and huge good luck to Ben and Brin running Brighton marathon this weekend!

Spring was most definitely both in the air and in our step last night as we met for our weekly Hounslow group run.

Along with lovely regular Andy, we said hello to two new runners, Joanna and Vikma who joined us for their first GG run. Throw these ladies a cheer!

Andy is bossing the heroes page, topping the league for distance, cheers and good deeds - but watch out, Lily and Toni are not far behind! Cheers all round.

We discussed the upcoming GoodGym Olympics, which will be taking place on 10th June, sign up now: https://www.goodgym.org/races/goodgym-olympics to show the other boroughs that west London is best London. Holler!

We managed to resist the party that was just kicking off in the next door room, despite glimpses of bowls of wotsits and bottle of wine, and headed out for a quick warm up before our run. With a few ski jumps and grapevines to get that blood pumping, we set off for our favourite church-come-homeless shelter. It was a nice steady pace for the two miles there, broken up halfway with a little chasing competition which saw us all gasping for breath.

Roger the Pastor was waiting for when we got there, and the delicious smells wafting from the kitchen got our noses twitching. As a little incentive (bribe? thank you?) he let us know that he had cooked our dinner to take back with us after we had finished the jobs. Best. Task. Ever.

With that in mind, we were off like rockets. Our task was to move down a room full of chairs from the top of the building to the bottom so that they could be loaded on to the van. A human chain was quickly formed (efficiency!) and we soon stared shifting those chairs in what turned out to be a pretty effective upper body work out. Kudos to Andy taking the tricksy stairway position, hope you're not feeling it too much today. Vikma did not pause for breath as she scooted through the building piled high with chairs, while Joanna nailed the top spot at the head of the chain - does this count as an arms day?!

By the time we had shifted well over 100 chairs, we collected our warm and delicious takeaway dinners and set off on our run back. New business idea - Deliveroo on foot! Quick, someone get the copyright. With another two miles under our belt, we stopped off at the park to smash out a quick abs blast. A strong core is essential for a good running style - it stop unnecessary twisting, helps you keep a good strong form, and makes your running style more efficient, less prone to injury, and faster. After a round of planks, side planks, Russian twists, leg holds and crunches, we were well and truly pooped. And that dinner was calling to us, so with a few stretches, we headed back to our starting point, where the party was less raging, and more - over. Good job we gave it the swerve.

Next week we have a great new task lined up. Don't miss out on doing some good and getting fit - Hounslow needs YOU. Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-hands-and-legs-in-hounslow

13 Goodgymers (and one phantom runner) hit the street, ran 2k and made good headway on the task at Bruce Grove Youth Centre

Shouts out to Helen and Naz who made it down to their first GoodGym session… your help was much appreciated guys! Give them a cheer folks.

The Task

This week we were heading over to Bruce Grove Youth Centre the task was to refresh the centres careers office which has seen lots of use especially after the local prospectus office closing down some years ago. The walls of the office were in need of some GGH TLC so we did what we do and got our paint on.

a little flakey

After a quick briefing we were off on a 1k run to the task location at Bruce Grove. On arrival Akin the task owner and manager of the centre greeted us at the entrance before giving us a little intro. He then lead us to the office we’d be decoration. The room isn’t huge and the floor space was limited but it was a snug fit for all of us and this only seemed to add to the good vibes and banter that ensued.. along with a fair bit of graft too, mind. The teams split into little groups with some getting paint, brushes and all we’d be using unpacked and ready to go while others used filler to err fill the walls which had become a little flakey / chipped.. along with others getting rid of blu tack left on the walls and spreading dust sheets.. people wasted no time in getting started with this and everyone was super enthusiastic. We managed to get lots done before having to clear up. We’ll be returning next week to get more done.

The Fitness session

Before the fitness session could commence everyone pilled onto the football table for a quick match of everyone’s favourite youth centre game. A few people had clearly spied the table on the way in and there was no way they were leaving without a quick whack. This week we chose to do our fitness session in the hall at the centre and the human beep test was on the cards.. this went down well considering most had not done this for many years.. school years to be precise. Everyone did a really good job in staying within the beeps but hats off to the girls who took it to the next level.. an International Women’s Day win for the ladies.. nice! After a quick breather and a round of high fives we were off into the night again. With a sprint along the home straight (Louise has clearly been working on her sprints – well done!) and a quick warm down we were done for another evening of goodness but not before mentioning Paul’s playlist which we had been listening to on the little boombox.. his playlist contained some pretty cool floor fillers and of course some Chaz and Dave.

Great session but I'm left wondering what happened to our phantom runner.. 🤔

Oh and thanks to FRP for the paint 👊🏽

Sign Up For Future Sessions Below!

Sign up for our next Wednesday nights group run & task Here, and join us at Chicken Town afterwards for a bite to eat.

We also have a task and mission this weekend check them out here Saturday and one Sunday

Don’t forget to stay in the loop over on our social media pages – Facebook / Twitter

Until next time folks - do good, stay fit & look out for the light

33 GoodGymers ran between 3-6km, made beds for the homeless and helped Skip Garden!

Thanks and welcome to all the new people that came this week; Chloe, Pierre, Enrica, Joanna, Marium and Emma. We also had a photographer and journalist from Runaway Mag, article and pictures to be released soon.

In the news this week:

1. Tom Benson is organising the GG race team monthly time trial on Sunday in Victoria Park if you want to take part. Full details here.
2. Next week is the GG monthly social, we're on tour down to Lewisham. More details here, it's gonna be good!
3. The BIGGEST TASK of the year is next week helping Grounded Ecotherapy lift and carry cement mix at the Southbank Centre on the Thames. SIGN UP HERE

C4WS Task by Frances:

Frances and Pritesh led 15 GoodGymers back to C4WS to help them make beds for the homeless shelter. It's a quick and simple job for us, but a great help to the volunteers organising the shelter.

Quick & simple

Most of the people in the group were either new to GoodGym, new to the homeless shelter, or in Axel’s case, new to making beds. Everyone got stuck in and made the beds in super-speedy time before we headed over to Granary Square to meet the others – ready for the Time Trial!

Skip Garden Task:

Fifteen of us headed to Skip Garden near Granary Square to help Global Generation. Our tasks this time:

1. Moving planters, pots, tables and bags of soil around the garden. This was like a massive game of jenga.
2. Turn the compost machine and sieve the contents to use as mulch in the garden.

We split into teams, got lots done and rotated the teams - well done everyone! After finishing our 'tasking' Gwen explained about Skip Garden and Global Generation the charity who runs it, here is some of what we found out:

• Existed for 12 years across four different sites in Kings Cross
• The team work with young people in the community to educate them on alternative living
• They keep bees who make lovely honey & there is a HONEY CLUB
• Also they keep chickens who provide lovely eggs for the cafe :)

Fitness:

First off we did a series of strength and conditioning exercises, including squats, press ups, tricep dips and plenty more. We mixed this up with some intervals and balancing exercises.

90 degree angle PLEASE

With both groups now combined we moved onto arm technique. When running your arms are as important as your legs, they are vital for efficiency and power. So to develop our arm technique we got into pairs and practised powering our arms at a 90 degree angle, have an open chest and no crossing of the arms!

Next we moved onto our monthly Time Trial - 880 metres around Granary Square. Everyone did brilliantly! Nice arms! I have a record of everyone's time, if you would like yours please just let me know. I'll be keeping an eye on times over the coming trials and I can keep you updated on your progress.

Sign up for next week here, we are breaking out of Camden and heading to the Southbank Centre to help Grounded Ecotherapy. It's a fantastic task,a really great charity and a big workout - come along and tell your mates too - it'll be a great intro to GoodGym for them!

PB out.