What do you get if you combine 23 GoodGymers, 6km of running, one big park in need of a bit of a spruce up, and several hundred stubborn weeds? A pretty great Tuesday night, that's what!

It all began with a big welcome to:

• Lowri and to Ruth who both came for their first GoodGym run last night - give them a cheer!

And a quick news blast which featured:

• Tomorrow's social which is on tour in Brent - check out the details here

• We've got an aid station at the British 10K on Sunday 21st July from 7.30am - volunteers get a free place for the Oxford Half, Hackney Half or the next London 10K. Sign up here

• A massive congratulations to all of you who came along to the GoodGym takeover for Fulham Palace's 300th event. A huge 38 of you made it a big success filling all the volunteer and pacing roles - it was great to see the park turn GG red!

Before we set off to Wormholt park to help them with some jobs ahead of their entry in the London in Bloom ‘its your Neighbourhood’ category, we did a warm up and a discussion about our favourite ice cream flavours - well, it's perfect weather for it after all....

We headed off at a good pace, stopping to regroup and test our legs with a few squats and toe taps along the way. We soon arrived to find Vanessa waiting for us lots of tools, some members of the local volunteer group that look after the park and a list of instructions. We were told especially to look out for the hairy balls that were plaguing the park - they all had to go!

Other jobs included moving massive logs - with Mo and Jonathan making it look easy - tackling the very deeply rooted weeds in the meadow, a spot of pickaxing the wormery as well as litter picking and hedge trimming. There was plenty to get on with it, so we launched straight into it.

If you're local and want to get more involved with the upkeep of the park you check out the facebook page or get on the mailing list by contacting the group on wormholtpark@gmail.com

After half an hour of hard work we downed tools and just had time to fit in a five minute core blast, with some help from a little black lab named Clara who came over to offer us some support. We were just about to set off when we realised that Will and Lowri were still hard at work trimming the bushes outside of the park railings. Sorry about that guys! But the hedges looked amazing...

Another 3km run back to base and we saw off the night with some stretches and talk of catching the second half of the football. The Lionesses may not have quite brought it home last night, but you certainly did team! Next week your excellent trainer Beth will be back from hanging with Nadal to lead you on a great task back to Flora Gardens primary. Thanks for having me Hammersmith & Fulham, lovely to hang with you!

24 GoodGym'ers ran 3km as they went back to school to help out Flora Gardens Primary

20 GoodGym'ers met at H&F BetterGym on a grey but thankfully dry evening ready to do good for another great cause. Despite a month's worth of rain falling the evening before it seemed we were in luck tonight as despite the grey clouds the outlook was for a nice dry evening - but where is the lovely sunny June weather?! This week we returned to Flora Gardens Primary, a wonderful local school to help out with some painting, weeding and removal of a very well embedded fence!

Before warming up, we began with a round up of the latest GoodGym news, a welcome back from holidays for Johnny and Sarah and happy birthday wishes for Steph! We also welcomed Morning to the group for their first GoodGym run, welcome along, always lovely to have an extra pair of hands join us to help get the job done!

News

Firstly, well done to Tom who completed his 50th parkrun at the weekend! A big thank you to all those that lent a hand at the 'SOS Mission (Im)possible' challenge at WHite City Adventure Playground - the Play Association have again passed on their thanks to you all.

1. Community Missions - tomorrow at Age UK H&F and on Thursday 11th July for Solidarity Sports - Volunteer Award Ceremony.
2. GoodGym Monthly Long Run - Led by Andy and I along the Wandle Trail, 16/10km run options, for all the details click here.
3. GoodGym Olympics - entries are now open! Click here. Lots of event options! Deadline is Thursday 27th June at 23:59. I will create a Google doc and post it in the Whatsapp group later so we cover off lots of the events!

School runnings

Today's warm up was a quick one involving some high knees, lunges and fast feet, and with no rain in sight we all set off on the short run down to this evening's task.

On arrival we met Jeanette who explained how valuable GoodGym are in helping out with the school. Due to constant funding cuts, any money available goes directly into the education of their students, meaning money for maintenance of the school and it's grounds is limited - enter GoodGym! With an additional four runners joining us at the task, we were now a strong team of 24! Tonight we had two jobs...painting and fence removal.

The team split into two groups and set to work!

The group on the Monet...

Group 1: the painting group...the smaller but perfectively formed group headed inside of 'The White House' to apply the final coat of Gilbert Green to the small room at the back. With the final edgings applied and the clearing up complete, we declared the 'White House' completely transformed from slightly drab and uninspiring white walls to a fresh and bright colourful green and blue!

Fence and fencibility

Group 2: the fence group...the majority of the group were given the mighty task of removing a very embedded and stubborn piece of metal fencing. A coordinated team managed to detach the metal fence, rolling it up and away, just leaving the stubborn metal posts which proved quite a challenge! Matt, Eloise and Johnny used their brute strength to snap two of the posts off - amazing stuff! Mo, Jonny, Katie, Lucy, Alice and Georgina displayed incredible detemination as they worked together on one VERY stubborn post, wiggling, tugging, pulling and digging down and around the post...eventually revealing a huge piece of concrete! The team used the spades to try and leverage the post and concrete out but the shear GoodGym strength led to a spade casualty with it snapping completely in two in Jonny's hands! But the broken spade and concrete didn't stop the team who persevered on and eventually the post was lifted out triumphantly! Fantastic teamwork and a great upper-body work out!

Don't take a-fence, but we won't skip the fitness session

This just left time for a short fitness session led by 'Mr Abs on Tour'- Chi! We started off with a lunging walk followed by a sprint back to some squats, then press ups, burpees, and sit ups, all with a sprint across the playground in between. With all of us nicely warmed up again, we set off on the short run back to base. With everyone stretched and cooled down, we headed inside for cake to celebrate Steph's birthday! A well earned treat! It was also our monthly social so many of the group headed off to Wing Wing because as they say...you can never have too much of a good wing right?!

Thanks for a lovely evening all. Next week we're heading up to a new task at the Nubian Life Centre to lend a hand in their Josiah Braithwaite Community Garden, sign up here. Hopefully see you all there. Have a great week!

Oh what a difference a week makes! After the less than favourable weather conditions these past few Tuesday evenings it was wonderful to have one that was both dry and mild, perfect for running and doing good...and thank goodness this evening we had an indoor task!

A big welcome to Martin, Melissa, Michelle, Sapphire and Toyah, who all joined us for their first GoodGym group run. and two wonderful tourists from Hounslow, Eloise and Matt. Wow! So many new faces tonight amongst my lovely regulars, hope to see you all again very soon!

Before heading outside for the weekly news round-up and intros there was first the BIG NEWS of the week...Johnny's 100th good deed! Well done, Johnny! Thanks to some subterfuge from Catriona and Sarah I presented Johnny with some stylish fairy wings in celebration of his big 100 for him to wear on the run tonight, which he clearly had no idea about! What a great idea.

Once Johnny was winged up we all headed outside to our warm-up spot where we huddled together as we ran through a quick intro and round-up of the week's news:

This week's news...

1.February Long Run (Sun 24th Feb) - This month's GoodGym long run is in South London starting at 9.30am or 10.30am depending on the pace you would like to run from Brixton Station. For all the details and to sign up, click here. 2. Morden Hall Park - Trust10 Trail Run (Sun 24th Feb) - Meet at 8.30am near the White Bridge in Morden Hall Park. Sign up here. It is FREE - there are no admission charges at Morden Hall Park. 3. Community Mission (Sat 9th Mar) - We will be following-up our January group run visits to St Mungo's Reconnection Post and will be finishing the final bit of sorting and labelling. No DBS check is required. Sign up here. 5. GoodGym Eurotrip 2019- Sofia (weekend of 11th May)...racing, pubs, spas, buffets and more! - come & join the fun! Sign up here.

With the news and intros complete we did a name and number count followed by a quick pulse raising warm-up. With Stravas set we were ready to head off on our short 1.4km run down to our task tonight at the Age UK H&F Activity Centre. Following a brief pause to regroup at the bottom of Greyhound Road where of course the time was filled with a favourite exercise, the wall sit, it wasn’t long before we arrived at the Age UK H&F Activity Centre.

We were warmly welcomed in by Aileen, one of the lovely volunteer co-ordinators from Age UK H&F who briefly explained the brilliant activities and services they provide for older adults in the area. It is an amazing centre that provides delicious home cooked meals to support those isolated and vulnerable residents for only £4 a day! Bargain! They also provide computer and technology classes, health and fitness classes, and a whole host of other great activities.

Eileen explained that tonight's tasks were as follows:

• Sort and tidy the art cupboards
• Sort and clear the 'corridor of doom'

Art of doom

The group split into two even teams: Team Art and Team Doom - admittedly one sound more appealing than the other!

Team Doom quickly got to work and formed the ever efficient human chain to clear everything from the 'corridor of doom' out on the tables in the main seated area so that they could be sorted through and grouped together. Team Art began by clearing everything out of the cupboards in a similar human chain fashion onto the sheets that had been layed out by Jason. Within what seemed like minutes everything had been cleared out from the cupboards and onto the sheet on the floor ready for sorting and grouping. Sapphire, Melissa and Eloise got stuck into a small room at the end of the corridor and left no toilet roll or crockery unturned or sorted as they marvellously transformed the room, making use of every available bit of space that the small room had to offer.

As always, Eileen had been ever so kind as to provide everyone with biscuits as a thank you for all their hard work and help, and Johnny ensured these were distributed amongst the group fairly to give everyone an energy boost and reward for doing such a grand job - the biscuit fairy godfather?!

On a winging streak

With the corridor of doom cleared and the art cupboards now tidied and sorted to a tee it was time for the mega team photo infront of the wonderfully creative Age UK chalkboard that was hanging on the wall. Despite the slight squash, everyone packed tightly in and a great team photo with the fun jazz hands was captured by both Eileen and myself.

Squat's my cup of tea!

Before we headed off we made use of the excellent indoor space to complete the 'Sally Squats' or 'Pete's Press-Ups' challenge. Apart from Johnny, everyone opted for the squats, where it was noted Sally likes to go down a lot more than she likes to go up! Amongst the groans, the sign of strong groins being formed so I've heard, 3mins 28secs of Moby's Flower (I've added the link if you'd love to complete the challenge again!) flew by....oh how time flies when you're having fun right?!

Everyone was squat amused

With the 'Sally squats' challenge complete it was time to say our goodbyes to Aileen and head off on our short run up to Normand Park. Once at Normand Park we did a quick 'Johnny Quiz' - 5 questions, if you selected the wrong answer a 'fun' exercise punishment of 20 reps of either jumping jacks, press-up, spotty dogs, frog jumps or lunges were given! The idea being 20 reps x 5 incorrect answers = 100 reps!

Sprint screen to higher the 'art rates

Everyone excelled in the quiz, with some getting more right (and vice versa!) than others. Next up was a short sprint technique session focusing on some 'pocket to socket' action, nice upright posture (imagining their is a helium balloon holding you up!) and powerful leg drives. This is best done on a hill, but sadly tonight all we had were two 50m running lanes, but these more than sufficed. With everyone paired up each pair complete their sprints displaying some fantastic sprinting technique, well done all!

All good things (biscuits) come to those who wait...

With the quick quiz and sprint technique session completed we headed off on the 1.5km run back to base for a quick cool down and stretch, and for some well earned cake-based 100th good deed celebration treats - some delicious vegan gluten-free flapjacks courtesy of the man of the moment, Johnny, and a coffee and walnut cake. Johnny was even wished a "Happy Birthday" by a lovely member of the gym....It wasn't long before only crumbs were left and all that was left was to say our goodbyes and head off home. A great end to a fun night!

Thank you for all your hard work at the task tonight, hope you all enjoyed it. Next week we're heading back to Flora Gardens Primary School for a big painting challenge task, sign up for next week's run here. Have a fab week!