GoodGym Ealing were feeling the festive love last night as 11 of us ran to help St. Mary's Church get ready for their Christmas services!

We started by warming up and discussing all the news and great things happening in Ealing at the moment. Alongside out usual Tuesday group run there's lots weekend tasks coming up too, we have community missions galore at the moment and a couple of great starter sessions on Saturdays in January too! We also congratulated Mollie and Michael on their performances at the Osterley Park 10km last Saturday, both getting PB's for the distance, well done!

After a whip around of all our favourite Christmas foods we'd built up an appetite and were ready to run and do some good for the evening, so off we went on our short run down to the church!

Deck the halls!

We were met by Vicar Steve and Angela from the church who had a few tasks for us to get them in tip top shape for the upcoming festivities. There was a Christmas tree to get up and decorated, bibles to be stacked, music kit to be packed away and a lot of dusting in the upper pews to get done.

Local churches rely almost solely on volunteers and are important community spaces, especially over the winter and festive period when lots of them are used as shelters and spaces where those without a home can come and feel safe and warm. They also get lots of extra visitors in general over the festive period so we are very happy to provide some extra hands to help them get on top of tasks that might otherwise struggle to get done!

A symbol of good!

Marline, Alex and Lauriane took on the most festive task of the evening by tackling the tree while a few of us started with stacking away the bibles. As a band member, Jenni is a dab hand at packing up musical equipment so with Larissa and Chris's help they packed up the kit, symbols and all, to make more space over the busy Christmas period.

Done and dusted!

After all that good is was time to get our hands dirty and give the upper pews a good clean and polish ready for the upcoming services. With lots of extra attendance over this period it's one of the only times this section of the church gets used so it was in need of a little TLC, GoodGym to the rescue! As a team we hoovered and dusted away, making this a welcoming and clean space for all those coming over Christmas!

Leaving the church sparkling clean we weren't done for the night just yet and we finished up with a 12 days of Christmas themed workout, for those of you at home feeling inspired to try it here it is in all it's glory:

• 1 minute wall sit
• 2 sprints
• 3 tuck jumps
• 4 jumping lunges
• 5 star jumps
• 6 high knees
• 7 sumo squats
• 8 curtesy lunges
• 9 jump squats
• 10 pulsing squats
• 11 mountain climbers
• 12 butt kickers

A jog back and nice stretch we all went home with a warm glow on this cold December night!

This week 13 GoodGym-ers ran 5.7km to help Muswell Hill Food Bank weed, vacuum, mop and wipe.

We started with a few warm up drills along the side of the Phoenix that I learnt from the NBMCR middle- and long- distance coach Steve Vernon at the New Balance HQ last week. Nicola was a pro at these straight off the bat!

With our legs all warm and our numbers all counted, it was time to head off towards Muswell Hill. Hazel kept me company leading the pack, while Chris was our trusty back-marker.

On arrival we were greeted by Aimee and Deborah, who dished out the tasks before everyone got to work. We had an outside team weeding the patio, an inside team vacuuming and mopping the floors, a window team wiping the windows and Sarah was a team all on her own cleaning doors.

While all this was going on, a couple practiced their wedding dance inside. Deborah treated us to some bananas.

Once all the working was out of the way, it was time for a few strength drills. Walking pause lunges to improve balance, core stability and single-leg strength, bear and crab crawls to improve core, quad, glute and shoulder strength, and kicking squats - again to build that single-leg strength. Running is a series of single-leg jumps, so you really ought to make sure both legs are holding their own if you want to avoid injury, run faster or ran further.

We then ran back to base, with Nicola helping me lead the way and Freya our trusty back-marker. With Chris and Shawn hot on our tails we ended up running up the hills faster than we ran down them on the way home, which made no sense but was fantastic for everyone's legs and lungs and general levels of awesomeness - so good job!

This week's Barnet Biscuit: Chocolate fingers, courtesy of Freya

This week's pun, courtesy of Damian.

It's Freya's birthday next week, so there will be cakes and merriment to celebrate on Saturday. You can sign up here

We need a couple more volunteers for gardening at the Westminster Drug Project on Saturday. Sign up here

There's also a mission to help Mrs F on Saturday and a mission to help Grange Big Local set up their community festival on Sunday.

It's our birthday

This week marked the 1st anniversary for Goodgym Hammersmith & Fulham. The group has perform over 50 good deeds in one year. And one runner has been to every single one! Our Taskforce member Jason

Weed sort out the problem

After a briefing and a warm-up, we headed off to Askham Court, a council owner sheltered housing property for the over 60's to help weed a big overgrown flower bed.

Upon our arrival we were met by some of the residents who help direct us to the task in hand. The gang grabbed the gloves, tools and bags and quickly got to work. They had to tackle a tricky combination of brambles and bindweed to free the lavender and roses.

After packing up and saying goodbye to the residents we headed off back to base.

Will take the long way home

After 2 km, Will took a fast group on a long route home and I lead a direct route back.

After a warm down, we head off to Draught House for a birthday dinner. Party hats were worn, balloons inflated and a tasty dinner eaten.