Jenna Drury

❄️ 17 dedicated GoodGymmers braved a chilly December evening for our group run this evening. We tore ourselves away from the warm room for a swift intro and much-needed warm up 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️We celebrated two good deeding milestones this week. Tonight was Pete's 100th good deed and Laura's 200th (technically 201st but who's counting? Oh wait...) Amazing stuff guys, very impressive 👏 (We were all also slightly jealous of the extra warmth from your capes on this chilly evening 🥶)

🗓️As we named and numbered off, we discussed our dream Advent calendar ideas. From the classic chocolate to cheetahs(!?), via holidays and "just pictures like the good old days" (yeah right, Ed!), we had some top suggestions 🍫🐆

🍎Our task this evening was just a short hop away to Holgate Community Orchard. Our job was to continue digging over the ground that will soon(ish) be transformed into a lovely bee-friendly community space 🐝

🌱 They've recently got some funding to replace the fencing, which is exciting. The digging that we're doing to remove all the roots will be followed by a few months of covering the ground before the exciting planting can happen next autumn. It's a big job so they're really grateful for our help 🙌

🔦 There was some very impressive dimly-lit digging, especially as I forgot to charge the lights this week (sorry everyone) but there was also some brilliant hi viz (#RunBrightatNight folks 🌠), which definitely helped. Martin also did a stirling job with the wheelbarrow, transporting the many, many roots to the bottom of the patch 🌳

💪 After nearly 40 minutes of hard graft, it was time to head back to base for some scintillating circuits (next time, I'll learn the difference between squats and lunges, sorry everyone 🥴)

🎄We also chatted about the very exciting plans for this weekend when lots of us will be running the 12ks of Christmas on Saturday and Chase the Pud on Sunday. Click the links to find out more and let us know on WhatsApp or by email if you've got any questions or anything 🎅

🥶 20 'dedicated GoodGymmers braved chilly temperatures for this week's group run. After naming our favourite drinks (single malt whisky anyone 🥃 Or maybe just the classic water 🥤), we did a much-needed warm up and set off 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

🌳We were back at West Bank Park tonight, tackling the infamous mud mountain and spreading bark-chip onto the footpaths. It was quite the workout, so much so that we kept going and used it as an alternative upper body workout for our fitness session 💪

⛏️We split into teams with a variety of tools distributed between them. We used our best raking, shovelling and mattock-ing skills to spread said bark-chip from the piles it had been "dumped" in across the path. There was some great teamwork displayed and some impressive wheelbarrow relaying 🛒

🌱 Meanwhile, another team were tackling the mud mountain, including the rogue compost waste that had snuck on there and was creating quite the unpleasant odour (to say the least) 😷🐁

⏳As the time went on, the gaps between bark-chip mounds reduced and the chip was spread more evenly across the path. With a few minutes to go, there was a brilliant team effort to fill the last gap and smooth everything over. Great work everyone👌

👏After that effort, it was time to head back to base for some cool-down stretches and a trip to the pub 🍻

👍Thanks everyone for a cracking effort, see you again soon 🙌

On a cold, crisp and icy Sunday morning 12 GoodGymers made their way to Danesmead Wood. We needed to dig up two piles of bark and lay them down on a new track for walkers. This meant lots of digging, barrowing and raking; enough activity to keep us warm in the freezing temperatures!

With the thought of delicious tray bake, we all got stuck. Tay was our chief raker and ensured all our bark was evenly spread out on the path. She had a tough job though as wheelbarrows were coming quickly! We worked out a relay where a few of us met in the middle to take the full barrows and ensured there were constant empty barrels going back to the diggers. With Louise and Vicky on digging duty, we managed to quickly dig up both piles of bark in no time.

Whilst this was going on, Steve was busy sawing some large branches. I didn't see what or why he was sawing, but he looked very busy.

After an hour of hard graft, we cleared both piles and mostly finished the two paths (ran out of bark just before the second path was finished, noooo!). We were finally allowed to have the tray bake, which was absolutely delicious.

With all that complete, we just had to get a group picture before we left.

It's too cold to get my GG's out. - Jen

❄️ 22 excellent GoodGymmers met on a pretty chilly Monday evening for our weekly group run. After celebrating the many good deeds this week and congratulating Tristan on his epic run this weekend, we conducted an important bit of research into the favourite cakes of GoodGym York. Carrot cake, chocolate cake and battenburg all featured highly, though turnip cake was also there 🍰

🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ After a much-needed warm up, we jogged to Holgate Community Orchard where we were greeted with many tools and many more stubborn bramble roots. Never daunted by a stubborn root (or a random bit of carpet uncovered amongst the soil), everyone set to work and amassed a good pile of roots by the end 🌱

🐝 The area is in the process of being transformed from neglected bramble patch to a lovely bee-friendly community space, including an apiary. There are grand plans afoot and we've got at least two more sessions booked in to help them come to fruition 🍎

🏞️ After quite the bramble root workout, we then headed to a nearby hill for some hill reps. After some discussion about the appropriate turnaround point and the best way to avoid traffic en route, people did some incredibly impressive hill work of up to 5 reps (maybe even 6 if you're called Max!?) of increasing and then decreasing intensity 💪

🙌 A jog back to CVS, some cool down stretches and then a trip to the pub was a good way to round off our Monday evening 🍻

🥳 Thank you for coming everyone and don't forget, there are lots more ways to get fit and do good this week 👌

We kicked off the evening welcoming brand new runner Libby to the team, and giving Mitch some big cheers as he did his 300th good deed at the weekend. Amazing.

Mitch was the first privileged GG Yorkie to don the newly adjusted cape.

My wife has sorted the cape so it won't strangle anyone. - Carl

Egg's Team We took the short route to check out the awesome new project that is Holgate Community Orchard. It is an ambitious project and it was great to see it at the very start (well, almost. They'd kindly cleared a lot of bramble for us before we got there!)

There were tools a-plenty and everyone was quite excited about having a personal spade AND fork for the entire task.

It was tough going, digging out huge roots with some bonus rubble under the surface for good measure.

After a solid hour of digging, there was just enough time to give our very muddy trainers a good scrape off before the run back.

I'm cleaning mine with tap dancing! - Lucy

Mitch's Team

8 intrepid runners took the long running route to Heworth Without Community Centre. We kneeded to rake recently cut grass, and then move them to the nearby woods to help the trees grow.

The run went smoothly except a certain run leader forgetting his phone! Luckily Terrific Tristan was on hand to help with time keeping and photos.

After a quick intro we got stuck in, putting larger and larger piles of recently cut grass on the tarpaulin to move to the nearby trees. We were a well oiled machine, and after half an hour hard graft, we cleared the grassland without a hitch. 

We managed to get back to base just in time for the stretch (and find the phone I left on the bench).