On a lovely Wednesday evening 23 GoodGymers ran between 4-10km, delivered leaflets and did some DIY.

Wow lots of newcomers to GoodGym, welcome to Kat, Lucy, Mara, Sylwia, Rosie and Frederic. Fantastic to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. GG monthly drinks, an opportunity for everyone from GoodGym to meet up, is on Thursday 6th October (Pritesh's birthday), sign up here
2. Well done to Danica who completed Richmond Half Marathon on Sunday in 1.59.29 - completing her sub-2 hour goal. Well done #proud.
3. Also well done to Steve Moody for doing Hull Marathon at the weekend, he is planning to do a marathon a month between now and April, amazing!

Our tasks this week were to help Abbey Community Centre spread the word of their amazing work through leafleting and doing some DIY for C4WS, a national homeless charity.

DIY Run Report:

After a game of tag we did a short run to C4WS led by the wonderful Sophie Hedges, arriving to find a cabinet and desk to put together.

Ikea!

With Ikea instructions, great minds, allen keys, and focused hands we were sure to complete the task. We lacked a little space in the room so five of us headed for a run around the block while the other 10 split into teams, with Polly in overall charge, putting the furniture together.

With a swap of DIYers and runners we were only getting closer to finishing the mammoth task. Boom the cabinet was first to be put together, after a group pic 10 people headed to Russell Square while five team members stayed to continue the finishing the job.

We've done the Good now for the GYM!

Intervals - this weeks fitness session was based around a PYRAMID, using time as our tool. It went something like this:

• 1 min fast
• 1 min slow
• 2 min fast
• 2 min slow
• 1 min fast
• 1 min slow

Everyone did very well and really smashed the fitness session!

Meanwhile the DIYers continued to put together the table, with Steve, Arnulfo and Polly staying until 8.45pm! #commitment #good

Leaflet report written by Pritesh:

Tonight I had seven hardy runners joining me on my favourite run up to Abbey Community Centre. It was a great little group and we kept a good pace (including the ‘stomp’ up Primrose Hill) and had some nice chats about what we’d been up to over the summer and various race plans for the winter too.

Tower Block Climb!

We weren’t sure if there’d been a ‘cock-up’ as we arrived at the community centre as there seemed to be no lights on but Laura was awaiting us and was just saving some energy. Tonight’s task was some leaflet distribution in two nearby tower blocks to let the residents know about the various upcoming activities at the community centre. We had a 102 flats in each tower block and so we split into two teams (“How about girls vs boys?”) and Laura then led us out to the blocks.

Girls vs boys

The girls took on ‘Casterbridge’ and the boys ‘Snowman’, yup there really is a Snowman House – we suggested Steve might want to consider a new place here so he could have the address ‘Steve Coman, Snowman…’ Both teams went hard at the task but in the end the boys prevailed and were first back to the community centre. The girls were not far behind and Laura then showed us the mural that has gone up (we whitewashed the walls on a previous task so great to see the outcome) in the kids playground. There was some discussion over whether the boys might’ve taken the lift but the evidence was inconclusive and so thoughts turned to the pun…with ‘Snowman’ and ‘Thomas Hardy’ as possible references we thought we’d be in for a jackpot… we came up with nothing!

Lemonades!

So with that we had a quick group pic and some goodbyes and then we headed back into the night. We naturally split into a fast and faster group and headed back home for a good stretch and then a few lemonades at the pub. Smashing night – thanks all.

Thank you as always for coming along, sign up for next week's run here.

PB out.

On the sweatiest of summer nights, 10 runners assembled to flyer for the Salvation Army running 8.5km.

The joy of summer meant that this Wednesday night was pretty muggy but very pretty. We assembled at our usual place with the scent of roasted coffee.

feeling pretty roasted ourselves

The hill to the Salvation Army is a sneaky one that doesn't look so bad but we all made it up despite being pretty sweat-laden. The lovely Janet met us with a very welcome jug of squash and told us about the event we were flyering for. On Saturday 10th September, it's the 135th birthday of the Camberwell Salvation Army and there is a family party for the community to enjoy. So we split off into teams after a briefing for flyering and being safe whilst out and about in Camberwell.

We came across lots of blocks of flats, higgle-di-piggledy staircases and some friendly locals wanting to know about the event.

After we delivered the majority of the leaflets, we utilised the car park at the Salvation Army to play the famous GoodGym Islington game

Cups and Cones

For those not familiar, this involves cups and two teams named cups and cones respectively. Cups upside down are cones. The winner after a set amount of time of turning cups/cones around and around are those with the most of their namesake. Some dubious tactics of attempted hidings and a lot of chasing and time was up.

Congratulations to team cone! The battle is won but the war has just begun.

We still had a hill to conquer for the journey home so to push each other through, we Indian filed up it at jogging pace with the back person sprinting up to the front. The hill was soon over. An amble home including a 60s plank and we just about beat the black clouds and looming thunder shower.

Superb effort on a very hot night from everyone.

Fingers crossed for no rain during the bbq at Grove Park next Wednesday. See you there!

In the absence of both Jo and a task we made do and ran to Peckham Rye for running, circuits and a game of tag.

With our task having been cancelled at the last minute we may not have had any good to do last night but we did talk about all the ways to get involved in GoodGym like coach runs, upcoming missions, races and monthly drinks.

Fully informed we set off on a 1K jog across Peckham Rye to do a speed/sprint session. I found out in the introduction that it doesn't matter how you describe it, people will not think it sounds like something they want to do. The session in question was some 100m repeats which are designed to improve running technique and efficiency at pace. The aim was to run 100m at 75% of maximum effort, turn and jog back slowly three times. After that there were three reps at 90% effort with a walk back between each one followed by three more reps at 75%. As I watched them walk back it became clear that this session also gives you a great chance to show off your best Reservoir Dogs impression.

With most of the running out of the way we moved onto the circuit section: triceps dips, lunges and our favourite move from Jo's circuits last week the 'stop, don't shoot' (not it's official name). The group was undecided about whether Lianne's double jump made it any easier but it was entertaining to watch them debate it out! Then came a 3x100m relay in which Team Love Hearts beat Team Parma Violets. Closely followed by the fun section, a game of duck, duck, goose. Having watched an explanatory video earlier in the day I was fully prepared to give a lengthy explanation of how it works but thankfully, with it still being fresh in the memory for some, that wasn't required. After a few minutes we realised that standing up quickly is harder than you think but there's still something fun about a game of tag with your mates in the park, no matter how old you are. Our timing on the way back to Old Spike was impeccable, we managed to get in for a stretch and slice of banana bread just before the heavens opened.