We ran to Woodhouse Community Centre, which was only 0.5km away. So we had time to do a run session after the task this week.

A group of 5 goodgymers met at HPBC. We shared our favourite distance to run and found out that we all love running 10 km. This is good as the York 10km is coming up very soon! We welcomed Kate to her first goodgym task in Leeds. Welcome , Kate.

Task

The task this week was removing the rest of the bench and compost from the seating area. There will be a new one there eventually, but in the meantime it all needed to be removed and tidied up.

We didn't mess around, the bench was dismantled and transported away. Before long we were returning the spades and the shovels, and preparing for our running session.

Run Session

There were two choices for the session, 10 min continuous run - or 2 x 4min (1 min rest). To get used to running at a faster pace practised our 5km pace (or 7/10 perceived effort). It's always good to test the pace and see how fast you can run! Everyone gave it a good crack and everyone seemed to be smiling at the end.

Well done everyone - see you next week!

24 Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to Wilton Estate community garden with a massive soil shifting, mulch spreading and weed grabbing task!

Welcome to our GG first timers Alix and Louis.

Hackney first social of the year next week celebrating (Clair’s 3rd, Amy’s 4th and Anne’s 6th GoodGym Birthday!!) Post group run we will be heading off probably to get Pizza in Broadway market, come along!!

A long loop to get the fingers and toes warm for the task ahead smashing out 3.5k along the canal and up to Wilton Estate to meet the team who were ready and waiting to for us!

Grabbing gloves and tools we rolled over to the huge soil, top soil and mulch delivery and got shovelling!!

We had groups weeding the big bed we have put a lot of work into over the last couple months as well as the side beds where the brown bins were filling fast!

The Shovellers were sending soil out to all corners of the garden moving well over 2 tonnes of premium soil, half a tonne of top Soil and 2 tonnes bags of mulch to create a lovely thick mulch bed ready to keep the weeds at bay.

We flipped into high gear to plant 200 bulbs and rake the mulch into perfect form before we cleared up and zipped away dashing back to base dead on 8:30 with a great physical task dominated!!

We will have more of the same next week at Abney Park Cemetery, see you there for more Tuesday GG fun!!

Enjoy

Joel

p.s thank you Liz for the pun!!

29 Happy Hackney GoodGymers ran 3k to help Wilton Estate Community garden in a mega weeding expedition!!

Amazing to see so many fancy to kick off 2020!! Loving the bumper GoodGym first timer crew, hope the session is the first of many with both Hackney and GoodGym!!

Remember we run the same time and from same starting location for the next 49 straight weeks so make it a habit and join us as regularly as you can for some community minded running fun!!

The task!! One of Hackney’s longest running tasks with GoodDeeds having been collected here for the last 6 or so years it was great to have Wilton Estate Community garden there to start off the year!

After a indirect 2.5km run to the gardens with everyone catching up and meeting up after our Christmas break! Thanks to Toyin for backmarking!! We arrived at Wilton ready for action, meeting task owners Gilly and Ulus who guided us through the tasks. We split up Into 3 groups and got straight on it! We had the mulchers who were finishing off the last of the huge mulch pile we decimated just before Christmas. This time shovelling, barrowing, tipping and raking the smaller garden that we previously cleared.

A high quality mini group got stuck into a smaller flower bed with a few prickly tangles to contend with to rid the over grown bed of the big bad weeds ready for planting!

Then a major task of the evening, the massive jungle like bed that we tackled in the rain 2 years ago got it’s just deserts. With a monumental clearing effort from 16 grafting GoodGymers!! In 50 minutes turning the Jungle into a clear flower bed ready for some Spring time bloom!!

Completing and exceeding the tasks we filled a massive 8 tonne bags of garden waste and dragged them to be collected in the morning. With 8 minutes to play with Chi asked if he could start the year with a little most conditioning and got everyone’s heart rate up and core muscles working with a short bit very effective fitness blast!!

With time short we zipped back to base in the nick of time before we stretched out and disappeared into the night with a smile on our faces and a big impact for a great community garden!

Next week it is a 3k run each way to Abney Park Cemetery where we will be dominating another great physical task!! Sign up and see you there!! If you have a head torch it’s a good one to bring it along for.

Joel

p.s Thanks to Chi for the extra pictures and Liz for the WhatsApp group Admin!!

20 happy Hackney GoodGymers ran 4k or walked 2k to Wilton Estate Community Garden to clear 3 huge green waste bins full of weeds from 2 big growing areas!

Great to welcome along our GG first timers to the session!! Hope you enjoyed the ride and will be back thirsty for more next week!!

Social Shoutouts

Next week Mireille will be reaching magical 100 GoodDeeds milestone and we will be heading out for Pizza after the run to celebrate!! Be great to have you along for a slice!

Friday sees Pritesh final party and GG social secretary a big party planned!! All info here.

Saturday we are heading to St Joseph’s Hospice for a Community Mission (No DBS required) to clear up after their amazing fundraising jumble sale!! Be great to have along! Information here.

A random route to get us going as the rain started to fall eating up the main portion of our running distance for the evening as we went Canalside for a little added flavour. Reaching Wilton after 3k of running we met the team and rolled up ready for action!

Splitting into 2 groups we had the enforcers who literally grabbed everything in sight in a massively overgrown bed turning a jungle into a perfectly formed raised bed garden ready for planting in 30 Energetic minutes. The second group were literally on the pull!! Raspberry cane that is and they pulled with great might both out of the ground and loosing up the root for others to help out. Creating piles of raspberry cane ready to be replanted around the garden in a more manageable density.

With 2 bins and a huge builders bag full of weeds we were off nipping back the shorter way in perfect time.

Thanks for coming along, see you next week for our visit to Hackney Parks and social!!

Joel