Yesterday's nineteen strong contingent tackled a smooth long run and a mixed bag of tasks at Newham Hospital's dementia ward. Added man-power coming from Ben and Filip Hope you had a good first outing, great to have you along. A somewhat accelerated intro chat due to the extended run. We congratulated the saturday morning 5k smashers, ie Parkrun Gods. Including James' 16.39 PB the Wanstead clan's efforts and Alice's marathon heroism. Forgot to say: Jade got a 5k PB and Mary flew around a 10k race. I even got a Parkrun done myself. Happy days at Newham.

Random Weekly Question didn't quite tie in with the hastened intro, oh well. "what's the best adventure you never had?" Trans Siberian express received many nods (think Siobhan has just done it), going to Bangladesh for a wedding that never happened, skimping out of an antarctic voyage, riding Spain's biggest waves, "eating all the spicy food....in China" (!), going to New Zealand (sans Kev), Scandinavian tours with your bro, North Coast 500 cycle, walking the Great Wall of China, unicycling around...Columbia , Everest Base Camp and many more. There's still time guys, most of those are feasible.

All arrived at the hospital with a radiant shine of endorphines. Resident nurse Chan directed us warmly and then lead from the front. Benches were painted vivid bright oranges and pinks. Brambles were head-locked and wrestled out of their lairs. Weeds were plucked. Bushes were trimmed and shaped. Litter was picked. Bang on 30mins and the place looked vastly better for it, what GG is all about.

Next week it's a shorter run with a bespoke fitness session at the end - you'd be proper (non-contagious) mental to miss it. Sign up here

Look forward to hearing about your weekend training and continued parkrun success next week. Go get it peeps.

Till next week

B

On a muggy summer’s evening 13 of Goodgym’s bestest runners met to clean two sets of windows and ran up to 8km in the process.

It was another bumper week at Goodgym Redbridge with three new runners joining Goodgym for the first time - welcome James, Peter and Jenny. With Moloko joining us for the second week in a row and a number of the regular team in attendance there were plenty of runners keen to do good in the Borough.

With briefings done and Goodgym Olympics Captain Dharmesh recruiting for the event on Saturday 3 August it was soon off up Wanstead High Street for the night’s task. Window cleaning can be an expensive cost for charity shops and a drain on limited finances. This is where Goodgym can play a key role and make the windows sparkling and clean in a matter of minutes.

Armed with squeegees, sponges and old newspaper, the team set to work on two charity shops on Wanstead High Street - Barnados and St Francis Hospice. Team work makes the dream work and within 20 minutes both shops were sparkling clean and ready to do business.

Once the task is done, the fitness can begin and Team Redbridge were rapidly stowing tools and heading along the quiet local streets for a 2km warm. Back at George Green the team split into pairs for a GG Redbridge favourite - High Five Fartlek speed session.

In this fun but challenging workout, one runner goes anti-clockwise and the other clockwise, high-fiving each other each time they meet and alternating pace between easy and hard running. It’s a great session for working on pacing and developing sustainable speed - necessary skills to smash out a new 5k or 10k PB.

With everyone working hard for 25 minutes, there was just enough time for some static stretching to prevent those post workout DOMS. Great work team. You’re all legends!

We’re on a roll at Goodgym Redbridge right now, so why not come down and check out the good vibes and do good in the Borough. You can sign up to next week’s run on the right of the report.

Well that was a lovely eve. I'm going to just do a short report this week, I usually spend a disproportionately large chunk of my thursday morn writing it up, today I'm on a bit of a tighter schedule.

Hats off to Helen for the RWQ, she's good at them -"what sport would you put into the Olympics?" Netball, obstacle course race, cross country relays, 5-aside, GoodGym, Base jumping, computer games, eating competitions and much more. Seb Coe will be at The Night of The 10ks, July 6th, Parliament Hill. For the best race/event you've never been to (shameless plug) see you there.

We had a good old workout at the playground, with our mate Ange back in action, after a predictably awful thumb injury that ruled our visit out last month. You guy's dug, shovelled and forked with grit - turns out house foundations are quite solid, who knew.

Chi ever so kindly put the squad through one of his famous AB workouts, high intensity, great bang for buck. I was glad to slink into the background for once, as the big man took the reins.

Next week we need closer to 20 please team, as we're over at Newham Hospital, sign up here

Have a stunning weekend one and all

B

19 GoodGymers made there way to Ion Square Gardens to rub down and paint up the previously unloved railings surrounding the inner city green space.

Big shout to Michael the ring leader of the friends of Ion Square who even in very heavy rain believed in the GG magic that it will clear by the time we arrived and that painting in the damp was a well tried and tested technique!

With the run in conjunction with The Great Get Together which has the mission to celebrate kindness, respect and that we have more in-common than we realise.

After a big call for GG Olympic participants from team captain ** Toyin** who is organising the tactical charge to maximise our scoring chances! SIGN UP HERE.

We split into a walking and running group and tackled the journey down to Ion Square with a big variation in how direct the route was to Ion Square.

A 1.5km walk or a 2.5km run later we reached the square and grabbed our wire brushes, rollers and paint brushes to get stuck into the task ahead.

With a efficient set of mental fence rubbing downers who prepared the rough and rusty fence for the elegant painting with shiny black paint.

Our production line increased as the task continued with a dryer absorbing the rain into a tea towel before the rubbers and rollers piled through then the snagging crew brought up the rear with a fine eye for detail putting the finishing touches to an epic task performance!!

With 8 fence panels complete it was time to go after a swift running photo call for the Independent newspaper.

Back sweaty but happy looking forward to our next addition at Mabley Green next week.

On a warm and pleasant summer's evening, 15 Goodgym Heroes got involved in the Great Get Together and removed grass seed heads and removed rubbish with Wanstead Community Gardeners and ran 6km in the process.

It was a joyous occasion at GG Redbridge last night with a number of runners joining the regular group from other areas (thanks Dharmesh) and Momoko doing her first 'proper' run after join the Fun to Do Good run two weeks ago. Soooo great to have big numbers like this and welcome everyone.

With the briefing done and a reminder about the Goodgym Olympics from Captain Dharmesh, the group soon made the short trip to the 'Apple Pie Bed' to meet with Marian, the wonderful woman who organises Wanstead Community Gardeners and is largely responsible for the amazing flower beds that make Wanstead High Street look so spectacular at this time of year.

We've been working with Marian on the 'Apple Pie Bed' next to the George Pub for the past few years planting bulbs and removing litter. However, a request has been put in to the council to dig up the entire bed so it can be properly planted as it is somewhat overrun with weeds. While plans are afoot the issue is that if the grass seeds are allowed to shed then it will be impossible to get on top of the new grass growth post the Council's work. Step in Goodgym Redbridge.

Armed with secateurs, gloves and strong arms, half the group began clipping grass while the other half removed litter from the flower beds around the station. If that wasn't enough, Vicky and Jenny also worked on a small patch to remove seed heads and give it a spruce up.

45 minutes of hard work and the job was done, Marian was beaming and the group were off down the road to warm up before a high five fartlek session. This has become a winter staple for the group but with extra numbers is was great to work together to build aerobic endurance and work on pacing during a tough 25 minute session.

With the tasks done, 6km in the bag and some easy stretching it was time for a rare trip to The George for a celebratory pint. Well done to all that rocked up and got involved. If you fancy joining us next week, click on the link on the right of this report!