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.

What a wonderful evening

It started out with a task briefing in the fitness centre. This night we’d be delivering flyers for Wand UK again. Wand is a fantastic charity that provides support for vulnerable and isolated women in the communities. Their services include mental health and wellbeing support, computer and English classes, advice with domestic abuse and parenting. They have also put on an extra project called ‘Holding Hands’ to help those affected by the Grenfell disaster - providing free emotional welling and holistic support, tai chi & yoga classes and massages.

Meet me in Norland Park

After a warm-up we set off together toward Norland Open Space. There, the group was split into two (gender balanced ;) teams. Then armed with maps and new highlighters, they set off to deliver the flyers in different areas - one lead by Polly and the other by Jason.

They navigated successfully and did a speedy job, meaning we could all meet back at the park at 8 for a core workout.

Round the tree Goosey

Our fitness session was a was like a game duck duck goose with a detour. The group did a series of core exercises whilst one member race out to a tree across the park and back. This made the timing different for each exercise. Star jumps, burpees, legs raises and more.

Once everyone had a run out to the tree we wrapped up and headed back home whilst discussing the best local park runs.

Congrats to Esther for making it along to her first Goodgym run. Give her a Cheer!

Next week is our 1st birthday! Join us for celebrations.

This week 9 marvellous GoodGym-ers ran 6km to paint garden furniture at a local care home.

First on the see was Danica, who arrived as I was picking up this week's Barnet Biscuit. She took on the tall task as Biscuit Garder, placing the biscuits in her bag so I didn't have to risk crushing them on the run.

After a quick warm up in front of the cinema to get our joints and muscles ready for the task ahead, we made our way to the care home. Damian was my trusty leader, while I was tail running. Jennie and Eleanor kept me company on the way there.

3km of hilly Finchley later and we were at Dell Fields ready for the task ahead. We hadn't been left any sandpaper, so we did a coat of finishing oil on the chairs we did last time to protect against the weather. Hopefully we'll be back soon to finish off the other chairs!

We then gently jogged to the nearby park for some burpees and sprints. Doing burpees on a regular basis will improve your running drastically - it's been proven to shave minutes off your PBs. So we're testing it out. Jody suggested today be Day One – so we're introducing the GG 15-Day Burpee Challenge. You have to do 30 burpees a day for 15 days. If you haven't already done then, quickly do them now!

We then ran back to base for stretching and biscuits.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was Hobnobs

We finished up with some Ice Tea at the Phoenix before saying our goodbyes. Next week we're heading to BFC for more furniture painting. Sign up here

29 hot Hackney GoodGymers ran over 8k to a new project for the group a Well Being garden to help service users dealing with diabetes.

A steamy Hackney evening brought out a great turnout to set our PB total distance for a group run.

Leaving the Bakehouse at super speed with Peter leading strong a recce crew up to Stamford Hill. While the rest of the squad kept a strong a consistent tempo over the 4 and a bit Kilometres.

We met Rose who who manages the house to support her service users who are battling with diabetes. We got stuck straight into the overgrown garden cutting, hacking, weeding, digging to great effect!!

Making amazing progress with limited tools, everyone put in a top shift in 40 minutes of non stop action! We had a couple of slight pauses to rehydrate and refuel on some lovely water melon 🍉!

We made great progress and Rose will sort out some more gloves and tools for our next visit in 2 weeks!

This looks like being an amazing project where we can make a huge difference taking an overgrown waste land into a productive space to grown herbs and plants as well as providing garden therapy for the service users.

Leaving in phases so we could tidy and maximise our working and running time.

While Rich and Phil chased us down with some impressive running the Sexy crew kept a solid tempo to finish off a great run. We were soon met by the rest of the speedy runners after a top all round session!!

Be great to have you all along next week when we continue our summer season helping Bruce the Hackney Park Ranger!

Don't forget about the last couple of Fitness 4 All sessions meeting at Bethnal Green tube at 6:45 on Thursday's June.

We (Phil) have started a Hackney WhatsApp group if you would like join it to hear about socials, group run info, races, parkrun get togethers or anything send me your number and I will add you to the group or see Phil next week!!

Talking of next week we are heading out after the group run for a drink!! Be great to have you along!!

Smooth Running

Joel