33 GoodGymers ran between 3-6km, made beds for the homeless and helped Skip Garden!

Thanks and welcome to all the new people that came this week; Chloe, Pierre, Enrica, Joanna, Marium and Emma. We also had a photographer and journalist from Runaway Mag, article and pictures to be released soon.

In the news this week:

1. Tom Benson is organising the GG race team monthly time trial on Sunday in Victoria Park if you want to take part. Full details here.
2. Next week is the GG monthly social, we're on tour down to Lewisham. More details here, it's gonna be good!
3. The BIGGEST TASK of the year is next week helping Grounded Ecotherapy lift and carry cement mix at the Southbank Centre on the Thames. SIGN UP HERE

C4WS Task by Frances:

Frances and Pritesh led 15 GoodGymers back to C4WS to help them make beds for the homeless shelter. It's a quick and simple job for us, but a great help to the volunteers organising the shelter.

Quick & simple

Most of the people in the group were either new to GoodGym, new to the homeless shelter, or in Axel’s case, new to making beds. Everyone got stuck in and made the beds in super-speedy time before we headed over to Granary Square to meet the others – ready for the Time Trial!

Skip Garden Task:

Fifteen of us headed to Skip Garden near Granary Square to help Global Generation. Our tasks this time:

1. Moving planters, pots, tables and bags of soil around the garden. This was like a massive game of jenga.
2. Turn the compost machine and sieve the contents to use as mulch in the garden.

We split into teams, got lots done and rotated the teams - well done everyone! After finishing our 'tasking' Gwen explained about Skip Garden and Global Generation the charity who runs it, here is some of what we found out:

• Existed for 12 years across four different sites in Kings Cross
• The team work with young people in the community to educate them on alternative living
• They keep bees who make lovely honey & there is a HONEY CLUB
• Also they keep chickens who provide lovely eggs for the cafe :)

Fitness:

First off we did a series of strength and conditioning exercises, including squats, press ups, tricep dips and plenty more. We mixed this up with some intervals and balancing exercises.

90 degree angle PLEASE

With both groups now combined we moved onto arm technique. When running your arms are as important as your legs, they are vital for efficiency and power. So to develop our arm technique we got into pairs and practised powering our arms at a 90 degree angle, have an open chest and no crossing of the arms!

Next we moved onto our monthly Time Trial - 880 metres around Granary Square. Everyone did brilliantly! Nice arms! I have a record of everyone's time, if you would like yours please just let me know. I'll be keeping an eye on times over the coming trials and I can keep you updated on your progress.

Sign up for next week here, we are breaking out of Camden and heading to the Southbank Centre to help Grounded Ecotherapy. It's a fantastic task,a really great charity and a big workout - come along and tell your mates too - it'll be a great intro to GoodGym for them!

PB out.

An amazing 23 GoodGymers ran between 4-10km, delivered 150 leaflets for Abbey Community Centre and shifted two tons of gravel for Skip Garden!

Welcome along to Sian and Harriet whose first time it was at GoodGym, great to have you along and seeing you get stuck in!

In the news this week: 1. Well done to all the Regent's Park 10k-ers and Tom Benson for doing the Grim last weekend! Some amazing PBs, first-timers and mud in there! 2. There is the GG London Christmas Party tomorrow and the GG Camden Christmas Party next Wednesday, we are planning to go for a meal after the group run next week. Please sign up by tomorrow so we can book a table. 3. Tom Benson and GG Race Team are organising the first monthly time trial at Battersea Park on Sunday! It's gonna be great! Sign up here

Onto the reports from last night. Skip Garden report below:

After an active warm up 12 of us headed to Skip Garden, which is managed by Global Generation, to help shift 2 tons of (not so pea) gravel around the garden.

Not pea gravel, bean gravel?

Gwen from Skip Garden explained the task and the need for the gravel to be spread over the garden in preparation for their FIRE FEAST this Friday. We particularly had to focus on the entrance, between the skips and around some of the buildings. We split into the following teams - shovellers, lifters and rakers!

Everyone got really stuck in and we were done after 30 minutes of shovel, carry, rake, repeat! Before leaving Gwen explained the amazing work Global Generation do with providing projects for children and an alternative perspective of life in the middle of King's Cross.

Onto to the fitness session, it went something like this:

1. Progression run around Granary 'Rectangle'
2. Three conditioning exercises using the benches
3. Interval run around the fountains
4. Two balancing exercises that engage the glutes
5. Final progression run around Granary 'Rectangle'

Abbey Community Centre report by Pritesh:

On the penultimate GoodGym Camden of 2016 we headed up to one of our favourite places – Abbey Community Centre. Close to the outskirts of Camden borough, ten of us headed out knowing we’d get 10k under our belts tonight and we were going to a party too!

We took our usual route heading over primrose hill, stopped for a breather and took in the view and made it with good time to the centre! Abbey were having their volunteer Christmas party and amid many offers of snacks, water and other more ‘fun’ drinks we found Laura who had our task ready for us! We had 150 leaflets to deliver to a local estate letting them know of the upcoming activities for 2017. We decided we would head on our way and get the task done before we partook in any merriment

Party!

Steve had leafleted on the Rowley Way estate previously so he told us the best way to go about getting the leaflets out and we split into pairs and were off. It didn’t take us long to get them all delivered and after a few photos (including in front of the best Christmas display ever!) we headed back to the community centre.

Christmas display

One of the community centre volunteers told us how much of a difference the work we did for them and that they had seen a number of new faces at the centre since we had helped with some leafleting drives previously – so good to get feedback and to know that we are making a difference.

We had a bit of time so took in some refreshments and then headed back to base! Excellent night and a pleasure to lead as always.

Thanks to everyone that came, next week is the last GG Camden of the year and our Christmas meal, sign up here.

PB out.