Tonight we kissed the frogs!

10 goodgymers met, read maps and hopped around the town centre to give the frogs a wash…….

We started at the usual 6.30pm, this week we were joined by 2 newbies, Carole and Carolyn, thanks for frogging around with us and doing your best to run and clean the frogs, it was great to meet you both and well done for working so hard.

It was also great to see a few of you that haven’t been in a while, again thanks for coming to kiss and clean the frogs!

We set off with a little warm up with some frog themed movements that as well as looking slightly odd are actually really good hip openers, perfect for a run around the town centre.

After changing all the frogs on the map to different numbers and planning out a route to hop it all quickly changed once it was discovered *I’m not the best at reading maps (sorry!) *but we still got round to all 19 frogs, and most of them got a kiss, and they all got a good wash too.

The frogs are a great way to get people walking and discovering the town centre, there are 19 all together, each one designed by a different artist, community, business or school. Its a great creative way to get people together and makes the centre look colourful and inviting.

After each frog got a wash we ran to some of the towns historic cobbled hills, and it would have been rude not to do a few hill repeats wouldn’t it, and so thats what we did! We ran up a big hill, then back down some the stairs a small recovery section and then repeat x 3, it was tough, but you did a epic job, well done folks.

After the 3rd run we all walked it once more to get back to the start location, we slowly ran back to end with a couple of stretches to cool off and calm down.

Check out next weeks run, we will be having more fun and games, this time we will be running to a care home to play board games!

Thanks to everyone that attended last night, you were** froggin** wonderful and *hoppin *mad!

Enjoy your week, Lisa xxx

Tonight 8 runners joined in at Goodgym Stockport. It was our smallest run to date as we were running to stockport womens centre which is just 2 streets away, but we did need the energy to tackle the garden.

We have visited the womens centre last year so we knew where we were going and what we were doing, so once we arrived we got to it with the tools and gloves and started to de-weed and tidy up.

* Tonight we were joined by our lovely newbie *Catherine, welcome to the crew! Dont be fooled by tonights running distance, it wont be that short every week, but we also dont waddle walk every week either. Also a massive hello to Matt and Pauline from lovely Liverpool, great to see you both again and for once again bringing your positive vibes with you.

We had 45 minutes to cut down the long grass, sort out the flower beds and rip out the weeds around the centre. And thats just what we did, and in the mist of the grass we found lovely little wild strawberries that we planted in one of the overgrown flower beds. We also pulled out a huge weed out make a lovely corner space, and as well as the back of the centre Pauline and Matt did a wonderful job or de-weeding and cleaning up the front of the building.

As well as the strawberries we also found a bar of chocolate in the overgrown grass, now imagine if that chocolate bar grew!!!!

After we had got the area looking tidy we had 15 minutes for a fitness session, we had a 3 minute run circuit with some face speeds, co-ordination and agility work, then a 7 exercise circuit, each runner had to pick a exercise while they did a run, from looking at everyone it was enjoyed?? Who doesn’t love burpees and waddle walking???

After all the fun was over we headed back, just a short run back then a few stretches. Dont forget next week we are off to kiss some frogs, but we are going to clean them first! Its going to be hopping fun………

Have a great week folks, happy running, Lisa x x

What a gorgeous evening for a run and a good deed. The sun was once again shining and 7 goodgymers had their laces fastened ready to run and do good.

The run was the longest we have had planned for a while, just over 11km in total, not the best timing after the Manchester 10k and half marathon over the weekend, but we did it, and with a smile.

Knowing it was a long one we did a quick name and number shout out, set up watch’s and off we tootled.

The task was already pre-organised, I had met the lovely Gemma from Re:Dish the week before to collect the flyers to distribute, the flyers were to be posted in the ‘Poets corner’ area of Reddish, trying to engage the local community to get involved and see what services are on offer.

The flyers were to promote a FREE health and wellbeing event to be held on Tuesday the 28th May, 12-4pm at the Barstow centre in Reddish.

The event has lots going on with a variety of health and wellness professionals to help and provide information, Age UK, MIND, NHS Just to name a few.

The event is to provide information and support for local residents, there will be fitness talks and demonstrations from football to yoga to a bit of tai chi! Free gym passes will also be available. Some of the other supporters that will be attending are: Reddish Library, ARC, Heatons Art Group, local walking groups, SPACE Stockport and Educate.

With the run be a long one there was no time for any fitness play, but we did have time to chat, and over the last few weeks there has been organic talk of running and the state of mind we all get in, how difficult we can sometimes find it trying to re-engage with running, trying to eat the correct diet and basically how we beat ourselves up for not being the best, when in actual fact we should be being kinder to ourselves.

Our goodgym community isn’t just about the running, its about supporting each other, and that support comes in many shapes, helping and supporting each other on the actual weekly run, supporting each other at events, through training, on how to be kind to yourself, how to look after your body and listen to it, when to rest, and when to get up and push yourself.

My point it, were not your average running club, were a community!

Thanks for a wonderful week of running guys, well done to everyone who got involved in the Manchester 10K and the half. Big shout to Anne who completed her goal of running her first half marathon, and raining over £500 for the Wellspring. It was fab to see a few of you down at the event, and I’m looking forward to more in the future.

Have a great week, happy running,

Lisa x x

Ps: im emailing today about the box!!!!!!

11 energetic goodgymers ran** 5km** to Beechwood cancer care centre just outside the town centre. We had a mini circuit warm up to get all muscles working so we could paint the walls of the centre with gusto.

It was a funny weather kind of run, with a feeling of rain on its way but actually pretty warm. We hot footed it to the centre which was just under 2.5km away, it felt like we were lightning running to get away from the possibility of rain.

Once we are arrived at Beechwood we were greeted by the Colette Kelly, the lovely engagement and development manager, she briefed up on the evenings task and also told us how grateful the centre were to have our help, recently they have had to have a re-shuffle of rooms to fit the amount of people having various therapies and so a few rooms needed a freshen up. On arrival the room was a washed out green colour that was well used and had lots of marks, our job was to neutralise the room, and make it back into a calming and relaxed space. Between us with a bit of music and Goodgym magic we painted the ceiling white and the walls a lovely oat cream colour, as ever it always amazes me how quickly we can get these tasks done.

After we had completed the task and admired our work we set off for the run back to Lifeleisure for a stretch off and cool down, the rain held off and we were all pretty warm so the pace slowed ever so slightly.

This week is was great to meet newbie Sarah, who has just completed the London marathon!! Well done lovely lady, it was fabulous to hear your inspiring stories and also the run club story, which wasn’t too inspiring as you were left not feeling welcome, I really hope we showed you that all run clubs are not the same!

It was also great to have Simon back after a few weeks off with a injury, welcome back mr, hope your legs are good today……..

Also good to hear that Martin and Amy made it over to Sheffield for the annual pub plog and community mission on Sunday, i heard it was great fun.

This week Anne posted a message in the WhatsApp group about a event happening on Thursday may 9th 7-8.30pm at Stockport Sports Village, its a running workshop delivered by Steve Vernon who is the coach of the New Balance team, its £5 to attend, however I’ve just sent a cheeky email seeing if we can have a deal? Ill let you all know in the WhatsApp group.

Good luck with everyones training for the Manchester 10k and the half for the 19th May, a fair few of us are going so its going to be a good un!

Thanks everyone for your painting effort, as ever you did a great job, Have a great week running and moving,

Lisa xx

13 fab runners ran 6 km on a beautiful sunny evening to help out the Heatons Centre.

As the Trainer of GoodGym Liverpool, a trip to our neighbouring GoodGym Stockport was long over due. So with their usual Trainer Lisa on her jollies, I was the substitute teacher. Gladly, I was met with a warm welcome. While Lisa enjoys the sandy beaches of Ibiza, she left us with a packed of sandpaper!

Our task was to sand down flaky handrails outside the Heatons Centre, the base for Signposts, a local charity supporting unwaged carers of all ages in the Stockport area. With some vigorous sanding techniques, our sandpaper didn't last for too long. But we did the best we could with limited resources and the handrails were left a lot smoother than when we arrived. Great work team!

Shout out to newbie Hayley - I hope you enjoyed your first time with GoodGym. I'm sure Lisa would love to meet you next week. Thanks also to Pauline and Emma who accompanied me from Liverpool and earned their Scout badge.

After completing the task I wanted to know what team Stockport is made of so I worked them hard on a fitness task with some strengthening and conditioning drills. We also enjoyed a little sprinting. The run back was mostly downhill and I managed to remember the route back without any assistance!

Thanks for having me Stockport, hope to see you again sometime. Normal service will resume next week.

*Happy running,

Char <3*

P.S. You can sign up for the Liverpool Spring 10km here :)