6 Leeds GoodGymers completed the Deck of Cards workout to mix up their running. The challenge was to complete 84 reps x 4 based on a Deck of Cards.

First up was Liz, who set herself the following challenge:

Hearts: Marching

Clubs: Lunges

Spades: Modified Press Ups

Diamonds: Squats

Liz was unlucky with her card shuffle when she encountered a Queen, a Jack and a 9 of Spades making 29 modified press ups in a row!

Next up were Aron and Heather who really enjoyed and had fun doing the following workout:

Hearts: Jumping Jacks

Clubs: Lunges

Spades: Mountain Climbers

Diamonds: Glute bridges

Next up was my turn, after setting the original challenge I misplaced my pack of cards so had to find a card shuffling App! I completed the following:

Hearts: Jumping Jacks

Clubs: Lunges

Spades: Mountain Climbers

Diamonds: Squats

Rob took up the challenge next, he needed extra motivation in the form of chocolate ginger biscuits to complete the challenge he had set himself:

Hearts: Burpees

Clubs: Rear Lunges

Spades: Press Ups

Diamonds: Jumping Jacks

Jokers: Chocolate Ginger Biscuits!!

Helen completed the final challenge with another difficult workout, she also had a another interesting shuffle of cards:

Hearts: Squats

Clubs: Sit ups

Spades: Burpees

Diamonds: One Leg Skips

We all had fun completing the workout and I think a few of us will incorporate this into our weekly routines!

Another glorious evening with the perfect combination of bright and sunny but not too warm for our Goodgym run, and we were returning to one of our favourite tasks for Colchester in Bloom up on Bergholt Road Allotments.

17 merry runners joined us, including Sue and Ian. There was the usual chatter in advance of the run, and we congratulated Chris for his first Marathon, Ian, Nicola and Hannah for their Alton Water 10kms, all under the hour, and Tav and Fay for completing their Leadership in Running Fitness Course.

We made our way to Bergholt road, though we did confuse Fay as backmarker when we circled back to bring the group together - clearly they're teaching something different on LiRF these days! Then we made a snake up Bergholt Road to finally arrive at the allotment.

This task was hard. The soil was really hard, and our task was to break it up and turn it over to create a bed for plants - we had 2 examples that had been completed by the Gurkha's the previous day - and we weren't to feel bad that they had managed this well when most of them were over 70. Almost everybody had a go at using the pick-axe, and we learnt the importance of bringing your hips into play to generate the power needed to break the soil up. And I even taught some of the runners what my dad taught be about using a fork to break down and turn over soil, by jumping on it to get it further into the ground to create more leverage.

As well as creating a new plant bed, a shed was built, and hundreds of bulbs were sorted. A really great array of things in 30 minutes, and as always Pam showed her appreciation by asking us back - we'll be doing another task for Colchester in Bloom next week, but she asked if we could come back every Wednesday!

After the task we got on with our impromptu social at the Bricklayers - a very last minute arrangement, but we will have our proper social next Wednesday, so please let Emily know if you'll be coming so she can book a table.

See you next week!

12 Goodgymers ran 2k and volunteered at the Marcus Garvey Library Garden

Roots Manuva

Shouts out to Avni who made it to her first GGH session (with a nudge from Ollie) and out to Nekane who’s on her way to being a coach runner here in Haringey and should get some good deeds logged soon. Give em a cheer folks

The rain drizzled as we awaited the group but we had a secret weapon.. well lucky charm shall we say. Thanks Sarah the group gelled well with a good chinwag before heading off to the task.

This week we were heading over to the Marcus Garvey Library to continue helping the Friends of Tottenham Green bring the garden back to life. And as time goes on we are definitely doing so. We’ve managed to clear lots of tall weeds, undergrowth, rubbish and other green waste which is starting to reveal whats going to be a lovely place to read once we’re done.

Highlights would be our lucky charm Sarah holding off the rain, the amount of clearing that was done along with some of the huge roots that cam out of the ground and a Darth Vader impression reminiscent of Spaceballs the movie

Oh and shouts out to Louise for baking some tasty ginger biscuits... Mmmm

Fab work guys!!

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Until next time folks - do good, stay fit & look out for the light

Hey, spring! Where did you go? It's very rude to lure us in with your pretty sun and warm weather, only to whip it away again so we have to start our runs in the cold and damp. Still, it didn't put off five runners ready to get fit and do good in Hounslow, for we are GoodGym.

We had a lovely new runner, Barry join us for the first time last night. Barry, like a total legend, has recently given up smoking, so he deserves a double cheer. Go on, GoodGym, do the double click! We also said a big well done to Andy, Toni and Dave who are all topping the Hounslow leader boards. Great work.

After a chat about the upcoming missions this weekend ( if you fancy it you can sign up here)we did a few quick stretches, and found out where everybody's favourite place in the world is - answers ranged from Spain, Tenerife, and Rome to anywhere by the sea. Lovely stuff!

It was a good two mile run to the task this week, so we set off on a nice route that meandered by the river. After no time at all we arrived at the Friends of Cathja shop in Brentford, an amazing charity that supports local people with enduring health problems. The warehouse is full to the brim with every kind of donation you could imagine, but our job this week was to sort out a towering pile of books into manageable boxes. While testing our spatial awareness we had great fun flinging bags of things over the donation mountain. We came across every book, from The Very Hungry Caterpillar (remember that?) to The Bible in Spanish, and before long we had amassed a huge pile of boxes full of books ready to sell.

We all (sort of) agreed the run back felt much shorter, maybe because we were discussing what was for dinner. While Alannah and Barry debated the merits (or not) of KFC, Andy made us feel tired as he did a couple of tough loops of hard running, and we even managed to find out a bit about the amazing history of this corner of Hounslow. A jam packed run back! After a few stretches, our Wednesday run drew to a close. But it was not without making a difference to our local community, plus getting a good long run in. Well done team! Next week we're off to help the homeless at Ealing Baptist Church, you can sign up here (and I hope you do!):

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/a-helping-hand-for-the-homeless