Yesterday evening after our busy days at work, Simon, Alison and Emily made their way to meet head gardener Dom at Mildmay Community Centre for about an hour of garden clear-up. The Mildmay is an incredible hub of activity just located off Newington Green- it is also a listed Passiv Haus, a completely carbon neutral building for the local neighbourhood. There is even a recording studio downstairs, where members of The Noisettes were actually rehearsing as we were gardening!

We began with some weed whacking with an electric driven strimmer, while keeping our distance from other Goodgymmers. This certainly helped to clear a lot of the immediate grass and undergrowth, but some of the bushes and brambles proved to be heavy going. Luckily, we also had some rakes and forks available to assist with shifting the green waste off these steep sloped gardens.

Unfortunately, after about half an hour of gardening, the heavens opened, and we deemed that it would have been dangerous for us to continue working on a slippery wet slope, and definitely not good for electrical strimming! We packed up our progress, and bagged the weeds we had collected before calling it a night. Top stuff, folks!

We will return next Friday evening (same time, same place- 6pm) to help with some more garden clear ups!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/mildmay-community-centre-gardening-workout-ff79727d-7876-4707-959e-e9fbb18b0b8d

12 hardy Goodgym folks joined us last evening (narrowly avoiding the 10 minute hail storm) for what proved to be a lovely double task combo night! Quite a few of our regulars admitted that they were in recovery after some sterling performances at the Big Half on Sunday (too many to list here!), but we still had two super capable teams (including some GG tourists from Lambeth and Camden- welcome!) available to help at Mildmay Community Centre and The Rose Bowl Youth Centre. For the count-off, we asked the question: "Shorts or Leggings- pick one!". The results were:

• 8 for Leggings
• 3 for Shorts
• 1 for "Both, as I am demonstrating tonight..."

MILDMAY COMMUNITY CENTRE

Trainer Simon lead the 3.5 mile run to Mildmay Community Centre, via Highbury Fields, Canonbury (past the Snooty Fox) and towards Newington Green. Upon our arrival, we tentatively introduced ourselves to the staff (who were in the middle of a meeting), grabbed our gloves, and made our way to the distinctive sloped garden behind the building. Mildmay Community Centre is a super unique organisation, and uses a completely carbon neutral Passiv-Haus as their main base. Maintaining a seasonal garden for their visitors is really important to the group, and our job involved protecting the green space after the abundance of storms and bad weather.

Our task involved laying black tarpaulin onto the soft muddy growing patches, to allow the ground to recover after the rain. Half of our group stayed at the top of the slope, and dropped the material down to the rest of the team, who stationed themselves at the bottom, and took it in turns to hammer the sheeting down with pegs. The job reminded a few of our team members of camping with friends, and pitching tents as part of a group.

Mildmay Community Centre were amazed at how much work we covered in such a short amount of time, and have invited us to come back anytime! We even met a few cat friends towards the end of our task, who were curious about the strange red t-shirt people in their garden.

ROSE BOWL YOUTH CENTRE

Taskforce member Aidan took the second group over to the Rose Bowl Youth Centre, just past St Paul's Way (a classic GG Islington task), where the team met up with Dawn, the lovely volunteer coordinator and general good egg!

Goodgymmers set about cleaning and sweeping the main play area ready for various sports groups throughout the week, and a few of our team started cutting down some over-hanging branches near the main entrance of the site. However, the key task that Goodgym Islington will be assisting with over the next month involves helping to build a sensory area for autistic youngsters. Our team helped out with the early stages of the construction (based near the triangular wooden hut near the tool shed, for folks who have visited the centre before), mostly clearing out the space after the recent storms. We have been promised some sawing and hand-on building work for when we return on the 16th March!

Both teams returned to the Arsenal Hub at almost the same time, and we all engaged in some group stretches together whilst chatting. Trainer Simon brought out some accidentally vegan bourbon biscuits, and we set off into the night.

Cracking stuff, folks! See you next week!

NEWS

Monthly Social with GG Islington!

After next week's task at Sunnyside Community Centre (Monday 9th March), we will be heading over to the Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road for a 2-for-1 pizza, drinks and good times!

The Victoria Tavern, 203 Holloway Rd, London N7 8DL

Sign up to this event page for more information!

Goodgym Camden Takeover!

Trainer Simon has been asked to cover Goodgym Camden on Wednesday 11th March- leading the session, and directing our runners to C4WS Homeless Action or to Cecil Sharp House- two great organisations in Central London.

If you fancy some Goodgym tourism with some familiar faces, sign up here for more information!

CREOS March Community Mission (Crouch End Open Space)

If you have never done a community mission before, this monthly project is a great one to get involved with!

The friends of CREOS have been maintaining a green space for over 50 years, keeping it available to the public and allowing the neighbourhood to ensure it is in good shape. Loads of volunteers from around the area will pitch in with gardening projects, and loads of Goodgym runners from all different boroughs will be present for a regular catch up.

A picnic always follows this task, with snacks, hot drinks and occasionally something a bit stronger on offer!

Sunday 15th March, starting at 11am. Come on down, and sign up here!

The Arc Centre Deep Clean and Free Fitness Session

On Sunday 22nd March, GG Islington have been asked to help out The Arc Community Centre with some bi-monthly cleaning and tidying tasks- a great indoor activity to wrap up the weekend.

In return, we have access to the main hall and the accompanying gardens before the the task. Trainer Simon will be offering a free all abilities circuit training session before we start with the cleaning duties. Strength and conditioning are under valued pursuits for a lot of runners, and we will be introducing some simple body weight exercises you can do as part of a group (the best way IMHO!) or in your own free time.

The Arc Centre, 98b St Paul Street. London N1 7DF

Sign up here to get involved! It will be great fun.

Double deeds! It's a two task combo!

Absolutely gorgeous evening for running and doing good last night- We had 19 runners at each of our tasks (including first timer and local runner Julianne, who spotted us running past her house a while back, and decided to see what we were about! Welcome, and thanks for coming down!). Massive congratulations to our race participants last weekend- Task force runners Patrick and Steve C for running PBs at the Yorkshire Marathon (and Steve winning his overall age category!), and Kike for running and cycling the Cowman Duathalon. Awesome and inspiring stuff, folks!

Before heading off to our task locations, we discussed our podcast and listening habits, particularly whilst running- lots of podcast suggestions from the group (surprisingly no running podcasts!). Some top options included:

• Reasons to be Cheerful
• Passenger List
• My Dad Wrote A Porno
• 99% Invisible
• The Brexitcast
• Anything by Brian Ferry...

(please add other suggestions in the comments below!)

We proceeded to perform a few warm up drills on the slope next to the Emirates Hub (leg rotations, open-close gates, lunges and leg swings), and then we separated into two groups for our tasks.

Mildmay Community Centre

Steve Coman lead Group 1 over to Mildmay Community Centre, near Newington Green, meeting Mustafa, the volunteer coordinator and head gardener at the door. The centre itself is an award winning "Passivhaus", or completely eco-friendly site, operating as a hub for the North London community- looking forward to working on their new cafe investment next year- watch this space! Our Goodgymmers set to work on clearing ivy from the surrounding fences, and brushing up the leaves from the main entrance and exits to the centre. It was a relatively quick turnaround, so our group was treated to tea, biscuits and bombay mix, before taking a slightly extended fun jog back to base.

Ramsey Flowers N1

Group 2 was lead by trainer Simon, Frances and Steve Lee, approaching Ramsey Flowers N1, near St Paul's Walk. We had a variety of tasks around the gardens and around the connecting public footpath- the area needs to be ready for the group's annual Pumpkin Carving event for the local children. Our team set about planting lots of fresh plants, recently picked up from Columbia Road Market, and then sweeping and raking all of the flower beds and pavements to clear the path for local residents. All of the green waste was then collected and dropped off next to the Rose Bowl Youth Centre (another one of our regular tasks).

Amazing work everyone, we made a real difference to both of these locations!

News

Social Pizza and Drinks next week!

After our task at Single Homeless Project next week (sign up here, you are welcome to join us for 2-for-1 pizza and drinks at the Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road.

GG 10 Year Anniversary Social

Talking about get-togethers, there will be a big party on 8th November, celebrating 10 years of Goodgym, and marking Pritesh Mistry's final event as social secretary. Sign up here, and give him an awesome send-off for his years of organising good times!

Halloween Headtorch Run

Tis the season for spooky stuff! Come and join Trainer Simon for a dark, creepy but ultimately stunning run around Hampsted Heath on Halloween night, setting off from the Bull and Gate pub in Kentish Town at 8pm. 7 miles total distance- headtorch required! If you have never run in the woods with a torch before, it is great fun, and this would be a perfect opportunity to try it with Goodgym friends. Sign up here!

It is my pleasure to announce that 21 lovely Goodgymmers joined us for Simon Fitzmaurice's first outing as GoodGym Islington's new trainer, and ran to fix up an overgrown garden at the amazing Mildmay Community Centre. Great to see familiar faces, Goodgym tourists (Thanks Nurjehan!) and new participants (Becca, Caitlin and Gerry- welcome everyone) getting stuck in!

Shout outs to the Goodgymmers who helped out at the Crouch End Open Space over the weekend- the well-deserved picnic looked delicious. More information can be found here.

If anyone fancies a long social training run (not for setting PBs!) next weekend, Trainer Simon will be leading the Goodgym Monthly Long Run on Sunday, a route called "The Tour of the Docklands". 10km, 10 mile and 16 mile distances are available, starting from Greenwich and finishing in Stratford Olympic Park, passing loads of River Thames landmarks on the way. Sign up here if you want to get involved!

After a few warm-up exercises, and learning everyone's favourite biscuit preferences (I think Dark Chocolate Hobnob was the most popular...), our crew ran through Highbury Fields Park and past Newington Green to Mildmay Community Centre, and were greeted by Mus, the head gardener for this evening's task. Armed with secateurs and trowels, the team uprooted weeds and snipped back thistles and thorns from the main garden area at the site, whilst concentrating on staying upright on a steep slope! Lots of really impressive teamwork on display, and we ended up with loads of bags full of green waste by the end of our session.

The Mildmay Community Centre is a fascinating building- the whole place is fully sustainable and eco-friendly, boasting a roof full of solar panels for everyday energy usage, green gardening spaces and rain water receptacles to store water for the plants. Some really exciting projects are coming up, so we will be sure to return soon.

Just a reminder- next weeks task to Caledonian Park will start at a different location due to the Bank Holiday. Our start location will be:

The Arc Centre 98b St Paul Street London N1 7DF

(Nearest tube stations are: Highbury & Islington or Angel)

Have a fantastic week! Happy Running! See you soon!

What a balmy evening! Not quite the best weather for running, well done to everyone who came! Welcome to Elen who ran their first GoodGym group run and Sarah, Rob, Nancy and Sarah who were tourist-ing from other areas!

We had two great organisations to help out tonight:

Thornhill Square Gardens

A great garden that we love to visit, they are preparing for an open event on Friday. The open day includes an open cinema, yoga sessions, gardening and planting with the children and many more games and activities!

9 of us headed over to meet up with Christopher, to help them prepare the garden. The area where the children will be planting needed clearing, de-weeding and de-thistling. Another of the areas needed some TLC with its woven border. Tools and gloves at the ready, the place was soon looking grand.

Things we learnt; a compost bin can be made more fun if its hidden in a secret garden, Claire is a proud supporter of the poppy, Chris and Meg have a future in plant weaving.

Mildmay Community Centre

James explains all:

A group of us ran over to Mildmay Community Centre where we were greeted by gardener-in-chief Mus, who instantly won us over with fresh plums, a choice of still or sparkling water, and handwear galore. We were feeling the glove.

We then split up into smaller groups and got to work around the centre’s garden areas. One group got stuck into weeding a large area of steeply pitched bank area. This was basically extreme gardening and will probably show up soon as an event at the X Games.

Meanwhile three of us ferried compost from a mound on one side of the garden to the base of a row of trees at the top of the previously mentioned Very Steep Slope. They deposited fresh compost at what is basically the summit of a mountain - you might call it a precipitous drop off. Once they’d survived this endeavour, they got to work weeding around the base of the gardens several planters.

Another three ventured slightly further afield to the back of the centre where they tackled a vine that was draped elegantly up the side of the building. They de-draped the vine with vim and vigour, and various tools.

We then all got together again for a group photo and Mus gave us each a lovely flower clipping to take away.

And finally...

All meeting back at the number one stadium Emirates for stretching and biscuiting.

Biscuit of the week: Bourbon

Feedback: needs milk. Beaten by Ginger biscuits

Paul is back next week. See you all soon!

20 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help Ramsey Flowers Group and Mildmay Community Centre!

Welcome along to Haus, Amelia and Heather whose first time it was last night - woop woop!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Graham who did Finsbury Park 5k on Friday and Sally who did the Maverick 15k on Saturday!
2. This Saturday is the Night of the PB's - more details here and sign up to volunteer here.
3. We've got a couple of Community Missions coming up: helping CREOS and Notting Hill Genesis

Mildmay Community Centre Report:

A group of us ran to Mildmay Community Centre where the very well prepared gardener took us out to the garden where we'd be working. After everyone eventually found a left and a right glove we got to it - weeding around the edge of several planters, removing ivy from a fence line, and clearing the ground around a rare apple tree then surrounding it with fresh compost.

Weed-free

There was talk of a competition to see which of the planters could be rendered the most terrifically weed-free, but in the end it was pretty obvious that we'd all put in a winning performance. Nice work team.

Ramsey Flowers N1 Report:

Ten of us headed to Ramsey Flowers N1, which are a local group who look after the area behind the Rose Bowl - including St Paul's Walk. We met Becky who gave us a few tools and bags, and then tasked us with wedding and sweeping the park area.

We focused a lot on generally cutting things back and tidying up the borders of the flower beds. During our tidy up we saw Dawn and people from Rose Bowl, they are lookikg forward to us helping next week. Over 30 minutes we got tons done, bagging up 7 bags of weeds and debris.

Next we took on a conditioning and sprints game, took a group picture and ran home. An all around great evening of Goodgym!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping the Single Homeless Project and Rose Bowl.

PB out