It was a small but sweet trio this week! We longingly waited until 5:45 in anticipation that some more might join, but eventually decided that Easter and the bank holiday must have stolen our fellow GoodGym runners away from London .. i.e swanning off on yet another ski holiday (cough, Alyx, cough).

We heard about Frances' exciting trip to Bucharest for the GoodGym half marathon and chatted about how her training was coming along; last week she ALMOST completed the distance, only short by a mere 10 metres! We have great faith that she will manage that last push in May (ha) - let's all give her a cheer to keep morale high!

We started the run with a warm up outside before heading through the strand and up Southampton Row towards Goodge Street. With some nifty ducks and weaves on the busy pavements, we managed to keep up quite a pace with there only being the three of us.

Maria was waiting for us in the window at the YMCA shop and welcomed us in with a huge smile and cold water straight from the fridge - absolute hun! She was ready with the polish and dusters upstairs on the shop floor, so Frances got straight to work making everything look spick and span. She even admitted how much she was enjoying herself: "it's so satisfying when you can see how much dust you gather on the cloth!" So we all know who to seek help from for our spring cleans :)

Meanwhile Lindsay and I were downstairs helping out behind the scenes, sorting through donations, sizing, hanging and steaming (also a guilty pleasure). We found a few good, and a few erm, interesting garms as we went... As we were leaving I spotted my hat from last time, so it would have been rude not to get another snap with my fellow musketeers: Lindsay AKA Rhianna ft. Umberella, and Frances aka Duran Duran ft. 'howling' like a wolf. (See pics...)

En route back we stopped at Russell Square for a speedy circuits round including some tricep dips, press ups, jump squats, lunges and a lap around the park and finished with a cool down back at Kings. I introduced the girls to the hip flexor stretch - great for runners and people who spend extended periods sitting down.

Good work today gals! We hope to see some more faces next week, old or new! :)

Tonight seven brave souls braved the Arctic blizzard and ran a 5km round trip to the YMCA Shop by Goodge Street to have a spring clean, sort through new donations and help with some admin.

I was excited to be leading my first group run, and we welcomed a new runner for their first time run - Rebecca – don’t you think she has earned a cheer?!

After a small hiccup at the beginning unable to secure our belongings, Katrien saved the day (woo Katrien!) and we soon had our stuff stowed away safely in Somerset House and began our warm up in the court yard. It was very icy underfoot, so we practised small foot patterns that we could maintain on the run to prevent any slips! We made our way up Drury Street, passing the British Museum and then on towards Goodge Street. We made sure to fill any gaps at traffic lights or road crossings with squats and lunges! When we arrived at the YMCA shop Maria was very excited to greet us and she already had a plan of all the jobs that needed doing so we got straight to work. Ernie and Katrien did an awesome job of dusting the shop floor and making every single shiny surface glimmer like it had never glimmered before - great work guys!! Meanwhile, Rebecca and Michael got stuck in to sorting new donations and tediously finding the right coat hanger size to hang everything on (to only realise just before we left that there was a huge box of size labels sat right next to them!!). Jill was on cloud 9 with the steamer, she just couldn’t believe that something so simple could so easily make all of the wrinkles disappear! We know what’s going to be at the top of Jill’s Christmas list this year… Last but not least, Sophie helped Maria with some important admin tasks and labelling, which she was ever so grateful for.

We couldn't resist not having a little dress up and dance to the YMCA!

On the run back we went via Russell Square, where we found the grass was less slippery so could crank up the speed. We split into two teams for a relay race while those waiting danced elegantly around some trees, and finished off with a team sprint where Michael found his time to shine! I think it’s safe to say that everyone was happy to get their heart rate up and blood pumping after a more careful tiptoeing jog on the icy pavements.

Such great work today team, even in the icy and cold conditions. Maria was super happy with the work we achieved at the shop, and NOONE FELL OVER YAAAY!!!!

Remember that we have a one-off run this Thursday to the Oasis farm, which will be led by Sophie at midday from the Waterloo gym on Stamford Street.

Tonight we visited the YMCA Shop by Goodge Street to help them sort through some of their vintage and new donations. It was a 5km round trip, so we got lots of miles under our belts to get even further past our January target of 100km, which we had already surpassed before tonight’s group run took place!

We welcomed a new runner for their first ever group run - Hannah – don’t you think she has earned a cheer?!

After some brief introductions, and with a busy central London run ahead of us, we set off quickly for a night of running and doing good!

The task: We made our way up past Covent Garden and Fitzrovia until we got to Goodge Street, where we were greeted by Usukh at the YMCA Charity Shop. She showed us where they stored all their donations and split us up into groups to complete all the different tasks she has prepared. We had one group checking CDs and DVDs for scratches, one hanging all the new clothing donations onto hangers, and one lucky group tidying up the shop floor, and choosing new attire for the mannequins. Whilst singing a little bit of YMCA - Village People (you can enjoy it too, below), we got all our tasks done!

On the run back we practiced some sprinting techniques, focussing on that backwards arm drive, and warming up all those leg muscles.

Tonight was great fun - see you next week, when we will be helping out an awesome charity who feed and educate the homeless. We’ll be packing up some of their food collections into boxes for easy transportation!