**Raindrops keep falling on my head

After a briefing and quick warm up helped with my lovely assistant Ash, we goodgymers braved the rain to support Heeley Development Trust at Heeley People's Park. Tonight we mulched a plenty, topping up around the Sheaf boulder and children's play area paths with working Smarter (not harder) Serg leading the way in minimising mulch travel distances passing the mulch buckets over the fence.

On completion of the task we headed back to the Showroom, with bus stop rain shelter squats sets along the way.

**Sunday, Monday, - GG days, Tuesday, Wednesday - GG days, Thursday, Friday - GG days Saturday - what a SmallParkBigRun Day, Rocking all week with you!

We have a whole week of goodgym activities ahead every day this week - check out the goodgym website group runs (and community missions), training sessions, races and parties :)

How many goodgymers can you fit into a soaked spiralhug? 15 goodgymers celebrated the rain to provide a goodgymertastic hug with Tall Tom at the centre of it :) :)

We welcomed new runner Keeleigh Scriven to tonight run, thanks for coming Keeleigh!

This week we were back off to the Picture House Social to do a mass white wash of one of the outside walls.

Chris and James were breaking bad and got together to make team tall and reach to the highest heights with the rollers.

Annie and Tom did a 'grate job'

Others brushed down the outside walls, to prep the wall for the brushers and rollers.

After a good 45mins of work, we were on a role and once we stood back you could really see the scale of what we had achieved in such a small space of time!

Once we had downed tools we headed home with a few fitness stops along the way inc lots of side steps, some sprints and a good measure of lunges before returning to base for some stretching and surprise guests...

This week we had some special visitors awaiting us in the Showroom including Lucy bearing fruit and bring us some apples from a previous task with Abundance as well as Sheffield's Lord Mayor MAGIC MAGID who wanted to swing by and say hello ahead of joining us on a run in the future.

We look forward to running with you soon MAGID.

Until next time, happy running! :)

It was a special week this week with SUPER SIONED earning her wings, having reached 100 good deeds!

Huge congrats from all!

We headed out along the ongoing refurbished 'Knowledge Gateway' in the direction of Lynwood Gardens to help GORGEOUS GARETH of REGATHER fame with ongoing works that needed completing to keep this gem of community asset in good order.

We quickly split into 3 teams;

1. TEAM RAKE

Did a fantastic job raking up a huge amount of autumn leaves and helping to nurture a very special Himalayan Birch which we learned the bark can be set on fire even when wet! #survivaltips

1. TEAM DREAMWEAVERS

Got straight to taming the wild beast of growth, delicately pruning to bring it back into order. SUPER SIONED was so committed to the task that she angelically rose up onto the shoulder of giants (well Mike) to get to the taller sections of the task.

1. TEAM RIP IT UP, CHIP IT UP

With a 'scorched earth' policy from PAPPA G, the team made quick work of taming the growth that had appeared and engulfed the fence near the entrance to the gardens. Our powerful trio of COURAGEOUS KIM, AMAZING ANDREA & CAPTIVATING CAROLINE made the shovals blur with their power and speed of shifting the chip into wheelbarrows and away to the muddy areas.

A great effort by all! Look forward to next week!

Happy Running!

On a dark and increasingly colder Sheffield night the @GGSHF crew were out in force tonight for another run out to the Abbeydale Picture House to continue with the work at this fantastic building!

Special mention to MAGIC MIKE JONES & HEROIC HANNAH MCCORMACK who were both on their 50th GG run last night. As has become customary they stylishly donned the bowties for the evening to note their fantastic achievement and commitment to @GGSHF.

WELL DONE BOTH!

We also welcomed a raft of new lovely people to @GGSHF last night, a big round of applause, woop, hola and cheers for;

• Emily Johnson
• Daniel Cooper
• Julia Barber
• Helen Quirk
• Sarah Fauller
• Yogen

Click through above to support them and start giving them a CHEER!

On arrival at the Abbeydale Picture House it became evident that due to some last min vol illness we would be slightly down on the tools available for the task, never mind, after a brief chat with SUPER SARAVERIO we hatched a plan and split the group with some staying at the venue to weed some of the raised beds and car park area, some scraping, brushing and then painting exterior walls.

Keep rollin, rollin, rollin, rollin!

The rest of us headed round the corner for some FARTLEK TRAINING in the form of SUICIDE SPRINTS using the local line of trees to help us.

We sprinted out on the way out to the first tree, then recovered on the way back to the start lampost, then went full gas again to the next tree and so on until we were all done! On return we switched places so everyone had a chance to do the task and the fitness session!

This weeks run was tagged as part of the ##RunAndTalk campaign to support World Mental Health day on Wednesday 10th October.

If you'd like to know more about the campaign please have a look at the below for more info;

https://www.englandathletics.org/clubs--community/mental-wellbeing/runandtalk

https://www.goodgym.org/stories/how-can-running-and-talking-help-my-mental-health

Many thanks to all and hope to see you all next week up at Lynwood Gardens to help REGATHER!

Happy Running :)

32 Good Gym runners ran 5k to pick apples for Abundance.

Before we headed off we gave a warm welcome to Francesca and Jen who were joining us for the first time and a round of applause to Tom 2 who was doing his 50th Good Deed – great achievement Tom.

The arrival of autumn was marked by the increasing amount of head torches and hi-vis gear as well as a noticeable chill in the air.

However, we soon warmed up under the guidance of run leader Kim, whose whistle kept piercing the Sheffield night as she gave us different exercises to do on the run to the mission. These included a raised leg walk which hadn’t been seen since John Cleese did it in Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks (Google it youngsters).

We were met by Lucy and Peter who gave us our task and told us a bit about Abundance. It is a volunteer based organisation that rescues, shares, cooks and processes fruit which may otherwise go to waste from across Sheffield. The fruit is then shared with the local community. You can find out more about Abundance at www.sheffieldabundance.wordpress.com

And if you’d like to become a volunteer by scouting, harvesting, sorting, processing or distributing fruit you can email them at abundance@growsheffield.com

There were so many of us that Kim had us split into two groups: one apple picking, the other sprinting up the road and doing even more exercises – and then swapping over.

The task concluded with a brave group of runners holding a large tarpaulin under the tree whilst Mike shook it as vigorously as he could. The result was impressive - like a firework display of apples falling to the ground. One or two runners were hit on the head, thereby reaffirming Isaac Newton’s apple inspired law of gravity.

A steady run back downhill to the Showroom, a quick stretch and a beer or two rounded off another great Sheffield GG evening.

Oh, and for those of you who were expecting lots of apple puns in this run report, sorry – other than the title there are none. Having used every apple pun I could think of in Saturday’s Apple Picking for Regather report I had no new ones left – and simply repeating them would have made a tarpaulin run report …

This week saw 23 runners descend on Heeley People's Park to help out with the on going maintenance of this awesome community open space.

After the traditional get together, count-off and group photo we headed off from the Showroom on an almost arrow straight route to the task, taking the run nice and steady not knowing what fitness antics awaited later in the evening.

We received our usual warm welcome from Fantastic Frank at the task and were swiftly split into Team Rake and Team Mulch. There was a large section of recently cut grass that required the attention of the rakes and by the end of the evening there was what looked like a hedge along the road side edge of the grass area, ready for collection the following morning. Brilliant Bee kept look out to make sure the team weren't caught slacking as Sub Steve kept an eye on proceedings. Us Sheffield Goodgymers are getting pretty experienced at spreading mulch and the team shoveling, carrying and scattering was performing like a well oiled machine within minutes! No time for chatting here as Brilliant Becca, Capacity Cat and Toiling Tom were filling buckets faster than they were being carried away. With the light quickly fading it was great to see so many head-torches lighting the way, a great reminder that these will only become more essential as we head into the darker months.

Once we had finished up, we jogged over to a nearby closed of road for the fitness session. After a quick introduction to this variation on hill sprints, where everyone had to sprint up the hill level with Steve and then jog back, there was much amazement that the first rep was only a few meters! But soon came the realisation that their marker was moving and the reps were getting longer! After a quick tweek on how to safely navigate the turn back down the hill, thanks to Guidance Grace, everyone got into the swing of things and started to push themselves really well. Running Rob and Climbing Chris deserve particular kudos for having to catch the sprinting marker at the very top of the climb. A great work out by everyone.

At this point we split into two groups for our trip back home, each with a different distance and pace planned. The first group led by Speedy Sarah and the second by me, we set off back to base. The main difference in route was a loop around SUFC football ground, which is also a segment. The #GGSHEFF ladies are owning this segment now with the fastest 6 ladies times on the Leaderboard!!! We joined the groups together again en route with a quick wall-sit-wait and then took the last km nice and steady before a final stair spring back at base.

Callisthenics Kim then lead a great stretch and we chatted through the ever busy social calendar for this week! Before we finished twins Kim and Steve were serenaded with a chorus of Happy Birthday from everyone and presented with some birthday cake which was swiftly cut up and shared around the group. Thoroughly deserved by everyone who had put real effort into this evening runs, task and hills session. Well done everyone and thanks for the cake!