It was busy, busy, busy right from the off at GoodGym last night, so let's start off with a bit of a roundup...

Firstly a huge, GoodGymmy happy birthday with a crown on top to our lovely Michelle. Hope you have the best day - we'll let you off the squats (for this week only!).

Congratulations to Alan who is the newest and shiniest member of our elite taskforce!

On Saturday, do you fancy a parkrun/gardening double? Then join Jonny in Fulham for just the thing!

Sunday is the day of our very first West London scavenger race! Meet at Furnival Gardens at 10:45 for an 11am start. Challenge yourself to cover the distance picking up clues to your final destination - racing against other GGers! This will be a lighthearted, fun event which you can run, walk or cycle and will test both your legs and brains! Join us at the end for some refreshments and possibly a prize or two. Sign up here.

After going through all the fun stuff that is happening, we headed over to Chiswick House for our regular visit to lend a hand in the gardens. This week we were met by Connor who took us to the sheds and introduced us to the biggest pile of wood chips we had ever seen. Our task for the evening was to shift the pile over to another area in the grounds to be raked out.

We got straight to work filling buckets which we soon found out were light enough, but generated some serious heat! While we accompanied the trailer to the site, Lucy and Kymm got busy pulling weeds and Michelle had her rake ready.

After 45 minutes of hard work we were ready for a nice, gentle mobility for runners session , so made our way to the green outside the beautiful Orangery. We worked though lots of different moves that opened our hip flexors, increased the range of motion of other joints, reduced stiffness and strengthened muscles. Thanks to Emily for demonstrating the perfect pigeon!

Next week we're lending a hand at Strand on the Green school, hope to see you there for more fun and fitness!

(ps if you'd ever like a group fitness session focused on something specific such as form, speed, mobility, strength or a certain muscle group just drop me a message and I'll make it happen!)

There may not have been five of us, or a crowd of adoring fans waiting for us when we arrived at the gates of Strand on the Green school, but that didn’t stop Luis, Kymm and I rolling out our greatest hits this morning.

As this is the first of two sessions planned for August at the school we had a list of jobs to choose from.

We agreed we should tackle a task we could complete and see what else we could start on, before the group session in a couple of weeks.

So with that we got rocking and rolling, emptying a trailer into the rocky play area and clearing the stones that had spilled from the area back where they belong. Task completed: Satisfaction.

After that there was time to start clearing the Ivy from the perimeter of the school garden.

We will be back to finish the Ivy and holly bush clearing, along with some sanding of benches and a wall on 21st August and you can sign up here https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/lending-a-hand-at-strand-on-the-green-4c107a66-1cee-43c5-b3b6-4187553b2979

Last night 11 Goodgymers ran, walk or cycled our way to Chiswick Allotments to help with clearing the plot donated by Chiswick Horticultural Society, for Hounslow Community Foodbox to grow fresh produce for food parcels.

A big welcome to Georgia joining for her first session with Goodgym, and great to have Eric and Kymm back for more good deeding.

Karoush showed us the section of the allotment that needed attention and there was a demo of efficient weeding and turning over the soil for anyone who needed it, before we got stuck in.

There was no time to waste and there was no signs of anyone feeling sluggish at Hounslow last night. Just under an hour later we had cleared most of the area under the picnic bench and relocated some slippery creatures with and without shells 🐌 so the area should soon be ready for planting.

Footnote: no slugs or snails were harmed (or consumed) during the task last night. Despite what some might have you believe in these photos!

We’ll be back at the allotments to help foodbox again in the coming weeks so look out for future tasks.

This Saturday we’re heading over to Strand on the Green school to help them out with lots of jobs, if you’re free why not come along and join us - sign up here https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/sanding-benches-ready-for-painting-4e9f1bd2-c73e-4ffd-9706-5177a8bd79e6

The stars aligned last night at GoodGym Hounslow, when a water based task coincided with one of the hottest days of the year!

Our job for the evening was to wash the much-loved mural at Turnham Green Station.This piece of art work depicting the changing map of Hounslow from the 1500s to the present day was created by a Chiswick charity, Abundance. It brightens up the bridge and is a famous landmark in the area. But it has got pretty grimy thanks to passing traffic and pesky pigeons.

So after a short run when we were joined by some lovely faces we hadn't seen in a little while (great to have you back!), we headed to meet Katy from the charity, who was waiting for us with sponges, buckets and a hose. Some of us took a more, shall we say, 'circuitous' route.In my defence, when you're running in the sunshine with pals it's easy to get distracted!

We all grabbed our implement of choice and started sponging, wiping and buffing. While Gus took care of the high bits, Kash, Paul and Steph developed a very effective bucket washdown technique which left us (mostly) dry. We worked methodically, scrubbers out front, bucketers next, squeegeers following and buffers bringing up the rear. That way there was no danger of dirty water running down and ruining our good work. We got plenty of love from passers by, and lit by the late sun, transformed the mural from smeared to shiny in 45 minutes. There is no better way to spend an evening.

Taking advantage of the lovely temperature we headed over to Turnham back common for our fitness element. Last night it was dynamic floor based exercises. The frog swipes might have proved a little challenging, but everybody had their own version which I'm sure was just as effective. We then moved on to various other drills including plank dips, roll downs, glute bridges and finished off with a hectic round of duck duck goose. Variety is the spice of life after all!

Next week I'm away so instead of a group run we'll be having a community mission on Wednesday evening led by Tish. The task is to help out at the allotments supporting a project between the growers there and Hounslow foodbox. You can easily meet for an informal run together at the Town Hall at 6:30 or directly at the task at 6:45.