18 Goodgymers ran 5km to help Octopus Community Gardeners up in Archway

Thanks to Graham and Steve Lee who've covered for me while I was on holiday for the last couple of weeks, it's great to be back and running with you guys.

Welcome along to the newbies for this week - Mustafa, Ellie and Hollie - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Dom is organising a long run this weekend if you'd like to go - more details here.
2. Next Monday we are meeting at the Arc Centre and not the Arsenal Hub as it is a bank holiday.

After warming up we headed north towards Archway, hitting the back streets as soon as possible. We found Fran from Octopus Community Gardeners, a group that volunteer to help look after local garden plots in Islington and beyond. She put us to work with the following tasks:

• We weeded three huge flower beds, completely clearing one and delicately pick sticking nettles out of the others.
• A team of five shovelled, moved and spread a sack of top toil into the beds, feeding the plants and replenishing the existing soil.
• The rest of the group spread across the garden clearing the pathways and weeding everywhere.

Over 30 minutes we got tons done; with three cats watching and Aidan's spreading skills we'd sure left our mark!

After a group picture and a biscuit we headed back to the Emirates Stadium for a fitness session - first off we did some stair sprints and following this we did a circuits routine - mountain climbers x2, press up, jump and squat - repeat for 1 minute, 1 minute off and go again! It was about practising coordination as much as doing the exercise itself.

Sign up next week here, we are meeting at the Arc Centre.

PB out.