Leaflet Drop For Sam Beare Hospice

On this cold freezing night 9 GG members met to deliver leaflets for Sam Beare Hospice.

A big welcome to Viktoriia who we met at the volunteer for Woking event while she was there representing another charity. Viktoriia also happened to be a friend of Agathe 😀

Wayne, Adam, Katie, Alys, Agathe, Kirsty, Nadia, & Rebecca met at Woking leisure center all wrapped up 🥶

It was great seeing Rebecca who walked over to collect some leaflets to deliver, not quite ready to run as of yet after her surgery but not long now 😀.

After a warm up session by Adam which Quinn also got involved in 🐶 we headed out of the park towards Mount Hermon to hit the houses there we split up into two groups one on each side 🏃🏻‍♂️ including the Cul-du-Sacs.

It was so cold even with gloves it was very difficult & Wayne & Adam had shorts on the nutters 😮

Unfortunately we did not manage to do as many roads of we had planned due to the weather, but GG members between them will take leaflets and deliver them locally throughout the week and will also be handing them out on the weekend park runs until they have all gone 😀.

This morning I headed back to the Church of St John’s The Baptist ⛪️ to remove some of the bags of leaves that we had collected on Saturdays task to take them to the garden waste site for disposal 🍃🍂🍁☘️🍀

I managed to get 4 bags into the car and luckily the waste site was not that busy 🚙

The church grounds look so much better 😀

Junior Park Run

On this cold chilly morning 3 GG members got out of their warm beds to carry out various volunteering roles at Junior Park Run 🏃🏻‍♂️

Wayne, Alys, & James were at the park to help, cheer and support the runners around the 2k course.

Wayne & Alys were marshals around the course while James was supporting the runners through the final tunnel 😀

In total this morning 92 young runners braved the cold with the fastest time being a fantastic 07:41 👏 There were also 23 PB's great running by everyone.

All Aboard Club

This morning we were back in Brookwood at the All Aboard Club helping set up a big train track for kids to enjoy. 😀

We welcomed Charlotte who is a Member of Goodgym Richmond. Charlotte has met some of our Woking GG members at the Martian Race a few years ago. Charlotte has recently moved to the area so hopefully we will be seeing more of her 😀 It was also great to see Claire back and what a great task to come back to. Wayne was pretty tired after completing a 10k run this morning but along with Richard (Mr All Aboard) and the group got stuck in. We all took up positions in different areas of the hall and started to lay the tracks. We were also joined by other volunteers doing their DofE which was fantastic.

In no time we had between us all made a very complex looking track with many twists and turns 🚂 which i am sure the kids will love.

Another great morning. Hope to see you all on Wednesday when we will be doing a leaflet drop for Sam Beare Hospice...😀

This afternoon Woking GG did a rare Saturday task at the Church Of St John's The Baptist in West Byfleet. ⛪

Since the volunteer for Woking event we have had so much interest that we are now pretty much full until the New Year 😀

So today Wayne, Nadia, Anne, & Alys met at the church. Anne ran along the canal with Alys on her bike setting the pace, in total Anne ran 10k 👟

We met Neil who is the church warden and he was very grateful. He told us that normally members of the congregation help out but in recent months this has been happening less and was very interested about Woking GG. The grounds of the church were quite big so with rakes, and bags in hands we started in a particular corner and got cracking, there was also an Xmas fate at the church today so it was quite busy but we had many people come to us to say thank you for what we were doing.

Nadia called her dad who was coming to the area and asked him to bring his leaf blower which made work much easier. 🍁

We got talking about how many members of Woking GG are loving running at the moment and are getting great times. Alys did a PB this morning at Brooklands park run, while Nadia is also getting great times when running.

Neil after filling up 5 bags Neil came out with hot beverages, bacon rolls, and a warm tomato soup for Nadia, which was very tasty. 😋

After filling up another 5 bags we could finally see the grass, it was a great team effort this morning and I'm sure we will be back as the church has many things that GG can help with.

After a solid hour of work we packed away the tools, put the bags of leaves in one corner of the ground to be collected and said our goodbyes.

Have a great Saturday Everyone.

There was not a Good Gym task scheduled for us to participate in today. James decided tonight was the perfect opportunity to run an interval training session for us to participate in instead.

Unfortunately, the majority of Woking Good Gym were unable to attend the session for a variety of reasons and we hope our team mates who are unwell feel much better very soon!

Nadia and Kirsty overcame the temptation to remain at home and joined the interval training session held at Woking Park. After carefully listening to Nadia's personal goal of achieving a 30-minute parkrun James expertly and quickly calculated the correct running pace and distance both girls needed to complete during the interval training session to prepare them towards being able to achieve a 30-minute parkrun.

The session started with an easy pace jog covering a 2km distance to warm up (a Junior parkrun 2 laps of Woking Park). Nadia and Kirsty both listened intently to James as he explained the science behind the training.

Now completely warmed up, the intrepid threesome began the interval session. The intervals consisted of running 30 repetitions of 150m at a 5 minute km pace with a 10-second period of recovery in between each interval. Nadia and Kirsty quickly became suspicious about whether the 10-second brief respite breaks given were actually 10-seconds, it seems they were but to the girls who were adjusting to running at a faster pace than usual it didn't feel like it!

Nadia quickly regretted wearing her waterproof jacket and knitted headband while Kirsty regretted encouraging Nadia to set herself the challenge of achieving a 30-minute park run as this formed the basis for the training James had planned for the session!

Nadia's stamina and mental strength impressed the group as she managed to complete all 30 of the intervals without extending any of the 10-second rest breaks.

When Nadia first joined Good Gym Woking she declared she was not a runner, well, as so often happens at Good Gym Woking, she most definitely is now!

Kirsty completed 26 repetitions having decided to extend several of her 10-second respite breaks.

James proved a very entertaining and informative run leader as he shared his knowledge of 'the science' behind the session he had planned.

This was nicely distracting and interesting for his rapt audience; James also instructed them in guided breathing techniques and insisted on seeing them run with high knees to maximise both their performance and endurance.

'We don't pant at Good Gym!'. He was incredibly supportive and encouraging throughout the session and when the session was complete the endorphins were flooding everyone's systems.

Both girls expressed their gratitude to James for giving up his time tonight to plan and lead a session designed to help them improve their fitness and confidence and felt surprised and proud of their runs which totalled approximately 8 km covered in less than 50 minutes.

At the end of the session, James who has a running shoe collection Imelda Marcus would envy encouraged the girls to purchase some new running shoes to set them up for hitting sub-30 minute parkruns at Battersea park run on the 7th of December.

He has shared his discount code with Good Gym Woking so be sure to check his top pick out!

Upcoming Good Gym opportunities for members to sign up to include a gardening task at the Church of St John the Baptist on Saturday, Junior parkrun volunteering on Sunday morning (and every Sunday morning), All Aboard Club for SEN children also on Sunday.

Leaflet dropping for Sam Beare Hospice on Wednesday 20 November.

Thank you to all the members of this community-led Good Gym for promoting and organising so many events in support of local causes.

Don't forget to sign up for the 'Run up to Christmas' campaign to raise funds for mental health charities.

Please be aware this campaign has a cost of £17 per entry, but you will have the choice of receiving a participant medal or donating the contribution to the charity. Be sure to check the session page frequently as it is constantly being updated thanks to so many people's efforts.