Having recently found out they are losing government cultural funding and finding out that a small print of Covid guidelines meant they won't be able to host weddings they had booked in the next few weeks, Abbeydale Picture House's financial situation is looking worrying. Plans are now in place to open a beer garden in the car park from next weekend to hopefully bring in some much needed revenue. That's where GoodGym comes in.

First job was digging weeds from planters and adding some fresh plants. Then we set to cutting back overgrowth and picking litter. Tom even climbed a tree to retrieve some packaging caught in the branches to cheers of "not all heroes wear capes"!

Over the next week, the potholes will be filled, marquee, tables and lighting brought in. I can't wait to see what it looks like and hope it does good business. I feel a charitable visit from a group of Goodgymmers coming...

On a hot summer evening the GoodGym Sheffield crew embarked on one of Sheffield’s rare flat(ish) running routes to return to the Abbeydale Picture House. We were helping CADS South Yorkshire, a charity which aims to restore the grade II listed building and relaunch it as a social and community arts venue. We met with the lovely Mark from CADS who took us through the tasks for the evening which included:

• Filling in the car park potholes
• Weeding around the picture house and in the wooden planters
• Litter picking
• Painting over graffiti on the outside of the building.

Splitting into groups we made speedy progress. Our clear up was well-needed with James claiming to have picked up 162 cigarette butts and a significant number of bin bags being filled. Caroline's resourcefulness saw kettles acting as watering cans for the picture house's shrubs. When our work was finished, Abbeydale Picture House looked neater and tidier. The walls of the building gleamed in the sun with its new coat of paint and the car park was a less holey place to be.

We headed to the local park for a ‘spuddy good’ time (Tom H). Following a successful potato harvest at Becky’s allotment, GoodGymmers competed in potato and spoon races and a fast-paced steal the potato game. Antonia, James and Chris’ team claimed victory and were crowned King Edwards.

We then returned to the Showroom to stretch and rehydrate.

Massive thanks for all the hardwork!

We welcomed 2 new runners this week, please give a huge whoop, hola and cheer for;

• Laura
• Jean Docherty

Be sure to support them. Thanks for coming both and hope to see you on a run again soon!

This week we were back off the the Abbeydale Picture House for the penultimate run of 2018 and our last at the Picture House as SENSATIONAL STEVE said they have begin to run out of meaningful tasks for us to do as we have done so much!

I am sure we will be back in 2019, but not as regular as we have been in the past.

It was an emmulsional evening what with saying goodbye to Steve for a while and the fact the we were back on the painting on the outside of the building to give the exterior another coat of love.

We did some white good graffiti

Once we put brushes and paint down we headed home via the local U-Mix centre for some fitness fun that this week included a three round session including;

1. Press Up's
2. Box Jumps or Step Up's
3. Straight Arm Hang or Knee or Leg Raises

In between each circuit we did a circuit of the park with a sprint in each one. A hard sesh, good work everyone!

Until next week, happy running!

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! :)

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 :)

22 intrepid GoodGymmers set off into the early autumn evening.

We did a variety of short interval sprints and slaloms around trees and posts on our convoluted way to the Abbeydale Picture House. On arrival it quickly became clear there had been issues with communication - only one member of staff there, who wasn't remotely ready for us!

No matter!

We divided into 3 groups and set about plogging the local area, which is littered with, well... litter. Keeping constantly moving, we collected a good few bags worth of detritus, making the immediate area around the Picture House far more amenable - until the next time!

On the way back to base, we stopped at our regular Umix park haunt, where we paired up for some high fivin' frolics, running towards each other, then running back - rinsing and repeating - and doing:

• 10 Sit ups
• 5 Burpees
• 15 Star Jumps
• 10 Press ups

We also squeezed in a wall sitting competition, where 2 teams faced off with each other with mixed success. A few more sprint intervals led us back to the Showroom for stretching and the bar, where we said our farewells to Ultra Caroline, who has been a steadfast member of GG Sheffield for ages now.

Happy Running!

Regather next week!