What a surprisingly hot run that was. But what can I say, GG Haringey are a hot bunch!

Paint It Black

Big love for everyone but special shouts for: Hetty, returning for her first run after a well deserved break; Rita, joining us in spite of having a sore ankle; and last but certainly not least, GG legend Nurjehan who took her beautiful 50 good deeds black t-shirt for her first spin. Go and give them some love!

14 wonderful GGers congregated in the Green outside Tottenham Green Pools where Rita took the lead on a very holistic and interesting warm up session, mainly centred on breathing exercises and erm... checks notes ... tickling.

We then talked about the exciting celebrations in store for GoodGym's 10th birthday - including our long group run next Wednesday, our take over of the Ally Pally parkrun, and our exciting mission painting a homeless shelter on the 21st. Sign up for all of them please!

We then headed towards Cafe Connect at a brisk pace, whilst Dave led a small walking contingent.

At Cafe Connect, the always-wonderful Leyla welcomed us with a plethora of gardening tasks, and we plunged into them with aplomb. It's always a pleasure to visit Leyla. Last night, this community hub was hosting a group of young people taking part in a retro video game tournament, whilst being fed lovely home cooked food made with the produce grown in the grounds. Community work in action - Cafe Connect are definitely the kind of heroes we need and we're lucky to have.

All this meant that our GGers watered, tidied, scrubbed, and weeded with added motivation.

Interesting oveheard conversations included one particular GGer describing herself effectively as The Hulk (apparently, you really don't want to make her angry) and another GGer's very interesting theory about mosquito decoy procedures. Feel free to enquire further in the comments below.

Then Leyla brought out the by now legendary Cafe Connect oranges and we knew it was time to go home. Not often do we need to be pushed out of a task, I tell you.

Oranges were followed by a very well organised, in no way shambolic, and totally 100% successful plank relay race and then we headed back to HQ.

After Sarah's great stretching session and our high fives we headed into the night in search of pizzas and drinks with the memory of those lovely oranges still present. Great task.

Don't forget to sign up for our Community Mission in Somers Town this weekend.

Peace!

So much love for GoodGym Haringey!

Tonight I had the privilege of covering in Tottenham while we’re waiting for new trainer Euclides to take the reigns from next week. I just know he’s going to be great and what a wonderful bunch of people he gets to run with every week! We had an amazing 15 of us out despite the ominous looking weather, these guys are hardened GoodGymers!

Tonight’s run was in partnership with The Great Get Together as are all of this week's GoodGym sessions across the country. It is an initiative founded by the family and friends of Jo Cox who was killed on 16 June 2016 and was created to reject divisive politics and bring our communities together and celebrate all that unites us.

We used our run to celebrate kindness, respect and all we have in common! #moreincommon

We kicked things off with some warm up drills while going round the group and sharing one good thing that’s happened to us in the past week. Lovely to spread some positivity and kindness on what could otherwise be a dreary Wednesday evening!

After that we were set to go! With the rain just about holding off at that point, Dave kindly led the way for us as we meandered our way to help the lovely Layla at Cafe Connect. And boy did she have a job for us!

7 huge bags of green waste needed to be split into smaller more manageable bags to be taken away, in their current state the removal company wanted £600 to cover the cost but it would be free if we could split it up. GoodGym to the rescue!

Bagging a good deed!

The whole group worked tirelessly for over half an hour shovelling, scooping and scrapping all the waste into bite sized portioned sacks ready to be collected later this week. Not even the biblical downpour could deter us and we fought to the bitter end to get as much cleared as possible ahead of this weekends event which is why we were needed so urgently this evening.

A Tottenham Celebration of Windrush Heritage is a community festival of fun, friendship and family happening this weekend and Layla was so grateful to have our last minute help to enable them to have the outdoor space ready in time.

The aforementioned heavy rain put paid to the fitness session in the park we had planned so instead we settled for an indoor chair squats blast and were also treated to some amazingly delicious home grown tomatoes, freshly cut oranges and tasty pistachios. I can tell you now, I’m definitely coming back to Haringey!

With the rain clearing we took off our soggy coats and headed back to the start for a quick stretch and high fives all round!

Haringey, it’s been a pleasure!

This week 5 brilliant Goodgym-ers ran 2km to pull weeds for Cafe Connect. Well, four of us ran the first km together, while London transport meant Sarah(Who ran a sub 4hr marathon on sunday!) ran to meet us there and Niamh ran around but didn't quite make it.

Tube delays can't hold us down and we still managed to clear three patches of weeds for Layla and the gang.

We filled two wheelbarrows, with Ollie and Julie on one team and Sarah and Cathy on the other; and cleared away the overgrown weeds and grass in record time. Leaving time for a quick snack inside of freshly cut oranges and apples.

Living Under One Sun is looking for support to get enough pledges by 7 December to get some funding for out door lighting. If they get enough pledges, they'll be considered for the Mayor's Fund. Go to Spacehive.com/tottenhamcafeconnectoutdoors if you want to help.

We had a quick team photo before heading to our sprinting track for some sprints and a circuit.

Julie headed back to base to go to Roller Derby, while every body else did some squats, press ups and tricep dips.

First GoodGym run in history where ALL of the runners were doing full press ups off the floor. Proud moment for me.

Then it was time for stretches and carrot cake, courtesy of Cathy, who hit the big 100 mark for good deeds. Well done, Cathy!

This week 10 GoodGym-ers ran 4km (sorry about that) to help Cafe Connect feed the plants.

We were joined by newbie Imogen and GG oldie Gus - give 'em both a cheer!

This week's warm up was a hot one, with a burpee circle, joined once again by a little girl called Ellie, who got right on board with making Dave do all the burpees.

Might be my favourite way to learn everybody's name!

There was a little confusion about where we were meeting Layla today, and so even though I knew were we were going, we went to the other place. I blame the heat.

This accidentally turned our 2km run to a 4km run. Everybody did splendidly, proving that this is a group that can do 4km (the first half was 3km, so maybe even 5 or 6) for future reference!

We eventually got to the Bowling Green and as always it had changed so much since the last time we were there!

It's incredible how much happens while we're away.

With the epic heat wave starving the plants of any rain, one team got to work watering everything.

The sunshine has resulted in the biggest sunflowers I have ever seen.

Team two was hard at work shifting dirt into planters in the green house, whilst team three shifted dirt into the planters on the grass, in the soon-to-be fire pit zone.

All very exciting stuff.

We've decided to have a GG Haringey social there one month and eat all of the stone baked pizzas.

We then had a team photo, which I even got to be in, with child-sized props to boot. Layla even got me my very own mini scooter.

Then it was time to head home, but not before some lunges and some squats to get those glutes working.

Of course, both there and back also included our Cycle Lane Sprint, with a focus on driving off that back leg, rather than stepping forwards with the front.

On the way back to base I got everyone to continue that focus every time they saw a white van.

This week we were joined by GG newbie Jessica - give her a cheer!

We all met in the usual place around a quarter to seven, ready to do some good. And believe you me, the good was done on this one. After a few introductions and a safety briefing it was time to warm up. The warmer (dryer) weather meant we were able to get back on to the grass, for the first time all year. Skipping, resistance running and fast feet to get the body ready for the epic 1km run we were about to embark on. Things were heating up.

Before we knew it we were off. Dave was our trusty back-marker, whilst I lead the pack to the bowling green.

As always, we paused on the cycle path for our sprint segment, focusing on knee drive. One sprint is never enough, so I turned the gang around and made them do a few more sprints back up the path, working on knee drive and foot position. This was all about learning and drilling the shape. You have to practice over and over again for it to become natural.

We then continued on our way to meet Layla at the green, who told us this week's task: move the sand from one pile to another, so it's out of the way; and start digging and shifting the soil for the greenhouse cafe.

Suffice it to say: sand is heavier than you'd imagine. We started with the plan of dragging the half filled builders bag, but even with four strong pairs of hands, it didn't budge.

Four runners got to work shoveling the sand into wheelbarrows to move it to the grass on the other side, with lots of heavy lifting and maneuvering. The rest of the gang got to work digging into the ground, shifting a few inches of mud and wheelbarrowing it over to the other side of the green to put in planters.

Before long our time had past and our sand had all been shifted. Layla brought us out some delicious oranges, whilst we packed away our tools and tidied up. It was time to say our goodbyes and head off.

We had a couple of rounds of sprints around the park roundabout outside the green before heading over to the playground for 4 minutes of undirected play. Climbing and swinging are important activities than should be carried out periodically to ensure core strength is maintained for healthy running styles. Everybody was very successful in their efforts.

So we headed home, sprinting along our strava segment, then focusing on staying tall for the final half of the run.

A successful evening all round.

This week 8 powerful GoodGym-ers ran 2km (and a bit) to dig a trench at the Bowling Green for the electricity cables they're installing to power the stage they're building.

Everything about this project makes me so excited. Leyla and the team have got so much done since our last visit and it was so nice to know we were really helping create something wonderful.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We started with a warm up out front of the leisure center, where I discovered none of you can sit at the bottom of a squat comfortably. Your homework was to sit in that bottom position for two minutes a day – make sure you practice!

Abi, on her 25th Good Deed, was our trusty back-marker for the evening, as we made our way the 1km to the bowling green.

As always, we paused at the top of the cycle path for a quick sprint, before heading to the green.

Leyla and the team were all very excited to see us, and Leyla gave us a quick tour of the progress before setting us our task. We had to dig a trench deep enough and long enough for the electricity cables to pass through. Someone wanted to charge them over £60 per meter to dig it, so we were glad we could help!

I actually thought we'd be planting stuff, so when I was giving my health and safety chat at the start I mentioned pick axes and then retracted it. Turns out we had two pick axes to work with!

We were joined by a few other bowling green volunteers, who helped us dig and clear leaves. Em turned out to be particularly great at the digging, clearing the deepest bit the fastest. Joe was on a roll, until he came across a hidden cable deep in the soil which meant we had to stop to avoid accidental electrocution. No GG fatalities yes.

It was soon time to pack up and head home. But not before tasting some of the most delicious oranges Leyla had brought us from the Turkish shop (via Spain), which we all very much enjoyed.

On the way back we stopped at the cycle path again for more sprints - this time with a focus on form. We were working on knee drive and power generation, getting the gang used to pushing off that back leg rather than reaching forwards with the front one. Everybody felt faster and bouncier and Cathy told me she actually felt like a gazelle, so I think the technique work has started to pay off.

We finished up with a quick conditioning circuit, before running back to base for stretches and high fives.

PS that photo of a bit of green in a pot is of my birthday strawberries growing!