Another chilly night in Ealing saw 17 of us come out in the final week of January to support Hestia's Ealing refuge.

We started with a getting to know you (getting to know all about youuuuu) exercise. This involved throwing your shoes into a pile in the middle of a circle, yes bear with me, before hopping in and picking up someone else's shoe, finding out who the shoe belonged to and finding out a fun fact about that person. Basically a balance drill while getting to know more about other GoodGym members. Despite the cold feet I think it was a success!

📣 We also had a big announcement, happy 100 good deeds to Shan! Go and give him a HUGE cheer!

So after letting off the party poppers, we set off on the short uphill run to Hestia where a big task awaited...

Our mission for the evening was to do lots of sorting of old files into boxes for archiving as well as sorting out a couple of cupboards. Hundreds of files came down the three flights of stairs in a big human chain before the big sort started with groups across all the levels.

"I can't believe how quickly you work!" - Hestia staff

It didn't take us long to finish the task and before we knew it we were swooping back towards our start location for an epic fitness session to end the night. This involved HIIT exercises and circle sprints resulting in a great boost of exercise endorphins to round off the evening!

Until next time!

Thirteen brilliant people joined me for my first session looking after GG Ealing. We ran almost 4km and helped out at Hestia.

So, for the first of two weeks I headed in to the dark depths (only dark because it is Winter) of West London to lead the Ealing GoodGym group. I was met by everyone who were ready and waiting to go. Big thanks to Chris who had the keys ready for people to store their things and to access the gloves we needed for tonight’s task.

Thankfully the rain had cleared from earlier in the day so we were able to do the intro and warm up outside. The main news this week is the GG-wide Christmas party in Barnet – you can find all the details and sign up here. We also welcome Mark for his GoodGym run and Sarah for her second ever GoodGym run and first time in Ealing!

Chris was in charge of being the frontrunner and leading the way, Harvey mid-marked and I was at the back. We would our way up the hill for the short run to Hestia. Once there we said hello to Sandra and she outlined the tasks:

• A clear up in the garden collecting leave and any litter that we could find
• A clear up of leaves in the front garden and drive
• A cupboard sort and the moving of a bunch of lever-arch files from the downstairs office to the cupboard all the way upstairs

We split the group to each task and everyone went about their way. Before we knew it all was done and it was time to say our goodbyes. We posed for a group photo and then headed off for some more running.

Chris again led the way and we took a longer route home with a hill rep thrown in for good measure too. Before we knew it we were back at base and we stretched before heading home.

A job well done everyone, see you next week!

Last night we ran to help Hestia’s Dame Gertrude Young House, a shelter for single men who have become homeless which helps them to get back on their feet and rebuild their lives. They focus on empowering them to develop relationships and life skills they need to get their lives back on track.

You lot are something pretty special, coming out in that miserable weather! We had a small but mighty team of 8 GoodGymers last night and kudos and welcome to Alison who came out to join us for the first time in those conditions!

We started by congratulating all the Ealing Half Marathon runners from Sunday, Jenni smashed her first half, Shan got a PB and Michael got pretty close. We also had Andy visiting from GG who ran Windsor half on Sunday too. They were all out for a nice recovery run with us tonight but congratulations to everyone else who ran at the weekend!

After a quick warm up where we spoke about our favourite things to do when it's raining (luckily running followed by a nice hot shower was featured) we took the short route up Castlebar Hill to the task where Sandra was ready in waiting for us with sponges and cloths to give all the doors in the building a good clean. Lots of scuffs and marks to tackle it we got straight to it.

Hitting the mark

We worked in small teams across all the floors scrubbing all the marks we could find, the trouble is once your start seeing them it's hard to stop! We covered all the doors in super quick time and finished with a quick polish of the banisters. It's just a little job but it's something the staff may not have time for and we are happy to do anything to support this great facility. We had a few outside tasks lined up on the site this evening but we'll come back and do those when the weather is a little more friendly!

We finished with a nice run back down hill before seeking shelter in a nearby for carpark slope hill sprints mixed with circuits of different exercises in between, a great way to sneak in a blast fitness session on this wet evening!

16 runners, 2 store cupboards sorted, one patio swept, a laundry room painted and an action packed hills session. That's a lot of good in one evening, all in aid of helping our local Hestia Refuge!

We continued our trend of stealing runners from other areas as we welcomed Sam to his first GoodGym Ealing experience (west is best, don't you know!). Previously found doing good things in Hackney Sam has seen the light and is now residing in Ealing, much like fellow steal-ee Annie who we were delighted to see back again this week!

We also had one Megan join us for her first ever GoodGym run, give her a cheer! I can tell she'll fit right in with our group as shes's already admitted that she has set herself the challenge of running a half marathon a month this year, we like that sort of nutty running behaviour here in Ealing! She obviously did her research as she arrived in her paint covered leggings ready to get stuck straight in, nice one!

After a quick warm-up and discussion about favourite races, it was just a short run up to Hestia leaving us plenty of time to spread out across the site and get LOADS of jobs done for them. We had a couple of teams upstairs channeling their inner Marie Kondo and organising storage cupboards, a few people out the front of the building sweeping up and finally a team cleaning down and repainting the laundry room.

After we had all given half an hour of hard graft we packed up and Sandra, who runs the house, gave everyone a little bit more information about what Hestia does and how they help the people living there.

We were also delighted to see a photo from one of our previous visits proudly displayed on their noticeboard. The quote reads, 'GoodGym volunteers, always smiling', how lovely!

Be running up that road, be running up that hill...

Now we could have taken a nice easy jog back to the start and finished up early for the evening but no, no, no. It was time for hills! We did a mixed session of running fast downhill and fast uphill. For the downhills we focused on having an 'active recovery of rear leg' which is to make sure you're using that momentum from the downhill to push off on your backwards stride (no shuffling downhill!). Then for the uphills we focused on having relaxed shoulders and a positive backwards arm drive. A hills session that combines both fast uphill and downhill elements is a great strength and speed session for those wanting to push themselves a little bit in their running but it totally adaptable to all fitness levels, have I mentioned before that I love hill training?!

Everyone tackled the session really well and hopefully took away a little technique point to focus on when you come across a hill in your next run or race!

A nice recovery jog and stretch was all that was left before heading home for a well deserved dinner and sit down!

>>> Details of the next run are on the right of the screen, get clicking and signing up! >>>

That was a cold one!

...but that didn't deter 13 of us from lacing up, heading out and helping in our local community! We were also joined last night by 3 new runners, big welcome to Alex and Riya on their first ever GoodGym experience and a lovely warm welcome to Anwen who is the new trainer for Oxford which will be up and running early next year!

Starting with a whip around of names and favourite things to eat if we are doing a longer run (lots of your fueling on jelly babies!) on this very cold and wet evening we were in need of a warm up so we headed over to Haven Green to jump up and down and get ourselves moving! It was then just a short run up the hill to Hestia's Ealing accommodation site where we knew we'd be nice and warm for the duration of the task which this week was helping with some cleaning tasks around the facility.

Hestia provides housing support and empowers vulnerable people to enable them to make positive changes in their lives!

Sandra welcomed us to the site and split us up into groups doing a few cleaning tasks, this little bit of help we provide doesn't seem like much but it really helps free up the staff there and enables them to focus their energy on other areas of the organisation where it's needed most.

So a little bit of scrubbing here and there really does make a difference, what we do in half an hour could take one member of staff a full day, that's a whole lot of help!

With a lot of man power between us last night we got all the areas scrubbed up in no time at all which (much to some of the groups dismay) left us with lots of time for our planned hills session. Off to West Walk we went! For those of you who've been tortured by me here before you'll know this little path provides a great area to complete a hill sesssion! It's just steep enough to keep your efforts strong throughout, it's a little sheltered, well lit and pedestrianised, PERFECT for what we had planned this evening! Normally we'd run up fast and recover down but this week we mixed things up with power walking or light jogging up for the easier effort and pushing hard on the downs.

Every lit-HILL helps!

We aimed for between 4-6 reps each with everyone working hard at their own pace and despite the miserable weather we all battled through! Even those who didn't take part due to injury (there's a few of us a bit benched at the moment!) stayed and cheered on the other runners keeping everyone motivated to get the session done!

With warmth on the horizon it was just a quick jog back to the start for stretches and a debrief. Thank you all for coming out in that miserable weather and hopefully see you all again soon, I can't promise the weather will be any better (fingers crossed it's not worse!) but I can promise we'll be back at the same time next week doing some more good and getting fit!

Another beautiful evening in Ealing but thankfully with a slightly cooler temperature made for a perfect evening to do some good and go for a run!

We had a team of 11 runners to see to our task at Hestia this week which included planting some flowers for the greenhouse and having a little tidy of the surrounding area. We also had a bonus indoor task of sorting out a store cupboard all to help this fantastic centre that empowers its service users to find their feet after being affected by homelessness.

We started by meeting at our base just under a mile away and had a chat about all the news for the week. The main topic was about Jenni’s 50th good deed happening next Tuesday, it’s also her birthday and she’s worked really hard over the last few weeks to make it to the black t-shirt milestone before her special day! Do sign up and celebrate with us next week as we’ll head to the pub after the task!

Then we were off leaving in a chase style run up Castlebar Hill to our destination. Those wanting to push the pace left last chasing the rest of us down on our short run commute! There we were met by Sandra and Theo from the centre who had a few plants for us to pot to give thier greenhouse a new lease of life!

We also found a few other tidying tasks around the garden including some weeding and shifting a pile of old compost to give the overall grounds a boost!

Meanwhile Larissa and Lionel were summoned inside to organise a store room which included sorting Christmas decorations, quite possible the wrong time of year and wrong temperature to think about such things!

Before we knew it we’d wrapped up all the tasks and had plenty of time for my favourite fitness session… hills! They’d been warned that the quicker they worked the more hills we could fit in so I can only assume by the groups efficiency that they were super keen to fit in as many as possible!

The hills are alive with the sound of runners!

Over to West Walk we went for a chasing hill sprint session, the idea is that you push as hard as you can on the uphill (at your own pace) and as soon as the first person reaches the top a whistle is sounded and you make your way down from wherever you get to. Each time you try and make it a little further up before the whistle goes. It’s a really great session and everyone gave it 100% so well done!

After 4 reps of killer work we headed back for a lovely stretch on the green, what a great way to round up the evening!