Maybe a record breaking turn out for H&F when 17 runners turned up ready to #dogoodandgetfit. A whopping 5 of which were brand new to Goodgym - welcome Lena, Fei-Fei, Steve, Clodagh & Stephanos and 1 was Danny a GG tourist from Brent.

H&F Olympians

This week’s welcome speech was mainly comprised of me boffing on about the eagerly anticipated Goodgym Olympics on 30th. Of which H&F are going to go in full force with a flag to boot !

As is tradition, the news and welcome chat were followed by a warm up outside the gym and then on to Queen Caroline Estate. It’s only a stone’s throw from our meeting point to this task. Suzie, the Gardening Club's only volunteer, met us there to show us how we could help. 6 runners got to work weeding the herb patch whilst Sarah pruned some overgrown plants. Then the rest of the group headed over with bags of compost and tools to the veg patch. They were needed to weed the raised beds, spread compost on the newly turned soil and then liberally water all over.

This group finished with 5 minutes to spare so we quickly used this bonus time to weed another veg patch on the other side of the estate.

Once our time was up and everyone had been herded up from all parts of the estate we said our goodbyes to Susie and headed off down the river.

Ab-solutely fabulous

I had originally devised a environment based fitness session for this part of the evening, but that we had to rethink this very quickly due to the amount of people on the towpath. Instead we did exercises along the run in quiet spots. One quiet spot was a lovely patch of grass overlooking the sunset. Here, accompanied by some music we did and an 'abs & arms' session. One nearby resident came out to watch with his giant pet rabbit.

With abs burning we returned back up the river and doing an Indian file along the way - this was where the runner at the back had to head to the front when I blew the whistle. To complete the river run we polished off with wall squats and a group photo in the sunset.

Lovely stuff. Until next time, PSB out.

Woah! 16 runners ran 5km and helped out at a local gardening club.

We started the introduction a bit earlier this week to pack everything in, welcome new runners Alice, Jessica, Meg, Anders, and Elizabeth and head outside for a warm-up.

If you're tasking

Our task this week was only round the corner so we got there in under 5 minutes. We had been asked to come and help Queen Caroline Estate’s gardening club - a volunteer run “LIFE+ Climate proofing Social Housing Landscapes project". Upon arrival we were greeted by Susie a volunteer, Estate Committee member and Lead for Gardening club, who got us started straight away. 7 people got stuck into weeding the ground of the herb garden. Two people were given the task of filling the tumbling composter and then four runners were enlisted to move sacks of compost. These sacks were carried to and distributed in raised platters designated for growing vegetables.

With the help of head-torches and the batlights the teams worked away steadily and by the time our time slot was up the herb garden looks dramatically different.

Turn up the heat

Then we were off to warm up and get some running under our belt. To get the blood pumping, we started an Indian file along the river. When I blew the whistle, the runner at the back of the line had to sprint to the front. We did this along the river all the way to the Chelsea football ground, then stop for a quick rest before returning the way we came. This time both runners at the back had to race to the front. Just before we left the river we utilised a row of benches for a full body workout.

Once back at base we did warm down stretches and then headed to Draught House for our well-deserved monthly social.

Lovely stuff!