20 GoodGymers ran 4-6km and helped WPCA advertise their upcoming Ceilidh Fundraiser

Welcome along to newbie Hannah - lovely you along! We all arrived with smiling faces after the Blue Monday storm to do some good and get fit.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to everyone who took part in Cross-Country at the weekend down in Wormwood Scrubs - lots fun! One more fixture left on 10th February in Trent Park - sign up here
2. I am leading a long run for GG Members this Sunday if you'd like to come - 10-12km and 16km options. More details here

Onto to the evenings good doing - we had our task at Scope Charity Shop canceled last minute so we were all off to help Whittington Park Community Association; a centre point in the local community for activities, services and more. On our 2km run there we took to the back streets as much as possible to avoid Holloway Road, when we got split at the lights the lead group did squats, balancing and star jumps - nice!

Ceilidh time!

Upon meeting Gary at WPCA he explained our task was to put up 10 posters around the park, streets and outside the School to advertise the community centres upcoming Ceilidh on 3rd February - with quick string work we scattered across the area in pairs and got the job done sharpish!

On the way home we split into two groups, one led by Kike going via Caxton House and the other heading straight back with me. Fitness session time - once at the Emirates my group got some conditioning in:

• Circuits - press up, mountain climbers x4, jump up & squat - as many you can do for 60 seconds
• Planks - front, side, side - 20 seconds per side
• Circuits repeat focusing on the missing squat

Next it was time for our monthly time trial, it's 660 metres (approx.) around the Emirates, everyone did brilliantly and were welcomed home by some Jaffa Cakes from Nina - thanks!

We have a new task next week helping Origin Housing with some gardening - sign up here.

PB out

23 GoodGymers ran 5km, collected up 25 bags of leaves for WPCA & did the Monthly Emirates Time Trial

Well that was a lovely cold evening with you all, welcome along to Beth, Lucy and Joel whose first time it was last night! Welcome!

In the news this week:

1. GoodGym did a Cross-Country Race as part of the Met League at the weekend, was lots of fun! Report here, details for next races here.
2. We will be having a GG Islington Xmas meal on our last run of the year - Monday 11th December, more details to come!
3. Come along to the GG Members Xmas Party on Friday 8th December - black and/or red is the costume theme.

Right onto last night, after a quick intro and a dynamic warm up we headed to Whittington Park Community Assosication, running north via the back streets to avoid Holloway Road as long as possible. The WPCA is a brilliant local organisation! There mission is: ‘To provide a welcoming and well-run centre for individuals and groups in Islington to sustain and develop a vibrant community’.

We were there last night to help tidy up their outdoor areas around the centre and the nursery - if you haven't noticed it's Autumn at the moment which means all the leaves fall - this creates lots of mess that needs sorting. Armed with all manner of tools, gloves and black bags we split into three teams:

1. Aidan with his unique (annoying) litter picking skills and four others swept and weeded at the front of the centre.
2. A team of six, including Chris from Bristol, cleared an area of overgrowth and weeds. They even turned the soil afterwards!
3. Everyone else worked in pairs sweeping, raking and bagging up the leaves on the nursery lawn!

Leaf it with us

Team's one & two's jobs were done after 10 minutes and they joined the rest of the crew on the grass, bagging up leaves! After 30 minutes of hard work we'd collected up 25+ bags of leaves, weeds and debris - nice!

Saying our farewell's to Gary from WPCA we headed south back to the Emirates for our monthly time trial. Before giving it a go we practiced our arm drive in pairs - POCKET TO SOCKET!

Everyone did brilliantly in the time trial, lots of fun and some big PB's! Let me know if you want your results :)

Sign up here for next week, we will be rebuilding a bug hotel, planting bulbs and mulched flower beds for FROGG - gonna be a good one!

PB out.