12 people ran 5k to complete a litter pick for the canal and river trust

Tonight we welcomed Leah to GG Brum, it’s great to have you on board.

With it being Abi’s last ever run with GG Brum with her emigrating to Canada in a couple of weeks, we were aiming to get back a little earlier tonight for some ‘send off’ drinkies.

We set off to the canal and split into three groups of four, each litter picking a different part of the towpath. Once done we got all the bags together at Aston Lock and had a quick picture before getting on our way again.

We ran along the canal, up to Millennium point and then back through to the city centre back to 1000 Trades, ready for a well earned drink!

Abi has been coming to GG Brum for a good 18 months, so she will be very much missed by the group. We all wish her the best of luck and I hope you have a fantastic time in Canada!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

11 runners ran 6k around the city centre after brainstorming possible future tasks

Tonight we had Richard back for the first time in a while, he even came up with tonight’s pun!

Tonight’s task was to help out at the Girl Guide Association, however unfortunately it was cancelled, hence the pun! It was decided that the new ‘task’ would be to brainstorm some suggestions for possible task contacts, as at this time of year the task side of things can run a little dry. After a few suggestions and some stories from David and Fiona regarding this weekend’s Brum Half Marathon we got on our way.

Round town

The plan was a steady run around the city centre, before joining the lit part of the canal and heading towards St Paul’s Square ready for a Bootcamp workout!

Hardcore

Tonight’s Bootcamp was a little longer then the usual HIIT stuff due to time being on our side. It was basically two exercises back-to-back, 50 seconds in total, then a twenty second rest, a 2nd set, then ten seconds rest before a 3rd set. If that wasn’t enough the group did three pairs of exercises in total! To start with it was high knees running, followed by tuck jumps! A special mention goes to David here, despite his legs still being ‘trashed’ from Sunday’s half marathon he kept going! The next two exercises were squat jumps, followed by holding the squat position and boxing, a real leg burner! Abi and Richard showed great form with the squatting on these two exercises. The next two were mountain climbers and straight leg kicks. The mountain climbers were especially impressive, everyone showing good form, Fiona’s legs were going like the clappers, which being a Brum Half finisher as well was especially impressive. Laura, Karin, Aaron and Emily also showed grade A form. That was bootcamp done then......well not quite, one extra thing! The wall squat! The aim was one minute, then I added a further ten seconds and although the whole group did great holding it for seventy seconds considering how tired they were, a special mention goes to Richard, Nicola, Aaron and Liam who managed an unbelievable ninety second hold!

Once done it was a great relief for the group we only had a very short run back. Though Aaron took a few on a little de-tour to show them were a ‘gin bar’ was! I think I will stick to the ‘Ray Mears’ ;-)

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

13 runners ran 5k to help feed the homeless and organise clothing for the Birmingham Mission Care Centre

Tonight it was great to have Annie back with us, after being away for some time with injury, the group have definitely missed her!

We were off to the Brum Mission tonight after missing last months visit, so John and Wendy were especially pleased to see us! Once there the group split in two. One group helping in the kitchen and serving, the other group helping Maureen in the clothing department. We found a rather interesting logo on hoodies provided by a scaffolding company who definitely had a sense of humour! Abi and Aaron where happy to pose for picture with it!

Once we had done I duties at the Mission it was on to some hill training. Six minutes of running up hard and running down hard, in otherwise six minutes of hard graft, or otherwise known as ‘Kenyan hills’. Aaron and Liam led the way, Aaron sporting his golf cap, maybe in honour of Europe’s recent Ryder Cup triumph! George wasn’t far behind, Abi and Nicola worked hard pulling each other along. Garry, Fiona and Rob looked in good form in preparation for the Birmingham Half Marathon and Annie put it some great work in her first session back. Again it was a great workout by everyone. Just as we finished we had a guy who came across to us, seeming very excited to see a GG group! He was only another GG member from Lambeth (hence this weeks pun)! Andy was his name and he took a group selfie with us all which I’m sure will be ‘doing the rounds’ on various GG social media pages!

After all that excitement it was time for a steady run back and it was job done until next week.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

Tonight 11 runners ran to help pick up litter along the canal.

News - Well done to John on his run at the Birchfield Poppy Run at the weekend, sounding a tough off road course! Also, we wish good luck to Rob and Garry with the upcoming Birmingham Half Marathon they are entered for.

On a grey evening we began our run from base to our adopted part of the Birmingham city centre canal only a short distance away. We split into two groups, one group began at our first litter hot spot while the second group carried on further down the canal. After 20 minutes hard work picking up litter we grouped back together at our drop off point for the bags - Aston Locks. Everyone did great work at finding and bagging up all the litter.
In total we had collected a fantastic 7 bags full of rubbish tonight, great work everyone, all helping to make the area a better place for the all its visitors. After a quick stop for our post-task completion picture we were on the move again. With a little extra time tonight after our quick speed getting down to the canal we added in some more distance to tonight's run. This involved an out and back along the next part of the canal. Once we got to our turn point we re-grouped and split into two different speed groups. Aron front marked the faster paced group, with Abbie continuing to back mark the second group. This was a great chance for everyone to stretch their legs and get into their stride back along the canal.

We all met back up at the point we entered the canal for this week's fitness session. This week it was a body weight and cardio workout. We began with 3 exercises by the locks with a sprint after each one. First up was press ups 45 seconds then a sprint effort to the stairs. Next was tricep dips for same duration and finally the dreaded wall sit! For this everyone did 30 seconds then people were set off one by one for their sprint at gaps, with Gary doing tremendous holding out for the final one! However, we weren't done just yet we moved right under the tunnel for the last part of our fitness session. This one involved 30 seconds blasts of work using a variety of body weight exercises. To rattle them all off we did squat jumps, ski squat to star, scissor lunge and high knees on the spot! Great effort by all the group with everyone keeping going to the end.We finished off running back to base camp for a good stretch off.

Next week Jonny will be back leading us when we return to Birmingham Mission Care to help out with feeding the homeless and sorting their clothes donations. Hope to see you all again!

13 people ran 7k to drop off donations at Suited for Success

Tonight we welcomed Junaid and Balal to the group, it is great to have you both on board.

Without further a do we set off to Suited for Success with our sacks full of donations, as it’s less than a k away and we were all weighed down with our big bulging sacks with all our donations, we took a steady walk down there. We were warmly greeted by Janice, who explained what the charity do and then after dropping our donations off we had a few pics and we were on our way again.

The group headed along the canal taking in the Soho Loop before stopping at the bridges near were we entered the canal. This was our interval workout destination. A brand new session of using the short, sharp inclines of the Bridge’s as hills. The plan was four sets of two minute ‘efforts’ with 1 minute rest between. The idea to keep to the left, run up the bridges hard then run down at a good pace, as going down hill you naturally recover anyway. Therefore it was basically four lots of two minutes of hard graft. The bridges meant the group went from one side of the canal to the other and then turning back again until the two minutes was up. Just before we started we saw Taz and a couple of other lads from Run Birmingham who were out for a run, so of course they joined in, the more the merrier! Taz even took a few pics for us.

What a workout!

Now I say this most weeks (and it is true) but the group were fantastic tonight, I would even go as far as saying it was the best fitness session at GG Brum yet! And that is saying something as we have been going over a year and a half now! Everyone was fantastic, I won’t mention you all individually, as honestly everyone put everything into it and it was great to see! The whole group really did push themselves to the limit! You were all running that fast you were 'just a blur' on some of the pictures! The only downside (or maybe not for some of the group!!) is that due to the dark nights we probably can’t do that exact session again until next spring. But anyway something to ‘look forward’ too! We just got the session completed in the last of the light, after which was around 1.5k back to base on some rather ‘cream crackered’ legs!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

12 runners ran 7k to complete a litter pick for the Canal and River Trust

We had twelve do good GoodGymers tonight. Unfortunately we had a task cancellation, but no problem we could do our bit on the canal.

We set off on our way, Liam doing the front runner job, Passing Aaron on the way down as he was running late (literally!) Once down on the canal we split into three groups, each group litter picking a different area of of our adopted towpath. Due to the fact that we had obviously done a great job last week there wasn’t too much litter, but we still got a few bags full. Once done we had a quick picture, then we were ready for a tough interval workout.

Today was a pyramid session. 30 seconds effort, 45, then 60 and back down all off a minutes rest. To make it even harder the part of the canal we used certainly wasn’t flat, hence this weeks pun! Yep there was some nasty sharp short bridges to run up and down. If you hit one towards the end of a rep you definitely knew about it. The whole group pulled each other along as usual. The great thing about the nature of this workout is the fact it is out and back means the quicker runners get a little further each time, therefore when the group turn and run the other way the fast lot get chasing the others and the others aim to keep ahead of them! There’s nowt like a bit of friendly competition! The intervals were excellent, Evelyn did a great job, Liam was on top form, Garry was flying with his quick steps and Abi, Laura and Emily looked strong on those hills. Anyway they were all fab, on what is definitely one of the ‘tougher’ GG Brum workouts.

Once done we took a steady run back, via Millennium Point and back to 1000 Trades travelling through the city centre.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

10 people ran 7k to complete a litter pick on our adopted part of the canal

Tonight we had ten of our regulars out doing the good thing out on the canal. The good thing being litter picking!

We set off on our way, Aaron being the front marker and Abi doing the back marker job. Once on the canal the group were split into three groups of three, each doing there bit on a different part of the towpath. Once all the litter was collected and we did have a fair few bags we headed up to Aston Lock to drop them off. The group had the obligatory picture with the bags proving we did our good deed and then it was time to head for Millenium Point.

Time Trial!

This was going to be the first time trial for a while as over the hot summer months the area tends to get on the busy side with people lounging in the sunshine. Tonight it was cool with little wind, so perfect weather to attack those PB’s! The group set off on their 1 mile effort. Aaron went to the front early, closely followed by George and John, with Rob not far back. Next Garry came along followed by Fiona, Laura, Abi and Karin. Everyone worked really well pulling each other along. George finished strongly to be first back, 2 seconds in front of John in 6 minutes dead! Maybe ‘chip timing’ may have given him that sub 6 minutes clocking! Aaron came in next, followed by Rob and Garry. Abi put in an immense effort to finish in great style with a big pb, but not to be out done, Laura was close behind and Fiona put in a fantastic sprint finish to just dip beneath 8 minutes. Karin was next with another PB! Remarkably the whole group achieved a personal bests! Amazing! Hence this weeks pun brought to you by George! It was fantastic to see everyone pushing each other a long, fantastic stuff!

All the times for the groups reference are below.

George 6.00 John 6.02 Aaron 6.17 Rob 6.44 Garry 7.26 Abi 7.33 Laura 7.41 Fiona 7.59 Karin 8.20

After all that excitement it was a understandably slower run back to base.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

12 people ran 7k to help feed the homeless and organise clothing for Birmingham Mission

Tonight, we welcomed new member Evelyn to GoodGym Brum for the first time, its great to have you on board!

George kindly did the back-marking duties, while Aaron did the front. We got on our way with a steady run up to the Mission. On arrival John warmly greeted us and split the group in two. One group went upstairs to help Maureen with sorting clothing, Fiona even found a box to sit in! The other half were in the kitchen helping serves the food.

Once done we went off to do a bit of hill work. This involved two sets, of four-minute efforts, with one-minute recovery between sets. The idea being as the ‘effort’ time was split in two, the group might go even faster! The drill was, run up the hill as hard as you can, then jog back down to recover. Rob, Aaron and David shot to the front. Amy put in some great work in her first GG outing in a while. Evelyn showed some great form powering up the hills on her first go at them and Fiona put in some great effort, running off the top of the hill particularly well. I shouted encouragement telling people to run to where I was stood, using the phrase ‘to me’ giving myself inspiration for this week’s pun! In recognition of the late Chuckle Brother, Barrie Chuckle, a childhood hero of many. As ever the whole group were great, including Lee, Abbie, Laura, Nicola and George, there that’s everyone deservedly mentioned!

Once done with the hills, we took a steady run along the canals back to our start location and that was job done for another week.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.