A huge task, a monster fitness session, and cheese jokes. What more could you ask for from a Wednesday night?

With a lovely turn out of excellent Hounslow regulars and some GG tourism from Wandsworth (hello Jordan, Matthew and David!) it was set to be a great night as we said our hellos and well dones. Please give Andy, a cheer, for he has nailed no less than eight good deeds this month - way to go! Great job Jo, Adam and Dave who all took on Gunnersbury parkrun last Saturday and produced some great runs. Finally a massive congratulations to Andreea who rejoins us after getting married!

We had a bit of an upside down night, as our task was just opposite our start location on Turnham Green. So after our news and a quick round of 'what's your favourite cheese?' (halloumi coming in at number one) we met up with Jan (favourite cheese - pyrenean mountain) who provided us with gloves and tools and headed straight over to the task before our run. This was not before we were treated to several of the cheesiest jokes we could hope for from Adam. Let the record reflect the best of them:

Did you hear about the explosion at the cheese factory in France? All that was left was de-brie. How do you approach a Welsh cheese? Caerphilly. What did the cheese say when he looked in the mirror? Halloumi.

Lovely stuff.

Off we went with Jan, who showed us a huge wild meadow section of the green which had a rather intrusive thistle problem. After demonstrating what exactly was a thistle, we donned some pretty hardcore rigging gloves and got stuck in. There was some unfortunate thistle throwing incidents, a blanket refusal to film a video which showcased our work, and a few scratchy-bitey things, but after half an hour, the area looked much better. It's great to be able to help out in an area which we use so often for our fitness sessions, and which is enjoyed by so many local people. We'll be back next week to finish off the job.

Next was our tough fitness session. After a dynamic warm up, we kicked off with a very speedy Indian file fun around the green (and a bit of playing chicken with the traffic) before launching into our monster circuits session which featured no less than 15 stations. It sounds like a lot (it was) but each cardio-based exercise was interspersed with a strengthening drill. After toughies such as sprints, squat jumps, reverse crunches and mountain climbers, we finished off with the killer plank twists. Fantastic work, team. All that was left was a quick game of Bulldog which saw the super speedy Natasha claim the title - and not for the first time! She's the one to watch.

Don't forget that next week we have a curry social next week - everybody welcome, please join us at Waterman's for some well=deserved fun and food after the run, for which you can sign up here. You just Gouda be there.

ps Kudos to Adam who came up with this report's killer pun!

24 lovely runners ran 8km to help clear weeds and paint at the Scouts in Charlton!

Well the weather was a lot kinder to us last night in comparison to a week ago where it absolutely hammered it down! It was such a perfect evening for a run!

Another long one last night though as we headed back to one of our favourite tasks over in Charlton 4km away, the New Greenwich Scouts! Last week we started on some paint work inside and didn't quite get to finish it but thankfully Alan let us come back and have another go!

We were joined by a fair few new runners again which is always amazing to see! Please give a big cheer to Seb, Florence and Tasha! Welcome guys and gals! Hope you enjoyed your first run with us!

Chips n gravy!

I've been a bit slack recently on the old warm up games so decided to bring a firm favourite out of the woodwork. CHIPS & GRAVY which just involves a lot of running around and if you're quite unlucky, a lot of burpees! But there were also a few smiles so it was definitely worth the minute or two of pain!

After all those burpees, it was time to go, we were already a bit behind schedule (my bad). Ben C led a speedy crew and they were gone in a flash! By the time the rest of us had arrived, they had already got stuck in with some painting and weeding. AWESOME!

Everyone made themselves useful and either grabbed some tools and gloves for the weeding or armed themselves with a roller/paintbrush and began to paint! No hanging around for this squad!

After 25 minutes, the whole area outside had been cleared and Alan FINALLY managed to get the lawnmower on it which he looked VERY excited about. Health and safety siren was going off having seen all the bits flying out the back of that mower.... it looked like a rocket about to take off! But thankfully everyone took a sizeable step back!! It nearly clogged the mower and it sounded like it was going to blow but Alan did NOT care, in fact, I've never seen anyone look so happy! Great job gang!

Over in the paint corner, room 1 was looking lovely and pretty much done whereas room 2 still needed a bit of work. The girls were absolutely going for it! and when it was time for us to leave, I couldn't get them away, they were determined to finish! But sadly we had to call it a day. Until next time...

Sprintervals!

Since we were running short of time, we incorporated the fitness session into the run back in the form of a few sprints between different landmarks meaning we would get home quicker AND get a decent workout at the same time! Double win! It was great to see you pushing yourselves so really well done!

We had a nice little stretch when we got back, ate some cookies and called it a night!

For those of you who are new, please join our GoodGym Greenwich Facebook Group where you can keep up to date with all the races and other fun runs and things we plan. Also if you want to check out Oli's books, here they are on Waterstones (aka everyone's favourite shop!), have a look here! No I'm not on commission but maybe I should be.

Thanks so much for making it last night and putting all your effort into the task and the run! You got so much done so give yourself a pat on the back! See you next week for some more painting action (hopefully).

Wandsworth smashed its own record for runners last night, and smashed it good. With no less than 46 of us, we just needed was Roy Castle and his trumpet confirming that al we needed was a bit of dedication. With the equivalent of over three rugby teams running to help out community organisations we are able to make a huge difference in our borough.

We couldn’t have made it without our amazing new runners, so here’s to Andrew, Paula, Georgie, Jessica, Larraine and Foster. Give them a cheer, Wandsworth, they’ve earned it!

A huge well done too to Alex who absolutely nailed his first ever 10k race this weekend in Regent Park. If you’re keen to get a race in the diary but don’t know where to start come and let me know and we can find you the perfect challenge. Don’t forget about park runs across London – and beyond – every single Saturday. Why don’t you have a look at the GG leaders board and while you’re there give Sophie a cheer, for she has sprinted to the top of the distance rankings. Way to go. Same goes for Berit who has been smashing out the good deeds along with Alex who also tops the cheer board. Well one Matthew for sustaining us with all that cheering!

All that running is thirsty work, so don’t forget about our monthly social which happens to be this Thursday near Russell Square, more details and sign up found here.

This week’s CoRUNdrum comes courtesy of Jordan  who asked us where the longest street in Britain can be found. Good one! With that in mind, we set off down the Wandsworth Road – which felt pretty never ending – and headed to Food For All. This amazing organisation provides a completely free food market for those who need it most, supports community self-help and is committed to tackling homelessness and social exclusion. We hope to work with them a lot in the future, and our next trip will be supporting them by distributing food to those that need it.

This time though we were there to see what it was all about, meet the lovely people and do a few jobs. This started with emptying the huge pile of rubbish, and never one to miss out on the chance to make a human chain we got cracking. Excitement peaked at the head of the line when Jessie spotted a mouse (new GG mascot?) but thankfully there was nothing bigger lurking in there. Our next task was to peel off the vinyl stickers on the soon to be repurposed Food For All van, which proved to be a very satisfying job, and the team had to be persuaded to step away from the vehicle to complete our third mission, which was to distribute posters to all the businesses along the Wandsworth Rd on our run back. Sinead took an early lead as the first to persuade a local shop to put it up, the rest of the team could be found weaving in and out of places all the way to Larkhall Park, where we stopped for a quick abs blast at the top of a hill. We worked our core hard with a combination of Russian twists, planks, crunches, scorpions and mountain climbers. A strong core is key to an injury-free and efficient running style as it helps reduce twisting and keeps us stable when we get tired. And to take our mind of the pain, we discussed our dinner plans – with pasta and burgers coming out on top, with cold sausages a less popular option. Whatever you went for, team, you earned it.

We pushed it harder for the last mile of the run, bossing that final deceptive hill on the way back to the BAC with ease. While we stretched we crowned this week’s CoRUNdrum winner - clever Holly that knew Streatham High Rd is the longest in the country. Well done Streatham and Holly. Next week we’re going to have fun delivering some flyers for a local community centre who need help spreading the word about their Easter festival. It’s a shortish run so we’ll be off to Battersea park to do a cracking fitness session. Don’t miss out, you lovely people. Sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/spreading-the-word-for-our-local-community-centre

Come snow or sunshine, we run & today was no exception with 12 brave weather-farers running and then working very hard for Surrey Docks Farm.

One windy, snowy Saturday morning, we met at the farm with the Pigs spooning to prove how chilly it was. It was hello to lots of new faces and welcome back to some friends: time to warm up!

With the Thames Path on offer, we ran in the shadow of Canary Wharf to one of the parks. Not content with a jog, lunge, squat-on-the-spot warm up, we had two quick rounds of Bulldog. Sprinting and catching each other soon got the hearts pumping and was a chance to forget about the snow.

Quick loop onwards to circuits

Those who attended Wednesday's run were a little ginger in their arm strength so the focus was legs...

Squat hold, lunge jump, ssspppprrriiiinnnttt

Side plank, side plank, ssssppprrriiinnnttt

Mountain climber, burpee, sssspppppprrriiiiinnnnttt

No chance for the cold to set in! Fitness session completed, we ran back to Farm ready to meet Lucy who had 3 jobs for us all to rotate on.

First job: woodchipping the wildlife garden. There was a pile of warm and steaming woodchip that needed shovelling, wheeling and spreading out.

The second job involved collecting and chopping sticks from a felled tree and sticking them in the goat mound for them to chew on the bark. This was a particularly good distraction for task three where we needed the goats out of the way.

A trip to the farm wouldn't be complete without something to do with muck so the third task was almost necessary... mucking out the goat house and goat run. Those goats can seriously produce some stuff and with 36 goat kids gestating, they need to be kept as clean as we can.

20 minutes per task and rotate so we all got a go and everything / *one group wasn't muck ridden the whole time!

James, one of the main farm hands, also showed us how the woodchip is used to help create bacteria to encourage plant growth and also showed us how their manure tunnel creates a gas which can power their kettle!

Exercise, farming and science!

As ever, a morning at the farm is a pretty neat way to pass the time!