Love your neighbourhood? You bet.

A large group of energetic runners, keen to do their bit for de-littering their borough, made their way to beautiful Victoria Park, to join the Council’s fourth borough-wide Big Clean Up, part of its ‘Love Your Neighbourhood’ campaign.

We were met by Richard, our task owner for the evening, and Mark, from Veolia, who wasted no time in dispatching us to the four most needed corners of the area, after kitting us all out with hi-vis jackets, litter-pickers and gloves, after our extensive health and sfatey briefing.

Festival goodies

As usual the Good Gym-ers covered an extensive area, heading deep into the park only satisfied as their bin liners began to really fill up. Post-festival litter was in abundance: a rather- well-hidden pack of Guinness was found under a bush, along with several strange looking vials and some er… undergarments. Thank goodness for litter pickers. As usual, the runners were loathe to be pulled away from the work: “Come on, come on, you’re late back”, prompted the response, “But there are so many cigarette butts.” This sums up Monday night runs for me.

Masterclass: Catch Becky and Core Lucky Dip

Before we knew it, we were saying farewell to Richard and his team and heading to the wooden canoe, the area that was to be our fitness playground for the next 15 minutes. Tonight we were playing “Chase Becky.” Becky headed out for a lap of the park with a 10-second lead, then Bryon headed up the team to catch her, before everyone raced back to the wooden canoe to play Core Lucky Dip. First and last runners picked a number between 1-7 from a delightful list of exercises.Thanks to Yesh for unknowingly picking the two-toe-touch plank; Sarah for the butterfly crunch and Leanne for the speed-skater-squat-on-steroids. Yesh then headed the chase back out of the park.

…And so to the thankyou’s

What a very busy evening. Thank you’s in abundance tonight! Thank you to Bryon, such a terrific task force member, for leading both the run to the task, the chase for Becky and for behind-the-scenes planning.

Thank you to Becky for being a brilliantly fast and fun real life greyhound hare, and to Yesh for an impromptu last minute sprint.

Thank you to Leanne and Domitille for back-marking, and to Sarah and Leanne, our brilliant task force members, for welcoming our first-time runners, and to Gabrielle for much-needed delegating, and organising the start of the run, following an unanticipated DBS delay.

Welcome to new runners Eszter and Karris - well done on a busy, and big workout, night for your first run. We’d love to see you again soon.

It was a mega-blast tonight! Thank you all so much: for your ideas and input; for being such fun, for being such determined litter-pickers, for working so hard at your fitness…The list is endless, as always. I just can’t WAIT to do it all again next week: sign up for water-carrying at Meath Gardens - AKA The Human Chain Task - here.

*Apologies for the limited photos from tonight’s run – an unprompted, mid-task, IOS update meant we’ve just got before and after pics this week.

12 runners were keen to do good and work on their fitness this balmy bank holiday Monday.

After a brief warm up consisting of some dynamic stretches, we headed out on a slightly longer route than usual to meet task owner, Laura, to distribute fliers to local businesses in preparation for the new Aldgate Square Festival, a new, fun-filled community celebration of all that Aldgate has to offer.

The heavens open

We set out down Cambridge Heath Road, laughing as we heard the distant rumble of thunder. “Oohs” could be heard from the runners as the lightning and thunder seemed to edge ever closer, which quickly turned to “aahs” as the first few drops of rain were a welcome relief to the uncharastically humid May evening. The few drops, however, soon became a torrential downpour, which continued as we covered another 1.5 miles. We briefly took shelter in Aldgate East station but at the first sign of the rain abating, we carried onto our task.

Business as usual

Laura was suitably impressed that we’d arrived ready to spread the word - that, despite arriving completely drenched, as far as our task was concerned, it was business as usual. After dividing up into pairs to cover the whole of the area, we covered as many shops, pubs and restaurants as we could and arrived back punctually at our meeting point to head to Weavers Fields for some brilliant running form-work by Danny.

Top technical tips

Here, the team proceeded to run through three very effective drills: first up was the posture drill which involved running at 70% pace with a ‘wire visualisation’ (“visualise a wire pulling up and forwards through shoulders”). Next up was a partner exercise that addressed arm swing when running at speed, and we finished with a little knee-drive drill to really recruit quads and get them firing up nicely. Thank you Danny – that was a really effective and useful session.

We had a leisurely run back to base where, soaked through, we decided to postpone our team drink. To be continued…

What a team

Thank you to the whole team tonight, for an amazing effort. Thank you Charlotte, Bryon, Jess, Viola, Yesh, Si, Domitille, Ed, Danny, Alex and Ruth. Your resilience, determination and optimism was something else tonight. Thank you.

And very big thank you’s to Alex for fabulous backmarking in tough conditions, Bryon and Si for making the final route decision, and leading and navigating beautifully, and of course to Danny, for bundles of behind-the-scenes planning, and a brilliant, useful technical addition to the evening.

And onto next week...

Aaaand…I can’t WAIT to do it all again next week, when we’re Victoria Park-bound as we join the Borough's Big Clean Up event – sign up here!

It was Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue tonight as two of our longest standing task owners needed some urgent summer help. Becky and I led two teams off to two of our local community gardens, before meeting at Meath Gardens to attack our abs in earnest.

I headed up the Cranbrook Crew of 10 who ran to the local community garden, nearly a mile from base, where the team shifted un-moveable vegetable beds; made trellises, shovelled compost, cleared and lifted wood; swept and sawed. Not much for 40 minutes then. Amazing stuff. And brilliantly project-managed tonight by task owner Eileen, who rewarded the team for their hard work with rhubarb and leeks.

Meanwhile, thanks to yours truly giving incorrect location information to Becky’s team, the Hollybush crew ran to the wrong garden via a spectacularly pretty little oasis, full of fascinating flora, including a thoroughly cool monkey puzzle tree. Every cloud and all that. They then went onto enjoy an extreme upper body workout as they dug, weeded and edged flower beds all to a retro background playlist (Tom Jones), courtesy of task owner Michael. The team headed promptly to Meath Gardens where, upon early arrival, task owners were swapped for taskmasters David and Steve, who insisted the best course of action when arriving early is to squeeze in a lap of the park.

The Cranbrook crew arrived, armed with gifts of leeks and rhubarb, and playlist and exercise list. I was concerned Environmental Health might put in an appearance as tonight we were planking and single leg bridg-ing to music. Jess did little to allay my fears as she confirmed that ‘you only need 9 people for it to be classed as a riot.’ (I have Googled this on returning to my desk, and it seems that 3 is the magic number. To be continued, Jess…). The team completed their core and glute-activation work brilliantly tonight. I don’t know what was in the air but as they sailed through the scorpion push-up, Pilates roll-up-on-steroids, the single leg bridge-with-pulse, a hovering side plank, the seated sprinter and then the crab dance, I did wonder if the class content tonight was too easy. Again, to be continued…

And so to the thankyou’s

Thank you to Becky our utterly brilliant task force member, for heading up the Hollybush team; for planning (both before and during the evening), and for the lovely report and pics – and for getting the team to Meath EARLY. Oh, and for finding the correct location. Ahem.

Thank you to Nadia, Alys, Jess and Mi for tonight’s pun, and for my putting up with my scathing dismissal of all your previous fab suggestions (“No – no good. What else?”).

And thanks to David for overseeing sign-in, and for getting the post-run stretching started.

...And welcome!

A big hello and welcome to Jess , who just got so stuck in on her first Group Run, it was amazing! I feel like you’ve been with us forever. Thanks for the hard, hard work (“Are you task-less? Come with me…”), for the fun, and for joining the team so effortlessly. I hope you’ll join us again really soon.

And the fun continues...

Right, two dates to get in the diary: On June 9th, we’re partnering with Mile End Parkrun for the pacing event - all speeds and levels much needed! Details and sign up are here.

…And next week, our Bank Holiday Bonanza, sees us popping to Aldgate to flyer for the Aldgate Square Festival, before running to Weavers for a wicked workout (running and resistance work – tick multiple fitness boxes with this one). And then Mother Kelly’s at 8:45pm for a quick Bank Holiday bevvy. More details and sign-up are here. Come for as much (or as little) of the evening as you fancy!

Okay, that's it from me. Well done for another truly brilliant night of multi-tasking, and I CAN'T WAIT to do it all again next week.

A balmy Bank Holiday

What a wonderful night to be working outdoors. The weather was warm, the mood was relaxed but 19 runners were raring to hit the streets of East London and head to a new task.

We made our way to Jesus Green, a pretty little green oasis popular with families, just off Columbia Road, where task owner James greeted us enthusiastically with three tasks.

One group headed to nearby flower and shrub beds to fill rubble-filled borders with compost; another group made their way to the bushes to clear the area of debris, while a third group rose to the challenge of heavy duty-raking, on hard ground, to prepare the area for shade-resistant grass seed.

A workout-and-a-half

The temperature was over 25 degrees but even in a cooler climate, this would have been tough work. The gardening group were getting stuck into tough terrain with spades and pick axes; the raking group were wiping brows and taking rests as if pursuing the toughest of CrossFit challenges, and even the debris collectors had their work cut out for them, as they had to carefully plan their route into dense, low bushes to really tackle the litter task in earnest.

It really was quite an evening’s work, completed by a Sowing Celebration, as, having prepared the entire area for the seed, the team then proceeded to carefully scatter the new grass seed, ready for it to take root for summer.

We then ‘enjoyed’ our core and upper body fitness session in the park, with the team excelling at the Pilates roll-up-on-steroids move; the tripod push-up, pulsing side-plank crunch, and not forgetting our time-honoured kneeling hip flexor stretch.

And so to the awards and thank-yous…

Carry On… moment-of-the-night award goes to Laura and Savina who refused to rest until they’d dealt with some impossible-to-reach bunting lodged high in a tree. Savina enjoyed an upper body workout like no other as she balanced Laura on her shoulders for a good few minutes. (And shout out to Laura and Si who win vox pop of the night:

Laura: Savina, move to the left a bit.

Si: Laura W, do you have your waiver forms with you?).

Thanks to Becky, for fabulous back-marking and for being the most forward-thinking social secretary task force member; to Sarah for her extensive horticultural knowledge and being such a friendly task force face for our new runners. Thanks to Bryon for co-navigating and leading the run there and back with me. Thanks to Si, Bryon, Becky and Becky for their brilliant input for social and Olympic planning.

Thank you to Laura for our wicked pun this week. It’s really tickled me!

And a big team thank you to you all. As James explained at the end of our task, your work means children, families, and anyone else using the park, can now enjoy the area, complete with new, soft grass underfoot, without fear of being cut with stones and twigs; children can play hide-and-seek in the bushes without finding a hidden vodka bottle, and everyone can enjoy new, colourful flower beds.

You are brilliant. Just brilliant. And I can’t wait to do it all again week.

SAVE THE DATE(S)

So. Next week. We’re heading to another new task at the Royal London with Barts Volunteers, to include a stair-climbing challenge – sign up here

…And don’t forget, 30th June is the Good Gym Olympics, so whether you’re a speedy sprinter or an egg-and-spoon enthusiast, please come on board and get this in your diary.

…And speaking of which, on May 28th, our next Bank Holiday run, we’ve got a fabulous Weavers Fields fitness session planned after our task, and then a table booked for 8.45pm at nearby Resident of Paradise Row (thanks Si for the suggestion) to have a quick beer, a catch-up and a GG Olympic chat, so another date to put in your diary.

Wow, what a night (it's not often I start a report with 'wow'). What can I say? 28 runners, not deterred by a ferocious day's freezing cold rain, gathered eagerly on the Town Hall steps to be briefed about an array of exciting tasks at Stepney City Farm.

First briefing, however, tonight was from the director of our Facebook film crew, who were accompanying us to the task. First instruction of the evening was to request runners keep pace with the rickshaw that would be accompanying us around Victoria Park en route to our task. Just another night out with Tower Hamlets GoodGym.

On arrival at the task, teams divided into four: one large group to shovel, wheel and lay woodchip on the outdoor cafe area; another to sift, stack and generally order piles of material behind the tool shed. A third group therapeutically chopped pallets, while groups four and five were tasked with sterilising children's toys and tying sweet peas in the polytunnel. Despite the fact that our task took in a longer-than-usual, picturesque run, all tasks were accomplished in the usual speedy time thanks to a fast - frenzied some might say - work pace. For the second week on the hop, our task owners literally stood in the farm yard shaking their heads at the speed at which the runners worked. Thanks to Patrick who last week introduced wheelbarrow-running, thereby giving the term 'active recovery' a whole new meaning.

As the sun set, we gathered for our group shot, handing over to Claire our task owner, who expressed her heartfelt thanks on behalf of the farm, relieved that so much had been accomplished ahead of the farm's May Day activities next week.

We ran back to the hotel in two groups, to allow the film crew to catch a few more moments of action with a remaining couple of runners.

A very active, and thoroughly enjoyable night out.

Very, very big thank yous and congratulations

Now. To the thank yous and the congratulations...('thank you' and 'well done' doesn't quite do it justice tonight, but I'll have a go...). Thank you to the whole team for being such fun with the film crew, for running at such a great pace with such big smiles around the park and along the canal. Thank you for never losing sight of our goals for the evening and for picking up the pace in such a way that you got more done than ever, in spite of time running away with us.

Well done, and a big welcome, to our new runners tonight: Sophie, Viola, Lieke and Iain. You sprinted, you squatted, you sawed, you spread...you smiled sweetly for the camera...Amazing first night stuff. Please do come and run again soon.

Thanks to Patrick for giving up his t-shirt; to both Patrick and Becky for helping with return-run decision-making; to Patrick, Leanne and Issmaeel for great mid-task interviews; to Patrick, Chris, Dave and Leanne for leading the group back to base, and thank you to Issmaeel for a lovely run and great company as we headed back to base in our wee team of two.

Thank you to our brilliant multi-task force member, Becky, who greeted our new runners tonight and kept an eye on stats.

And lastly, thank you to Dave and Leanne, for leading the run, back-marking and co-navigating; for being on board with the planning, for what was a complex evening to arrange(!)… for being so un-flappable. And for sending route screenshots on a Sunday. You all absolutely rock.

And I for one can't WAIT to see you all, and do it all, again next week (talking of which, on next week’s run we’re sowing grass seed and gardening at Jesus Green. Not only is this a new task in a really pretty spot, it’s also a Bank Holiday, which means you’ll be well rested. And it’s set to be a warm one. So do come and join in the fun – sign up here).

And lastly, trivia-lovers, we need you. This Sunday evening, celebrate it notbeing a school night by joining us at The Coburn Arms from 7.30pm for drinking and pub quiz-ing. We’d LOVE for you to join in the fun, as we rest our legs and challenge the grey matter, so pop your name down here if you think you might fancy coming and giving it a go.

It's a task SOS!

So there we were, all lined up up for a straightforward trip to Stepney Farm when an urgent call came in on Friday from longstanding task owner, Margaret at Hollybush Gardens, explaining that some urgent digging was required for planting in Rocky Gardens. After a great big GG shout-out, many pairs of hands came to the rescue this evening, so we were able to despatch two, impressively-sized teams, to two tasks.

Tonight's intro took place on the Town Hall steps (daylight, warmth...bliss!) as we were a big crowd and felt like we were at a rather crowded house party in our hotel room. After a warm-up in Peel Grove ("Let's play a game: who's got the tightest hip flexors...What do you mean that's not fun? Actually, I'm sure flexibility-shaming's a thing, come to think of it.") we went our separate ways.

Hot footing it to Hollybush

Leanne took the Hollybush team off to see Margaret and Michael, where the team turned over the soil in the planters, ready for new crops to help supply the local food bank; cleared and tidied plant pots and then re-housed some grateful snails. The group then took a long Victoria Park-detour back to the hotel, planned brilliantly by Bryon and Leanne, led and data-recorded by Dave, taking the Hollybush crew to a respectable 5K. Thanks to Gabrielle for some brilliant back-marking.

A fast pace back from the farm

I led the Stepney City Farm team down the road where Clare, our task owner, had several tasks lined up: one team led by Patrick were in charge of woodchip-ing the entire plant shop (a meatier task than I'm making it sound - it involved moving many plants, planters and heavy compost; shovelling and wheeling woodchip) while Lianne was Bin Team Leader (we're still working on a more glamorous task title for her), her team tasked with emptying 10 big bins. Fitness Feat of the Night goes to Patrick for his unstoppable and impressive wheelbarrow-running. After a quick breather to look at the bunnies and piglets, we finished with some delightful lateral lunges, sweeping-leg-planks and our tuck'n'roll-for-the-tum before heading back to base.

Our plan was a tempo run back to pace and 'comfortably hard' was the recommendation. For most of us, it was an 'uncomfortably hard' pace trying to catch Danny who led us back to base, really kicking it up a notch. Thank you Danny - please come back and lead some more speedwork, it was a totally exhilarating end to the task. And a massive well done to Polly for quite a spectacular sprint finish.

What a team

What a night! Thank you everyone - yet again you wowed our task owners with the sheer amount you were able to accomplish.

A very big warm welcome to first time runners Zeina, Jess, Clio and Martin & Rosemary - it was a joy and a privilege to be with you at your first Group Run. Thanks for your smiles, your hard work...thank you for making it a brilliant night. I really do hope you'll join us again very soon.

A big thank you too, this week, to the brilliant Tower Hamlets Task Force: Becky one of our regular running-data gurus and our 'social secretary' (again, the title's a work in progress); Bryon for lots of behind-the-scenes planning with me (and for putting up with weekend planning-panic emails); Leanne also for lots of behind-the-scenes planning and for heading up a fantastic night at Hollybush, and to Dave for leading and recording the route, and our back markers for the night, Patrick and Gabrielle.

When can we do it all again?

Next week, we're back at the farm so do join us for another night to remember - I just can't WAIT to do it all again.

(...Keep your eyes peeled for details of our May 6th gathering at The Coburn where we join forces with Mile End Parkrun for the pub quiz! It's a Sunday but NOT a school night, as it's a long Bank Holiday weekend, so do put the date in your diary).

Let's hear it for warmer, lighter Monday evenings

It was a very enthusiastic group of 31 runners that headed out to popular task location, Weavers Adventure Playground, this evening, where task owner Alex was well prepared for a large group with a total of 4 different tasks. We had a lovely run to the task, with a quieter, more scenic route planned and led by Bryon.

Something for everyone...

On arrival, the team were divided up into: the heavy lifters (as it sounds); the saw-ers (is that a term?) for those fancying their hand at chopping up large planters; the soil crew (or 'the dirt group', as they became affectionately known during the evening) for shifting large amounts of soil, and the creative-thinking group for designing and building steps around the new slide. With team leaders appointed for each micro-task, Alex divided his time between all teams, project-managing and working with the lifters to shift heavy white goods from 'out back'.

The return of the Tower Hamlets signature snack

Half time means Lucky Dip Pick'n'Mix time here in Tower Hamlets - this week, most runners made a beeline for the HobNob bars, with the more health conscious snapping up raisins and - get this - oatcakes.

Pl-anks to Alex, for the use of the hopscotch area

...And so, freshly-fueled, we moved to our fitness session, where, as usual, abs proved to be a particular favourite area to focus on, so well done for putting up with the side-plank crunch and tuck'n'roll demands that were made on your abs, all on the slightly-softer-surface of the playground's hopscotch area. A particular well done to Rhys who, on his first GoodGym run, ended up planking on a hill (albeit accidentally in an attempt to stay at the back of the class), thereby giving his abs a double workout...

Happy customers

We headed back to base, both runners and task owner very much the very satisfied customer. A massive well done to you all, your efforts were clearly very much appreciated by Alex - as he explained, you really helped lighten the load this evening. Thank you for being such fun, so creative, and for persevering with all the tricky tasks, and for not stopping for a second for nearly 45 minutes.

Thank you shout-outs to Bryon for navigating and leading runs to and from the task; Dave for stats; Isha for being co-photographer and for some really fabulous pics, Leanne for brilliant backmarking, for always staying in sight, even with some last minute twists and turns!

...And a very warm welcome

...to our first time runners tonight, Savina, Rhys, Nick, Brian, Yesh, Georgina and to Mi (whose first time it was with the Tower Hamlets crew). You lifted, you lugged; you shovelled, you dug…You were amazing.

...and a very Happy 6th GG Birthday to Pete

Thank you to Pete who joined us for his sixth GG anniversary - was really lovely to see you on your GoodGym birthday.

Well done again Team Tower Hamlets - what a thoroughly upbeat, lively, satisfying and productive Monday night out that was, and I can't WAIT to do it all again next week!