Four of us ran 4km to help make 14 beds for the homeless at American International Church

Thanks for coming along guys - great to see you again!

Just before I get started on what did here are some things we talked about:

1. Runbundle is a great website for pace calculators if you are looking to predict your race times, for some of you marathons are soon!
2. For GoodGym hashtag's please use #dogood #getfit #goodgym
3. For more details about C4WS which we helped yesterday - go here.

Okay so yesterday at 4.30pm we met to go #dogood and #getfit in Camden. It was still light and the sun was setting over the next hour, absolutely beautiful.

We headed down the busy Goodge Street to the American International Church, it wasn't even a km but with all the roadworks and pedestrains we certainly used our agility skills.

Once we got there we met Jonathan, the Shelter Coordinator at the Church. He explained that there were 14 people staying at the shelter at the moment, one of whom is 13 weeks pregnant. While the guests stay at the centre they are given support from staff and volunteers who give them counselling, help them find permanent accommodation and much more.

Making beds for the homeless!

Our task for the evening was to make up 14 beds which would be later laid our in the halls. I cannot stress how important this job is, how much time it saves the volunteers and the impact you are having on people's life's. Over 25 minutes we made all the beds, with people having different techniques and Jonathan telling us they just have fitted duvets in the US!

After we were finished with the task we took a group picture and headed to Russell Square for a fitness session, focusing on our arm drive and doing a progression run - great.

We then headed back to the Facebook Office and stretched out. Good work guys, lovely to see you again.

See you next month for more GoodGym.

PB out

8 GoodGymers ran 5km to help Scope Charity Shop on Camden High Street!

Welcome along to GoodGymxFacebook Run - it was the first time for Andy and Jordan, great to have you join us. We collected together at the Reception of the Facebook Offices with the mission to do some good for our community and get a bit fitter.

We headed via the back streets to reach Camden High Street, aiming to avoid the traffic and enjoy the evening's run. Upon reaching the Scope Charity Shop we were ready to help this fantastic charity which aims for all disabled people across society to enjoy equality and fairness at home, school, work and in our communities.

GOOD Spraying!

Our contact Jane told us that the tasks for the evening were all about cleaning and tidying up. The charity shop is almost exclusively run by volunteers so any help we can give makes a massive difference. Armed with sprays and paper towels we got to work cleaning the windows, surfaces, skirting-boards, mirrors, shelves and display boxes. Plus Jordan did a great job of mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors, while Jake hoovered the shop and Andy swept the stairs - nice!

After 25 minutes we were done, Jane was really happy for our help and we left knowing we'd made a big impact in our community. I know the original plan was for us to sort donations at the shop, it's a shame this didn't happen this time around but I'm glad we could still help out.

Next we ran to Regents Park Inner Circle where we did some drills, including:

• High Knee Skip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBLf1KsmOJI
• Bounds/High Skip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMdz8pK5ByY
• B Skip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB8qd-_RehQ&t=10s

These drills are all focused on improving our technique - posture, arm drive, ground contact and higher knees. This was all building up to our 1km time trial around the inner circle - everyone pushed hard and did amazingly!

We then headed back to base for a group picture and a good old stretch.

See you next month for more GoodGym.

PB out.

On Thursday night ten tremendous GoodGymmers ran 4.5k to help out at Coram Fields in Bloomsbury.

This was the inaugural GoodGym x Facebook group run and we met outside their office, slightly buffeted by the wind, as we got to know each other. After a quick chat and a warm up we set off with Ana kindly back marking.

It's a shortish run and one that involves lots of pedestrian dodging but everyone kept up the pace to reach Coram's Fields in double quick time.

We were greeted by Noel the groundsman who explained we would be collecting leaves. Coram's Fields is a brilliant oasis in central London exclusively maintained for children and families. It often relies on volunteers for its upkeep so our help was appreciated.

We grabbed some tools and got to work. Dividing into twos the teams got competitive as they tried to fill the most bags. 25 minutes of hard work later you can see the evidence piled up in the pictures: that's a lot of bags guys.

"Hugely helpful, it make a huge difference to our charity, it would have taken our guys hours to do this and it's made a big difference. They did brilliantly for first timers. They put in a lot of effort in a short time "

Noel, manager, Coram's fields

That hard work done, Noel thanked us and we dashed off for a fitness session. We found some open space at st Andrew's gardens and divided into two teams for some repeats. The teams ran one lap at 50% and the next at 70% before going again. In between repeats we worked on squats and calf raises before a finisher of a timed fast lap. It got a bit competitive and everyone did brilliantly. This was a great way to pick up our heart rate and work on that speed.

High fives all around and we set off for a light run back to base for stretches. Thanks for having us everyone and I hope to see you all again on another run soon!

Damian, Barnet trainer