24 runners ran 3km to help at Royal Hill Community Garden!

What a purrrrrfect evening that was. 4 new runners joined us in Greenwich last night so welcome Kathryn, Tom, Marco and Luca! Hope you had a pawsome run with us! Ok done with the cat puns now. Happy cat day everyone.

For those of you who are new, please feel free to join our GoodGym Greenwich Facebook Group where you can keep up to date with things that are going on, and races etc that people are doing!

We set off through the park, making the most of it while it's still light! And before we knew it we had arrived and were welcomed by a very excitable Tony, who had loads for us to do!

On the agenda was the following: Digging a trench Weeding Watering Planting bushes Shovelling soil Dismantling pallets

So there was looooads to be getting on with!

Naturally all the lads gravitated to the jobs which required a pick axe but Marta made sure she had a go with it too! There are no male and female jobs when it comes to GoodGym! Everyone else grabed a watering can or a tool of sorts and got stuck in!

The main job was the trench, as the garden had been donated some bricks/tiles (not really sure what they were?!) so thought it would be nice to have them line the flower bed but for in order to do this a trench had to be made to stick them in the ground properly. The ground was pretty solid and was seemingly made up from a combination of hard packed soil and rock but little by little it was getting done and shaping up nicely!

Meanwhile in other departments, the mini childrens wheelbarrow was filling up nicely with weeds, lots of plants had been watered and Vickie had managed to snake the hose around nearly everyone. After 25 minutes the place was looking amazing! The trench was a HUGE success and we had the EXACT number of bricks to fill it... PERFECTO!

We packed everything away, took a nice group pic and then headed back through the park for a pitstop at the steps. 6 minutes of up and down just to help build some nice strength in the legs. With hills and steps the downs are just as important to train for as the uphills so make sure to focus on your form coming down too! A little jog back to the uni for a stretch and we were done!

Great work last night everyone! We got SO much done and really helped out the volunteers so you should be really pleased. Feel free to go back to enjoy the garden whenever you want!

20 runners ran 3.5km to rip out weeds at the Christchurch Community Garden!

It was another warm summers evening at GoodGym Greenwich. We had 3 lovely new runners join us, Mani, Shelomoh and my probably one of my oldest friends Marina! Great to have you all along with us!

HAPPY PINEAPPLE DAY!!!

It was pineapple day yesterday so we went round and found out everyones favourite fruit, we posed like pineapples in our photos and a few people even went out for some post run piñas! Nice one!!

We did a little warm up and then made our way along the river to Christchurch garden. We were greeted by Kate who had lots of tools and gloves ready for us. And then it was all hands on deck, literally! Everyone took to the floor to yank out as many weeds as possible. Some of them were super stubborn but it was always really satisfying when they came out, roots n all!

After about 20 minutes, we could really notice the difference, patches of weed-free areas were growing bigger and bigger! And the buckets of weeds were filling up rapidly! By 8 o'clock it was time for us to leave. We gave the place a final sweep, had a group pic and then made our way to the park!

Hill repeats!

We had a bit of time to spare so we made the most of it with some hill repeats up One Tree Hill. We had 10 minutes to complete as many ups and downs as possible. There are quite a few steps and you soon feel the burn (I did 25 of these on Tuesday so I know how you guys felt!) but it's a great thing to incorporate into your training to build leg strength and strength endurance which will ultimately make you a faster and stronger runner!

Not sprints!

When you hear about hills you usually hear the term "hill sprints" so you often see people charging up a hill at full speed but that's not what we want to be doing! If you sprint up those hills, you will burn out and be too tired to complete more than a couple of reps, its better to just go up them at a steady speed and then recover on the downhills and do 6-10 reps rather than be completely wrecked by the time you get to the top on the first one!

So give it a go next time you're in the park. Ideally once a week you want to be getting in some kind of session like this is, whether it's hills or intervals and you will see dramatic improvements in your running fitness!

After 10 minutes, we had a nice little jog back to the uni with the sun setting ahead of us. LOVELY!

A little stretch and we were done!

GoodGym Olympics!

A few people asked me yesterday about the GoodGym Olympics, you can find all the info here and while there is no space for any events, it will be great to have as many of you down cheering and helping out as possible! It will be such a fun day with loads to get involved in! Hopefully see you there :)

Great work last night everyone! Well done for getting so stuck and for embracing those hill repeats! See you next time!

Covering 5km of running, 28 superheroes took to the streets of Lewisham to help out at Crofton Books.

Did you see GoodGym on the BBC news last week? Have a look at the clip here, all about reducing isolation by bringing people together once a week, for a chat. A few of our runners have been visiting their 'coach' this week and others have been on 'missions' to help someone in their home. Nykolette and Monica even did a mission parkrun mash-up, they're unstoppable!

In other news, Bradley got another PB. Yes, another. We will be naming this weekly feature, Bradley Corner, where we can come and admire his rapidly growing collection of medals. This time he surprised even himself, by going sub-40 for 10k, wowsers! Over in beautiful Pembrokeshire, Eleanor ran a hilly trail race, running herself right onto the podium as third female! Well done both of you!

There's only one Conroy Barnett

Back in January 2015, at our first ever GoodGym Lewisham group run, I remember a smiley person in a woolly bobble hat bouncing into the foyer. When we took our group photo he lay down at the front, making himself at home and there he has stayed (not on the floor, he's got up and run a fair bit since). Tonight, our very own Conroy did his 100th good deed! Since he joined us on that first run, he has done missions, coach running, helped to support his fellow runners (even cycling alongside them on long training runs whilst injured himself), he has paced at parkrun, encouraged his friends to do hill sessions and has become a run leader, to help me out. Well done Conroy, what a loyal and supportive member of the group you are!

Joining us for their very first GoodGym group run tonight were Paul, Valentina and Ines and visiting from Wandsworth (dragged along by our Stephen) was Morag. A big sprinkling of Lewisham Love to you all!

And there was a task too!

Yes, amongst all this we had a task to do! Tonight's recipient of our goodness was Crofton Books, the wonderful second hand and vintage bookshop at Crofton Park Library. Here, we met Jason, who quickly reeled off a list of tasks, with smaller groups of people breaking off to get on with them. The building was a-glow with red t-shirts tackling a variety of jobs:

• Collecting up, bagging and binning the rubbish at the side of the building

• Sorting/organising/alphabetising/colourising(?) books in the various sections, including politics, health, gardening, art and architecture and philosophy

• Carrying some heavy bags outside

• Writing down ideas about how the different sections could be organised

• Painting upstairs (and getting to wear awesome forensic kit - see photos)

As always, time here just slips away and I found myself jogging between the different areas, announcing how much (or little) time we had left. All stray books were quickly found a place, paint brushes and trays were put away and forensic gear peeled off, before Jason thanked us all and we were on our way.

Run for the hills!

It's been a while since we were over here and in the daylight too, so what better way to celebrate than with a few hill repeats?! Yessss! We all know (but sometimes forget) that hill training is really good for you (it's like the running equivalent of eating your greens), encouraging good form, building strength, improving overall fitness; it's magic! We often concentrate on the uphill, but tonight we looked at our downhill technique, concentrating on 'letting go', allowing gravity to do its thing and going 'weeeeeeee!' as we went.

Hilly Fields Sunset

All this effort - well done everyone - was rewarded with the most stunning sunset, which we admired as we got our breath back. Back at our start point, we talked about the GoodGym Monthly Social, which is happening this Thursday in the gorgeous Bromley. Have a look at the details here and join us at the Bridge House (and no, you don't have to run! You can even wear your 'nice' clothes). Next week we will be off to Wildcat Wilderness, to see the brand new polytunnel and get stuck in to some lovely outdoor tasks. Thank you to Nykolette, who brought along some lovely sweet treats to celebrate Conroy's milestone, yum!

See you soon!

Feeling high on life, 25 runners ran happily through Lewisham, covering 7km and tackling a number of fun tasks at the Wildcat WIlderness.

I'm just going to have a little lie down...

YESTERDAY WAS EPIC!! London was well and truly awash with joy, as tens of thousands of incredible athletes tackled the 26.2 miles of party-central, London Marathon (it was like 2012 all over again). We had a team on the Hilly Fields parkrun baggage trucks in Greenwich Park, helping the Red Start runners by looking after their belongings and giving a last-minute pep-talk, hug, shake, whatever was needed most. We had people cheering around the course, in Deptford, Canary Wharf, Embankment and, most exciting of all, we had runners taking on their first marathon. Representing GoodGym Lewisham were Ali, Andy and Amber (all the As!). Everyone did amazingly, especially when you consider that they had trained in snow and bitter winds, only to find that race day gave them blazing sunshine and 24-degree temperatures. Throughout the day we had updates from Amber in particular, who kept us informed of her progress, giving us the chance to will her on, send her encouragement and remind her of all the hard work she had put into this. We hadn't expected her to turn up this evening then, in her finisher's t-shirt and wearing her lovely medal! Well done Amber, what an achievement!

Stuff!

This wasn't all we were celebrating today. Here at GoodGym, we like to mark our milestones, with 50 good deeds leading to a special black t-shirt and 100 good deeds giving you wings (a red t-shirt with wings on the back). This week we were really pleased to congratulate Emma on this achievement. We met Emma first of all when she came to the monthly social, when it was held in Lewisham, telling us all about how she was running with GG Westminster. By the end of the evening we had convinced her that she needed to join us in SE13. She has continued being a tourist, visiting a few other areas and can often be seen rushing off to a mission to help an older person in their home. My favourite thing about Emma, aside from her incredible enthusiasm to get stuck in, is her awesome laugh, which can be heard from one side of the Wildcat Wilderness to the other :)

What a week to join us for the first time! We had two brand new runners, Kirsty and Patricia and, joining us after having visited GoodGym Greenwich, was Beth - welcome, all of you, here's some Lewisham Love...x

Into the Wild!

Our task this week was over at the (wonderful) Wildcat Wilderness so, after a quick warm up, off we went, towards Ladywell Fields (with expert back-marking by Amber, Conroy and Rosemary) and through the bramble-lined paths, where we met Maria. It's lovely to be back here in the evening light, enjoying the most beautiful sunset as we worked. Since we first started coming here, the wilderness has grown and there are now a number of spaces that need our attention (this means a wider area to cover when gathering everyone up and taking photos!). Across the space, our volunteers tackled:

• weed-bashing (of course, top, number one favourite activity here!), creating new or wider paths

• lopping, cutting back thicker brambles or branches

• gathering, carefully picking up the discarded brambles and transferring them where needed

• turning the soil, putting it into a wheelbarrow and using this to fill a trench (which Maria pointed out must have been the tracks of a vehicle at some point many years ago!)

• picking, uncovering, lifting and removing stubborn and deep bramble roots (evil things!)

• levelling, creating the perfect space for the new polytunnel

• uncovering, pulling up and moving rusted metal, including a very large and heavy tank

• watering, an especially relaxing and restorative task for our marathon runner

All of a sudden it was eight o'clock and we hadn't even started putting the tools away! This is definitely somewhere to come and while away an afternoon or evening (which you can do, on one of the regular volunteer days), but we didn't have the luxury of time, so quickly returned our equipment and gathered for a group photo, whilst hearing about all the amazing plans Maria has for the space. We look forward very much to returning again in two weeks time, ahead of the installation of the outdoor kitchen, sign up!

Our return run was brisk (I'm sorry if we were a little late arriving back!), with the sky darkening slowly and talk turning to what was for dinner (there is always a collective tummy rumble at this point). We also talked, of course, about races and marathons, with the next big marathon being Malcolm's run in Edinburgh in five weeks time. Don't forget, if you fancy trying something a bit shorter or even a bit sillier, we have the GoodGym Olympic Games coming up in June and we really should start planning and working out what we're good at (egg and spoon anyone?). Details are here, sign up and represent!

Next week we will be off to Crofton Books, always a fun task and a nice 5k round trip (with views). Join us, we'd love to see you!