Thick smoky clouds engulfed the majority of a dusk sky last night, not sufficient to scare off our red warriors.

Siobhan's 100th and Clara's 2nd GG run yesterday. We did an extra efficient intro chat, inc a pre-asked RWQ: "what phrase irks you most?" A great cathartic exercise, I thoroughly enjoyed watching us all vent. We had phrases and words from 'reaching out', 'taking it back to base camp', 'cascade it down', 'living your best life', 'genre', 'a game of two halves', the incessant use of 'like', 'no offence, but', the default use of male of pronouns and many more.

Longest run on the GGN books at the mo, 9k in total, though seemingly not a big deal for most of you. Remember a year or so back, we had a similar distance run, and was a big effort getting back. Shows how much fitter this group has got collectively, mindset change too.

Once we arrived at the hospital, weeds were yoinked out, flowers and bulbs were planted, bushes were trimmed and tidied. The Dementia garden looked miles better 25mins after you'll left. Nice one guys.

Next week we are at Manorfield School, sign up here

Before I log off, two things. Huge credit to our Siobhan, who climbed into three figures yesterday. Our intrepid traveller who's been absolutely superb in pumping out social media posts, evidencing your efforts. Good luck with your masters and see you in December mate.

Second, we've got another birthday next week, GGN turn 5, dinner and drinks after our session. Looks set to be a corking 5 year anniversary.

Have a quality weekend and catch you soon

They say you can't have your cake and eat it too. I think we positively dispelled that archaic proverb. 24 folk rolled up last night on a picturesque evening Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We trotted an easy run, fired off some HIT efforts, did a mulch-itude (credits Rosie) of labour intensive tasks and concluded with pizza, gherkins, drinks and a chinwag. It seems you can have it all, sometimes.

Rosa, Vika, Asia and Myles rocked up to partake in the volunteer-train-party combo. Hope you guys had a good first session, it normally doesn't take up all of your evening, but for the occasional social. Nice to have you part of the team.

RWQ courtesy of James "what's your most used emoji?" Ostensibly a frivolous question, but actually more insightful than most of our normal icebreakers. Several positive 'thumbs up' and 'smiley faces', showing the general disposition of the squad. A 'fist bump' for the street cred, a 'flexed bicep' for motivation, a 'nauseous face' for our pregnant hero, 'winks' for the cheeky, 'nail painting' cos it's sassy, 'flamenco dancer' for the partaay, ...and a tonne others.

The HIT work flew by, starting on a bit of leg overload, then onto some core based work, 4min of effort in total. We can all squeeze that in here and there. Good way to finish an easy run if looking for some variation and strength.

Ange welcomed us to the playground and explained the story behind the massive rescue boat, plonked right at the entrance to the playground. Those kids are lucky, with plans to modify it in the near future, look forward to watching that come along. We had several groups owning their patch, the mulch shifters dug and wheel-barrowed with purpose, the tree trimmers cleared a vast area in no time, the soil shifters grafted hard in the outer depths and the pole diggers ripped out the...pole, of course. Top effort one and all.

The pizza oven has some explaining to do, took a bit longer than it should, but everyone was patient and cracked on with crisps and glaring into the fire. Graham decided to fry his pizza...in the fire, not a conventional method to my knowledge, but bugger convention, it worked, hat's off to that man. Next time you see Ange thank her for the awesome display of generosity and time, she bloody loves you guys and likes to show it.

Next week we've got a new task over at West Ham Park, thanks to 'GoodGym Mum' also known as Sharon. We'll be back in the mulch game, helping with their educational garden space. See below:

"The Wildlife Garden was created by volunteers in 2018 for outdoor learning and forest schools sessions. It forms a key learning space for the Wild Schools outdoor education sessions in West Ham Park which has had over 12,000 local primary children attending sessions since the project began in October 2016."

Sign up for next week here y'all. Have a groovy weekend and tick off some longer lush runs in the sun.

See you fine folk in 6 days

B

The inclement weather of yesterday didn't bother Newham's finest one iota, bodes well when we're rocking up 20 + in a blimmin' all day deluge. I got sodden multiple times, hence onto my final rain jacket with name printed on the shoulder (my mum didn't put it there...ha ha), luckily James showed up with plastic bags on his feet, smoothly taking the spot light with him.

We welcomed Beth on her first run with the clan. First of many perhaps?Also Siobhan as she returned for her first session in three months after an intrepid solo expedition around the 'Stan' Countries. Welcome home Queen of The Newham Gram.

RWQ delved deep into our sauciest desires, not that you dirty dog, literally: "what's your favourite condiment?" We've done it in the past, but it's a good 'un, so we did it again. We had the classics: brown sauce, ketchup, mayo, burger sauce, mint sauce, soy sauce. The spice brigade: tobasco, chilli oil, encona x hot. The 'posh': dijon mayo (did someone say that?!), aioli (I can't pronounce this without making a ridiculously exaggerated mouth movement). The niche: HP Fruit Sauce - i googled it, it's a thing.

2miles later we arrived at destination, dry as a bone and personally overdressed. Matt took seemingly an eternity to come and meet us, but there was a crash nearby to be fair. But we cracked on as soon as he arrived. Clearing out a section of the dock, where they intend to relocate the main shipping containers with offices etc. We shifted a load of wood planks, metal grills and random poles. Others clipped and trimmed the foliage. Some swept with speed and rhythm. We were done and dusted in 20mins, reckon that would've taken a single person half a day or so. Lovely work. This dock was pretty run down a few years back, out of use, nothing going on. It's now a community hub, with exhibitions, fairs, festivals, party boats, ecology field trips and a plan to bring the dock back into working order. YOU were part of that.

A chosen few honed some speed and technique work to finish. 6 x 20s with 30s recovery. Short, but enough to bring about a training effect at the end of a run. Bravo to the brave sprint boshers of the bridge. Technique and intensity fused together for a finishing stimulus.

Next week we go to the adventure playground, a short run, with a social after on site using their outdoor pizza oven. We'll nab an early fitness session, then roll up our sleeves for the task before kicking back. Sign up here

Folkestone go-getters have a corking run, cafe, swim, pub....etc. Looking forward to the updates, who's gonna have that warm glowing PB feeling in the cafe? Time will tell, in both senses.

Nice one team, till next week

B