Full or mince pies and good intentions, with the promise of new fitness and even more good deeds in the air, it was the first group of run of 2019 for GoodGym Hounslow and we were raring to go.

The chill factor didn't stop 16 of us meeting at Chiswick Town Hall ready to make a difference in our local community, and we quickly got stuck into a run down of the news.

A huge congratulations to Africa who ran a great 10k race on New Year's Eve (despite the small shoes), to Remy who nailed a barnstorming new 5k PB at the weekend, where Andy and Natasha were volunteering. Nice one team!

This weekend there is a long run starting from Kew Bridge. It is 18k at various paces, nobody will be left behind, and it's along some of the prettiest stretches of the river. Sign up here for all the details.

Know somebody who is interested in GoodGym but a bit unsure about what the whole thing is about? Point them towards this sweet little starter session happening on Sunday - it's the perfect way to find a bit more about the loveliness that is GG, ask questions, meet the trainer and talk about fitness goals. Spread the word!

Don't forget there is a parkrun being set up at Duke's Meadow - they're looking for volunteers for what will be the most local parkrun to GG Hounslow's start location.

After a bumper week of news we headed outside to warm up (much needed), and to find out what one thing we were all going to achieve in 2019. There were loads of running goals, which is excellent, including first marathons, halfs, and 5k pbs. Don't forget that if you have goals and need some help, motivation or advice, just come and speak to me. Good luck team!

Our task tonight was fairly close by, perfect for easing ourselves back into the feel of group running. So after ten minutes at a steady pace we arrived at Strand on the Green school ready to tackle hell's own flora, otherwise known as diseased box hedges. These thorny little pests have been attacked by something, and the school has asked us to tackle the resulting problem - rows and rows of dead bushes.

This is our second visit, and it won't be our last, as they proved more of a challenge than we first thought! But they were no match for the might of GG , and half an hour later there were far fewer of them blighting the school grounds. Michelle, Andy, Lindsay and Remy also made short work of a broken old planter, and the pathways were given a good sweeping.

After 40 minutes of hard work, we tore ourselves away from the bushes, and set off back to our starting point for the fitness session. Focussing on strength and conditioning, we started off with the fiendishly tough cha cha slide challenge, which featured several minutes of ab-testing plank variations. Then came the body blitz, which saw us take on several rounds of body circuits that lasted two minutes each. Tough work, but great to see everybody putting in so much effort. Abs of steel, here we come!

So great to see you all GoodGym, and looking forward to all the excellent things 2019 holds for us. Starting with next week's run, for which you can sign up right here!

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Don't forget that the very last monthly social of 2018 takes place tonight! We do have the Christmas party to look forward to on the 1st December of course, but don't wait until then to get your fix of all the GoodGym news - sign up here for all the details on tonight's fun.

Please come and help out at the Tooting Parkrun takeover if you're free on the 17th November! We need all sorts of help, from marshalls to token scanners - and you can even sign up to pace if you fancy a run. Whack your name down here to let us know you're coming to help!

Hooray for Remy who last night reached that magic milestone - 100 good deeds! It takes something special to dedicate all those hours and miles to helping others so give her a cheer.

Paint it Back

A few weeks ago we started off a huge job at Ealing Road Church - a community centre, foodbank, clothesbank and shelter. The railings around the church needed a good sand down and painting to tidy up the outside of the building.

So after a quick warm up, and a very important poll to decide which biscuit is the best (general consensus was either hobnobs or digestives), we set off on the 3k run to the church.

Just under 20 minutes later we were there, and greeted by Pawel who had set up cups of paint, brushes and plastic sheeting ready for us to get stuck straight in. After 40 minutes of solid painting we had got over half way through the job - I reckon just two more sessions and we'll have nailed it, team!

As a special treat (!) we were allowed to use the inside area to do our abs blast. We went through 6 different exercises all aimed at strengthening our core - thereby helping to prevent injury and improve our running form - and finished with our weekly minute plank. Nice effort everybody.

With a steady 3k ahead of us we headed back to the Town Hall with the thought of double cake week driving us to get there in a quicker time than the first leg. It's amazing what pub/cake can do as an incentive!

Next week we have a task at a local school - we've got a whole load of box hedges to pull up. So get your headtorch out, grab your thermals and sign up here!

Last night ten tremendous GoodGymmers ran 3k to help Cultivate London on what was both Halloween and GGH's second birthday!

Meeting at the Town Hall we did our intros in the warm before heading out into the cold. While we got our legs moving we did names and numbers and named our favourite/most memorable/first one we could think of halloween movies. I heard shouts for Roald Dahls's The Witches 🧙, the Grudge and Saw. A bit of a range.

We set off with Amanda kindly back marking. It's a fairly short run and held up by the rail crossings but naturally we filled the time with wall sits.

Arriving at Cultivate London we met Rosie who explained that the group could continue their previous work de nailing and sanding broken down pallets ready for the community gardens cultivate helps. The wood would be used for a variety of construction needs and is most importantly free after they are left behind by local building contractors.

The team got to work: one group sanding and one group de nailing. It was physical work but everyone raced through and did a brilliant job. It wasn't quiet work either (!) but a lovely task that's perfect for us to make a visible difference for them.

Finishing up, we tidied, said our goodbyes and posed for a team photo outside. I asked for the teams best Halloween pose... : you be the judge 👀

From there it was a short run back and into the park for our fitness session. We made use of what light there was to do some strides: 30m repeats at varied paces. We finished with squats, calf raises, and a slight scare when a fully costumed chewbacca and t rex came running across the grass at us. They were friendly really.

We finished up with stretches and the team decided to go to the pub to celebrate their birthday while I began the journey back to Barnet. Thanks for having me everyone and I'll see you again soon!

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day and we runners know the benefit of running on our mental health. Last night was our #runandtalk session, a campaign to improve mental health through running in England, but our GoodGym group is here for every single run we do together to listen, talk and share.

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Jessica, Liz and Jazmin all came for their very first GoodGym run - lovely to have you join the group! Give them a cheer, Hounslow.

Look out for the great GoodGym Tooting Common takeover. It's going to be massive (we hope), it's on 17th November and you can choose your role. Sign up here to get involved and let's turn Tooting Common red!

A huge congratulations to Remy who smashed her first (but not her last) marathon at the weekend. Brilliant running!

It's a runderful world

We had a new task tonight at Maryville Care Home, a residential home for the elderly in Brentford. It was a little longer run, at 7.5 k in total, so we set off as a group at a steady pace, and eventually found ourselves in a misty dark corner of the beautifully names The Butts. Eventually we found the home, and after a few attempts to get in, found ourselves being greeted by the wonderful Sister Clare, a true tour de force.

She gave us a potted history of the home, and with her trusty notepad, wrote down a list of jobs for us to tackle on our next visits. However, there didn't seem to be an awful lot to do this week, so after a tour of the place we met a few of the residents. While Oliver was a huge hit with one lady, Carolina made friends with the one and only Pam, who shortly after launched an escape attempt. Next time we'll be washing wheelchairs and painting, but it was great for the sisters to meet us and see what we were all about!

After our weekly minute's plank, we set off on the run back to the Town Hall, and finished off the night with a good stretch. Next week we're back at Ealing Road Church to paint the railings we sanded down a few weeks ago, sign up here to give your Wednesday night run purpose.

There leaves are starting to turn, the evenings are getting darker. Autumn might be round the corner, but GoodGym Hounslow definitely still have a Spring in their step!

Please give a massive welcome to Amber, Jamie, and Lindsay who all joined us for their very first GoodGym run last night - great to have you with us!

First a little bit of news to think about. Midnight Runners have been in contact about their Midnight2Midnight event on 29th September in London. It's a 24 hour run consisting of 24 loops of a 10k course around the centre of London. Each loop starts on the hour at the Scoop outside City Hall, with all money raised going to charity. There's potential to have an official GoodGym loop so if you're up for either running yourself or helping with the GG loop, then let me know!

We headed outside for a brief warm up before our task, and had a chat about our fav childhood games. Lego topped the poll with two votes, but there were also happy memories in the shape of Operation, the sandpit, Mousetrap, possessed Furbies and red plastic monkeys.

Our job last night was for the amazing Honeypot charity, an organisation which enhances the lives of young carers and vulnerable children by providing respite breaks and ongoing outreach support. It gives young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home and provides a safe environment for them. They wanted to spread the word in Chiswick about the vital work they're doing, but didn't want to waste resources on a door to door drop, so asked us if we could help by delivering leaflets to community shops and other hubs in the area.

Clutching our leaflets - all 140 of them - we set off in groups to target the most community-minded of places down Chiswick High Road and Turnham Green and half an hour and a few wrong turns later, we had managed to distribute them all over the area. Nice one team!

Next it was time for our fitness session, and this one was a toughie. We started off with sprints and conditioning, before moving onto a mean little drill which saw us doing two burpees every 15 seconds for a total of three minutes. Not easy. We then saw off the session with strength exercises for our arms, abs and legs. All that was left was to run back to the starting point for stretches, and some gorgeous honey cake made by Remy to wish everybody a very Shana Tova!

Next week we are off to the brilliant Cultivate London - sign up [here] to help out a charity that turns disused land into nurseries where young people can learn to grow plants and gain skills.

It was so great to see so many of you lovely GoodGymers from other areas coming along to the group run in Hounslow last night. That's one of the best things about GoodGym - you're guaranteed buddies up and down the country!

A huge GoodGym welcome to Charlotte and to Claire who came along to their first group run last night - lovely to have you with us.

A little reminder that next Thursday it is the monthly GoodGym social, and it is a particularly special one because it's the first time we will be hosting it, along with the lovely Ealing and Hammersmith groups. Not one to be missed - sign up here for all the fun.

At GoodGym we have a partnership with the fabulous Parkrun, and as I know so many of you are Saturday morning warriors, this piece in yesterday's Guardian might prove interesting - particularly the bit with the quote from the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon:

“Our spirits must be firmer, our hearts stronger / And our courage greater as our strength diminishes.” Heads bow, before the shout goes up: “Let’s run!”

On that note, we headed outside to start our own run with a warm up that focused on our coordination and balance before upping our heart rate and waking up our muscles. Plus a little bit of advice from us all. What techniques do you use to combat that moment when you're out on a run and your brain is telling you to stop? For us it's the thought of a cup of tea and biscuits, keeping a goal in mind, visualising catching the runner in front, singing a song, running through our day in detail, taking a short cut, counting our steps or imagining we're at the Olympics. Why not give them a go next time you're flagging!

We set off together for our run down to Kew Bridge, stopping once to keep the group together and do a few planks while we were at it. We found Paul waiting for us at our meeting place, who explained that at the Thames Tidefest this weekend an amazing organisation called the Whale Company will be sailing a paddleboard they've made from plastic bottles retrieved from the river to highlight the problem of pollution. We were also meant to building a path down to the river but unfavourable conditions (mud up to our ankles) got in the way of that.

We collected an incredible (and somewhat depressing) number of bottles from the shoreline, and even found an actual message in one of them! The message itself was a little sad, but it still made it's way up onto the noticeboard where hopefully it will stand a salutary tale - if you're planning on sending a message in a bottle out to sea, make sure it isn't in plastic!

Job done, we ran back in two groups, one slightly longer than the other, and finished off the night with a set of circuits with varying options of difficulty. With one final high intensity round of 15 seconds per station and no break between them, it was hard work, but everyone worked to the max. Well done team.

Next week we have a short run to tidy up the flowerbeds and rockery at Turnham Green but will be making up for it with a lovely fitness session! Until then, run happy everyone.

With a late change to our scheduled task, we had a slightly longer run than first anticipated last night, but nothing holds back team GG! The Whale Company asked us to help them collect branded bottles from the shoreline which they are then going to turn into a huge raft which will be raced down the Thames by an ex Olympic rower in a bid to raise awareness of the level of plastic polluting our waterways. What a good idea!

It was great to welcome Richard all the way from Bristol doing a spot of GG tourism, while Carolina came along for her first every GoodGym run last night - give them both a cheer!

A little reminder that we have two community missions coming up (for which you don't need to be DBS checked) on the next couple of Saturdays - check out the website for all the info.

Just before our warm up we started with a little runspiration courtesy of writer Haruki Murakami:

"Exerting yourself to your fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running and a metaphor for life"

With that we popped outside to get our legs pumping and our heart rate up, and also to find out which skill that we don't already possess would make our lives better. The answers ranged from the achievable (bike maintenance and learning a language) to the more ambitious (time travel).

We thought we had a 3k run ahead of us - eventually it turned out to be 4k - and we set off down the streets of Chiswick on our way to meet Carolyn from the Whale Company. We found her waiting with bags and instructions, and together we jogged the extra stretch to the most polluted part of the shoreline. As we got stuck in, finding masses of plastic detritus, bottles, cups, cotton buds and far too many lollipop sticks, we were kindly offered free drinks by the manager of the pub opposite our patch of river. Nice!

Less nice was the dead eel and massive fish head we came across as we picked up bottle after bottle, but it was all in the name of a good deed. Well done to Will for flicking it back to its final watery resting pla(i)ce.

We took the run back in two groups arriving back after another 3k at around the same time. A special mention goes to Jen who smashed her longest ever run yesterday. Nice one!

Next week we're back to the river to help prep for Thames Tidefest where we'll be finishing off that rather lovely path we started down to the water's edge. Sign up here for more GoodGym fun and hopefully fewer eels.