More than two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK daily and 70% of that is food packaging. Nine billion tonnes of litter ends up in the oceans across the planet each year and animals most affected by litter in the world are all sea creatures – fish, whales, turtles, and dolphins. Around 60% of global water pollution is linked to littering.

Ok, so they're not exactly fun facts, but the good news?

There is something positive we can do about. And last in Wandsworth, that's exactly what happened

12 of us met at the bAC as usual, and this week it was over to Steph to come up with the question of the week. It was a belter - when is the official date it is acceptable to start getting festive for Christmas? Answers ranged from anytime after Bonfire Night, to the 17th December. The majority went with the 1st December, but we decided the winning answer goes to Adam who said it was after his birthday - so the 2nd December it is!

We grabbed our pickers, which helpfully fold up so are easy to run with, and made our way to the first stop of the night. The road between Shillinghurst Park (better known as Banana Park!) and Doddington (home of the lovely community garden) is one that is well trodden for us. As the weeks have passed we have noticed the litter problem growing and growing and last night we decided to do something about it.

We divided up into two teams - recycling and general waste - and got picking. There was all the usual detritus, including more bottles and cans that you could shake a litter pick at. Then there was the challenge of how to dispose of the dozens and dozens of empty bottles of fast gas that we found, plus some more unusual items. Laura bravely tackled the soggy cow/cat/unidentified furry item, while Catherine demonstrated some amazing picker dexterity by managing to snare a penny. Skills!

Shout out to Chris who did his regular Monday morning litter pick on Wandsworth common, collecting over 0 empty cans of beer, and was back for more in the evening with us! What a great effort to make our area cleaner and safer

We got rid of our bags at the big bins, and then made our way back to the BAC for a mega fitness session. Teaming up, we added a competitive element by seeing which pair could do the most hill sprints interspersed with conditioning exercises. Kudos to Team Chris and Adam, and Team Catherine, Alice and Jo and to everybody, the efforts last night were amazing!

Some dates for your diary.

• This Saturday there is a great community mission to plant a new orchard between Tooting and Streatham that promises to be a lot of fun and a great workout!

• Tomorrow evening why not join this nice, short inside task to help an environmental clothes charity

• Get your glad rags on and join us for all the fun of the festive season at our Christmas party on the 12th

If there are ever any missions, runs or socials you want to shout about then just let me know!

So much has changed since our last monthly visit to Doddington community garden, and the joy of going regularly means that we can see the difference we're making over time! This visit we were delighted to see that the beds we had dug last time were flourishing with courgettes and other crops.

But first things first. We kicked off the session at our usual meeting spot for some warm ups, and it was brilliant to welcome back some familiar faces and to have Rida join us for her very first session - great to have you part of the team!

We did some warm ups which tested our coordination as well as our muscles, and given we have just had a bumper week of fireworks, Halloween, Diwali and there are now 50 days until Christmas, we asked the group which is our favourite holiday. Answers ranged from Christmas, Boxing Day, bank holidays, Easter, Eid, Halloween and our annual leave. Goes to show we all love a party!

It was just a short run or cycle down to the Doddington, where Malissa wasted no time getting us to work. There was weeding to be done, trees to transport and a new bed to be dug, lined with cardboard boxes and then refilled with compost again. This is going to be planted with red onions for the community to enjoy, so keep your eye peeled next month!

After a good 45 minutes of hard graft we downed tools and went down to the square for a lower body challenge. Three minutes of seriously tough exercises with no break, all working those glutes, quads and calves - and everybody rose (or squatted) to the challenge. Great job!

All that was left was to run to the pub for the monthly pub quiz, and this time there was two bumper teams ready to battle it out. Team IstanWool (who will ever forget from this day forward that angora wool comes from the Turkish capital?) were pipped to the post by Paul, Dave, Jo, Laura, Justin, Jason and Catherine's megabrains...but we still have to beat our nemesis at the bar! Definitely next month.

Speaking of which, don't forget to sign up for our Christmas party where there will be plenty of festive fun to be had, and also this special mission to get everybody a warm coat this winter.

Every session at GoodGym is special, but last night was especially special for a few reasons!

First of all we got to welcome Carol, Abi, Adam along for their very first group run with us - let's give them a big GoodGym cheer! It was also fantastic to welcome back some familiar faces too.

The evening was in collaboration with Sport England's This Girl Can campaign, which aims to remove all of the hurdles for women to participate in sport. This is particularly relevant at this time of year when the clocks have gone back and the evenings are darker. There is a lot of anxiety around running after dark, especially for women, and last night's session was a chance for us to help make wider society more aware of this and what we can all do to help.

So just before we started the task we went round the group to reflect on how running after dark made us feel. There were lots of different answers from us all, including concerns about running in parks (which takes away some fun and freedom of going for a run) , worrying about trip hazards, how every sound is amplified, being hyper aware of everything around us, and the disappointment of avoiding it all together. It was really interesting to hear everybody's thoughts from lots of different viewpoints.

If anybody in the group every wants to go for a run but doesn't feel safe, then feel free to message the group in whatsapp and we can hopefully get a buddy system going - I for one am always up for a social run!

What also made the task slightly different yesterday was that, rather than run to a community organisation like we normally do, we had our session right at our meeting spot at the BAC. So all we had to do was turn the corner to find the amazing permablitz garden. This space is available for the whole community to use, and anybody is welcome to help themselves to the produce grown at this edible garden. It's all planted so it's sustainable, organic and full of pollinators.

This is a wonderful community resource but it's also a huge space, and so we rolled up our sleeves as head gardener Polly took us for a tour of the garden. We saw fennel seeds, curry plants, learned about walking onions and admired all the amazing herbs. Some of the volunteers who work at the site have accessibility issues and the leaves falling around the planters have made the paths slippery and unsafe. So while half the group set about litter picking in the beds, the other half got stuck in clearing the walkways.

Meanwhile there was plenty of planting to be done, so we grabbed our gloves and a big bag of bulbs and got stuck in. Great work everybody, you've made an amazing difference in just a short amount of time. And good news! The blue keys were eventually located....

With no run involved, we had to make up for it with an full body work out. It was so good to see everybody throw themselves into loads of different circuit based exercises, including those dreaded hill sprints, tricep dips, bunny hops,lunges, lateral jumps and so many more - all of which were made doubly hard by doing them on that incline!

Next week we are back with a bang - expect lots of lovely Diwali and Bonfire night fireworks as the back drop for our run! We'll have an extra great view of them as we're going to the Doddington rooftop community garden for our monthly session followed by the pub quiz social. Everybody welcome, the more the merrier!

Which way is North???

Three Goodgymmers arrived at the Goodgym Garden at the Omnibus Theatre.

I was in disguise (I think a lack of Goodgym top on display and my newish beard & baseball cap, and Jordon walked straight past me).

Stephanie soon after arrived with the gigantic compost bin.

A team decision was made to have a coffee and read the instructions before placing the compost bin.

Caffeine ready when made our way into the Garden…

We were then tried to work out and which direction was direction was North for best placement of the bin.

Decision made, but a small obstacle…. -A gooseberry bush needed to be relocated. - At rapid speed the bush was dug up by Jordon, and Steph started preparing the ground for the compost bin. - I dug the hole for the bush to be re-planted.

After bush was re-planted and the bin was is place we tidied and the started to fill the composter. - Weeds, leaves, fallen apples, (to my own enjoyment dropping tomatoes in the bin) next seasons produce will be ready to be turbo charged which a bit of nourishment from the bin….

Sunflowers “one I should say should they stay or should they go…” some maintenance was required and despite Steph’s best effort using everyone’s friend google we were unsure if they will grow again next season…. Seeds collected & fingers crossed for 2025 flowering…

Tools packed away we set off in our separate ways to enjoy the pleasant sunny Sunday.

Should we name the new Compost bin??

Paul

Pumpkin spiced lattes, roast potatoes, fallen apples for composting bins....and dogs dressed up for Halloween? It could only be Autumn at GoodGym Wandsworth - and we're here for it!

We started off our evening with a warm up and a big decision to make. Did we have it in us to tackle not one, but two tasks that evening? Of course we did! So after several different moves to get our heart rates up and a discussion about whether we'd prefer to be super wealthy, wise or famous (we were split evenly between wealthy and wise) we set off for our initial location for the night.

The first part of our task was very much in keeping with the Autumn theme. We soon arrived at Christchurch gardens, a local space which is managed by residents. They try to keep it as clean, tidy, safe and welcoming for neighbours as possible, and asked us to come and lend a hand with the fallen leaves. The problem had got out of hand at the front of the community hall and church as they have been coming down thick and fast here, making it slippery underfoot. So while most of the team got busy picking and bagging them, some of us went round the perimeter of the garden collecting litter.

It didn't take us long to make a huge difference, so after a quick break for a photo (thanks Andy!) we got ready for our second task of the evening.

FoodCycle aims to make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community. Their vision is to connect communities, reduce loneliness and food poverty using surplus food to help everyone who needs us. They have a new hub in Clapham Junction which is a welcoming space for people from all walks of life to meet, eat and have conversations, but it is still in its early stages to needs more volunteers to help run the place.

They asked us to help spread the word by leafleting in the local area to try and raise awareness and recruit people to help. So armed with a few hundred flyers, we got started by forming a highly efficient human chain. With a group of us on each side of the street we went from house to house putting the leaflets through letterboxes. It ended up being a bit of a race - a spot of healthy competition always helps get the job done faster at GoodGym!

At the end of the evening we had covered quite a bit of mileage and supported two important, and very different, local organisations. What better way to spend a Monday! If you'd like to extend the happy feeling of using your workout to do good, why not join me tonight to deliver more leaflets for FoodCycle this time in the Elephant and Castle area. Or if you're free Sunday, why not pop down to the GoodGym Garden in Clapham to do various jobs including, excitingly, installing a new composting bin!.

Next week we're back at the BAC helping with their Permablitz garden. Not sure what Permablitz is all about? Click on the link to find out more and sign up!