Storm Gareth was no match for GoodGym Cardiff tonight as 18 runners took to the streets to do good in the community... Many runners not attending tonight to instead watch the MPs vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal on live TV

GoodGym is the best way to get fit in Cardiff FACT and so everyone who attended GoodGym this evening made the best decision - I applaud you on your decision! It was so nice to see Mali return to GoodGym for her 2nd GG run too! :) Our GoodGym family is certainly growing. A huge well done to Nathan, Ellen, Peter and Lucy who all took part in races over the weekend. Kudos to all you parkrunners too. And not to forget, a MASSIVE penblwydd hapus to Big Moose Cafe too - They opened 1 year ago today :)

Warm up - Let's get those legs pumping

Before running to help the Samye Foundation it was important to limber ourselves up... and what better way is there to warm up than by doing some warm up games!

• Shabang King Game - Ben was the Shabang King... (And if you say it really fast it sounds like spanking) and everyone else was his followers... Everyone made a circle around Ben whilst Ben remained in the centre. Ben showed everyone 3 actions and then told them "I am going to say Shabang Shabang and then one action, if you do the same action as me then you are out and you have to do star jumps until the game is over". The Game had then begun! THE WINNER WAS CHAY! Well done.. You are a fantastic mind reader!
• Noughts and Cross - Everyone was split into two teams, numbered 1 and 2. In their teams they had to run as a team with a coloured cone to the tic tac toe arena. When they reached they arena each person, starting with the front, had to pass the cone through their legs and to the next person who put it on their head, the next person would then take it from their head and pass it through their legs to the person behind... the process was then repeated until it reached the last person who ran to put the cone on the tic tac toe board! Well done team 1 who managed to win after a restart as team 2 decided to pick up the wrong coloured cone!

There is no time to waste... get in the choppa... Sorry I mean, it's time to get our run on!

It was now time to get our run on! Adam and Mikey led the group run as Ben (Sir Limp-a-lot) led the walking group! The walking group comprised of Ben and Charlotte and the rest displayed some fierce running form as they ran to the Samye Foundation

Welcome to the Samye Foundation everyone!

Lorraine greeted runners to the Samye Foundation. She welcomed everyone in and offered them water to rehydrate. When everyone had arrived to the centre, Lorraine said How about a spot of mindfulness? Runners were then led up to the Shrine room AKA the top of Everest because of the amount of stairs one has to climb to reach it.

Feeling mindful, revitalised, present and self aware, it was now time to increase heart rates once again and get stuck into the evening's task.

• Task 1 - Building 1 needs a good clean
• Task 2 - Shelving units need to be moved from the office in building 2 up to the loft area and reassembled
• Task 3 - The chairs need polishing in building 3
• Task 4 - The kitchen and toilets need mopping in building 2

Love a good clean we do - and clean we shall! Armed with mops, flash, polish, hoovers and a whole array of cleaning products the dirt didn't stand a chance. Lucy volunteered to hoover the moment she heard of the opportunity, she is a sucker for hoovering. BANG and the dirt was gone.

Lowri was getting stuck into task 2, building shelves in he loft... She would have definitely won a game of hide and seek. As soon as she heard of the task to build shelves in the loft she wasn't seen for 20 minutes!

Aimee undertook the challenge of Task 4, singlehandedly polishing 6 chairs... polishing off the task to perfection - "Don't chair think my chairs are impressive Ben?" Aimee said whilst presenting the now shining chairs for all to see!

Mikey took photos of everyone getting stuck into the tasks - In his element!

Thank you so much GoodGym Cardiff - You are incredible!

Lorraine was so thankful that we were able to run to the Samye Foundation and help with tasks that usually take hours and hours to do which me managed to do in 25 minutes. Never wanting to have us leave on an empty stomache, the Samye Foundation kindly gave us some slices of pizza before we ran back to Big Moose. We thanked Samye for giving us a #ReasonToRun too!

The Tweet off!

Well done to Lucy who won the Tweet off - You are getting quite good at this aren't you? Who will be next week's tweet off champion! REMEMBER! The Tweet off podium winner at the end of the year will get a limited edition certificate! Nathan Swain has said that his name should already be written on the certificate - fighting talk!... the competition for tweet off champion 2019 has officially begun! - Nabeel... you've gone quiet on the Tweet off front... I am wondering if you can win it again?!

Don't forget - Bring a friend to GoodGym and get yourself a FREE red lace! - Until stocks last

This evening 24 GoodGym runners got their plog on, running the streets of Cardiff cleaning rubbish with each stride.

It's Tuesday which means GoodGym is in town! (This makes it the best day of the week!). This week we went plogging. Before our run we put our gloves on and got some empty bin bags.

Warming up before the run!

It's important to limber up and get our bodies ready for intense plogging, and what better way is there to do that than with some games!

• In the Race / Over the line
• Pirates life for me!

We then did a headcount and welcomed new runner, OLI to GoodGym. Welcome to GoodGym Oli!! I know we're a very enthusiastic bunch and we really hope you come running with us again :)

Let's go plogging!

Mikey was ready to lead the plog. Armed with the route he led the runners towards the Castle. They were going to continue following the route however the perimeter of Cardiff Castle had been littered following the heatwave we've experienced in Cardiff over the past couples of days. After a few minutes of plogging along the grass, the grounds were beautiful and they carried on following the designated plogging route.

The plogmentalists, Adam and Chay, couldn't stop themselves from picking up even the smallest pieces of litter. The ploggers also ran past hundreds, thousands? of football fans who appeared to have no idea what on earth we were doing... (((Nathan - did you see us???))) Runners then split into teams, taking one side of the road each. FIona was quite territorial not letting any plogger from the other team collect litter that wasn't on their side. There were THANK YOUS from many members of the public, who appreciated our efforts.

Fitness session

With plogging done it was time for some fitness! A 1 mile sprint around Victoria Park was in order... 321, GO. Blink and you would have missed them.

Cool down

We then ran back to Big Moose where we reflected on the evenings plog which was PLOGTASTIC!! We ARE going to do this again that is for sure.

It's goodgym day!

Yes that's right. Tuesday is here at last! And I (Ben) am also glad to be here to lead the group run with you all. After arriving back to Cardiff from Seville one hour before the start of GoodGym I'm glad my flight was on time and I made it back safely!

We are now settling back into Big Moose (One of the best cafe's in Cardiff, if not the best!). We started with a warm up... playing a fencing style warm up game whereby we had to get into pairs and then try and be the first to tag our partners leg three times. The winner had to do 10x star jumps and the loser 10x squat jumps. Next we played a game of 'rock, paper, scissors', however our actions for each had to be extremely expressive and involve considerable physical movement to ensure the game gave everyone a sufficient warm up - the game also involved running so it was definitely a good warm up!

We then quickly regrouped for a headcount and declared/announced our favourite holiday destination - people shared some very fancy holiday destinations!! ooooooo. We also took a few moments to introduce ourselves in the headcount and give a HUGE warm GoodGym welcome to LLION! Welcome to GoodGym Llion; we are this crazy and fun all of the time and we hope you find comfort in coming along and being part of GoodGym Cardiff - You are more than welcome :)

Feeling warm, ready and raring to go, it was now time to get into our groups! Mikey was leading the speedy group, Ben was leading the sexy runners and Aimee was leading the sexiest walkers! Before setting off each group was allocated a back marker that made sure nobody got left behind!

Let's go!!

Aimee and Lucy were part of the sexy walking group tonight.. the whole of Cardiff were turning their heads and doing double takes as they demonstrated the sexiest walking ever seen at GoodGym! Some people had to pick their jaws up from the floor because they were that darn good at sexy walking!

The sexy group displayed the sexiest running forms EVER and Cardiff was definitely most impressed! (Apparently people didn't blink just to be able to look at the runners for longer undisrupted).

The speedy group... well they were too quick to be noticed... they were like the secret agents of the running world!

WE'RE HERE!

Carl, the manager of the Tenvous store on Clifton Street, was so pleased to see us! He greeted us with a huge smile on his face and welcomed us in. He said "I know you like to run and do good and I have some tasks which I'd be really greatful for your support with". Carl told us that he needed each of the windows decorated in a Spring theme, he needed some clothes steaming and also he needed clothes sorting so that stock that wasn't selling could be moved to a different store.

Let's get to it! Immediately we began doing what we do best... working as a team to get the tasks we had been set done as good as we could in the alloted time. There were 2 groups dressing the shop windows, Lucy and Darren were steaming the clothes and another team were sorting through the clothes to bag items that would be sent to another store.

Halfway through the task Carl brought out an expensive Burberry designer jacket. How much do you think this jack retails for? Everyone's brains began ticking... I won't tell you the RRP of the item, but I can tell you that you can pick it up at the Tenovus charity store at a very good price and much cheaper than if you brought it brand new!

After 30 minutes the windows looked amazing, many clothes were steamed and stock that hadn't been sold was bagged up!

Thank you so much everyone!

Carl couldn't believe how much we had got done in the short space of time. Carl, supported by Aimee, then went out to judge the window dressing contest. There was a winner for the best family window display and another for the best spring themed window! A huge well done to both teams.

Now time to run back!

It was then time to run back. Mikey led the run back with Ben back marking. The run back was fast and there was still time to spare before the end of the run. Not wanting to waste the opportunity for more GAINS, Ben had everyone doing shuttle run sprints for the final 5 minutes. To end the run we gathered in together for a warm down. We took the opportunity to do stretches whilst reflecting on the evening's run.

WELL DONE EVERYONE! Get signed up to next week's run now by clicking here!

21 GoodGym runners ran to St Edwards Church to clear the basement of debris so that the Forget-me-Not charity can store their gardening tools there

Runners arrived swiftly into the Big Moose Cafe for the evening's run. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw Chloe from Big Moose bring over some delicious looking cake; it was definitely hard to resist the cake until after the run... "please just a crumb..."... The temptation was strong but everyone managed to resist!

This week we had 4 new runners!!A huge welcome to Chay, Charlotte, Matt (from We Make Good Happen) and Mathew! We love having new people come along to GoodGym; Mathew was Welsh Dave's friend, and because Welsh Dave brought along a friend, he earned himself 1 red lace! Cheers all around!... He said it was like Christmas come early. Sue has now reached 50 good deeds too... hooray! She was awarded with a badge which she plans to wear at work and on nights out! What a hero!

After a quick warm up jog, jumping about, touching the ground and shaking all about we did the hokey cokey and got on our way!

Time to run to the task!

Ben led the runners who wanted a beastly workout. He led the runners up Pen-Y-Lan hill and back down an adjacent road and then headed towards the church. Welsh Dave, carrying a bag full of portable floodlights and gloves, backmarked the speedy group. Well done to Chay who joined the speedy runners despite it being his first run with GoodGym!

Ellen led the 'sexy runners'; The sexy runners are the runners who wanted to run at a more graceful pace, paying more attention to their form and technique, they headed straight to the task.

Welcome GoodGym to St Edwards Church, the venue where Forget-me-Not meets

Every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm to 4pm the Forget-me-Not charity and support group meet at St Edward's church. The charity provides a friendly and welcoming environment, suitable for people with memory problems and their carers also people recovering from a stroke or people who feel isolated and vulnerable. They offer various activities: puzzles, games, books and music, arts and crafts, “a stroll down memory lane” and singalongs. They even provide attendees with a cup of tea/coffee and piece of cake. There is no charge to attend, but a nominal donation of £1 requested for the refreshments.

Kathie told us about how they have recently received funding from Age Cymru to help improve on what they currently offer. They used some of the funding to hire a skip and this is where us GoodGym volunteer runners come in, our task was to take everything up from the basement and put it into the skip so that the basement can be used to store gardening equipment for their future gardening projects.

Kathie also mentioned to us about the church ghost!.. OoOoOoOo, It was definitely beginning to feel like halloween month! Can you spot the ghost in the photos?

After hearing about this fantastic charity we couldn't wait to get stuck in and help out. Immediately we formed a chain with some runners in the basement, some on the steps and some by the skip. A whole manner of objects were lifted from the basement including a lawn mower, old tables, metal frames, wooden triangles, parts from an old fireplace and more! Matt got stuck straight into the task, lifting items from the basement with Rosie and passing them to runners on the steps. Chay was then putting them into the skip with help from Keira and other GoodGymmers. Emma even found Thors hammer!! 🛠. Aimee and Ellen did a spot of litter picking, filling 1 bag of litter and covering over half a mile in distance - Well done ladies!!

After a speedy 25 minutes of helping out the task was complete!

Thank you so much GoodGym for your help

Kathie and her partner thanked us all for our hard efforts and we thanked them for giving us a #ReasonToRun. Mikey then led the run back and Aimee and Emma both backmarked. We ran back with our heads held high, not just because we were proud of ourselves for helping out, but because it enables a good flow of oxygen to enter the lungs for efficient running!

Well done to Andrew who has again come up trumps and came up with this week's pun for the run - Well done Andrew... very innovative!!! You've won the virtual award for a second week running. Keep it safe, you've earned it :) Don't forget to hand it back next week.

Don't forget folks!

• There is a community mission this Thursday evening. Click here to find out more and get signed up
• Want to join in the post Cardiff Half GoodGym celebrations? Click here to find out more
• Want to join in in the GoodGym Cardiff Christmas party? There are 6 places left! Click here to find out more. You can pay your deposit to Emma Wilkins :)