15 fab runners ran 7km to tidy up at Charlton House!

Our run was a wee bit longer than usual last night, well I say a wee bit, it was over double the length of what we're normally used to doing here in Greenwich plus it was the first time in a long time that we had to run up THAT hill!

We welcomed back Lizi after a a 9 month hiatus who in that time has got married and honeymooned! Good to have you back Lizi!

So we set off as soon as we could knowing it would take a little longer than normal. After about 20 minutes and a big hill later, we arrived at the wonderful Charlton House. We were greeted by Simon who had buckets, sponges, brooms, scissors and an industrial strength cleaner for us.

Our main tasks were to clean graffiti, snip off a bunch of rogue cable ties from the railings and litter pick the grounds. However, in reality, our main task was actually FINDING the grafitti first. After a lap of the whole house, none was spotted but after about 15 minutes searching, lots was finally found on the brick wall of the park. The high strength cleaner worked an absolute treat, it was like rubbing out pencil! Disappeared in an instant!

Meanwhile the rest of the crew were off in search for litter. It was a bit more challenging than expected in the dark but by the end there was a nice little haul collected. Nice!!

The success story of the night though was the team on cable tie duty who managed to collect a whole bucket's worth of cable ties from railings, benches and fences etc. GREAT WORK!!

After about half an hour, we reconvened, put everything away, took a pic and off we went! We said bye to Kat our back marker who, by the way, can speak 6 different languages... amazing! Or should I say incroyable!

No time for a fitness session last night, sorry guys, but we will be back with a bang next week! Lots of people tapering for big races though so I promise to keep it light :)

We had a little stretch and called it a night!!

Just a quick few links for the things that I mentioned yesterday

Here is the link to the Mini Marathon community mission on 12th May. Stewards, marshals and set up volunteers required!

Also the big Earth Hour community mission is taking place on Saturday. Have a look here, sounds super fun!

Great work last night everyone! Lots of great running from you all and thanks for all your hard work and patience when we got there!! See you on Saturday for Beckton Parkrun or next Wednesday!

24 AWESOME runners ran 3k to help out at Christchurch School Garden!

Firstly, I cannot go any further without admitting sin; yes, ladies and gentlemen of GoodGym Greenwich, I am a thief, a taker of things that are not rightly mine. What’s this? You all collectively shout! Yes indeed, what has been said is true; whilst a thief, I am not a liar. Today’s incredibly punny title was not of my original thought, but that of GoodGym Matt’s. For this, I rightly award 2 good deeds to Matt; a great hoorah all around, I think you’ll agree!

Sadly, I do not have the authority to apply these bonus good deeds, and so these are merely words. But, don’t forget, words can change lives in an instant and say a thousand things with but a look.

And so, we move swiftly onto the run and task. We all gathered on this balmy February evening (thanks to climate change) and welcomed two new runners to GoodGym Greenwich, first timer Jen and Tower Hamlets good-deeder Dave. Welcome to the crew you two, hope you had a good run with us!

Our run leader, Sarah, then began proceedings by asking everyone to introduce themselves to the group whilst saying their favourite colour. Unfortunately for GoodGym HQ, ‘red’ was not the only colour mentioned, with ‘turquoise’, ‘blue’, and ‘yellow’ all getting their 2 seconds of fame. Sarah, sadly, said her favourite colour was ‘grey’, which perked us all up a treat. Even as a bonafide red-green colour blindness sufferer, I’m glad that GoodGym didn’t choose ‘grey’ as their brand colour.

We then dropped our bags off and headed over to Christchurch School which is full of vegetable patches, a learning-Gazebo, and plenty of fresh green space. On a side note, it’s wonderful to see a purpose made green space for children to enjoy right in the heart of grey (Sarah!), smoggy London – keep up the amazing work Christchurch School!

Before we could get cracking, we were led over to a gaping hole in the ground and were briefed on the evening’s to-do list. The hole, it transpired, was a pond which needed some further muscle power to dig to the required depth; classic GoodGym Greenwich fodder. Other tasks included wheel-barrowing sand over to said pond which was to be laid as a foundation underneath the tarpaulin, moving spiky American plants, removing old plant boxes, and a general spattering of flower pot watering and any necessary litter-picking.

Not needing telling twice, the group disassembled and got to it. Alongside Matt and Marta, I helped to transport sand to the ever-deepening pond. I can only wonder what this motley crew of runners looked like from the road, quickly digging their way down into a hole in the ground. Maybe, Time Team meets Grandstand, or rather, a very special edition of Bob the Builder: Can we dig it? Yes we can!

In really no time at all, the sand was put down with Gareth making sure that it was good to go, and the tarpaulin added with Pieter leading the way. Alongside this, other good-deeders rushed about the garden making sure that it was in tip top shape. In fact, we were so efficient that Ben took a few of us out for an extended run, leaving the remaining few to finish up the pond.

We then re-assembled at the Naval Colleges for a final set of stretches before saying our goodbyes and stealing each other’s puns.

Brilliantly wonderful work tonight everyone, your work made a huge difference to the garden, which is fast becoming one of our go-to places to help out and maintain. See you all next week you lovely lot!

19 awesome runners ran 3km to tidy up around Greenwich!

Another Wednesday over and another good deed done! Well 19 good deeds in fact, one for every one of you!

We welcomed one new runner to the crew, the lovely Victoria, hope you had a nice first session with us!

As always the evening began with some intros, name, headcount and something different each week... this time I needed some dinner inspiration so we went round and found out everyone's most run meal plans... and I know you're all dying to find out what I ended up having..... PIZZA! Must have been so inspired by Jenny's one a la freezer!

Anyhoo, we went a did a bit of a warm up before we split off into three groups to target three areas of Greenwich. Ben took one group across the creek sort of verging on Deptford, Bliss took her group towards East Greenwich and the Forum whilst my group stayed relatively local and made our way through the town centre and the housing estate near Greenwich Station.

These were all areas which we have visited before and are usually covered in litter. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) we started on Thames Street which is always SO BAD but today there was hardly anything! Typical. So it took a while for our group to get into the groove but slowly but surely the bags started filling up.

We had 40 minutes to cover as much ground and pick up as much as we could before reconvening for 8pm.

The clock struck eight and we arrived back at the boat, everyone nicely on time! All groups had completely bulging bags which was GREAT! We had a quick pic with all our handywork before we disposed of it all in the big uni bins.

For the fitness session this week, we worked on some leg strengthening moves. A little circuit of wall sits (a clear favourite), stair runs and reverse lunges all working different parts of the legs helping to get them nice and strong. A lot of you are training for big races and now is around about the time where your mileage is starting to build up quite a lot so it's really important that you support your extra mileage with extra strength work to help your body be able to take on that increased load.. otherwise niggles will start to appear and no one wants that!! So get your strength work in people!!!! :)

After two rounds, we were ready to call it a night. But not before a nice little stretch of course!!!

Well done everyone for clearing up so much stuff! It might not have looked like much but imagine just emptying out those bin liners, it would have been horrific! Have a wonderful rest of the week and I shall see you next time where we will be digging a pond!

22 awesome runners ran 4k to help clear leaves at Ballast Quay Garden!

What a fabulous turn out last night! And we had a whopping SIX new runners join us! So big warm welcome to James, Chloe, Natasha, Jennifer, Paul and Sean! We also had the lovely Jane all the way over from GoodGym Kingston! Nice to have you all with us last night!

After a bit of a shaky start with various run ins with the university security, we managed to do a brief uninterrupted warm up before getting on our way!

Within a few minutes we had arrived and were greeted by the lovely Diane and her dog Tom! Diane has looked after the garden since 1962 and I'm sure you'll agree it's a fab little spot with the most spectacular views over the river. During the winter when all the leaves come off the trees, they tend to make their way onto the flower beds and can inhibit their growth. Obviously it requires a fair bit of bending down to clear them so that's where we come in!

Diane had various brushes and brooms at the ready, everyone got stuck in and began to explore all corners of the garden! A pile of leaves began to form, which we then bagged up and emptied over the wall into the river. This felt a bit wrong but Diane assures me she has been told by Greenwich Council that it's fine as it will all decompose.. fair enough!

After about half an hour, almost every single leaf had been plucked from the garden, nice work!! We took a lovely group photo and then set off again on our run. We did a little loop around the area and stopped for a fitness session which this week was a little leg circuit. Spending even just a few minutes on some strength and conditioning work each week will not only make you a stronger runner with better running efficiency, it will also help prevent injury so it's super important that we all do it! And I'll be the first to admit I don't do enough of it, I would much rather just spend that time on another run instead but take the time to do it, your body will thank you for it!

Anyway enough of my lecture... we did 2 rounds of 3 exercises. Step ups (single leg exercises are great if you have any imbalances), reverse lunges with a knee drive (help with balance and strengthens glutes/quads) and squat jumps (for explosive power)... after 2 rounds, plus the fact that it had started to drizzle meant it was probably time to head back! We had a quick little stretch and called it a night!

Useful links and things I mentioned yesterday...

Facebook Group - to those who are new, we have a GoodGym Greenwich Facebook Group where people often post about races or other running related stuff going on nearby!

Community mission in Charlton - here is the mission for Crisis UK I was talking about. Limited to 10 runners, no need to be DBS checked!

Great work last night everyone! Diane was so pleased with all that you achieved, you've really helped her out so well done! See you next week