13 people ran 6k to help feed the homeless and organise clothing

Tonight we welcomed Nick and Dan to GoodGym Brum for the first time, please give them a cheer.

On a lovely night for running, sunny and slightly cooler than recent days, we headed for the mission. Taking advantage of the light evenings we made our way via the canal once again. On arriving at the Mission the group were split in three. One group helped in the kitchen, another did the serving and the third group helped sort out some clothes and rather a lot of socks (hence the pun!) upstairs. I haven’t seen as many socks as that since Christmas!

Everyone ‘loves’ hills!

Once done the group gingerly headed to our fitness session destination, just around the corner for the dreaded hills! The task was eight minutes of the them! That was run up as hard as you can, then jog back down to recover, before turning for another oxygen depriving sprint! Dave led the way, showing fantastic form. Aaron, Rob, Dan and Richard were pushing him all the way. Nick was fantastic on his first session, showing great promise. Lee and Simon dug in towards the end on tiring legs, showing great determination. Karin put in a great effort, driving up each hill. Maria, Laura and Fiona, pulled each other a long, Fiona’s form getting better and better as the session went. After eight minutes, everyone was glad when I called ‘time’. Again it was a fantastic group session, everyone working hard and supporting each other. Top work!

Once done the group had a couple of minutes sat on the wall to get their collective breaths back, so it was time for a quick picture before heading back to 1000 Trades.

Ever present Aaron will be missing the next few weeks, as he’s on his holidays before going under the surgeon’s knife for a minor op, but he has promised he will come along to the World Cup social on the first Tuesday in July. Incidentally we have now got the upstairs room in 1000 Trades booked from 7pm onwards with a screen, so hopefully see as many of you there as possible :-)

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

6 runners ran 5km to help the Canal and River Trust. Tonight saw a rather wet start to 2018 for Birmingham GoodGym, we had though a marvellous group of 6 runners who braved the elements and post-Christmas food and drink excess!
They were up for the challenge presented this evening of a litter pick along the canal two days post New Year! The regular litter picks we do are part of a link up GoodGym Birmingham has developed with the Canal and River Trust to help keep the lovely canals of Birmingham a clean place for everyone to enjoy. A little-known fact is that Birmingham has more canals than Venice, we also are meant to have more trees than Paris but I’m not as sure how they know for that one! Anyway enough with all that, onto to the task, being a smaller group tonight we decided to stick together and head to a well-known litter hot spot identified by David. On reaching the location we could certainly see that a very jolly New Year had been enjoyed by the locals! The team set to work quick and with help from headtorches were soon finding lots of rubbish hidden and scattered around our designated area. The group all got stuck in and worked really hard for 20 minutes at the location and by the end we had 5 bags brimming with rubbish, a bag per person when excluding the run leader!

5 Bags Full!

Then it was off to the drop off location at Aston locks which being a good few minutes further down the canal provided an extra bit of strengthening work with carrying those bags! Once our obligatory selfie was taken, with the team giving me some help on lighting and angle for it (still didn’t get the flash working but one step at a time right?!) we headed back along canal for our fitness session. Tonight this took place under the Snow Hill tunnel providing some slight protection from the rain which had begun again. First up was a series of strength and HITT exercises such as press ups, tricep dips, tuck jumps and finally in honour of our Trainer Jonny the wall sit! The team showed great effort and energy and when each set of the exercise was done it was a sprint to the stairs….not to escape though just as the rest point before the group re-grouped and took the recovery run back to the locks for the next exercise. Great work shown by both David’s powering through those press ups and hitting the sprints!

Leg workout!

However that was not the end…..we moved up next to the stairs for our next set of conditioning exercises focused on those all important legs! We did a minute of work on calf raises, ski squats, scissor lunges, leg swings with knee lift and squats into calf raises! Top work from George on the calf raises, great technique from Karin on the squats and Morwenna put in some great work on those lunges! Again really fantastic work rate by everyone, consider the mince pies and turkey well and truly worked off! From there we had a run back to base where we completed our cool down stretches. Many thanks for everyone who came along tonight! Jonny will be back with us next week with I’m sure news on his Australia adventure and a great task at Suited for Success, certainly one not to miss! A reminder on items which can be brought for donation include: Mens suits, women's suits, skirts, dresses, trousers, blouses, shirts, jackets, coats, smart shoes, jewellery, scarfs, belts, handbags, women's tights, new and packaged underwear. Please ask friends, family and work colleagues so that we can support this fantastic charity who help get disadvantaged people into work. Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here

20 people ran 5k to Birmingham Vernon Sea Cadets to help clean boats and stock take life jackets

Tonight we welcomed Beth, Mark and Axel to the group for the first time. Axel is from the GG Central team and is flying from Birmingham to Doha tomorrow on an exciting two week running trip! Once all the introductions were over and the exciting news that our first Birmingham Mission was going ahead tomorrow was announced we were on our way to a brand-new task.

Sea cadets, but weres the sea?!

You may wonder if you are reading this report how is there a Sea Cadet group in Brum when the sea is so far away, well you would be surprised, there are actually a few groups in the city. The group we were visiting were based by Birmingham Reservoir, so it's not quite the sea, but plenty of water to take their boats out to. On arriving we got a great view over the water with a pink sky (see the pictures) as darkness was falling. Jenn also warmly greeted us. Once on with the task the group had to work as a team to tip the boats over and move them. Everyone showed great team work, whilst a few of the group did the stock taking of the life jackets. I got a great vantage point for some pictures, by walking up the stairs onto the roof, initially it didn’t do my acrophobia much good, but I survived!

Sam got his big hose out

While most of the group turned the boats over Sam and Annie looked very excited to use the power hose, cleaning the boats off! Once done we were on our way back. We stopped at a quiet road no cars could drive down to do some interval work. What we missed in traffic we also missed in lighting meaning the group had to go a little slower than usual. I also had problems taking pictures as I thought I couldn’t unlock my phone, only realising I was trying to use Aaron’s phone which I was also carrying in my bag! Doh! Once nearly back I added in one more sprint up a hill, getting the groups heart rate right up before we finished. Once back it was time for a quick stretch off and we were done.

Next week we will be out doing good again and my mistake we aren’t going to Birmingham Mission Care Centre we are going to do a litter pick on the canal, I forgot that I had bought it forward a week, so we could make good use of the last of the light! sign up here.

16 people ran 5k to sort clothes, organise tinned food and feed the homeless at the Birmingham Mission Care Centre

Tonight, we welcomed three newcomers to GG Brum! Step forward Ken, Dave and Aaron. Thanks for coming chaps! Tonight, we were on our monthly visit to Birmingham Mission. Annie kindly did the back marking and I led the way. Once there we were warmly greeted by John who said there was a lot to do tonight, so the group were split three ways. One group went in the kitchen to help serve the food and wash up, one group helped sort the clothes and another group sorted the tinned food by itemising it all. The task took a bit longer than usual, especially all the clothes sorting, but as Dave said the strap line ‘many hands make light work’.

More rain?!

Last week most of the runners got a soaking on the way to GoodGym, tonight it was on the way back. The wet stuff was falling pretty heavily as we left the care centre so it was probably just as well the task took a little longer! But a bit of rain didn’t deter our runners anyway! We headed off at a good pace. Before stopping at the bottom of a hill to do a bit of HIIT training. A nice mix of lunges, tuck jumps and high knees running got those hearts racing and metabolisms fired up! Then the group did a ‘sustained effort’ rep……a hill climb, straight into stair climbing in front of the town hall, once at the top a sprint to some crossroads. The group put in some great work. Dave led the way with Neal chasing him down. Simon and Philip worked hard all the way, Abbie, Kate and Morwenna pushed each other, driving hard through the rain. Once done we pushed on back to 1000 Trades and that was another run done 😊

GG Birmingham race

Remember it is our first official GG Brum race this Saturday, the Cannon Hill Parkrun, meeting at the bandstand at 8.45am ready for the 9am start. Followed by a coffee afterwards. It would be great to see as many people as possible from any GG group sign up here.

Next week I will be on a sunbed in Majorca, however don't worry Aidan will be 'me' next week, so don't worry you will be able to do good once again sign up here.