30 Brilliant GoodGymers ran 5k or 8k to begin the decorating project at the Open Barber's in Shorditch.

The vibes at GoodGym Hackney are off the charts!! Not only did we have a bumper attendance of 30 runners, we also got in some serious serious training in! Not to mention the 19 of us that went to the pub after to send Kev on his way to Bristol with a smile and a brand spanking new and well earned 100 GoodDeed T-Shirt. 🏃🏽🏃🏻🏃🏿🏃😀😀💪🏻💪🏽💪🏾🍻🍷🍹🍗🍖🍟.

We joint mobilised ready for running action then were superbly led through the back streets of Hackney by Team Hackney Task force member extraordinaire Cecilia. After a 2.5k run we arrived on time ready for action, to help scrape away the old shop frontage and ceiling of the crowd funded social enterprise Open Barbers, where we met Richard who was a little taken back by the strength in numbers of Team Hackney! We split into 2 teams, first team armed themselves with Heat Guns and Scrapers and got to work removing the old paint. The second group went with PTI Patrick and dominated a series of pick your poison exercises which tested all the runners conditioning to the max 💪🏾💪🏽💪🏻.

After a 15 minute burst of activity the teams changed over and continued the hard graft, some amazing high scrapping and some especially impressive Abdominal planks took Team Hackney to the edge!

After 35 minutes of scraping the shop to within an inch of its life we decided that the Speedy Crew had been coasting for a couple of weeks so wanted to really test them. So the Speedy Crew left early, leaving Task Force member Jack in charge of the clean up and the 2.5k run back to base with the Sexy Crew

The Speedy Crew raced off into the night going through the running gears at will, smashing out some Urban Fartlek reps that Mo Farah would have been proud of. We then found our old racing track in De Beauvoir Square and set about smashing our some monstrous changes of pace on our half and full lap hard reps 🔥🔥🔥⚡️⚡️⚡️. After a short recovery jog we through in a few Kenyan Surges along Middleton Road, as we entered London Fields we laid the hammer down and it was every runner for them selves for an all out effort back to the Bakehouse. To round out a 5.5k run back! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Top effort Speedies The Sexy crew cheered us in as they had just got back from their Tempo effort along Whiston road to round off an impressive running evening for all!

As it was Kev's last run and 100th we headed out to celebrate at a local Pub, thanks to the 19 runners that came along it w great to see the social side of Team Hackney coming through especially to celebrate a true GoodGym Hall of Famer in Kev. Kev you will be missed in these parts and please come and see us when you visit the Big Smoke!!

Next week we start a fabulous serious of tasks with HUG (Hackney Downs User Group) so please please please please please (yes I am begging for you both to come and sign up so I can organise tasks for the right amount of people) Sign up here. Want to make it clear I still really want you to come if you forget to sign up but would love it if you did sign up a little bit more xx

Until next week

Stride Smooth

Joel

Thirty One yes 31 Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to shovel tonnes of compost at the Rhodes Estate Food Growers group and clean the outdoor play equipment at Gillett Square.

On a fresh and breezy Hackney Evening Team Hackney were out in force! A new GoodGym attendance PB for me of 31, what an awesome turn out well played 👏🏽👏🏾👏🏻👏🏼👏🏿.

It was a very special evening as we had some double task action and some amazing visitors from the wonderful athlete connecting platform of Strava.

We took to the streets Lead by Clare on mass heading towards the beautifully lite warm up area by the Hackney Council offices, where we got to work mobilising those key running joints with a series activation drills to get us nice a warm and ready for the fun ahead! After some brilliantly balanced hip circles and leg swings we got into Hokey Cokey formation and Lunged Squatted, hopped and Jumped towards and away from each other.

With our legs pumping after some big time jumping we were lead through H-Town by another of the brilliant Hackney TaskForce team Cecilia who navigated the Squad just over 2k to our tasks in Dalston. We dropped of King Kev's compost crew for their task in Rhodes Estate Food Growers Group Before turning the corner into the Urban Amphitheatre that is Gillett Square.

We were met by Clarrisa who was excited to have Team Hackney along for the first time! We got straight to work splitting into 2 teams, the bulk of us unloading the colourful oversized outdoor play equipment from a huge shipping container. While 4 arty types began to restore the information board by cleaning and painting it, taking extra special care of the intricate lettering. The play equipment came out quick while there were a few bucket filling sprints to bring over the warm soapy water and cleaning kit. We got to work systematically cleaning the array of play equipment giving the weird and wonderful shaped apparatus names as we went, the "Cones" proved to create the most varied assortment of names (let's leave it at that). With photographer Kate clicking away to get some great snaps we got into a production line, cleaning and re loading the equipment back into the container at speed ⚡️⚡️🔥🔥. With the notice board re painted and looking gleaming in white a last push saw the equipment stashed away. 35 minutes of epic action and top job done by all!

Meanwhile the Compost crew were hard at work! Kev and the guys shovelling like crazy filling a big transit van fun of compost at a astounding rate!! 15 minutes of speed shovelling saw the van filled to the brim! Then came the glitch in the plan!! As the van drove around to the other side of the estate there was a Dalston traffic jam to contend with!! The Compost crew made up the time and even had to shovel the compost right to the back of the raised beds to add to the difficulty. To dominate a tough task in record time! A little late for the laps Kev lead the guys on a speedy 3k loop back to base to round off the evening!! ...

After a heartfelt thank you from Clarrissa we were again lead by Clare down to the World Famous De Beauvoir Track for Four of the hottest laps in town 🏃🏿🏃🏃🏽🏃🏻. In pairs we hammed a first lap with Walking Lunges thrown in then two tempo paced laps broken up by Tuck Jumps and Jump Squats before we High Skipped into a Max Power final lap which saw some Top quality effort and performance 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾👏🏿.

We then ran the 2k back to base including a final sprint finish to round of an excellent evening of GoodGym action!!

After few static stretches and huge round of applause for some top quality effort we headed home for a well earned feed.

Next week sees the Last GG Hackney Dance of King Kev before he leaves us for pastures new in the West Country. Please sign up hereand come along next week to rip up a barbershop Floor (as you do!) afterwards we will after much debate be heading to the Weathspoons on Mare Street for a Drink and Food to see Kev off in style. See you there!!

Powerfully Smooth

Joel

Twenty Four sensational Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k plus 5 laps of De Beauvoir Square to both shovel 10 tonnes of compost and lift shift and order a lot of wood.

On a windy night in H- Town team Hackney were out in Mega Force 💨💨💪🏽💪🏻💪🏾💨💨 to help make Hackney a nicer place to be while getting seriously fit along the way. We got our pulses raised with a short jog to our usual sheltered purpose built (well I like to think) warm up area. Then we began with a dynamic warm up to prepare the body for the energetic endeavours ahead before we started a new phase of our physical preparation with a series of Plyometric drills to increase Power, Strength and improve running Economy. We bounced, tuck jumped, jump squatted and jump lunged our way to Plyometric success before we split into two groups to take on this weeks Double Bouble tasks.

Seven fearless Runners set off to the Food Growers Group in Dalston lead by the superb Kev. Big question is will Kev make it to 100 Good Deeds before he leaves us for Bristol at the end of the month??? Just 4 Good Deeds needed!! Cheer Kev on to his Century of Good!! Here is what Kev had to say about the compost task:

Meanwhile a compost-hungry splinter cell of seven diggers dashed over to Dalston to assist Alex from The Food Growers Group shifting some compost out of the way of residents’ car parking spaces, it having been dropped by the council for use by local gardeners earlier this week. Eager to put their backs and cores to work to the familiar sound of spade-on-London-tarmac the group worked efficiently to 'find the line' while basking in the warming compost steam. Someone even speculated as to whether the emissions might be good for your skin, though the jury remains out on that one. Alex has a tonne of jobs lined up for a full crew and hopes to get us booked in for another visit soon. GGHackney’s gardening skills are in high demand these days!

Thanks Kev! We have another Double task in a couple of weeks with Alex and The Food Growers crew so look out for that one to.

While the bulk of the Team brilliantly lead to the task by Clare to the Hive where we were met by the usual array our alternative activities only found at The Hive. We bolted up to the top floor and began lifting, shifting and eventually sorting hundreds of pieces of wood. We got into the patented Daisy Chain to increase the wood movement pace and got stuck in! Then the call came as help was needed in the garden so 4 brave runners ran down to make pictured Totem poles from a series of tyres. The wood was sorted and moved created space for work to continue on the radio station, a last minute mission to pick up a door languishing on the 1st floor was complete before we set off on our way with a job well done.

We met up with the Compost crew at the beautiful De Beauvoir square, where they have kindly laid a perfect running oval primed for some lapping action! Building on the Plyometric techniques from the warm up we worked in pods of 3 bouncing, tuck jumping, lunge jumping and fast feeting between burning up the track with varying length tempo sprints around the track! ⚡️⚡️🔥🔥🏃🏃🏽🏃🏿🏃🏻🔥🔥⚡️⚡️. After a 5th and final all out lap the Team had produced a monumental running effort well played everyone 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. We had the small matter of a 2k cool down to contented with which was super safely lead by Cecelia.

We stretched out and congratulated each other on a top fitness effort before 13 of us attempted to get our Pizza 🍕🍕🍕🍕 fill at the local Pizzaria. Unfortunately after a long wait only 9 made it (next time we are going to the pub!). But great to see so many runners growing the Team Hackney community even after the run. ##Top GG Hackney Vibes##

Next week we are getting our Green fingers working in Wilton Estate community garden 🍃🌿🌱please sign up here and look forward to seeing you all next week!

Smoothly Jump

Joel

Twenty fighting fit Hackney GoodGymers ran 5k to the Wilton Estate community garden to remove millions of shrubs, thousands of roots and turn over tonnes of soil.

On a beautiful clear full moon🌝🌝 lite evening we mixed things up a bit at GoodGym Hackney! As for one more week only we had access to the enchanting Disco Lights Running track in Victoria Park. So we were a little naughty and ran away from the task mobilising all the vital body parts on the way with a military style in line warm up. Side skipping, toe touching, walking lunging and even a few football heading ⚽️⚽️ got our bodies primed to throw down some speedily smooth accelerations down under the pulsating neon lights. Alternating power strength moves 💪🏾💪🏽 with balanced and coordinated technique drills our accelerations were silky smooth and Powerfully fast 🏃🏿🏃🏽🏃🏻🏃. 8 bursts of lighting speed⚡️⚡️ followed by a mini lungeathon to build on last weeks strength effort gave us a blood pumping start to the session.

As we were a little late we sent of 9 super speedy shrub excavation ninjas ahead to get started on the task, brilliantly lead by Kev (also Hackney Coach runner rep) the pack laid down a 2k burst at a scorching 7:30 per mile pace!! The sexy group made some strong running progress in pursuit, lots of running improvements shown with talk of wanting to do longer runs in lead up to the fantastic Hackney Half marathon. Special mention to GoodGym Hall of Famer Becky for expertly guiding a few GoodGym newbies on their first run. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

The speedy crew got down to business speedily as you would expect, uprooting shrubs, roots and anything else that got in their path to clear a huge flower bed in 20 hectic minutes of action! 🌳🌳 Looking for more work to be done they moved on to forking, shoving, Pickaxeing metre after metre of flower bed to prepar it for some beautiful wild flower planting 🌾🌼🌾. In 10 quick minutes the entire first section had been forked to death and ready to get flowery very soon. The sexy crew were busy getting tangled in ivy, battling roots and ripping out more shrubs to clear a 15 metre stretch of densely vegetated flower bed ready to become a beautiful and maybe tasty raspberry patch 🍓🍓🍓(near enough a raspberry). Becky was very unimpressed by my lack of Joni Mitchell hair knowledge!! So for anyone else who needed a pictorial reminded of how amazing Joni Mitchell's hair is click here Sorry Becky for my ignorance. A few epic root battles were had and after some brilliant team work the dream worked and after 30 minutes of action not a root was left or ivy steam to be found. Brilliant work team 👏🏻👏🏽👏🏾

After a massive thank you for brilliantly patient Debbie and Lisa we headed back the 1k to base basking in our task glory. After a stretch out we congratulated each other on a fun and fitness filled evening which greatly aided the wonderful Wilton Estate community garden.

If any woman would like to join in with a disco light running group this week check out the info here.

Next week we will be back to The Hive for another adventure in the most eclectic building in Hackney! Please sign up here it will be great fun and we will be running a few relays around De Beauvoir square for good measure!

Don't forget we will be going for a bite to eat after next weeks session if you fancy a bit for nutritional reward for your physical endeavours.

Until next week

Smoothly accelerate

Joel

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