** The cold, wet weather and the upgrading of Covid-19 to Pandemic status seem to have combined to reduce our numbers, but we still had a small but perfectly formed group of 16 tonight.**

For the first time in a long time we had no newbies, so it's probably a good time to remind you to tell your friends about us and bring them along! We've had loads of new people get involved this way, and it's great to see our ranks growing. It was also fab to see some returning faces tonight, with a few back for their second runs, after a break of several months in one case, which is awesome! Great to have you all back!

We started off tonight with a bit of a round up of the weekends events as there was loads to share! Liz had organised a fab parkrun at Potternewton for International Womens Day which was very well attended (and even got our picture in the local paper!) Then on Sunday, Alex had organised an awesome-looking hike with loads of people joining in for a walk up to the cow and calf and the twelve apostles before taking in a pub stop on the way home. Hopefully if people enjoyed it and are up for it again there will be more opportunities for fun stuff like this in the future!

Tonight's task was a return visit to Growing Better, where this time they'd promised us that we would definitely get to make the compost bins. It was about the fourth attempt to do this, so we weren't too optimistic, but there's always hope!

We had a quick warm up and then set off towards Kirkstall at a steady pace. A smaller group seemed to mean an even chattier run which made for a lovely atmosphere!

We arrived at West Leeds Activity Centre to find Dorota prepared for us along with our little friend Flavia. As well as the compost bins, we had lots of bulbs to plant, which would hopefully bring a bit of colour to the allotment come late spring. Dorota suggested that we might want to arrange the flowers in the GG symbol, so I'm expecting big things when they eventually bloom!

The ground was much softer this week, a combination of the weather and the area of the plot we were digging in. We were digging holes 10cm deep, dropping in our Crocus bulbs (with a bit of help from Flavia) and covering up with soil and patting it all down. This led to one GoodGymer to come up with a surprising comparison:

"It's just like baking a cake!" Carol, who I trust is an excellent baker

Over on the other side of the allotments, we had a crack team of four ready to finally build the compost bins. Armed with strong twine and a pile of wooden pallets, they summoned their best engineering skills to tie the pallets together in a way that they wouldn't just blow over in the stormy weather. Evidently this was taking a lot of concentration.

"It's unusually quiet over here" Dorota, task owner, enjoying a rare bit of peace and quiet in amongst the GoodGymers.

Unfortunately the planning hadn't gone quite as well as hoped and we ran out of rope after completing two compost bins, with a third left unfinished. We'll be back!

Back at the bulb planting, the team had made excellent progress and had almost run out of bulbs. With the last few going in, everybody seemed pretty pleased with themselves.

"Another day of productivity, just not on my dissertation!" Ella, taking a 'well-earned' break from her studies!

We love that GoodGym is a welcome distraction from whatever else you've got going on in your life at the moment, but we take no responsibility for your grades!

We'd got wind that it was our little helper Flavia's birthday, so we squeezed in a quick round of 'Happy Birthday', before we cleared away the tools and began to make our way back. The fitness session and the run back were a little different tonight, with them both combined into a race! As this is a route we all know well, we decided we would attempt to 'Beat the Clock'.

The general idea is that in order to officially finish the race, you need to be in the car park at HPBC before the time runs out (in this case we had an extended deadline of 8:15). You can set off whenever you like to ensure you're finished on time, but your finishing position in the race is decided by the order you set off. The last person to set off will be in first place, but only if they finish in time. It's sounds confusing but it's actually great fun!

As it was a little dark and it's all uphill, most people set off in pairs or small groups, but it was fun to see everyone looking around and working out how much time they needed! The idea should be that everyone arrives back at (or very close to) the same time, so hopefully with a few more attempts this can be a fun GoodGym Leeds staple.

The last two runners came in with just under a minute to spare, meaning everyone gave themselves loads of time! I expect a bit more tension for our next attempt! Adam was our first ever winner having been the last to set off, and this was celebrated with a beer or two in the pub!

With the stormy weather threatening to stick around, sign ups for tonights run were looking a little thin, but some clear skies and a break in the wind meant a cracking 26 people came along to get involved!

With just a few minutes before our meet-up time, it was looking like this could be our quietest ever turnout, but thankfully it was just some heavy traffic, and there was a late surge of GoodGymers to bolster the ranks. We welcomed one new runner tonight, Darla, who picked a particularly chilly night to come along for her first taste of GoodGym! Nice one Darla!

Tonight also saw Adam miss his first ever Group run since our launch leaving taskforce keen-bean Katie as the only ever-present (Ok I've been there every week too, but I don't really count).

Our task tonight was to deliver the remaining leaflets for St. Gemma's Hospice, to let even more people know about the great things they do in and around Leeds. The plan was to split into three groups, all heading for slightly different target streets, to deliver as many of the leaflets as possible.

We warmed up with a little bit of mirroring to get us moving, but also to help us think about our co-ordination and reactions. We slowly built in intensity and had a few curveballs in there, such as working only one side of the body or standing on one leg.

We then split ourselves into groups and were on our way. The Meanwood crew were away first heading off into the Sunset (or more accurately heading towards the Sunsets - Sunset Road, Sunset Avenue, Sunset Mount etc). Their route was definitely the furthest and included some pretty tough hills, so they were keen to make a head start.

The other two groups had a slightly more leisurely start, but were soon on their way. Once we all arrived at our locations and worked out our plan of attack so we didn't miss any houses or, even worse, leaflet the same house twice, we set about our task. Having leafletted before, most of the group knew exactly what to do, and some had even come prepared.

"You need to have your trusty wooden spoon" George, waving around his utensil excitedly.

It isn't clear if George has now made this his 'leaflet delivering spoon', or he goes home and stirs his spag bol with it, but either way I think we'll be seeing the spoon again!

As I tried to run around between groups to see as much of the action as possible, it was great to see the teamwork on display with lots of chatter about which houses had been ticked off already. As it was by now pretty dark, the small groups of two's and three's were usually heard before they were seen. Newbie Darla was immediately getting involved, and Minnie in particular took charge of her small crew, making sure they didn't get lost in their maze of a route. Despite the risk of getting lost everyone seemed to be having a great time.

"I love the leapfrogging! It's so much fun!" Rach D, getting a bit too excited about posting leaflets.

There was lots of racing in front of each other to be the first to a house, which just goes to show you all want to make your own fun! Over in the Hollin lane group, they were battling with the long driveways, hilly steps, and just generally struggling to find the postboxes in the dark! In what should probably become our motto as a group from now on, Rachael C (accidentally, I think) summed up the whole GoodGym spirit.

"We may run out of leaflets, but we will never run out of enthusiasm!" Rachael, apparently doing her best impersonation of Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

With all the leaflets delivered, everyone made their way back to base. After a quick debrief and a a stretch, we were all on our way.

Don't forget there is a Community Mission on Friday, a parkrun meet-up at Fountains Abbey on Saturday, and a Hilly training session on Sunday! So much for you all to get involved with.

Thanks for another great session, see you all next week, if not before!

Last night had all the elements for a perfect group run: A seemingly impossible task, a huge turnout, loads of new faces, bags of teamwork, a proper physical workout, a bit of therapeutic stress relief, some silly quotes, great photos, a new tool to add to our collection and a pun inspired by High School Musical. What more could you possibly ask for?!

The night started with some big news. Joe was reaching his 10th good deed with us, and Rach had just smashed her 50th good deed over the weekend. Way to go guys! Nationally, we'd also just broken through our 8,000 good deed target, and Leeds was approaching 200! Incredible. It's amazing to see us sat in 11th place nationally for good deeds, especially as we're one of the newest areas. Give yourselves a big pat on the back, you deserve it!

We had seven new runners which is absolutely incredible! Give a big warm welcome (via cheers of course) to Ella, Dan, Cecilia, Daniel, Kate, Peter and Andreas.

We also welcomed Jenny to taskforce, taking us up to a massive 9 taskforcers already, and to celebrate she was backmarking our run down to Meanwood Farm along with Helen. Aron took the lead, and as Liz had already set off for the walk down, we were aiming to pick her up on the way down.

For a lot of the group, this wasn't their first trip to Meanwood Farm, so they knew the drill. We arrived at the Farm to find Ben, the task owner, ready and waiting for us with around 10 wheelbarrows. As a group we headed over to inspect our trench that we'd dug last week, and after a week away it made last week's achievement look even more epic.

Ben likes to give us a challenge though, and so he had an even bigger task for us this week. We had to:

• Fill the trench with rubble.
• Break up the larger bits of rubble so they would all pack down neatly.
• Fill in the gaps between the rubble with wood chip.
• Stamp it all down, and mix it around so there were no air pockets.
• Build a wall out of sandbags and gravel bags.
• Fill in the gap behind the wall with all of the soil we'd moved last week.

At this stage Trainer Aron was starting to look a little confused, because we definitely weren't planning to come back next week. Maybe we'd finally bitten off more than we could chew, but if this group is anything, it's ambitious, so the only thing for it was for us to crack on on with it!

We split into groups with half of the wheelbarrows heading for the woodchip pile and half heading for the rubble. Everyone got to grips with the challenges (including the perils of trying to direct your spouse as a GoodGym Trainer) and in no time at all everything started to move along smoothly. Barrows were filled, with rubble being tipped into place in the hole, where the Sledgehammer crew were goggled-up, ready and waiting. This was an exciting moment as it was our first taste of sledgehammer action. Immediately, Julie took on the role of resident expert, and promptly directed Katie on how to ensure maximum smash for your swing:

"I think you're hitting it in the wrong place!" You need to aim for that bit." Julie, giving a technical analysis of Katie's sledgehammering.

The sledgehammer really seemed to be a way for people to work out the stresses of their day, with some putting a bit more into it than others! After realising that the concrete blocks wouldn't be broken down any further, these were removed but the bricks and other rubble were bashed and smashed until they all sat together in a nice, relatively smooth layer. Julie later admitted the secret to her hammering technique:

"I was just imagining myself as Thor" Julie

Over at the woodchip pile, the barrows were also being filled and then transported across to the trench. The woodchip pile was a little further away which apparently just gave the group more time to get a bit giddy before they started working. It was only her second week, but it already feels like Naomi's run report worthy innuendo has been a part of the group forever. She didn't disappoint tonight:

"Fill me up George!" Naomi, requesting the filling of her wheelbarrow

We started to get some bottlenecks at this point as the woodchip was arriving faster than we could break up the rubble, but with a bit of shifting around of the group we soon got it under control again. Once we had enough rubble, and the woodchip had been thrown on the top, everyone needed to pitch in and shuffle the bricks around, stamp the woodchip down, and just generally wiggle and dance their way across the foundations to ensure there were no air gaps. We were now desperate for more woodchip wheelbarrows, and so loads of people were redistributed, and a steady stream of bobbing headtorches made their way to and from the woodchip pile.

With the woodchip and rubble mix now level with the original path, it was finally time to Build the Wall. We formed one massive chain of GoodGymers, passing bags along the line to put them in place. The bags were up to 30kgs so most people passed in pairs, but some were feeling super strong and passed the bags along by themselves. The bag shifting took super teamwork and reminded one particular runner of something:

"Have you ever seen the film 'Antz'? It feels like that" Carol (I think), although to be honest it could have been any one of the colony!

In no time the wall started to take shape, and Ben explained that we would lay the bags in brick fashion, with the second layer offset from the first, as this is what would give the wall it's strength. In just a few minutes, we'd built the wall four bags high, and around 10 metres long! While everyone collected the tools, a few people speedily shifted the soil back into the gap behind our wall and the job was complete! Absolutely outstanding work everyone.

With the satisfaction of another task well done, we returned all of the tools, took a quick snap and made our way back to base for a stretch.

I would normally conclude by letting you all know how amazing you are, what a great thing we achieved, and how I can't wait to do it all again next week, but in honour of our report title, I thought I should I should let the immortal genius of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and co do it for me. Enjoy!