Mon 7th May 2018 at 6:30pm
Wandsworth Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
The sun was out, the beer gardens were buzzing, bank holiday was in full swing. But that didn't stop 20 wonderful runners joining forces in Wandsworth to do some good.
Ladies and gents of Goodgym, please give a massive cheer to Chris, Jaillin, Demelza, Adam and Tim who all came for their first ever group run tonight. Great to have you join us!
And while you're in a celebratory mood, why not say well done to Morag and Beth who both smashed an extremely hilly and scorchingly hot Crystal Palace 10k on Sunday, and to Alyx who has had two consecutive weeks of 5k PBs - way to go ladies!
It was a beautiful evening for a run last night, so we kicked off with a warm up testing our fast feet and coordination skills all while doing a poll to find out the best pizza topping. Wandsworth has fancy taste, with goat's cheese, caramelised onions, artichoke and all the vegetables proving popular. Of course we had no choice but to penalise the Hawaiian voters with a few jumping jacks.
Our task last night was at the Venue, a community centre in Battersea which hosts surplus food events, has a kitchen for making food for the homeless and loads of other great things aimed at bringing local people together. It was a short run of 2k down to the centre, so we arrived in no time at all to find Hadas, who runs the place, waiting for us with cleaning equipment.
There were loads of jobs to do, including sorting the kitchen, toilets, windows and outside area, as well as an epic hoovering job which Frances bravely took on. It's a big place which Hadas alone manages, so she relies on volunteers to keep it clean and running smoothly, and 40 minutes later the place was sparkling thanks to some GoodGym muscle! Great job everyone.
We stepped outside for our fitness session, kicking off with a quick round of burpees. Then came the quad-busting squat song where we all felt the burn, before a quick round of squatshot, which saw Team Up victorious. Half way home we stopped briefly for three rounds of core triathlon, before tackling that last hill.
Well done team, what a way to spend a bank holiday. Next week we've got a fantastic task setting up a community cafe, so sign up here to good and get fit.
Mon 29th Jan 2018 at 6:30pm
Wandsworth Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
This was the question we asked ourselves during our warm up last night, and we got some real corkers. Some were wise - never judge yourself by others' standards, always try your best, smile at everybody, be kind, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, regret nothing. Some were more practical - always wear underwear, pay your TV licence by direct debit and never eat yellow snow. Words to live by. Perhaps the best was from Paul, who advises us all to come to GoodGym.
Before that we had a great start to the evening welcoming Alex, Phoebe, Andy, Phoebe, Hannah and Bronwen. Great to have you run with us - give them a cheer GoodGym!
It had been a fabulous weekend of running from the Wandsworth crew. Put your hands together for Paul, Hannah, Emily and Daniel who all took on a 10k race in Hyde Park, while Morgan and Amy smashed the hilly Crystal Palace 10k. Loads of you took on missions to make other peoples' lives better, while parkruns were also really well attended. If you're new to parkrun they are free, timed 5k runs on Saturday morning at 9am across the country. Great for improving those times and fitness, and you'll always see a GoodGymer there!
Our task tonight was at Harding House, a residential home for deaf people with learning difficulties in Wandsworth. They have a beautiful big garden for the residents to enjoy, but it needed a bit of love. So after 1.7kms of quick running we found ourselves with spades, forks, bin bags and gloves, ready to tackle the space. After half an hour of hard work the place was looking much tidier, with the beds dug over, weeds eliminated, tiny fences restored and patio swept.
Just across the road Wandsworth common was the perfect spot for our fitness session. Tonight we were taking on Tabata, a series of hard exercises for 20 seconds a time, with a 10 second rest in between each set. The idea with this workout is that intense exercise over a short period of time increases your heart and metabolic rate so your body continues to burn fat after you've stopped working, it ups your aerobic endurance and is an efficient session if you've only got a short window of time. It was certainly tough, with frog jumps, side planks, mountain climbers and lunges featuring heavily. But 12 minutes later we were done, with only a short run home left ahead of us.
Finishing off the night with our Wandsworth tunnel of joy, we stretched it out and discussed our mission this weekend (which is open to everyone, whether or not you're mission verified). Next week we've got more doing good and getting fit, so sign up here!
Tuesday 23rd January 2018
Emily Riches completed 5 good deeds with GoodGym.
Emily is a now a pretty committed GoodGym runner. They've just run to do good for the fifth time
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