It was a whopper of a night in Wandsworth last night, and good job too as we had a massive task!

Welcome to Marika, Ben, Ingrid, Emma, Emily, Chloe, Karen, Thomas, Izzy and Guy - give them a big cheer GoodGym!

We started the night with a round up of the week's news:

• Congratulations to all those runners and volunteers at the Hackney Half on Sunday!

• We have been invited by one of our task locations, Elay Networks, to their Ramadan Iftar on Friday. If you would like to go, check out the details and book your place here. Elay is an amazing organisation founded to provide a community support structure for young people and students at risk of exclusion from school, and not in employment, education or training.

• Plogolution is coming to Wandsworth. Fancy running (5k) or walking (2k) whilst picking up rubbish at the same time? Get that double endorphin hit of not only keeping fit but also making a massive difference at the same time. Everyone welcome, pop along and make some friends! Sign up here for all the details of these event on 8th June.

• A big welcome to Klara, who is the new trainer for GoodGym Exeter - spread the word about GG's newest area!

Next stop was to head outside for our warm up, which featured lots of dynamic moves designed to get our heart rates up, and a very quick survey to find out all the places we'd like to go that we haven't visited yet - New Zealand came up pretty high, as did anywhere hot and tropical, and even the moon. Better start saving those airmiles!

It was week three at our massive ongoing task last night, so we ran down to the Venue Community Centre to pick up our tools, then headed over to the Doddington Estate in Battersea. This huge space right in the middle of a big residential estate has been shut for many years, but we have been helping with the project to transform it into somewhere that can be opened up for the local people, is welcoming and safe for everybody.

The garden is already looking much better, but there is still a lot to do. So we got straight into weeding, clearing, pulling up astroturf and plastic, cutting back shrubs and ivy, scraping moss, litter picking, sweeping, and digging over. After 40 minutes of hard work, the garden was looking even better - there is still some stuff to do including painting benches and planting, so we'll be back in a couple of weeks to the last few jobs before the big opening. We even had Chi there taking some pretty amazing pictures to document our work!

So after returning the tools, we jogged over to a nearby green space to do a bit of a fitness session, which last night focused on a variety of unusual planks. Not only does a strong core improve your running posture and speed, but it increases stabilization in the torso, keeps you upright, reduces rocking and so lessens the energy you need to maintain form, and improves balance. For 30 seconds each we held bear, reverse, X, side, single leg and dip planks and gave our abs and proper good work out.

All that was left was to run back to base, tackle that last hill, and do some stretches kindly led by Klara. Great work everybody! Next week it's a bank holiday - but don't worry, you can still get your GoodGym fix! We'll be meeting at the BAC as normal, although there's nowhere to leave bags on this week only. Spend your day off doing good and getting fit - sign up here for all the details. See you there!

It takes extra special effort to lace up your trainers and get out the door when it's freezing and raining, so well done for making out tonight lovely Wandsworth gang!

There was a huge amount to celebrate tonight, but first let's a give a massive to cheer to our first time group runners:

Nick

Emma

and Anwen - who is the new trainer for Oxford.

Give them all a big welcome!

There was so much good stuff happening this weekend - a huge well done to everybody that took part in a very successful parkrun takeover on Saturday - it couldn't have happened without you. Yesterday was the Fulham 10k where so many GoodGymers put in great performances, cheered on by an amazing squad of supporters. Well done especially to Sian and Morag who both got brillient PBs!

It was also a big congratulations to Jessie for reaching that magic milestone - 100 good deeds!

Our job tonight was at Doddington & Rollo Rooftop Garden - a formally disused carpark roof which has been transformed into a beautiful community garden for local people to grow their fruit and veg. They rely on volunteers to keep the garden going, so when they got a giant 75 litre bag of compost delivered to the street below the garden, they knew who to call! Cue an increasingly damp GoodGym team turning up tonight, primed and ready to shift that soil.

Meeting Hadas, a regular volunteer, we grabbed tools from the shed, and headed downstairs to start the process of ferrying bags of soil up to the garden. If you've ever wondered how ong it takes 31 people to shift 75 litres of soil up two floors and across a garden - and of course who hasn't - then the answer is (drum roll) 20 minutes. Great work, team - a job that we got down so quickly would have taken the volunteers the whole day to do, so it was definitely an evening well spent.

The job was perfectly/terribly (delete as appropriate) timed, as just as we waved our goodbyes and started our fitness session, the heavens opened. So we took an almost unanimous decision to abandone of glute-based session and keep warm with a run back to the BAC. By the time we had stormed up the hill, there had been a short reprieve which we seized upon, furiously bashing out sumo squats, before conceding our defeat. Rain 1 - Wandsworth GG 0.

Not to worry, we'll have another crack at it next week when we'll be back to finish off planting bulbs at an estate in Battersea. Get your thermals ready, and let's get planting!