Fresh from our second place in Saturday's amazing GoodGym Olympics, Team Wandsworth met for our weekly run last night. I say 'fresh', but there were several 'sunkissed' (cough) faces, and a few minor injuries that had been sustained over the weekend. All in the name of a podium finish.

We had some lovely new runners to welcome to the team. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Jemma, Linda, and Ellie. Welcome to Wandsworth, Anthony!

As well as some cracking performances on the track on Saturday, we had some excellent park running, so well done to everybody that both volunteered and raced in Tooting on the weekend. If you are interested in doing a park run but you're still a bit unsure, just come and talk to me. It's such a fun, free and effective way to get into racing, improve your speed and get a tasty 5k PB.

We had a slightly different group run last night. Our task was for the amazing RSPCA -we were asked to stuff over 1000 envelopes destined for their donors. However, their Wandsworth shop was a little too small to fit us all in, so we decided to do the job at our home at the BAC, before heading out for a monster fitness session. Luckily we we were given our favourite room, and made ourselves comfortable among the rolling green hills and bridges of the indoor teletubby garden. After a brief intro by the RSPCA's Laura, we got down to business, smashing through the task in no time at all. Which left us a nice hour to do our session. Lucky us!

It was a lovely evening, so after a sunny jog up to the common, we started off the session with some Indian file running. With such a big group it was a hefty sprint to the front of the line, but it did the job and warmed us up nicely. Next up was Ring of Fire. It was based on the classic drinking game involving a pack of cards, each with a different forfeit. Except this time, instead of downing a shot, the cards all represented a different exercise - including nominating burpees, all men/women sprinting, under/over 25s planking/core triathlons, squat holds reciting the alphabet, sprint challenges, and people with birthdays in June (sorry Roshan and Jack) doing jumping jordans.

Then came the relay - with a difference. We split up into teams of five, and had to undertake a certain activity - including crab walks, plank walks, squat jumps and wheelbarrows - to the line, before sprinting back. I can't say with certainty who won, but the team names alone were pretty impressive.

We finished off with a game of Blow the Whistle, where Emma and Sam worked super hard to tag as many people as possible, sending them to GoodGym jail. All that was left was a nice run back to our starting point, and some cooling stretches to end the evening.

Remember those envelopes we stuffed? Next week we are going to divide ourselves up into teams, and with a member of the task force taking a group each, we are going to save the RSPCA a whole heap of money and deliver them locally. Sound like fun? Then sign up here!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/rspca-needs-our-help

Could we....dare we believe...might it possibly be summer? It was the perfect night for a run last night - warm, sunny, and brimming with lovely runners.

A massive GG welcome to the excellent Chantelle, Ben, James and Elizabeth, all of whom joined us for their very first Wandsworth run last night. Give them a cheer, people!

We had a loooot of congratulations to give last night - you've been very busy people! So - deep breath - an enormous pat on the back for Sarah, who casually ran a marathon on SUNDAY and still came along, to our fabulous fresh from Riga Racers Sophie, Jessie, Dave, Jack and Vix, to Matthew for a park run PB, to Luke for doing a mammoth 100k walk, Jo (and her mum) for doing a bit of park run tourism, and to Alyx for doing a whole lot of lovely good deeds. You are all superstars.

It was bound to be a great run last night after kicking it off in our fave teletubby room, but the sun was shining and our task was waiting, so after a quick hello we made our way outside for some warm ups and to get to know each other a little better. Tonight we found out what everybody likes to whack on the BBQ (thanks for the inspiration Jack!). The shock winner tonight was....halloumi! Who knew that little cheesy squeaker was so popular. With that decided we headed off for our task at Balham Baptist Church.

We have been working at the church a few times now, forming a human chain to empty a room of junk so that it could be turned into a foodbank. We've discovered some exciting things in the past - a huge crucifix, a mannequin, records, a pair of oars - but tonight we were down to the last big stuff. We filled the van with doors, chairs, planks and a lot of nails, and just managed to squeeze the final few bits into the van before declaring it Job Done. Way to go team, it's great to see a task done from start to finish, and especially one that would have taken the team at the church much longer to complete.

We waved goodbye to Pastor Jim, and set off to the common, where we smashed out a fitness session. Starting off by buddying up, we found out something nice about our partner. Jo found out that Ruth works with children with hearing impairments, while Luke found out that Dave had missed him when he was in Riga. So lovely. Then, while one person was doing a shuttle run, the other was doing a strengthening exercise - either holding a plank, squat, doing press ups or ab crunches. There was some interesting running from Will and Matthew, both trying to make each other suffer with the plank segment as long as possible - bet you can feel those abs today! Then we moved onto our core triathlon, before finishing the evening off with a quick game of British Bulldog. That was a tough session tonight, so well done everyone. Back to the BAC we went, finishing off a splendid evening of running with some stretches. Next week it's bank holiday but that doesn't faze us - we'll still be running as usual, as well as having a drink or two afterwards to celebrate. You can sign up here, and I hope you do!

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/distributing-flyers

Hey Wandsworth, check you out! Delivering a couple of hundred flyers for our local re-use and recycling charity, sorting out a whole pile of fabric, and smashing out an 11k run. So casual! What a bunch of doing gooding, muscle-building legends you are. First of all, let’s give a big GG Wandsworth welcome to Kate who joined us for her first run last night. Lovely stuff. A massive well done also to all our excellent park runners – we had three of you do Tooting on Saturday, and one do Wimbledon Common. It’s fantastic to see so many of you representing GoodGym, and I think we can all agree it’s the perfect way to start the weekend. Sarah also deserves a cheer for all that running that got her to top of the distance leader board this week. On behalf of all the Wandsworth team not in Riga this weekend, it’s an enormous good luck and cheer from us to all our runners tackling the 10k and half marathon races in a matter of days. You got this! Jack, Sophie, Dave, Tom, Jim , Jessie and Amy - we’re behind you every step of the way!

We talked about the GoodGym Olympics – you have less than one week to sign up to defend Team Wandsworth’s honour on the 10th June. You can do that here, and you definitely should – it promises to be a cracking day full of fun and a little bit of competitiveness. Let’s start limbering up.

There was a champagne reception going on last night at our starting point – our invitation must’ve got lost in the post – so we had a quick headcount outside. This week we discussed everybody’s favourite spot in London – if there was any doubt, you can tell we’re a group of runners from the number of parks that topped the list. Richmond, Battersea, Hyde, Wimbledon, Bushy, Kew and a few others all got a mention, along with ‘my house’, and ‘beer garden’. It was set to be quite a long run last night, and with just over 5k to get to our task, we set off at a steady lick. Before long Nick and Will were leading us across Wandsworth Common to reach the Work & Play Scrapstore in Tooting. It’s a tough run, but so worth it, as this is one of GG Wandsworth’s favourite organisations.

”The Scrapstore is my favourite spot in London” said Sophie.

Half the team divided up into groups to deliver flyers for the community event the charity is putting on. The theme for the event, ‘Hazelfest’, is artful re-use and the emphasis will be on getting people on Hazelhurst Estate to get involved and be creative. The other half were tasked with sorting out a huge pile of ribbons and elastic, cutting them into sections and bagging them up.

”Team Ribbon had an excellent time” said Team Ribbon.

There were still a few flyers to hand out, so off we went on our merry way down Garrett Lane, posting our flyers as we went. We said goodbye to a few runners who elected to get public transport back for the last section of the run, while the rest of us made it up the ‘undulating’ road to the BAC.

With 11k under our belt, all that was left was a stretch and a nice pat on the back. Next week we have a shortish run to a beautiful community garden with lovely views over the city. You can sign up for it here. See you then for another Monday evening making Wandsworth better and getting fitter!

Tonight we truly Mondayed the Monday out of Monday. It all began, as all good Monday evenings do, at the Battersea Arts Centre to say hello to faces familiar and spanking new ones too. Welcome to the lovely new running legends that are Amy, Emma and Oli.

It had been a bumper week for racers – must’ve been the sun – and we said a huge well done to Sarah and Matthew who both ran, and to Joanna who nailed her very first park run. You guys! Ben not only smashed the Brighton marathon this weekend but also tops our distance leader board with Berit and Sophie chasing not far behind. It’s always good to give as well as receive so well done to Matthew for doing both with cheers.

Thanks Vicki for our CoRUNdrum even from sunny Australia (well done on your park run in Melbourne!). Where in London are there not one but two statues of Mahatma Gandhi? We were stumped. So the best thing to do was to set off for our task at the Bridge Church and community centre. They had 500 – FIVE HUNDRED – leaflets for their upcoming Easter festival that they needed dispersing throughout Battersea, and who did they call? GoodGym Wandsworth of course. We divided ourselves into groups of four, and tackled different areas of the estates around the centre. We were done in record time – some teams even climbing 20 storeys, from which, says Jack, there was a pretty beautiful view. There was even a spot of ‘hide from the trainer’ going on from naughty group Sarah, Dave, Jessie and Sarah – which would have been successful if Sarah was not hiding behind a see through bike shed in neon orange. You scamps!

We caught our breath and then set off for the beautiful Battersea Park for what was set to be one muthableeper of a fitness session. Following some requests, we were going to give the infamous Bleep Test a go. Used by the military and other badass organisations to test the toughest of the tough’s fitness levels, the test uses a series of beeps which grow closer and closer together. The idea is to get to the 20m line before the beep goes. Man, was it tough. Everyone did incredibly well, and, as Luke points out, the Police ask you reach level 6 to pass their test – you are all fit enough to join the boys (and girls) in blue. Ello ello ello! Special shout outs go to Sophie and Rachel as last ladies sprinting, and to Roshan and Dan for getting to an amazing level TWELVE. Seriously impressive, Wandsworth.

It would have been a shame to waste the last rays of the setting sun, so after a vote we chose a bit of core work over hill sprints, and finished the night with an abs blast. We reached peak excitement when a little dog decided we looked like a lot of fun and ran over to say hello. I know these words appear a little too regularly in our run reports but…GoodGym mascot? Sadly we couldn’t quite fit him in our rucksack.

The speedy group set off ahead of the sexy group, and doubled back on themselves half way back, so we all finished up back at the BAC around the same time. For the first week ever nobody cracked the CoRUNdrum – it was Tavistock Square, obvs.

Next week we DO have an Easter run, and we’ll be taking the train part of the way, before having a little Easter social to compare the size of the eggs the Easter Runny has brought us. Sign up here, kids:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/digging-a-trench-at-our-local-primary-school