We were a small but perfectly formed group last night as we welcomed Nia to her very first GoodGym run (give her a cheer!) , and got ready to head down to Sacred Heart school for our second visit.

Before we could set off we did our usual warm up and I gave the group a challenge (which I immediately failed...thanks Gemma for helping me out!). Can you name a country that begins with the same letter as the first letter of your name? Everybody nailed it with places including Angola, Lithuania and Germany. Anyone else for a holiday?!

After a brief run down to the school and being carefully checked out by the most enormous cat, we arrived at the school to finish off the task we started last week. We had already got rid of most of the chicken coop, and the efforts of some parents over the weekend had also cleared some more of the area, so this week was all about taking down the last coop and wire and giving it all a good dig over.

The coop did take a bit of careful handling but with a bit of muscle we were able to lift it over the fence ready for collection - look out for it at the Waste Not Want Not charity near Clapham Junction where I understand it is going to be converted into a planter!

After some elbow grease with the spades, forks and rakes the area was looking a lot clearer, all ready to be turned into an amazing sounding meteorological station for the kids. Thanks for coming in on your hols to supervise Headteacher Jared!

We then nipped round the corner to find a space for our fitness session, and set about knocking out a whole body workout which featured planks, burpees, and squats - all the good stuff! Great work everyone.

Next week we have a double whammy of our group run to a local community garden followed by our Easter social. We also have a lunchtime mission on Friday helping out at a homeless shelter. Happy running all!

It was so great to see some old and new faces to Wandsworth as well as some from other areas too - everybody is welcome at our group runs and always will be - the more the merrier!

We started off the night in a very good mood as it was finally still light as we met. Roll on Spring! So with a little extra energy we did our warm up, and, in celebration of returning to Paradise Community Garden for our task, named our favourite green spaces in London. Pretty much all the main parks got an honourable mention, but there were a few new ones on me, including Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon. Must give it a visit!

Without too much delay we set off for Paradise, an amazing hidden away space near Wandsworth prison that has been transformed from derelict ground into a thriving garden for local people and those visiting the prison. It was so great to be back as this used to be a regular task for us, but one we haven't been to since before the pandemic.

We arrived to find Ciaran, Head of Community Development, waiting for us with jobs and tools, and we wasted no time getting stuck in. While one group started weeding a 'no dig bed' so as not to disturb the sleeping worms, the other group was tasked with spreading the wood chip in the children's learning area. This was no ordinary wood chip however, as it had been mixed with eucalyptus and smelled absolutely incredible!

Minty fresh and de-weeded, we headed over to Wandsworth Common to do our fitness session. The original idea was a squat challenge with 3 X 10 sets of squats, and working down the reps to 1 each round. After a bit of negotiating it was slightly downgraded, but we still ended up doing (thanks to Sophie's impressive mental arithmetic) 103 squats in total. Glutes of steel, here we come!

We now have a weekly Friday lunchtime mission at a local centre for the homeless helping serve hot food, check out the details here, and sessions throughout the week sorting donations for the Ukraine, sign up here.

Have a lovely week everybody, and, as always, run happy!

Another winter run, another sudden burst of water from the sky right when we were about to start running. SIGH. Never mind as it tailed off quickly and we were ready to get on with our task of helping the good people of Age UK, who have got a new 'Food 2 You' programme. This volunteer-led programme will help older people to do their weekly shop across Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. A great idea and very aligned with GoodGym's mission. We were helping to spread the word about this new service by putting up posters in local libraries and shops.

We split into four teams, one walking, one covering 3km, one 4km and one 5km. Each team also had some nice fitness challenges to carry out along the way. After an extended warm up we were off, spreading the word around Brixton, Clapham High Street and Stockwell. After some nice stretches on return, we finished off and went home happy.