Another fun training session for 14 GoodGymers, ready to run as a group again.

Despite the rain, 14 runners showed up for our training session last night. Following on from last month's Trail Running 101, this was the next step - an 80 minute run around Liverpool's urban trails. The rain only added to the atmosphere in the woods and parks we traversed and increased the chance of getting VERY muddy. All runners were successfully mud covered by the end of the run.

In a flat city, with water on one side, trail running isn't something you'd associate with Liverpool. But lockdown forced me to find new routes and I was eager to share my discoveries with the group, taking them down paths that many of them had never explored before.

A huge GoodGym welcome to all the newbies who joined the muddy run last night.

It was a joy to welcome so many eager new runners to the team, thanks for getting involved Anna, Ankita, Chris, Marianne and Naomi. You all did fantastically well and were great fun to boot! Do join us again soon :)

As ever, it was also lovely to see lots of familiar faces.

If you have ideas for training sessions, suggested location or running ambitions, do give me a shout and I'll try to plan something exciting soon. In the meantime, find out what else is coming up at GoodGym Liverpool here.

Happy running <3

On a gorgeous sunny afternoon six goodgymers joined the Canal & Rivers Trust for their campaign to clean up the canals of plastic and general rubbish #PlasticsChallenge

We met at the Stanley Locks in the Eldonian Village, donned our life jackets (in case the plastic fought back and we ended up in the canal, very happy to say non of us did!), collected our litter pickers, bags and hoops and off we went.

We all became quite fascinated by the variety of objects discarded both in and besides the canal, lots of the usual suspects in plastic bottles, chocolate wrappers and cigarette butts, but we also found a coat in the canal and an office chair! Under the bridge was an impressive (and gross) collection of dog poop bags but nothing phased our hardy bunch, all were collected and disposed of properly!

We also saw some uplifting and inspiring street art and were thoroughly supervised by the local geese who followed us all the way.

Great to be joined by Sal and Jessica for their first time out with GoodGym

There’s nothing more soothing for the soul than a walk in the sunshine by the water, and all the more satisfying to know we were able to leave the canal in a better state than we found it.

Thanks to the Canal & Rivers Trust for inviting us along and we can’t wait to do more with them in the future so keep an eye out for new community mission listing!

Our super 7 lifted and heaved their way to a tidier New Year at Liverpool Unitarian Church.

On a freezing (literally) evening, our team arrived at the church on foot and were led down to a large basement that was heaped full of random bits of bobs. As well as being home to the local Unitarian congregation, the church serves as a community centre, gig space and wedding venue, in its glorious listed building. With so much activity, the basement appears to have become a dumping ground for disgarded and broken objects.

Over an hour, climbing the stairs and handing smaller objects through a hatch, we managed to clear scores of dusty chairs, four vaccum cleaners, a roomful of wooden pallets, a wheelbarrow, a giant wooden shoe-print and a crate of out-of-date beer, amongst other bits and pieces.

It was fantastic to be joined by two lovely newbies Lee and Gill who fitted right in and really got stuck in.

All in all, we shifted at least a skip full of rubbish, hopefully leaving the church with more space for useful objects or more activity space.

Well done team, fantastic work tonight!

Make sure your Strava is linked to your GoodGym account, the January Challenge is go! Get involved and join our training sessions here.