It was the second week of the Guvnor's holiday and while Michal was away celebrating his wedding anniversary "Gratulacje Michal!", 21 GoodGym folk ran to Park Grove School for some jungle manoeuvres, hacking back the overgrown greenery in the forest school to make a lovely place for the children to return to next term.

We set off with Ellie almost escaping without wearing the Cape of Good Deeds to commemorate her recent 200th good deed and we soon met GG Vicky and caretaker / site manager / 'bloke that does all the stuff' Gary and selected our weapons (sorry not weapons I meant tools).

Ben & George were Team Fence Post and set to help Gary digging post holes right next to the existing posts - they soon hit concrete despite having a twisty spiral post hole tool to help them but persisted digging out two good holes - there was a discussion about how deep the holes need to be in order to be long lasting but Gary seemed happy that despite being a bit shallow they would only need to last until his retirement!

Dom, Abi & Cara were Team Wildlife Pond and began clearing out the weeds around the pond whilst looking out for wildlife. Dom discovered a wood louse who was managing to walk on water like an insect messiah. No sooner had he pointed this out than the spell was broken and the louse began to sink. Dom being a very Good GoodGymer managed to save the insect on his fork while Abi contented herself with putting sticky cleavers on Dom's back while he wasn't looking.

Everyone else was digging and weeding and armfuls of greenery was making its way to the compost heap. Mitchell was mainly to be found dangling from a Willow branch while he hacked through it with a saw and Carl was freeing up a bed with his New Technique

I call it Dig and Roll. Ellie you may have to move soon or I might Dig and Roll you too!

Ellie seemed to think that Ben might have something to say about that.

Not only did Ed volunteer to lead the fast group to the task but he also managed to dig up the longest root we have ever seen and only COVID restrictions stopped us using it for a Tug of War.

The greenery piled up and the compost heap grew while Laura & Vicky seemed mainly to be using their leggings to cultivate large collections of burrs.

It was pretty soon time to pack up.

We better tidy up these things post-haste!

Fence Post Ben insisted that this comment was said with irony but I wasn't convinced.

All that remained was a quick Burpee Challenge to Thunderstruck which was met with a variety of enthusiasm before we headed back to base and for a post run meet up at the Ackhorne.

Is it pronounced to rhyme with 'ache' or 'ack'?

Nobody knows.

Note:Barbara when asked for the highlights of the task for use in the run report wanted it put on record that with help from Louise, Lucy & Liz she put some very hefty things in a skip.

It was good to be back for a warm, summer evening of GoodGym and with a brilliant reason to celebrate too as Katie had done 200 good deeds and got to wear the spectacular new cape.

Tonight's task was so so close to our meeting point that I couldn't bring myself to lead everyone straight there, instead opting for a more scenic route along the river.

Only you could take a task 400m away and include two sets of steps and a hill (Amy)

Are you lost!? (John)

After our little loop we came to the wonderful Bishophill Community Garden, where Abi and Ellie had already gathered the tools together for us.

Task Manager Jamie told us that the main job was to collect up all the dead wood and twigs and feed them into the twig chipper, with secondary tasks being to sort the compost, mow the grass, and clear and edge the flagstones.

The twig chipper was jammed in a matter of minutes and so - being GoodGym - a small team became the machine with some extreme lopping antics.

Meanwhile, caped Katie had commandeered the mower and Tim discover that Katie herself was fuelled by petrol.

When the fuel ran out, she just stopped and couldn't work anymore'.

Craig saved the day by fixing the chipper and soon the bags were filling up, the compost area was tidy, the paths were clear and the grass was beautifully mown and ready for a game of Cones of Joy.

We had a ten minute round and apparently there was one rogue branch which took a few people out, otherwise it was an amazing display of athleticism and culminated in a dance party as everyone descended upon the dancing cone.

Another excellent night of good!

What a fantastic afternoon with a large group of GoodGymers we had today.

We welcomed our new member George, who made it just in time for the warm up. Give him a big Cheer!

The news announcements included a round of applause for Carl and other runners who took part in York 10K last Sunday, a cheer and a medal for Zinnie for taking part in the RunWithPride back in June and introduction of the 'milestone' cape. The cape will be used by us to celebrate milestones such as 200, 300, 400, 600 and so on good deeds. Paul had the honour to try out the new cape and celebrate his recently achieved 200 good deeds.

Following the news was the usual H&S brief and a warm up. Vicky departed earlier with the walking group while the rest went through a set of movements to get us ready for the run. With everyone warm and ready we ran to the York Medical Group community garden and caught up with the walking group just before our destination.

Anna, the task owner, welcomed and shown us around this hidden gem. No one knew about existence of this garden as it is located at the back of a building and surrounded with a tall brick wall. The decent size space is planned to become one of the social prescribing destinations and needed a clear up before the plans can be progressed. We were allocated a number of jobs including weeding a gravel path, trimming any overhanging brambles and other branches, removing unwanted bush and its roots, moving paving slabs and a massive clearance of vegetation from the very overgrown back of the garden. Under a close supervision of project volunteers and with use of the tools gathered for us by the York Medical Group staff we managed to complete the task in just over 30 minutes.

This time we were quick with putting the tools away, as everyone was eager for the fitness part of the day. We were thanked by the task owner and were on our way to the Memorial Garden where we stopped for the Olympics themed circuit. 10 minutes long session took us through exercises based on Olympic events including cycling, gymnastics, boxing, basketball, karate, swimming, running, rowing, synchronised diving and climbing. The synchronised diving was a lot of fun as we all tried to synchronise our high jumps bringing knees close to chest.

Following the exercise it was a good opportunity for a team photo next to the war memorial monument and a jog back to the HQ where we wrapped the session up with some news about forthcoming community missions, next week's group run and a cool down stretch.

We had a great turn out at today's session with Melissa and Tim coming back after a while and James, Georgina and Alys joining for the first time to see what GoodGym is all about. Give them ALL a BIG cheer!

We assembled by the park pavilion where we were welcomed by Emma from the Hut and Iain from the Council, who supplied all the tools, and plants for the task. I took the opportunity to present those of us who took part in the RunWithPride last month with colourful medals and without further ado we split up into two teams and went to work at two separate locations of the park.

The compost team were Nikki, Rich, James, Liz, Jenna, Mel and Laura got busy using the pitchforks and shovels to take all of the compost out of the three sided leaf composters, turn it and return it. Somebody had put grass cuttings in them too so the first job was to remove those into dumpy bags. The team found that the pitchforks were much more effective in removing the leaves which were fairly compacted. Shovelling it back in was also quite back breaking work after a while. Rich was particularly good at it. They finished the first set of compost bins in 40 mins so moved onto the second set which they managed to dig out and replace the top half of before the end of the hour.

Meanwhile the dig team went to the Hut garden and with the use of mattocks and spades took care of the soil inversion task. Iain brought few Clematis and other climbing plants which Abi carefully untwined from their bamboo frames before planting by the pergola. In few years’ time they should provide some shade for people sat under the pergola and flower in white and purple over the summer months. In just under one hour the team managed to make the area designed to become wildflower garden ready for seeding and put all climbers in the soil.

At 19:30 we were all ready for the fitness bit. Today’s session aimed to help improve our running speed. Following the warm up we did a number of short sprints/brisk walks interspersed with recovery jogs/walks. A warm down stretch followed and few bits of info about forthcoming community missions and the group run next Monday was shared with the group.

Next Monday we will be meeting at York CVS for the first group run since March last year. Hurray!

Kristina asked us to help with a number of tasks today, but first were the announcements.

• We congratulated the #RunWithPride team for participation in the running and walking event over the month of June celebrating the fact that no matter who we are, or who we love we are all equal.
• Secondly last weekend’s Endure24 was a big highlight that could not go unnoticed. Special cheers went to our solo runners David, Angela and Hayden who have covered remarkable distances, respectively 12 laps (97km), 17 laps (135km) and the 14th place and 10 laps (80km).

We did not want to keep Kristina waiting for too long, so I reminded everyone to gather back at 7:30pm for the yoga session and to hear the last item of news from me and we quickly allocated people to task leaders Ellie, Barbara, Pete and Laura and went to work.

Pete’s team report

Pete, Cara and Stuart headed over to the compost bin for the time honoured task of move the compost pit upside down again. We were quickly at it despite all the bins being quite full and fairly loose. Shortly after we started Michal pointed out that they had been done recently and showed us where we should have been! Joined by Leanne who knew what she was doing we made quick work churning the more compact compost even if it did result in slightly bent pitchforks. With time to spare we headed over to soil mountain...

Ellie’s team report

Mud Mountain were excited to get on with a classic GoodGym task: dig up a pile of dirt (or two in this case!) and move it so it can be spread on the path, ready to be topped off with bark chippings in a few weeks’ time. Ellie, Ben, Nikki, Carl and James were the original diggers and they swiftly realised what a gargantuan task was ahead of them. Armed with mattocks and spades, they split themselves into two groups to tackle the two piles.

One of the piles (“Mud Mountain Priority 1”) needed to be cleared ASAP so other GGers could dump grass clippings in its space, but space was tight and was made even tighter when the pile of clippings started blocking the way to the mud! Mud mountain 2 was a little more tricky to dig through - Nikki, Ben and James had to deal with a range of rubble and rubbish mixed into the earth.

Soon enough, though, extra help arrived, and Pete helped dig whilst Jenna helped Kristina down the new path. However, this is definitely a job to be continued another day!’’

Barbara’s team report

After Leanne and Jenna left Barbara’s group to help elsewhere, it was up to Stef, Barbara, Paul and Helen to take on the compost bins near the bowling green (where a vey lively bowls match was taking place). Our task was to remove all the grass cuttings and wheelbarrow them across the park to where the mud heaps and other compost bins were. With a variety of tools - several forks, a shovel and a pitchfork, we moved all the grass within the hour to where Kristina wanted it.

Laura’s team report

The geranium team got busy hacking back the geraniums from the paths leading through the rose gardens. Liz, Jackie and Laura lopped geraniums while David swept and bagged them. By the end of the hour we'd filled two dumpy bags and cleared most of the path.

So you can see that we have completed 3 out of 4 tasks. Not bad I say! Especially under the circumstances that Ellie’s team was understaffed and the space was too tight.

Gathered back at 7:30ish (and that is a BIG ‘ish’) we went through some yoga movements helping those of us who ran long distances this weekend to recover. The exercises were aimed to help improve our balance, flexibility and build up muscle strength. Few core exercises were thrown into the mix to benefit our running form.

And yes, the last item of news was announced by me at the start of the yoga session. The news is that I will be passing the baton of leading GoodGym York to a new person. More about that in the email which I will be sending out to everyone tomorrow, that is on Tuesday 6th July.