Yes, yes, all, I think zoom on Tuesday is the new norm for us, how will we cope when we have to go back out on those group runs? What will the rules be? Did you by any chance see in the news this week how premier league clubs have adapted their training?

Anyhow enough of that, this week we had Clare back in for more Cyber goodness following her participation in the previous week's session. Good to see we didn't break her and put her off returning.

This week we alternated between working out on the floor and standing ensuring that each muscle group had time to recover before calling them into action again.

Have you seen the Nike living room cup?

Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith's round was mountain climbers, she completed 175 reps in 45 seconds. We gave it a go and none of us was able to get near the 100 mark but hey Dina, isn't just your average athlete, she is the fastest British woman in recorded history over 100M and 200M.

Everyone worked hard and worked up a sweat, although we were unable to do a bit of our regular community good deed we sure did have a good fitness session.

Catch you all next week.

# We're back!#

Tonight it started with one, two, three then all of a sudden there were 17 of us inside the lobby of Solutions having many different conversations about what we have been up to over the last two weeks and how much they missed the group runs for the past two Tuesdays.

Why did we have the two weeks break?

Absence makes the heart grows fonder

Everyone was was fueled and ready to go but not before we got the domestics and warm up out of the way, we also welcomed back Ollie who had joined us for his 1st on our last run of 2019, ready to kick off 2020 where he left off. It was nice to see the warm welcome he received on that cold night last December kept him going that he Rushed from work to be there tonight.

Tonight we jogged 3.8km to Tunstall Nursery to help clean up the surroundings and fill the sand pit with sand for the children.

Well done Ian on winning the building competition, while others were busy transporting the sand he took time to build a sculpture of his favorite GG trainer (me) unfortunately because it was built in the sand it somehow did not survive being transport to the sand pit.

I also hear congratulations are in order too for Jenny, she was the queen of shoveling, for those of you who did not attend the pub she let us in on her secret that as a reward her mom had her filling pot holes with gravel on the road leading to her farm so thats where she honed her skills.

With the sand pit full and all the jobs done we bid our farewells and headed outside the nursery for our time trial congratulations to tonights winners Mo and Louisa. I was expecting Louisa to be lifting the crown tonight, because she informed me that she had only just recovered from her illness so would not be exerting too much energy on the time trial, however she let Dovile led the way until just before the last corner then sprinted her way to the finish line.

The Xmas break had been kind to Martin(see pics) and he showed us just how kind by lifting the climbing frame and did some squats, he also lifted the big tyre demonstrating what rest can do and why it is important as runners we listen to our bodies.

This year over in Croydon we are going to behaving a lot of celebrations its a year of milestones for a lot of our members first up we have Ingrid she completed her 99th good deed tonight will the wings appear next week?

Hello you lovely people at GGHQ, keep you fingers very close to the mouse because these are some of the others who will be collecting a special tee this year, Ros (88), Stephanie (85), Ellie (83), Ian (83), Sarah (47), Martin (42) and Hannah (37).

Well done to the Croydon winter warriors I noticed you're all sporting the new badge on your profile pages.

It was great seeing you all today and for the others who were unable to come along today we missed you, and can't wait for your return were you will fill us in on what you've been up to while you were away from us.

Do you fancy joining Steph on her 2020 quest? Last year she vowed to run six 10ks this year fancy helping her achieve her goal?

Next week's group run will be going over to Valley Park to help Pam and the people at Peppermint, do sign up here, you'll be in the capable hands of Andy and Ellie be sure to turn up they have a few treats up their sleeves for you!!

We ran 6km to clear weeds and plant bulbs for a community garden in Croydon!

It was a lovely autumn evening down in Croydon this evening, perfect for a good run - finally the rain had stopped! Our 13 runners headed out to the west of Croydon to the Peppermint Centre to help Pamela from Unique Roots - this is a fantastic organisation which builds community in the local area and teaches skills and confidence in gardening. After a quick warm up around a tree, we were off!

It was really great to welcome some new faces to Croydon this week - big hellos all round to Sterano who was joining us for his first GoodGym session and to Eve who was visiting from Hackney! Thanks for coming - hope to see you again very soon!

When we arrived, Pam explained that we would be weeding the raised beds to get them ready for the volunteers to plant some fun plants later in the week. We donned our gardening gloves and got to work with the trowels. We cleared lots of weeds and admired the plants that were still thriving, including enjoying a lot of delicious smelling herbs! There was even some excited when Dovile came across a potato that would be perfect for baking when we got home!

We refilled the beds with more compost and mulch to keep them healthy over the winter. Once we had finished the weeding, we started to fill the tyre planters with new bulbs to keep the garden looking lovely when spring fially arrives. It was great work by everyone and Pam was really pleased with what we achieved!

Finally it was time to head back and cool down with some stretches, while we planned our outfits for next week...

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading out leafleting so bring your best Halloween costumes! It’s also our monthly Croydon social so hope to see lots of you there!

Today 14 runners ran 3km to help Tunstall Nursery prepare for the new school year.

We welcomed Nina and Olivia to their first group run, hope you enjoyed your first visit and we look forward to seeing you again.

When we arrived we were met by Jane, who informed us of what tasks she wanted us to tackle, there was a ton bag filled with sand that was to be used and refill the sand pit. There was some sweeping to be done and if we had time there was also some tyres that needed the soil to be topped up.

At first glance it looked like there wasn't a lot to be done, but those little ones sure did have a massive sand party towards the end of term as I think they had emptied all the sand in the play ground. Everywhere seemed to be covered in sand, that explains why the sand pit had to be refilled.

Juliet, Paul, Andy and Olivia were busy transporting the sand from the car park to the sand pit in the play ground, with just two wheel barrows available the task seemed like a never ending one, but that wasn't meant to be as Paul had a genius moment realised there was an empty recycle bin and decide to use that too to transport the sand.

Meanwhile in the playground Martin and Ben, were having mini wheel barrow derby ferring soil from one corner to another.

Before long our time had come to an end but not before Paul, Martin and Jennifer had a go at doing some squats with a big tyre that was in the play ground, needless to say the fellas were outdone by Jennifer.

After we bid our farewell to Jane we headed outside the nursery for the regular lap of Tunstall, no records were broken however we had some impressive sprint finishes. We then headed back to solutions for our cool down stretches.

Save the Dates

21 September Super Saturday

28 September 2019 Bethlem Parkrun takeover we still have many roles to be filled, are you able to take part.

Next week we have another short run to Park Hill Rec, sign up here.

Today 15 runners ran 6.9km/7km to Thornton Heath Community Garden to help move branches and other rougher vegetation to the entrance of the park for the collection.

When we arrived we were met by Pia one of the volunteers who works with the residents in creating and looks after an edible / flower garden in Thornton Heath Recreation Ground. She uses the garden to bring people in the community together through gardening and also create a beautiful area for others to enjoy. She explained to us what she would like us to do and led us to the area in the garden where there was work to be done.

After forming a human chain to remove the big branches, it was time for the wheel barrows and buckets to enter for the smaller stuff as the pile got smaller, Pia took a group over to the flowers and edible beds for some weeding.

Another moment of GoodGym Magic

Task owners are always appreciative of the work we do, but today was made even more special when Sarah and Stephanie told me about a conversation they had with a young boy who informed them that they had cleared his den.

Fancy doing some volunteering on a Sunday afternoon? The group meets every Sunday between 2-4 and there is no obligation to stay for the entire two hours. Pia informs us the group is mostly elderly residents and they could do with the help of some younger more able body volunteers.

Sadly we are saying goodbye to the wonderful Zara, she is going back to Lambeth, however she has promised to visit us from time to time as see now feels apart of Croydon despite starting her GoodGym journey with Lambeth, Croydon is where she felt most at home. :-) Zara you will always be a GGCronx member and we will miss you!!

Congratulations Emma on being paired with a coach, listening to you talk about your pairing and how excited you were was amazing can't wait to hear all about your first meeting.

Next week is the last Tuesday of the month, following our group run there will be a social to celebrate all we have done and achieve throughout the month. Sign up here to join in the fun

GoodGym News

This year GoodGym celebrates 10 years of GoodGym greatness!

Contribute to our book. We’re publishing a book to gather all the amazing stories from the past 10 years. We’d love to hear from you, take the 2 min survey here before FRIDAY 23rd AUGUST

Day of Deeds Tom Benson is at it again and has offered to help organise a bumper day of deeds on Saturday 21st September. He is finalising details and will be in contact shortly.

New areas launching

• GG Exeter launched, Tuesday 20th August

• GG Trafford, Wednesday 21st August

• GG Derby will be on 3rd September

• Warwick & LS and Crewe TBC

Tonight 18 Goodgymers ran 5.4km, and 3 of our regulars who are injured and returning from injuries made their own way to the Peppermint Centre to assist Pam with the community community garden.

We welcomed Tim to his first group run.>

Congratulations to Nicola for her recent title of No.1 female parkrun tourist in the world her record currently stands at 351, everyweek going forward she will be making history as she will be breaking her record.

Today's task was to help weed the raised beds and spread wood chip to stop the areas around the raised beds from being over taken by weeds.

When we arrived at the task Andy and Ellie had already arrived and had assisted Pam with unloading the tools from her car and began cutting the grass.

Pam explained to us what she wanted us to do and we split up into small groups taking on the various task that Pam had to be done.

Pam had brought a bit roll of membrane to lay on the floor for us to put the wood chip on however she forgot to take the scissors to cut the membrane and there was also no knives available. They tried using the secateurs but had no joy not until they found a hand saw in Pam's car booth and began sawing away at the membrane. While some sawed the others made trips to the big pile of wood chip filling up the wheel barrow and buckets. In between trips to the wood chip pile some even had time to slope off for a game of ping pong, I won't name them but there may be photographic evidence of the culprits.

We all chipped together

Those weeding the raised beds was not only pulling up weeds they found some beet roots and turnips which Pam encouraged them to reap. There are always vegetables ready to reap whenever we visit the peppermint centre. Look at them in the pictures.

All chipped in, as we, mowed, weed and sawed, shoveled, forked and sprinkled

After all the shoveling and weeding I thought they would have been "BEET" but on the run back Ian running along with a beet root in his his proudly exclaimed:

We'll not be BEET! Just BEET IT!

Next week we have a new task lined up in Thornton Heath sign up here, the run will be 5km in total.