No spectator sports for us tonight

It was a respectable group of 18 who shunned the TV for some tyre-painting and mulch-moving on a beautifully balmy June evening. And thank goodness as a two-task evening requires many pairs of able hands. We left an air-conditioned hotel room, complete with England game on the screen, for a brief warm up before heading our separate ways...

A two-task evening

Leanne led the Hollybush crew over to Margaret at Hollybush Gardens, where a big pile of mulch and multiple wheelbarrows awaited. It was a workout heavy on the lower body, lats and obliques as the team shovelled mulch and even formed a wheelbarrow relay to get the task done in double-time.

Meanwhile, over at Weavers, the bulk of the team were moving, stacking and painting tyres to form a fabulous-looking tyre ‘fence’ on the go-kart track. Meanwhile Heidi planted new pot plants in a brightly coloured wheelbarrow – her finished work was quite the jolly affair. Our very grateful task owner Alex supplied much appreciated post-task snacks and water – perfect fuel for the subsequent Metaburn workout that the team went onto complete in Weavers Fields.

Monday’s Metaburn

The team went on to work even harder at tonight’s workout – a top-to-toe affair that covered plyometric squats, lateral lunges, plank jacks, single-leg side planks and the ferocious, old-skool Pilates Leg Pull Back. Well done everyone for bashing out lots of beautifully executed reps on already weary limbs.

Back to base – on time

And so we headed back to base on time (for once… You heard it here first) where the team patiently went through their post-run stretches before heading inside to our room to catch the last few minutes of the game.

Thank you’s, welcome’s (and apologies…)

Thank you to you all for a really busy, industrious evening. Massive thank you’s tonight to task force memberLeanne for task pre-planning, beautiful pics and report contribution; leading the team to Hollybush, and back-marking. Thank you to Becky for backmarking and for being her usual, brilliant addition to the task force team, arriving early and welcoming new runners AND for this week’s lovely pun. Thank you to Dave for navigating and leading the run to Weavers with me, and to task force member Bryon for co-navigating and leading the return run.

And massive apology to Keri who followed (my) incorrect Hollybush location info and rather than give up, made her way to Weavers instead –thank you for your patience and perseverance.

A massive GG welcome to Rajand Sam who joined us tonight for their first run. It was great to have you on board – thanks for all the hard work and for your phenomenal fitness efforts in our post-task workout. I really hope you join us again soon.

And so to next week...

Talking of which, next week we’re back to Meath Gardens, for more canal-action, helping to get those young trees off to a great start for the summer, and we’ll be popping to Mother Kelly’s for a quick drink after too. Don’t miss out – sign up here. I can’t WAIT to do it all again then.

Until then, have a great week.

It was Team Tower Hamlets to the rescue tonight as two of our longest standing task owners needed some urgent summer help. Becky and I led two teams off to two of our local community gardens, before meeting at Meath Gardens to attack our abs in earnest.

I headed up the Cranbrook Crew of 10 who ran to the local community garden, nearly a mile from base, where the team shifted un-moveable vegetable beds; made trellises, shovelled compost, cleared and lifted wood; swept and sawed. Not much for 40 minutes then. Amazing stuff. And brilliantly project-managed tonight by task owner Eileen, who rewarded the team for their hard work with rhubarb and leeks.

Meanwhile, thanks to yours truly giving incorrect location information to Becky’s team, the Hollybush crew ran to the wrong garden via a spectacularly pretty little oasis, full of fascinating flora, including a thoroughly cool monkey puzzle tree. Every cloud and all that. They then went onto enjoy an extreme upper body workout as they dug, weeded and edged flower beds all to a retro background playlist (Tom Jones), courtesy of task owner Michael. The team headed promptly to Meath Gardens where, upon early arrival, task owners were swapped for taskmasters David and Steve, who insisted the best course of action when arriving early is to squeeze in a lap of the park.

The Cranbrook crew arrived, armed with gifts of leeks and rhubarb, and playlist and exercise list. I was concerned Environmental Health might put in an appearance as tonight we were planking and single leg bridg-ing to music. Jess did little to allay my fears as she confirmed that ‘you only need 9 people for it to be classed as a riot.’ (I have Googled this on returning to my desk, and it seems that 3 is the magic number. To be continued, Jess…). The team completed their core and glute-activation work brilliantly tonight. I don’t know what was in the air but as they sailed through the scorpion push-up, Pilates roll-up-on-steroids, the single leg bridge-with-pulse, a hovering side plank, the seated sprinter and then the crab dance, I did wonder if the class content tonight was too easy. Again, to be continued…

And so to the thankyou’s

Thank you to Becky our utterly brilliant task force member, for heading up the Hollybush team; for planning (both before and during the evening), and for the lovely report and pics – and for getting the team to Meath EARLY. Oh, and for finding the correct location. Ahem.

Thank you to Nadia, Alys, Jess and Mi for tonight’s pun, and for my putting up with my scathing dismissal of all your previous fab suggestions (“No – no good. What else?”).

And thanks to David for overseeing sign-in, and for getting the post-run stretching started.

...And welcome!

A big hello and welcome to Jess , who just got so stuck in on her first Group Run, it was amazing! I feel like you’ve been with us forever. Thanks for the hard, hard work (“Are you task-less? Come with me…”), for the fun, and for joining the team so effortlessly. I hope you’ll join us again really soon.

And the fun continues...

Right, two dates to get in the diary: On June 9th, we’re partnering with Mile End Parkrun for the pacing event - all speeds and levels much needed! Details and sign up are here.

…And next week, our Bank Holiday Bonanza, sees us popping to Aldgate to flyer for the Aldgate Square Festival, before running to Weavers for a wicked workout (running and resistance work – tick multiple fitness boxes with this one). And then Mother Kelly’s at 8:45pm for a quick Bank Holiday bevvy. More details and sign-up are here. Come for as much (or as little) of the evening as you fancy!

Okay, that's it from me. Well done for another truly brilliant night of multi-tasking, and I CAN'T WAIT to do it all again next week.