This week's run was off to a rocky start, with Enfield-to-Haringey traffic off the charts, making me a little late to the party. Luckily Dave was on hand to get things going until I got there.

We were joined by GG newbie Roxi this week, who's trying to get into the running - and started off by voting for the longer run route, which is always a wonderful idea and deserves all the cheering!

We were helping Friends of Tottenham Green dig a new green patch for seeding and planting a few bulbs. The ground was harder than we anticipated and the group worked real hard to break into it, managing to turn the soil across a big strip, while Chi and Julie planted the bulbs.

We started with a big of litter picking to clear the area. We found all sorts: nuts, bricks, plastic. It's a real shame that people are always throwing trash about and it's real lucky there are so many cheery GoodGym-ers out here helping out.

After 40 minutes of all the digging and the twig cutting, it was time to tidy up our things and say our goodbyes.

This week's fitness session focused on press ups and burpees, doing work on the negative movement pattern so the group could train the necessary muscles to build up to the full move. Everyone made a little progress and know how to progress further, with Chi even doing some alternative spider plyometric press ups to finish, before we headed over to the road for some final sprints.

Dave kindly demonstrated the sprinting form for me, so I could get everybody to focus on pushing off that back leg, rather than stepping forwards with the front one.

Real great sprinting all-round, with a quick photo finish and a final sprint to base for stretches.

This week GG Haringey came together to do some unexpected good. Well the good was always expected, but not the good we did.

Last night was supposed to be a night of planting food at the Green, I thought. So we warmed up, ran over, excited for all the planting, only to find the gate locked and not a person in sight. Turns out I'd written the the task in the wrong date.

I stood there trying to hatch Plan B while the group held a wall sit in wait.

Ollie suggested calling Laura over at Friends of Tottenham Green. She was sitting down to her dinner, but she came out to meet us anyway.

On the run back we stopped at our cycle path for sprints and knee drive drills, to buy Laura some time to get to the Green. We worked through a few reps of mixed effort sprints, focusing on picking those knees up and pushing off your back foot.

When we got to the Green, Laura was just a few seconds behind us. Perfect timing. She was real excited that we could get another cheeky session in and we split into two teams: the rakers and the pickers. Dave took one team to the other side of the garden fence to rake up the fallen leaves and save the grass, while Abi took the others to litter pick the hedge around the leisure center.

We then put away our tools, said our goodbyes and made our way over to the town hall (maybe?) for a few games of tag and stuck in the mud. Because playing children's games is the best way to build sprint work into a workout without anybody noticing.

This week 8 powerful GoodGym-ers ran 2km (and a bit) to dig a trench at the Bowling Green for the electricity cables they're installing to power the stage they're building.

Everything about this project makes me so excited. Leyla and the team have got so much done since our last visit and it was so nice to know we were really helping create something wonderful.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We started with a warm up out front of the leisure center, where I discovered none of you can sit at the bottom of a squat comfortably. Your homework was to sit in that bottom position for two minutes a day – make sure you practice!

Abi, on her 25th Good Deed, was our trusty back-marker for the evening, as we made our way the 1km to the bowling green.

As always, we paused at the top of the cycle path for a quick sprint, before heading to the green.

Leyla and the team were all very excited to see us, and Leyla gave us a quick tour of the progress before setting us our task. We had to dig a trench deep enough and long enough for the electricity cables to pass through. Someone wanted to charge them over £60 per meter to dig it, so we were glad we could help!

I actually thought we'd be planting stuff, so when I was giving my health and safety chat at the start I mentioned pick axes and then retracted it. Turns out we had two pick axes to work with!

We were joined by a few other bowling green volunteers, who helped us dig and clear leaves. Em turned out to be particularly great at the digging, clearing the deepest bit the fastest. Joe was on a roll, until he came across a hidden cable deep in the soil which meant we had to stop to avoid accidental electrocution. No GG fatalities yes.

It was soon time to pack up and head home. But not before tasting some of the most delicious oranges Leyla had brought us from the Turkish shop (via Spain), which we all very much enjoyed.

On the way back we stopped at the cycle path again for more sprints - this time with a focus on form. We were working on knee drive and power generation, getting the gang used to pushing off that back leg rather than reaching forwards with the front one. Everybody felt faster and bouncier and Cathy told me she actually felt like a gazelle, so I think the technique work has started to pay off.

We finished up with a quick conditioning circuit, before running back to base for stretches and high fives.

PS that photo of a bit of green in a pot is of my birthday strawberries growing!

8 runners ran 3.5km to help out two local organisations.

Last week’s snow felt like distant memory as we met in the now much warmer gym reception. We welcomed new runnner Rebecca and got down to the task briefing, an update on missions and the Goodgym social in Greenwich on 8th. After all the pre-amble it was time to do a warm-up outside.

Then we headed-off on a leaflet dropping detour for Crutch. Crutch is project that provides practical support for residents struggling to provide essentials for themselves and their families, such as food, clothing and shelter. Starting off from where we left off last week, the gang delivered flyers about their job fair around the neighbourhood.

2km later, it was time to divert towards Down Lane Park. We had been asked to come and help out in the garden at Cafe Connect. Upon arrival, we were directed to turning over some grass and soil make flower beds and smash up bricks to create drainage in big planters. Great tasks to keep everyone warm and work out those arms/

An serious arm workout

The brick smashing ended up being quite an intense job, so we had that job on rotation. Apparently it was great stress reliever. The last task was to collect compost from the allotment and spread it over the freshly smashed bricks.

Then is was time to down tools for a sip of orange juice and a group photo.

After the task, we had a quick fitness session in the park and then headed back via the cycle/ Strava sprint route where runners can run against their own previous times. Will it be a PB?

Once back at base we did much needed leg and arm warm down.

Happy running Haringey! It’s been fun.

PSB, OUT.