Our original task fell through tonight due to a breakdown in communication at the task owner's end. So instead of delivering flyers we had a last minute change to litter picking around our base.

We kept the litter pick to a concise area around the Waterfront building bordering the river This meant, with a small group, we could be thorough in a short space of time - leaving more time for a smorgasbord run, incorporating a variety training elements - I like to think there was something for every taste!

With the litter picked - we set off at a gentle warm up pace, adding a few drills before taking on a pyramid interval session 30 secs/ 60 secs/ 90 secs/ 120 secs /120 secs / 90 secs/ 60 secs/ 30 secs (all with 30 secs recovery). We then continued on our way at an easy pace until arriving at Bishops Hill.

Here the challenge was 3 x hill repeats (about 200m each) with downhill recoveries - this was everybody's favourite! And how they all cheered on discovering our route was to continue back up the hill they thought they'd just ran up for the last time. We looped round to head downhill on Cliff Lane taking in a small part of the Great East Run route back towards the Waterfront.

Once back on the flat next to river a final fartlek session came into play, with hard efforts and easy recoveries. The whole run was almost 5 miles with a good portion being done at fast pace intervals or up hill - Fabulous effort from everyone!

*More photos to be added .

A beautiful autumnal evening and Colchester Trainer, Angela, visited to lead the run whilst Ian "Ironman" Duggan enjoyed his post-race gin!

We had a lovely run to Brickmakers wood to help Rob with his task of creating firewood. There was a huge pile of London Plane branches that needed to be cut up or sawed up to create firewood. The seeds from the tree are also used for kindling for fires, so its a wonderful way of using the waste from the woodlands that are cleared by this charity.

Everyone got stuck in, and in no time the wood was cleared. What took us a little under 30 minutes would have taken Rob a whole day, so we all felt super proud. We took some photos, then said some goodbyes before making our way back to the Quays for our fitness session.

A quick circuit made sure we were thoroughly exercised before we sauntered back home, basking in the glory of a job well done.

A cool evening made it feel like Autumn tonight. With a slight chill in the air as the sun went down, long sleeve base layers came out for the first timein a while!

Claire joined us for her first Group Run and we celebrated the achievements of all those who ran and volunteered at the very soggy, but never the less, tremendous Felixstowe Coastal 10 miler on Sunday

Our task was delivering flyers on behalf of Age UK to promote their new shop on Prince of Wales Drive. The request was to post the leaflets in roads surrounding the new shop, so the run had a couple of challenging hills to get to our start point. I'd collect the flyers earlier that afternoon so we could begin posting as soon as we hit the outer edge of the delivery target area.

Once we got to the start point the idea was to split into groups covering opposite sides of the road and to "leap frog" the people in front. We set off and posting leaflets became a competitive sport, with our Goodgym runners charging along pavements , drives and gardens, racing to get to the next available letter box.

The geography of the area wasn't well known to many of us so google maps became essential as we plotted a course round the estates and developed a strategy to cover as many roads as possible. This worked well for the most part though there may have been 1 or 2 houses that received more than one leaflet!

We made our way across the estate to come out the other side onto Belstead Road. With a few hundred flyers nestling in letterboxes across Maidehall, we enjoyed the downhill run back to the Waterfront

Next week we're heading to one our long standing winter venues - Castle Hill Community - it will be one of our longer runs at just over 5 miles round trip - Find out all the info and sign up HERE

We started the evening by giving big congratulations to our Goodgym regular buddies - Lesley, Daniela and Nicola - who all ran the GNR on Sunday. Also to Kerry who PB'ed at the Langham 10k on the same day - Tremendous work!

Tonight's task had a last minute change of venue. We had originally been asked by Danny at Activ Gardens to go to Chantry Park Walled Garden but he had a big job he needed help with at The People's Community Garden - so we headed out along Wherstead Road enjoying a small portion of the Great East Run route prior to the event this Sunday.

On arrival we found Danny and Trevor already hard at work cutting back the hedge that extended right along the boundary road of the PCG. Our task was to help clear the debris, and remove weeds on the path below the hedge. Another job was to trim a willow tunnel inside the garden.

This was going to be a big job! Immediately we all set to work grabbing gloves and wheel barrows to transport the excess to the compost heap. It soon turned into a series of wheel barrow races with Andrew setting the pace running with his fully loaded barrow along the boundary road.

It needed all hands on deck digging out weeds, loading the barrows and brushing the footpaths clear - I didn't even have time to take many photos.

This was probably the most physical task we've done as a group - and due to the scale of the job we extended the time so we could get as much done as possible.

As darkness descended we had managed to make a huge impact, but had to leave Danny and Trevor to finish off the final sweeping. With the task being pretty full on and time marching on, we skipped the fitness element for tonight and head back to base at a steady run pace.

Really great work from everyone tonight!

We were back out litter picking along the river again on behalf of Rivercare tonight but covering a different area of the river path to last week. Although the location is close to our meeting point, I didn't really want us to run while carrying litter picking sticks (even if it does feel like being some kind of special forces squadron running with rifles!).

This took some strategic planning and and an pre Goodgym run on my behalf - parking a car with all the litter picking equipment close to the area we would be covering, and then running back to our meeting point. I have to say I was rather pleased how well it worked.

After our usual meet and greet and a warm up to challenge balance and core stability we set off for the first stage of the run looping round and back onto the waterfront, passing the bank holiday diners and drinkers in the various establishments on our way. With just over a mile done we arrived at the strategic rendezvous point (my car). Litter picking sticks and bags were dealt out from the boot - it must have looked bizarre to any onlookers..... A group of people dressed predominantly in red shirts come running into a car park, crowd round the boot of a car and come away with black bags and what looks like a toy gun!

So with all the necessary tools we set off along the river path, dividing into two groups at the half way point. One group began retracing our steps while the other moved further along to the bridge before turning back.

Last week we were surprised at how little rubbish there was in the the more populated area of the Waterfront. This week there was no surprise as this stretch of the river bank had a few hot spots that were heaving with debris mainly drinks bottles and cans and fast food wrappings. There were a few unusal finds too - disposable nappies and some rather fetching underwear!

Needless to say we filled several black sacks and struggled to find bins for all of it. Although sad to see the amount of rubbish people had discarded, it felt like we had done a worthwhile task in removing it and preventing it from ending up in the river.

A quick re-vist to the car park to drop off the litter picking equipment back to the car and we headed off for stage two of our run taking in parts of the Ipswich Twilight 10k course - around Portman Road and through the town centre. Tom commented that I was taking a few short cuts and wasn't sure my time from the race could be legitimate give the route I was following!

The evening ended with a short but fairly intense circuit based on leg strength endurance, before we departed and I went off to retrieve my car from the dodgy car park.

Don't forget next week is Goodgym Ipswich's first year anniversary and we'll be going to Issac's after the task for a little birthday celebration - everyone is welcome to come along. You can see more info and sign up for the Group Run - Here

We had a little change from the norm this evening. Usually we run to a venue, do a task then run back. Tonight the task was literally right outside the door of our meeting point, so we did the task then went for a run.

We had two "newbies" making their Goodgym debut - Julie and Sinead - hope you enjoyed your first Goodgym experience.

The task was for Rivercare - litter picking along a section of the waterfront aiming to prevent rubbish getting into the water. We walked to the furthest point away and then made our way back collecting litter on the way. It was surprisingly litter free - something perhaps to do with the Maratime Festival that had taken place over the weekend and the major clear up that followed!

However, armed with litter pickers, we still managed to collect a number of bags and remove the risk of it ending up in the river. During the task we were approached by a couple of people asking how they could volunteer to litter pick the area on a regular basis - great to see this!

We also met Jason Alexander who was passing and saw our efforts - Jason is the founder of Rubbish Walks a brilliant project with a very simple idea - Go for a walk and pick up a bit of litter along the way. Jason also recently organised the Beach Clean Marathon - Walking 12 Suffolk beaches in 6 days collecting plastic waste and other beach litter. Chatting with Jason there may be opportunities for us to link up in future.

With the litter pick done we set off for our run with the warning that it was going to be a hilly ride! The route took us up Bishops Hill - one of Ipswich's more challenging slopes - into Holywells Park (to take in part of the forthcoming Great East Run course (only 4 weeks to go!). Holywells Park is also quite "slopey" but the exit onto Cliff Lane provided a welcome downhill section before re-entering the park for a section of trail running. Then back towards the Waterfront where we split into teams, forming 2 trains for a little "back to front" sprint training.

Hills and sprints - what's not to like!!