18 people ran 7k to do a litter pick on the canal

Tonight it was great to Welcome Jane from the Birmingham Mail to GoodGym Brum. Jane is going to do a 'feature' on the group so it was great to have her with us.

Back and front markers were sorted on a rather mild evening for November and we were on our way to the canal. The group split up into four smaller groups, each picking litter on a small section of the canal. It was quite a busy task tonight as there was quite a bit of litter knocking about. Once done all the groups made their way to the Aston Lock to dump their bags off, Sam and George running there with their sacks! The group had five full sacks in total, top work!

The first GG Brum time trial!

Once that was done we carried on with the run until we reached Millennium point. Once we got there it was time for the the first ever GG Birmingham time trial! The distance was 1 mile or 1.6k. It involved three and a half laps around the Millennium Point garden. What a great workout it was! Everyone worked incredibly hard! It was fantastic to see as I called out the finishing times! Aaron was first over the line just missing out on a sub 6 min clocking finishing in 6.03, he was followed shortly by Julien and John, Dionne put in a great performance finishing first of the women. I've named just a few but the whole group were magnificent everyone posting great times inside 9 minutes! Top stuff! Hopefully when we do it again in January the Christmas 'cheer' won't have taken its toll too much and the group can go even quicker ;-)

Once the time trial was done there was time for a quick group piccy with the big wheel in the background and we were on our way again, back to 1000 Trades.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

18 people ran 5k to do a litter pick on the canal

We met in our usual spot in 1000 Trades, the lights suitably dimmed to give us a slight Halloween feel. We had four GG Newbie’s which we were delighted to welcome, they were Sally, David, Julien and Lola. Please give them a cheer. Once we found our litter picking equipment, (maybe a ghost or ghoul had moved it!!) we went down to the aptly dark and rather spooky canal to do our litter pick. Once on the canal we split up into four groups, each group clearing a different section of the canal towpath.

HIIT

We all met up with our bags at Aston Lock, were Ken did a great job of taking the group selfie. Once all that was done we headed back. We stopped under Snow Hill Station where there is a little more light to do some high intensity work. It started with press ups on the lock gate, followed by a sprint to the steps, then a sprint back to the lock gate were the grouped smashed out some reverse dips, giving those triceps a good pasting! Top work by Aaron and Dionne with those dips. This was then followed by some high knees running, squat jumps, straight leg kicks and tuck jumps. Everyone doing a great job. Ken showed great form with the squat jumps. Annie got the knees right up in the tuck jumps and Paige put in some great work with the straight leg kicks.

A staggered wall squat?!

The final part of the session was the whole group getting into a line to do a wall squat, with the person at the far left having the least time to hold the wall squat and then the person at the far right having the most amount of ‘wall squat holding to do’. When I in turn told each person to ‘go’ they then had to do one last sprint to the stairs! Most of the group understandably looked like they were running through quicksand after that, as even the first in line had to hold for 30 seconds before they sprinted. Well done to Garry and Sam (the last two) who held the wall squat for 2 mins 35 seconds and 2 mins 45 seconds respectively and yes you both definately looked like you had pooped yourselves when you did your sprints!!!

So that was that, the group then had a steady run back to base, well done to everyone, you all deserve a few Halloween treats after that!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.