Yesterday a team of excellent Wandsworth runners made it all the way through Monday, and celebrated by meeting up to go on a lovely run together. It must have been some kind of record last night, with a bonus number of gorgeous new faces. Let’s give a huge GoodGym welcome to Clare, Hannah, Jasmine, James, Abbie, Kate and Helen.

Well done to Matthew and to Jasmine who both crushed Park Runs in Fulham Palace and Exeter respectively, and a big good luck to [David] who is running the Edinburgh marathon in a couple of weeks. We were thinking of our Wandsworth-on-Tour runners who were away in Riga smashing the 10k and half marathon races there, way to go team flying squirrels! Hat tip to Jo who is topping the distance tables and to Alyx and David, who are making their borough better by doing the most good deeds. Lovely bit of business.

Don’t forget we have a Wandsworth Whatsapp group which everybody is welcome to join – just let me know – a Facebook and Twitter page, and a Spotify account which we usually listen to on our runs, except that somebody forgot to switch it on last night (me). There is also a mission this Saturday in Tooting, for which you don’t have to have had your documents checked. It’s for our lovely friends at the Work and Play Scrapstore, and it starts at 9:30 so you could even fit in a Tooting Park Run beforehand! Check it out.

With our welcome done and dusted we took ourselves outside for a spot of warming up. We did a quick head count, and to get to know each other a bit better we drilled down right to the important stuff – our favourite type of crisp. The results were eclectic, to say the least, and there was no outright favourite – but Thai sweet chilli Sensations and Salt n Vinegar were named more than once, with guacamole and salsa getting honourable mentions as crisp companions. There were a few left fielders which set our bellies rumbling, including Space Invaders, Discos, Squares and Monster Munch. No Frazzles, Skips or Salt N Shake though. Interesting.

With this crucial poll taken, we set off to do some good things for our community. Tonight we were going to Eden Community Garden, a beautiful outdoor space for everybody to enjoy that we have helped at before. Eden’s objective is to provide a ‘green, tranquil, inner city space; a pleasant place for all to sit, play or garden. Its aim is to create and maintain a sustainable habitat for wildlife and promote bio-diversity by planting British native species and through organic gardening’, which we are right on board with. We were treated to a light shower (ahem) of rain on the way, which only sped up the pace, and arrived damply at the gorgeous garden to be greeted by Benny, the head gardener, Philippa, who runs the project, and the churchyard cat, who we named Jim (or Gym).

There were plenty of jobs to be getting on with, including moving a big pile of wood to the churchyard for a bonfire, weeding the ancient graveyard (which was full of the final resting places of Roundhead soldiers killed in the Civil War battle for Battersea Marshes), forking beds (sorry David and Daniel, I didn’t really get to grips with what you were doing, but it looked like hard work), clearing areas, and turning over compost. Team Compost did not find anything too alive in their bins, although Philippa did tell us that one year when they had a bumper load of snails that they cooked them and ate them with garlic and butter. True story.

With the jobs done, we said goodbye to Eden Community Garden (we’ll be back soon!) and shot off to the common to do our fitness session. We got our blood pumping with a quick game of Clusters, and then hit the hard stuff. Intervals! Everybody’s favourite. We alternated a minute of hard running with a recovery, making sure that we really made a change in pace. This kind of training is hard work, but brilliant for you, and as well as improving speed and strength, is great for developing aerobic capacity and burning fat. Great work. It was a short jog for recovery back to the BAC, where we cooled down with a few stretches, and as usual, rounded off the evening nicely with a medicinal drink or two. Same again next week? Yes please! You can sign up here.

Ps don’t forget to get me your elements for the Wandsworth flag!

Wandsworth was on top form last night, spurred on at least in part with a task that featured JELLY BABIES and JAFFA CAKES.

But first, we had some fabulous new runners to welcome to the group – hello Chloe, Anna and Lorna! Wandsworth, give them a cheer.

Well done to Jo who sliced a tidy 30 seconds off her time on her third ever park run, and to Matthew and David who both reached that golden 50 milestone. Well done team! Hat tips also belong to Matthew Sarah and Sophie for covering the most miles this week.

Tonight’s task was a great new one at Allfarthing Primary School, and in a Wandsworth first, we even had the lovely head, Tom (ahem Mr Holmes) join us on the run to the school. It was great to have you along, sir! After Tom had told us a bit about the school, and we had done our weekly CoRUNdrum (Which seaside resort is closest to London?) we set off. With only one minor detour and a few squat stops, we arrived at the school to find the amazing PTA waiting for us with sweeties, chocolates and jaffa cakes. If we didn’t say it enough at the time, Allfarthing School, we are always happy to help out. Anytime. Seriously, just say the word.

The team split up into three groups – painting sheds in black and brown, clearing the fence of ivy, and running up and down stairs to transport bags to the bins. We were kept very well fuelled throughout the tasks – turns out a sugary high is great for our work ethic. It was a lovely place to help out, surrounded by beautiful playgrounds, a teletubby hill and a vast expanse of astroturf which we were allowed to borrow to do a quick fitness session. This included doing a Core Triathlon – three segments of ‘swimming’ planks, bicycle crunches and mountain climbers – followed by a set of sprints. Before we left for the run home, the PTA let us know that every Tuesday morning at 7:45 Allfarthing Running Club meets to take students on a local run, and very kindly invited us to join them. Drop me an email if you’d like more details.

With the Wandsworth playlist turned up high, we began the run back to the BAC. Feel free to add any songs to the list for our aural pleasure – you can find it here: https://open.spotify.com/user/monsieurbullfrog/playlist/1vkh31Mku1qkU3nPYkJLRm. After a nice push on that last hill, we had a good stretch with several people cracking the CoRUNdrum, knowing that Southend on Sea is the closest resort to London. Thanks to Vicki who sent us that one all the way from Oz! Thanks also to Jen for the ace pun this week. Keep 'em coming! Don’t forget if the London Marathon inspired you yesterday that the ballot opens on May 2nd – get in there quick. We have the GoodGym Olympics on June 10th – entry is now live so make sure you sign up here!. Wandsworth FTW!

Next week is bank holiday but we will be running because doing good don’t stop. Of course we’ll celebrate with a couple of drinks afterwards, as all work and no play makes for sad Wandsworthians. You can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/a-spot-of-doing-good

10 Goodgym heroes ventured out on a cold and windy Yorkshire evening to move some fertilizer at Heeley City Farm. Running 5K in total.

Our task was very straight forward and Julie from the farm did a great job in providing us the right tools for the job. Following a brief at the hotel, we gently ran to the task and had a nice chat along the way. The group stayed together as the roads heading South are very busy indeed

Don't be shy. Dig in

Once we had arrived at the farm and dealt out the tools we proceeded to fill a trailer with the mulch kindly donated by the animals. Despite Tim wearing his brand new running shoes, he wasted no time in conquering the mountain in front of him. This task was especially important as the area where the manure is stored is getting really full. The trailer full we moved is to be spread on a remote garden area this week.

Cardio, strength, power

We then moved on to our fitness segment. We started with some hill repeats at an easy pace to wake the muscles up. Once properly warmed up we introduced some speed , working for 30 seconds. Rest. 1 minute. Rest. We then moved on to strength and conditioning followed by explosive power exercises.

Back to base

Once we were suitably worked we took a 10 minute cool down/aerobic run back to GoodGym Sheffield HQ where we stretched and discussed forthcoming tasks.

Next week we are at Sharrow School to do some painting - please wear clothes that you don't mind getting paint on. Sign up here

On Saturday we are holding an extra session where we will be digging an allotment. Everyone is welcome. More info here

GoodGym Sheffield is funded by Age Better in Sheffield in association with South Yorkshire Housing Association and the Big Lottery fund. Find out about the project here and sign up to visit an older person with GoodGym and end social isolation in Sheffield here