Leaflet Drop For Sam Beare Hospice

On this cold freezing night 9 GG members met to deliver leaflets for Sam Beare Hospice.

A big welcome to Viktoriia who we met at the volunteer for Woking event while she was there representing another charity. Viktoriia also happened to be a friend of Agathe 😀

Wayne, Adam, Katie, Alys, Agathe, Kirsty, Nadia, & Rebecca met at Woking leisure center all wrapped up 🥶

It was great seeing Rebecca who walked over to collect some leaflets to deliver, not quite ready to run as of yet after her surgery but not long now 😀.

After a warm up session by Adam which Quinn also got involved in 🐶 we headed out of the park towards Mount Hermon to hit the houses there we split up into two groups one on each side 🏃🏻‍♂️ including the Cul-du-Sacs.

It was so cold even with gloves it was very difficult & Wayne & Adam had shorts on the nutters 😮

Unfortunately we did not manage to do as many roads of we had planned due to the weather, but GG members between them will take leaflets and deliver them locally throughout the week and will also be handing them out on the weekend park runs until they have all gone 😀.

There was not a Good Gym task scheduled for us to participate in today. James decided tonight was the perfect opportunity to run an interval training session for us to participate in instead.

Unfortunately, the majority of Woking Good Gym were unable to attend the session for a variety of reasons and we hope our team mates who are unwell feel much better very soon!

Nadia and Kirsty overcame the temptation to remain at home and joined the interval training session held at Woking Park. After carefully listening to Nadia's personal goal of achieving a 30-minute parkrun James expertly and quickly calculated the correct running pace and distance both girls needed to complete during the interval training session to prepare them towards being able to achieve a 30-minute parkrun.

The session started with an easy pace jog covering a 2km distance to warm up (a Junior parkrun 2 laps of Woking Park). Nadia and Kirsty both listened intently to James as he explained the science behind the training.

Now completely warmed up, the intrepid threesome began the interval session. The intervals consisted of running 30 repetitions of 150m at a 5 minute km pace with a 10-second period of recovery in between each interval. Nadia and Kirsty quickly became suspicious about whether the 10-second brief respite breaks given were actually 10-seconds, it seems they were but to the girls who were adjusting to running at a faster pace than usual it didn't feel like it!

Nadia quickly regretted wearing her waterproof jacket and knitted headband while Kirsty regretted encouraging Nadia to set herself the challenge of achieving a 30-minute park run as this formed the basis for the training James had planned for the session!

Nadia's stamina and mental strength impressed the group as she managed to complete all 30 of the intervals without extending any of the 10-second rest breaks.

When Nadia first joined Good Gym Woking she declared she was not a runner, well, as so often happens at Good Gym Woking, she most definitely is now!

Kirsty completed 26 repetitions having decided to extend several of her 10-second respite breaks.

James proved a very entertaining and informative run leader as he shared his knowledge of 'the science' behind the session he had planned.

This was nicely distracting and interesting for his rapt audience; James also instructed them in guided breathing techniques and insisted on seeing them run with high knees to maximise both their performance and endurance.

'We don't pant at Good Gym!'. He was incredibly supportive and encouraging throughout the session and when the session was complete the endorphins were flooding everyone's systems.

Both girls expressed their gratitude to James for giving up his time tonight to plan and lead a session designed to help them improve their fitness and confidence and felt surprised and proud of their runs which totalled approximately 8 km covered in less than 50 minutes.

At the end of the session, James who has a running shoe collection Imelda Marcus would envy encouraged the girls to purchase some new running shoes to set them up for hitting sub-30 minute parkruns at Battersea park run on the 7th of December.

He has shared his discount code with Good Gym Woking so be sure to check his top pick out!

Upcoming Good Gym opportunities for members to sign up to include a gardening task at the Church of St John the Baptist on Saturday, Junior parkrun volunteering on Sunday morning (and every Sunday morning), All Aboard Club for SEN children also on Sunday.

Leaflet dropping for Sam Beare Hospice on Wednesday 20 November.

Thank you to all the members of this community-led Good Gym for promoting and organising so many events in support of local causes.

Don't forget to sign up for the 'Run up to Christmas' campaign to raise funds for mental health charities.

Please be aware this campaign has a cost of £17 per entry, but you will have the choice of receiving a participant medal or donating the contribution to the charity. Be sure to check the session page frequently as it is constantly being updated thanks to so many people's efforts.

Winter time approaches, and it is not always possible to find tasks for the team. So this week, we decided to run for the fun of being together in the rain... Adam, Agathe, Alys, Kirsty, Nadia and Anne were joined by Rich, our honorary GoodGymer and photographer extraordinaire!

We had another very special guest: Rocket! Rocket may soon become our GG's mascot, he is so good at running with us. He makes weird noises (sorry, I do not speak dog language) to encourage us to be faster or to keep going up the hills. Thank you Rocket.

Unfortunately, Adam had to stop as his leg was starting to be painful. But instead of running the 7 kms to St John's Village and back, he went to the gym to exercise. We hope your leg gets better soon Adam.

Tonight's route was hilly at different stages, but we managed: it was good practice for Saturday's parkrun in Ottershaw or any other race coming up this month. The rain was appreciated by most of us: it felt cool and refreshing. Not that we want it every time we are out though...

Tomorrow some of us will take part in the event "Working Together For Woking" when we will promote all the benefits GoodGym brings to both the runners and the community. We will report back, no worries!

Will you be joining us on Sunday to support Woking junior parkrun?

In the meantime, happy running to you all.

Over 100 children took to Woking park this morning for their weekly run fix. Four GoodGym members were present to help out - Kirsty was a marshal, Alys barcode scanned & James and Adam were cheerleaders after a 5k run 📣

Congratulations to Kirsty who with today’s task has achieved her 50th good deed which she has been very keen to reach! She’ll now be able to get her black GG t-shirt. It was also Alys 90th task - 10 to go until she gets her wings! 🪽

We were still raising awareness of women’s safety on this Sunday morning - Alys made sure to wear her #ThisGirlCan t-shirt and we had a couple of great conversations about #LetsLiftTheCurfew.

Please note Junior parkrun is cancelled next week following the fireworks. Join us this coming Wednesday for another training run!