We love having new people join our group so tonight we were very happy to welcome Steffania along for her first Goodgym group run.

In other news the PB klaxon was sounded for Roy and Tabitha for their parkruns at our monthly meet up at Hove Park on Saturday. Well done to both! Roy is also on the core team for the recently launched juniors parkrun at Hove Park on a Sunday morning so if you find yourself with a free Sunday morning pop down and lend a hand as I’m sure they are always looking for volunteers.

Just a short run to our task where we were met by the lovely, welcoming and super enthusiastic Jo from the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership who do so much to promote healthy, sustainable eating practices in the city. And one of the ways they do this is to run free courses at their community kitchen for people with dementia, low incomes, learning disabilities and mental health issues.

Our task tonight was cleaning the top of the extractor hoods, the ovens and the outside windows which we achieved in no time at all leaving plenty of time for Jo to tell us about the paid courses they offer to support their community work. You can learn to cook (and eat) delicious Moroccan , Indian or Thai food or learn about fermentation or heritage wheats all for the price of a good night out. Now that’s my idea of a good night out!!

With a short run and a short task that left plenty of time for a big fitness session so we headed to the i-360 to focus on our knee drive. First we did some drills where we drove our knees upwards in a stationary position imagining we might be kneeing someone we’re not too keen on in the whatnots! We then progressed the drill to include a backward arm drive at the same time, thus simultaneously kneeing Trump in the whatnots and elbowing Boris Johnson in the sternum.

(The political views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the membership of, or the organisation of good gym although I wasn’t hearing a whole lot of disagreement at the time! Goodgym in no way endorses violence to any person of any political persuasion even if they are power hungry, egomaniacs intent on destroying the world as we know it!)

We then put our knee drive into practice on some short, sharp hill sprints and lo and behold you were all transformed into speedy, running pros. Amazing!!

See you next week for some running and do gooding in the Hanover area with Cllr David Gibson.

Tonight we welcomed Lucy for her goodgym debut - great to have you on board, Lucy! We also congratulated Roy and Tara on their Bright10 pb's on the weekend. And yes, Rachael - it's a 10 mile race, not 10k, so the applause for our times was well deserved :-)

Ten of us then headed for the task that keeps on giving: yes we paid another visit to One Church to paint the railings! They really don't look like much but these things sure have kept us busy over the past year. We are finally on to painting the top coat a lovely shade of, well, black. Another couple of visits and we will probably be done!

Tonight was also a #RunandTalk event where goodgym acknowledges the link between running and good mental health, and there was plenty of good chat as we worked on our brush strokes.

Once we had cleared up and doused ourselves in white spirit, it was time for a bit more running. Interval training was the name of the game as we ran 4 even-paced laps, with a short rest after each lap. Our track tonight was the area just north of the pavilion - it probably has a name, but I've only lived here for 20 years, so how would i know? The good news is this area is soon to be redeveloped and should become much more accessible to pedestrians (and runners!) and a lot less like a traffic island.

After rounding off with a few minutes of HIIT, we headed for our monthly social - this time to the Black Lion, where we learned about Morris dancing, the origin of bulldogs, and floated the idea of a goodgym Christmas karaoke social in early December. If we do it, we should only be allowed to sing running themed songs, and I'm going for Flock of Seagulls "I Ran (So Far Away)", which I expect only Tara can remember.

Finally, don't forget it's our monthly parkrun meetup at Hove Park this Saturday: 9.00 start, near the cafe...and if anyone is interested in occasionally volunteering at the new junior parkrun (Sundays, 9.00, Hove Park), please get in touch with Roy!

(I do indeed remember it well! Here's a clip for anyone under 45!!, Tara) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=a+flock+of+seagulls+i+ran

On a mild October evening we warmly welcomed Kate for her first Goodgym group run and, as our normal PB & racing machines hadn’t delivered this week, we congratulated Andrew’s wife on completing couch to 5k!

We started our run on a warm, dusky night but by the time we started the task the light had faded and for the first time this year we used the fantastic ‘bat lights’ to light our work. Our task this week was to help resident Tomm look after the gardens surrounding Somerset Point, the council run seniors accommodation. Our tasks included weeding the beds and edges, cutting back the dead wood off a fuchsia and generally keeping things in order.

Way back in mid August when we enjoyed our previous visit to Somerset Point poor Laura didn’t complete her trip to Somerset due to …well an unfortunate trip which diverted her to A & E with a broken wrist. On this occasion Laura’s trip was much more successful as despite tripping up the step on the way in, she landed safely and was able to complete our task. Hurrah!

Tools safely returned to Tomm’s tidy garden shed we set off to tonight’s outdoor gym at the terraces near the pier. Working in pairs, with one running an amended course due to works on our usual steps, and the other busting some fitness moves we worked hard and got ourselves a little bit fitter than we were before.

Back to base for a quick stretch and see you all next week when we are back at the One Church railings and will be having our monthly social after.

An autumnal chill was in the air as we gathered for our group run to visit Hanover & Elm Grove ward and help Cllr David Gibson and local residents keep their neighbourhood looking ship shape.

But first we congratulated Michael for returning to his PBing ways at Hove Prom parkrun on Saturday alongside Sherman who is also hitting peak condition and getting some great results. And well done to Helena (and me!) who had a great time at the SEAA relays and finished 12th team against some tough regional competition.

We did something a bit different in our warm up tonight because I think this heel to toe, to squat to camel to squat combo is a great move to keep those running joints flexible and if you want to try some more of these at home check it out HERE.

A short run to The Phoenix centre to meet David and local residents where we split into two groups.

Su b group leader Helena writes...."A breakaway group of four decided to tackle Albion Hill to do some gardening work for residents of West Mount. Frannie and Roy planted some bulbs to brighten up the front while aura and Helena cleared a section of the back garden with Jane the task owner. Three large bags of green waste and a large amount of bulbs planted, the group headed back down to th Level to meet the rest of the amazing group."

The rest of us got stuck in to some serious cutting back of unwanted vegetation in order to create a community garden with Tabitha & Damian turning lumberjack and chopping down a whole, half dead tree! Timberrrrrr!!!!!

Meanwhile Nipun, Paul & Carol painted over some wall scribbling that had reappeared after our last massive effort to remove it a few weeks ago. It was great to get a ‘thank you’ from a local resident passing by who was grateful for our efforts to keep this little corridor of Brighton looking smart & graffiti free.

Tasks complete we headed to the Level for an interval running session with the aim of running round the Level at a faster than usual pace, but one that you could repeat 3 or 4 times after a minute or two’s rest to get your breath back! And you all did do your Level best and produced some great times and some great consistency of effort!

The run back to base was spent brainstorming “level’ puns, where I got educated on the transformation of Neville ‘Level ‘ Longbottom (I googled him, extraordinary!!) by Damian and Helena before Tabitha came up with our Level Best!

Keep running til I see you next week!

This evening’s run kicked off with belated congratulations to Helena for earning her ‘wings’ and completing her 100th good deed with Good Gym last week! Congratulations Helena! We also congratulated Nipun for completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge over the weekend and welcomed Phil for his first Good Gym run before getting stuck into some running form training. Remember folks, its shoulders back and down, hips up, and a slight lean forward!

With perfect posture, we then ran over to the Salvation Army in central Brighton to do some much needed weeding and garden work, and survey how the grounds have fared since our last visit in September of 2017. Lin very kindly supplied us with gardening tools and told us about the good work happening in this Brighton community hub which runs a café, charity shop, church and choir, and provides vital services for Brighton’s growing population of homeless. Once a week, the centre offers them a wholesome meal, and the opportunity to have a shower and find community in a safe and comfortable space.

Taking up our tools, we set to work in the garden rooting up all manner of unwelcome foliage including bramble, dandelion and that most notorious of garden menaces, bind weed. And while we can all agree that these latter three are generally disagreeable garden trespassers, it became clear through this task that sometimes, one runner’s weed is another runner’s charming garden treasure! Indeed, this garden played host to some rather random shoots of mint and small flowering weeds (which we mostly left in place), and even a miniature patch of cheeky potatoes (which we dug up). However these taters came to be in this ornamental garden, perhaps they’ll find their way into next week’s meal!

Speaking of garden treasure, Laura uncovered a bit of plunder herself: a fifty pound note……. of play money. Rather than taking our chances with this dubious currency at the pub, we decided, in true Good Gym spirt, that we were better off heading to the Level for a gruelling Tabata session focused on core work (great for your posture apparently) and some explosive jumping. Because what Tuesday night would be complete without some explosive jumping?!

Fit as fiddles after this session, we headed back to base for a leisurely stretch and well wishes until next time. See you next Tuesday!

And a massive thank you to Tabitha for writing this week's run report!