It was lovely to see faces old and new, from GoodGym Hounslow and beyond tonight for our Wednesday run.  We started off the night with some news:

• Congratulations to Matt who earned himself a new personal best half marathon time last weekend 

• Welcome to David who came along for his first group run tonight - great to meet you!

• Look out for the Fareshare, a food poverty charity, and GoodGym community missions like this one happening in Wimbledon which are happening all over London. 

After a warm up we asked what the first object we would rescue in a fire - answers ranged from photos, to paintings, to bottles of wine and, perhaps the best suggestion - a fire extinguisher. Makes sense!

We set off for our task of the night which was at Cultivate London. This brilliant urban farm and social enterprise in West London repurposes disused land and trains unemployed young people in landscaping and horticulture. So after a good run down there where we stopped for a just a few minutes to let a train pass and do some wall sits ("I love it when you humiliate us in public" - Remy) we arrived at the site.

There was a bit of a false start as we struggled to find the entrance of somewhere we'd been several dozen times before, but eventually we got in to find a genuinely enormous pile of plastic pots which we had been asked to sort. Auberon, who manages the site, had asked us to put them in correct sizes so that they could be used again.

After 25 minutes of sorting, one dodgy human chain and several hundred marginally different sized plant pots Lindsay declared time, and so after a photo op and a run back to base it was time to do some fitness.

We kicked off the session with a pacing exercise, before moving onto alternating laps of sprinting with conditioning. It was tough going but there was some great running and impressive form - great work.

Next week we're off to a new task at a school to help with various jobs, including shifting stones and some clearing. Hope to see you there. Until then, run happy!

It was party night in Hounslow yesterday as we celebrated three whole years of doing good and getting fitter.

In that time we have planted trees, painted scout huts, picked plastic along the river, learnt how to prune roses, shifted several tonnes of soil, dug flower beds, weeded (and weeded and weeded), delivered leaflets and litter picked. In some of our stranger tasks we have even transported bamboo across Chiswick, washed baptismal pools, cleaned murals and dug in the snow!

Over three years you amazing people have clocked up a whopping

1772 good deeds!

We've also run countless miles, entered races, finished first marathons, done many parks runs, got PBs over all the distances, and gone to the pub together a lot. Perhaps most importantly, we've made new friends.  Here's to the next three years and all we'll achieve at GoodGym Hounslow!

We started off the celebrations with sweets, party hats, balloons and congratulations to Andy and to Mikaela for a 5km and half marathon PB respectively. Brilliant running. 

After our birthday themed warm up, we discussed what we'd most like for our next birthday as a present. Some were more attainable than others, from chocolate and wine, to a brewery, time machine and summer.

Our task for the night was at a local school that are creating a green wall to protect the children from the air pollution which is a real problem in the area. So we set off at a good pace, and arrived after a few pit stops for tricep dips and squats, to find Kate, a member of the PTA, and headteacher Debra waiting for us.

We got straight to work weeding and clearing the borders ready for the trees, and got the job done in no time at all - next week we're back at the same place to plant the 25 hawthorns and spread wood chip. Sign up here to get involved.

After a run back to base it was time for a birthday party themed fitness session. We started off with Over and Under, which the aptly named Team Winner won, then moved onto Squat Squat Goose which saw some suspect moves, followed by Planking Lions (with a fantastic show of strength from Alan, Naveed and Alex), and finishing off with Stuck in the Mud.

Happy Birthday GoodGym Hounslow!

Another Wednesday night, another dose of doing good and getting fitter in Hounslow!

We kicked off the night with a round up of the news...

• Welcome to the group Mikaela, great to have you join us for your first GoodGym run!

• Nice work on a new marathon PB Remy

• Don't forget the GoodGym social tonight - from 6:30 at Tottenham Court Rd. It's a great chance to meet other GoodGymers, hear about all the great stuff that's been happening and have a good old knees up!

We headed outside to do a warm up where we really tested our coordination with a series of new moves, and then discussed our fave comfort foods, which included pasta, pizza, chocolate, crisps and beer. All the healthy stuff then!

Setting off on our 2km run to Cultivate London, an urban farm and social enterprise in West London which uses derelict land to train unemployed young people in landscaping and horticulture, we raced to beat that train crossing. We almost did it, and our reward was a series of wall squats and jumping jacks.

We arrived not long after to Auberon, the manager of Cultivate, waiting for us with two big jobs to do. The first was shifting compost into bags, and the group of eight got stuck in to that straight away. The second was pulling nails out of old planks so they could be repurposed into beautiful planters. This was a little more tricky as those blimming nails did not want to be parted from the planks, but with a little bit of practice and a lot of brute force the technique was soon perfected. Half way through the two groups swapped over so everybody could experience the joy of both jobs.

After 45 minutes of work we waved goodbye to Cultivate and headed back to Turnham Green where we did a six minute workout which really got our heart rates back up. Featuring jump squats, press ups and burpees, the session got progressively harder, but nobody gave up. Fantastic effort, team.

Next week we're off to Gunnersbury Park to help out with loads of jobs there. You can sign up here for another week of GoodGym fun. Until then, happy running!

Two tasks, they said. No problem, we said. LIttle did we know what was ahead of us...

But first....some news:

• Congratulations to everybody who did the Big Half on Sunday in some pretty blustery conditions. Shout out to Hounslow GGers Eloise, Matt, Andy and Jon for some excellent performances.

• We're putting on a community mission plus bootcamp this Sunday morning if anybody is up for it. It will be near Clapham Junction station and it will be fun! Sign up here if you're up for it.

Plastic fantastic and Treesy does it

We had two jobs to do last night, both - at the beginning of the night - sounding pretty straightforward. These were:

1. Doing a plastic pick up for the In the Drink charity organisation at Kew Bridge

2. Removing and sawing up a tree at a local school that had come down in the recent high winds.

So after a warm up and a quick chat about how we treat ourselves- new books, beer, all day in bed - we set off for our first stop. So far, so good. We arrived to find the tools we needed stored for us, identified the tree and a group got to work while the second lot ran down to Kew Bridge to do our plastic pick.

We soon arrived at the organisation, but as much as we looked, high and low, we could not find the litter pickers. Undeterred we donned our gloves and started combing the shoreline for plastic. Grim discoveries included a petrol canister, plastic sheeting, many plastic and glass bottles and more general rubbish which all made its way into our bags which we left for nice Mr Hounslow Council to pick up today. JOb done, we ran back to the school to see how the others were getting on.

Turns out we had left them with a Herculean task. The seemingly little tree that we had to chop up was actually pretty massive, and not at all keen on being moved. It took Matt, Eloise, Remy and Luis some serious sawing, hacking, pulling and persuasion to get the blighter out, but after huge efforts it came away in a moment of glory. After even more sawing and clearing the area we managed to move the beast back to the woodpile. Tree - 0, GoodGym 1.

Sadly that took up the time we needed for our fitness session - don't worry we'll make up for it next week - but we still managed to squeeze in some time to take our '50' photograph. It took a few takes, some creative discussion, and a lot of counting on fingers, but we got there. And I think the result is pretty good! Nice one team.

Next week we have a new task helping to reduce air pollution for kids by sorting out a green space. Sign up here. Until then, run happy, Hounslow.

Last night GoodGym Hounslow ran to Cultivate London, an amazing urban farm and social enterprise in West London which trains unemployed young people in landscaping and horticulture, to smash up a load of wood. It was a lot of fun. They also ran just under 4k, smashed through a speed session and some planking. Heroes!

The weekly news rundown

• Cultivate London is having its open day this weekend. While another mission has been set up to help set up, after 10am when the open day is happening, the team need help shifting four tonnes of soil and creating an area for the chickens (courtesy of Jamie!) which are arriving soon. Sign up here

• If you're up for the double on Saturday, you can then pop down the road to Acton to help City Harvest with a lorry load of their food deliveries which are destined for people in need. Sign up here to make a massive difference this weekend.

• Well done to all the parkrunners, and welcome back to some of the lovely faces we hadn't seen in a while!

Nailing it

After all that news, we popped outside to do our warm up, and to have the great savoury versus sweet debate. With a landslide majority the results are in, and it's savoury all the way. (With the obvious exception of Tatty's salted caramel brownies, obvs).

We set off at a good pace to head over to Cultivate London, using the level crossing as our conditioning break. Ten minutes later we arrived and got stuck straight into the denailing, smashing, hammering and sanding task. The idea was that all the old pallets that had been used by Cultivate London were being turned into useful stands and other pieces for their other nursery garden in Isleworth. This was a great task for getting rid of any residual aggression from the day...

After 40 minutes of hard work, we set off back to Turnham Green for our speed session. This involved a series of short sprints, but trying to keep as close to the time of our first one as possible. The times after four were really close, but it was the bonus fifth sprint that really saw everybody push it hard. Nice running team. All that was left was a final minute's plank of choice to round off the night nicely. Well done on some lovely running and and hard work at the task Hounslow!