On a Christmasy mild night 7 GoodGymers ran 5km to help Rhythm of Life.

With Cory away being the voice of running reason somewhere Paul stepped in to lead the run. But with a group of strong and intelligent runners on hand what could go wrong?! Answer is nothing - it was a fantastic run and task:

Paul led a quick warm up where we learnt a little about dynamic stretches. The awesome marathon runner that is Rebekha MacLeary knew the best route to the task so to avoid all the crowds of Christmas shoppers. We bounced through the streets or Westminster and sprinted between sets of lights - there in no time at all - boom!

Upon arrival at the task we met the wonderful Andrew who explained the plan of action for the evening - we needed to carry, pile and sort over 50 bags of donated clothes for the homeless.

To explain Rhythms of Life is an amazing non-profit organisation that helps collect and distribute clothes for the homeless amongst other fantastic good deeds.

Once all the bags were in a beautiful pile Graham decided on the designated areas for where to pile the clothes - we had smallish trousers, biggish trousers, shirts, ties, coats, smallish suit jackets and biggish suit jackets. I have to say it was very well ordered - good work team! 40 minutes of hard work done - boom!

After a dress up photo we were thanked by Andrew for all this years hard work. Upon leaving the centre we felt humbled, good and ready to run in the surprisingly mild weather.

We glided home through the late night shoppers, with Matthias in particular showing his skills of dodging pedestrians. Once back at the start point we stretched and gave our answers to the big question of the night - What's your favourite Christmas food? Answers include: mince pies, roasted chestnuts, pigs in blanket, festive soup(?), tamales (a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa, which is steamed in a corn husk) andddddd pigs in blanket again.

Cory and GoodGym Westminster will be back on Wednesday 6th January.

Merry Christmas!

PB

Meanwhile in Westminster 8 speedy souls took themselves along to St Andrews Youth Centre in Pimlico for their monthly REFRESH.

Now for some strange reason we were quite low on numbers this week but everyone who came was a little be nippier than they make out to be when there are more of us.

So what did we do? We absolutely hammered it there and then absolutely hammered it back.

A quick briefing on health and safety, a debate on our beliefs when it comes to the number of dying languages around the world and finally a discussion on how fast these brave souls actually wanted to run.

We headed out the door and as if by magic 14 mins later we arrived.

We were greeted by our host Adrian who told those who hadn't been to St Andrews before all about the history of the club which is the oldest in the UK if not the world. We smiled and set about the task, a task that normally takes 30mins i challenged them to get it done in 15mins.

As time ticked on with 3 minutes remaining we had finished. Allllllllll the gym equipment was shiny, sparkly and new. Adrian did a few checks and he agreed. We laughed he applauded, we thanked him, he smile we left.

13.5 mins later we were back at our base. Eyes bright everyone breathing as if it was there last breath BUT everyone smiling, happy that this evening instead of doing sprints and ridiculous drills, we sprinted there and sprinted back.

What at awesome evening, hopefully we will see you next week for our last GoodGym of the year.

I won't make a song and dance of it, but the truth must be told. The Christmas lights of Oxford street were a sight to behold!

With Christmas just 8 weeks away, GoodGym Westminster braved the hoards of central London shoppers to become, Jesus Christ Superstars for fantastic cause - Rhythms of Life.

At 6.30pm on the dot, the team took to the streets to weave the wiggly route towards Covent Gardens the current home of our old familiar friends - Rhythms of life. A fantastic charity that provides a variety of support for homeless people in the borough.
Unbeknown to GG Westminster, this site was also once the working home of one and only Andrew Lloyd Webber, king of west end music theatre

With the task at hand this week to sort and organise clothing donations, all eyes were peeled for technicoloured dreamcoat or two!

Not to be outdone, our very own Andrew met us at the door with water, coconut water and grapes... Very posh. We were promised wine but perhaps we were meant to crush the grapes ourselves?

Getting straight to work the room suddenly filled with a ton of yellow bags stuffed full of clobber to be sorted into items. The crew dived head first in... Literally....thanks for that Callum haaaaaa and setting an example I put my: >"best foot forward" - The foot attached to the yellow stocking clad prosthetic leg I found of course.

Folding and stacking the team had the task licked in no time at all and with just enough time for some good old GG photo posing, we were off once more into the streets. But before the run back, a bit of fun on the street outside.

Accompanied by the drumming Rhythms of the cast of STOMP rehearsing next door, we joined in with our own fancy footwork:

*Toe taps *Calf raises * Squats *Curb jumps *Step ups

With the final curtain close, we wished a happy farewell to the team and set off. Hot footing it back into the night, we met it head on, with one last challenge to close. Street sprints and tempos all the way back to Regents Street and the finale was complete.

Until next time xxxx Ellie signing out!

Meanwhile in Westminster 13 of the most hardcore GoodGymers headed through the dark dark parks to get to the canal and the surrounding areas. Why? To give them our monthly clean, to rid the path of leaves that both the young and old may find hazardous whilst wondering around in the rain.

Tonight was advertised as a taster session and in true goodgym fashion we had lots of newbies. To my surprise yet again we just had ladies. I'm not complaining but gents you are giving us a bad name, do you not fancy doing Good anymore? lol

Now sadly winter is upon which means we will only have a few more weeks until we have to stop running through Regents Park, instead we will have to run around the perimeter which may or may not add a sneaky K or 2 to our journey.

Anyhow we just about managed it this week, just as the doors were closing we smiled at the Security guard and bolted through the gate.

A quick game of follow the leader leader and indian file we arrived at the canal, a quick blast picking up all that lovely trash that people had dumped as well as leaves that were wet and nicely ground into the concrete, perfect slipping material for runners and cyclists.

15minutes passed and area was spotless, we then headed further up the toe path where the wind had blown all the leaves. Now even though this area was not in the list we felt it our duty to clear it as well as all we could think about was someone slipping and hurting themselves. Another 10minutes and we were off.

3k hard back to base, some stretching, smiles, lots of high fives and definitely some GoodGym Converts for life.

Thanks for coming, see you all next week

Meanwhile in Westminster we headed back to Rhythms of Life to continue helping them clean, clear, lift and shift in preparation for their upcoming fund raising event.

Rumour had it congestion on the tube was causing delays for commuters. SO our GoodGymers ran to us to avoid getting caught up in all that, I mean seriously who would risk missing a Wednesday night?

We discussed the inner workings, the tasks, the pairing, racing and of course our ability to make things happen on a weekend and we were our the door.

A 1 mile jog to Rhythms of Life where we would sweep and mop the giant room where Andrew planned to hold the fund raiser, luckily the mouse didn't make a VIP Appearance.

Whilst one group attacked the wild overgrown bushes and weeds another dismantled gazebos that had clearly been left out to suffer alone in the rain.

With 30 minutes on the clock we made light work of this beautiful manual labour and were out the door in 28min.

On departure I asked two simple questions, do you want the long hard way back? Or the short and fast?

So from each traffic light to the next we picked a hare and we chased that hare as if they were carrying special nutrients needed to get back safely.

Great session, just remember DOMS will more than likely come on day 2 :-)