Exuberant exhibition of people power over in Canning Town yesterday, where twenty folks logged some social miles and commenced the early stage of a shipping container refurb.

We had the pleasure of welcoming Rebecca for her first ever sesh (great to have you) and normalcy hath returned as Queen Bee Alice returned to her hive. Normal ramblings ensued, with a doth of the cap here and clapping there. Few Parkrunners out doing there thing last weekend, from Mile End to Wanstead to Hackney, spreading the aerobic effort all over the manor.

Random Weekly Question this week "what makes you feel young?" Not having kids, playgrounds, milkshakes, shaving off your rugged kiwi beard, partying, getting ID'd, running downhill, playing with nephew/niece, being the bambino in the family, christmas stockings, jumping into the waves and bouncy castles to name a few. I thoroughly enjoyed these answers - age, just in the head, glad we got that sorted that.

Two miles later we were getting straight into a new task at Cody Dock. Sanding off old paint in their new office, a forty foot shipping container. Tunes boomed, energy flowed, elbows pumped. T'was a thing of beauty. A task that was designed for a GGN flash mob. The results were epic, 35mins and you guys basically did the whole darn thing.

Next week it's a longer one, coming in at 9k, helping out at Newham Hospital. Sign up here

Then, on the 1st Feb, we've got a delightful morning of variation. Kicking off with Parkrun at Hackney Marshes (sign up here), then a 5min walk to a (starter) task at the playground (sign up here), concluding with Breakfast Club debrief. It turns out, yes, you can have it ALL. Get involved.

That's enough from me - have a cracking weekend. Burns Night folks dance the night away, pictorial updates always welcome.

Till next week

B

Kicking off 2020 twenty two strong. Pleasure to be back gliding down the canals and taking a little bit of individual come social action with you superb human beings.

Lots of returning personalities came back to enliven and enrich our collective. Chris back from hols, Muyiwa returning for an aerobic top up, Misbah defeating a dodgy ankle, Andy making it count, Melanie back where she belongs and the lesser spotted Tori. Not only does this mean we get more done, but we get it done with you lovely peeps.

As my mum used to say "New Year, old warm up", so we whipped through our tried and tested dynamic moves (mum never said that). We discussed the January Challenge, currently 10th in the Silver League, let's start hauling some ass and climbing it guys! If you ain't signed up to Strava then get on it and log some runs for us! It can be motivating seeing what others do plus useful for exploring running routes and different ways to train - sign up. We also need to keep our group participation high and get as many good deeds as we can. May I remind you we are the moral winners of GG Olympics 2019 (officially 2nd place - that's what the haters would say). Anyway, let's have a pop at this and as a by-product boot of January in style. Come on GGN!

There were plenty of impressive runs over the break, stand out is Helen's PB, I believe on xmas day, that's the only present you need, am I right? A few other double Parkruns on NY day. I saw a returning to her best, Victoria, graceful gait apparent at Highbury Fields Parkrun. I was lumbering along trying to catch a young prodigy, not to be.

RWQ, "Highlight or lowlight of your festive period?" Some warming answers we had - spending time with the family, seeing new babies, seeing the new twin babies! We also had the foodies - enjoying the cakes, the xmas dinners. The al fresco go-getters enjoying their walks and runs. Plus the naked uncles aimlessly wandering through the house.

It was a bit longer than 'normal' this week, 2.2 miles to our task. Litter picking our adopted section of canal in Clapton. Think it went pretty well, whilst it was relatively clean, we still reeled in a fair bit of crap. I saw Corey essentially fishing, with remarkable success I might add. A true outdoors man, reckon he can catch a hammer head shark with that mechanical hand. He did get a helmet, and some other disgusting plastic stuff out the canal. So we finished up with a cleaner stretch, and that's a good thing. Mel brought it to my attention that we should use less bags as we don't fill them, good point, let's please remember to do this next time.

When we got back Paul had stealthily brought out a selection of doughnuts and other confectionaries to share. He not only arrives under the cover of the night, but he clandestinely reached 50 good deeds too. Paul was there on GGN's first ever session, 7 + years ago. That's an exceptional bit of loyalty and longevity, getting back into a regular routine now. An awesome team player and never afraid to take the run out hard. Hat's off for your milestone mate.

I'm going to set up a Parkrun and starter session on the 25th of Jan. Keep your calendars open, this is to bring in new members to the club, so the more of you guys the better.

Next week we are at Manorfield Primary School to receive a deliver of tables, sign up here as we need a big team for this.

See you beauts next week

B

With a sky awash in peachy pink hues, dancing off sweeping curves of futuristic arenas, it could only be Wednesday evening.

Back to business with 23 of us on the night, with sleeves already rolled up and chatter humming through the mild night air. We welcomed Jasmine to the fold for her first outing, Ros on her third, Chris on his second (albeit i'm doing this retrospectively), Cory back from a hiatus and Kev and Sharon returned from a tough few weeks in the midlands.

After doffing our proverbial caps to Mary and Rosa for smashing out some lovely lovely 21k's, we bowed over to Hilary, more inspirational efforts on her regular missions, feel free to ask her how to get involved. We forgot to say bravo to Victoria, her speed is returning quicker than it left post-partum, when will she be dipping in under 20mins at a Parkrun again? Soon is my guess (no pressure).

Weekly Question was very much of the random variety, "what's you favourite european city?" with a no repetition rule that no one took seriously. London to Budapest, Rome to Cardiff, Paris to Copenhagen, Stockholm to Belfast...[insert brexit joke here]. This almost became a pop quiz towards the end of the answers as we ran out of cities, maybe this could be a future thought for GGN? Advanced calculus next week.

Over to the awesome Ange and her simply sublime playground, makes you want to roll back the years. We moved an abundance of well, stuff, some let's call miscellaneous, but mostly 2.5 metre by 1 metre heavy iron fencing. As always there's some new fun structure being installed, yes the the massive submarine rescue boat thingy was not enough. So we cleared the way for a half pipe, that's a skate ramp for the uninitiated. As Tim said, and i'm sure you'll agree - "that's gnarly dude". It certainly is.

With some pumped up arms I heard a whimpering cry from your neglected legs, it's a frequency that only Running Coaches can tune into. So we all (enthusiastically) lined up for a 3 set pyramid. 2 x 40s, 2 x 30s, 2 x 20s. Enough running to better your form and top end speed, but not too much to make you hate me, the sweet spot. We all absolutely aced it, with everyone pacing their return journey like pros, there have been times where this was not the case, so nice one for the collective pacing improvements.

That's enough from me, well done for helping out and owning your neighbourhood, in a good way, not like the mafia, that's the bad way. See some of you on Saturday in Bruges, the rest of you have a lovely weekend and smash those Parkruns out of the.....park.

Till next time

B

Good to get back to GoodGym antics and the Newham fam last night. In my absence there were several tidy parkruns, a spankingly good 5min course PB for Hils and GoodGym celebrated a decade since its inception. Siobhan generously dashed over to the lovely Somerset House HQ and picked up a GG flag, which we coupled with our own Newham flag for some quintessential Olympic Park shots. I believe all areas have done the same to mark the tenth birthday milestone, don't know if you guys have seen any of the speeches online, take a look they're some really touching ones.

RWQ this week, "which film have you seen the most?" more of a deep dive into our fellow GoodGymers soul this one. In no particular order, or merit: Lion King (twice), Aladdin, Drop Dead Fred, The Matrix (twice), Die Hard 2, Hitch, Bend It Like Beckham, Incredibles, Love Actually, Notting Hill and a few more including some Christmas films that I forgot.

We skipped over the 1.5k to a sunset flowing over Abbey Gardens. Task of the day for this community garden was a bit weeding, watering and litter picking. No one pulled out any live artichokes or swung a pitch fork precariously in the dark, so a resounding success, still adjusting the Irises to the decreasing evening illumination, next week head torches everyone, sorry that's not the actual tone I'd use, but from Leon, probably in my most ever watched top 5, FYI.

Even managed a tidy before and after shot this week, your nagging and mocking has paid off, bravo! We finished with a dash of leg strength and tidying up some squat technique. Start with a isometric squat hold, then into a plyometric-esque squat jump. A little dabble of leg strength and power to conclude a lovely session. Try them at home, can get huge gains of just 5 - 10 mins of squatting per day, allowing you to be better and more robust at whatever other activities you enjoy.

If you haven't already signed up, we have a lovely community mission this week at Cody Dock, sign up here for Super Saturday. These are also being run all over the country, 30 missions and counting, to mark GG10. Get involved. Hilary brought some exceptional chocolate cake to continue the celebrations. Finally it was lovely to have Victoria back, post baby, and back with the clan, can't wait to see you flying around an unsuspecting park run soon.

Till next week

B

A surprisingly warm Wednesday GoodGym goodness but with our esteemed leader on his holidays it needed two of us to lead this weeks run.

15 of us shared the Aquatics Centre with the Para Swimmers.....couple of the team managed to bypass security and head to the changing rooms......

Brahma was the subject of this weeks random weekly question......What do you like most about Brahma....his positivity,his hairline,how he pronounces Muyiwa!,always remembers races we are taking part in,spice bros,free stuff and an all round bloody nice bloke!!!

A nice warm up from Kevin and of course a brilliant H&S talk.

Tonight we headed down the River Lea to Cody Dock a hidden gem in East London.

As usual Simon had a list of things for us to complete in preparation for there #openhouse event 21/22 September. Half the team had the fun task of erecting two large gazebos while the rest of the team used an amazing amount of elbow grease to rub down a couple of picnic benches and finished them off with a good coat of oil.

You can come and check out our sanding work and even help out at the event as part of #GG10 which also happens to be Kevin birthday. Details will be on website soon.

We said our goodbyes to Simon and headed off into the darkness and after a good stretch we got to sample an award winning cake thanks to Eugene I can confirm it was delicious and the night was finished off with a trip to the pub....crisps and orange juice a plenty.....but we also had chips!!!

Normal service will be resumed next week as Brahma is back from his holiday.