30 Brilliant GoodGymers ran 5k or 8k to begin the decorating project at the Open Barber's in Shorditch.

The vibes at GoodGym Hackney are off the charts!! Not only did we have a bumper attendance of 30 runners, we also got in some serious serious training in! Not to mention the 19 of us that went to the pub after to send Kev on his way to Bristol with a smile and a brand spanking new and well earned 100 GoodDeed T-Shirt. 🏃🏽🏃🏻🏃🏿🏃😀😀💪🏻💪🏽💪🏾🍻🍷🍹🍗🍖🍟.

We joint mobilised ready for running action then were superbly led through the back streets of Hackney by Team Hackney Task force member extraordinaire Cecilia. After a 2.5k run we arrived on time ready for action, to help scrape away the old shop frontage and ceiling of the crowd funded social enterprise Open Barbers, where we met Richard who was a little taken back by the strength in numbers of Team Hackney! We split into 2 teams, first team armed themselves with Heat Guns and Scrapers and got to work removing the old paint. The second group went with PTI Patrick and dominated a series of pick your poison exercises which tested all the runners conditioning to the max 💪🏾💪🏽💪🏻.

After a 15 minute burst of activity the teams changed over and continued the hard graft, some amazing high scrapping and some especially impressive Abdominal planks took Team Hackney to the edge!

After 35 minutes of scraping the shop to within an inch of its life we decided that the Speedy Crew had been coasting for a couple of weeks so wanted to really test them. So the Speedy Crew left early, leaving Task Force member Jack in charge of the clean up and the 2.5k run back to base with the Sexy Crew

The Speedy Crew raced off into the night going through the running gears at will, smashing out some Urban Fartlek reps that Mo Farah would have been proud of. We then found our old racing track in De Beauvoir Square and set about smashing our some monstrous changes of pace on our half and full lap hard reps 🔥🔥🔥⚡️⚡️⚡️. After a short recovery jog we through in a few Kenyan Surges along Middleton Road, as we entered London Fields we laid the hammer down and it was every runner for them selves for an all out effort back to the Bakehouse. To round out a 5.5k run back! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Top effort Speedies The Sexy crew cheered us in as they had just got back from their Tempo effort along Whiston road to round off an impressive running evening for all!

As it was Kev's last run and 100th we headed out to celebrate at a local Pub, thanks to the 19 runners that came along it w great to see the social side of Team Hackney coming through especially to celebrate a true GoodGym Hall of Famer in Kev. Kev you will be missed in these parts and please come and see us when you visit the Big Smoke!!

Next week we start a fabulous serious of tasks with HUG (Hackney Downs User Group) so please please please please please (yes I am begging for you both to come and sign up so I can organise tasks for the right amount of people) Sign up here. Want to make it clear I still really want you to come if you forget to sign up but would love it if you did sign up a little bit more xx

Until next week

Stride Smooth

Joel

20 Ninja Gardeners gathered on a not to cold evening in wonderful Hackney to help show what can be done when Good(Gym) conquers evil (well Christmas food 🍫🍰🍩 and alcohol consumption🍾🍺🍷).

An injection of new Hackney GoodGym blood was mixed in with some returning friends and some die hard regulars so get 2016 started in spectacular fashion. A brilliant and informative guide to Coach runs and Missions from Hackney Coach rep Kev who is working his way very nicely towards the magical century club of Good Deeds. We got the scores on the doors of the January Challenge, where we lie 6th a 10,000k and 150 Good deed target in the challenge but think GoodGym Hackney is looking strong💪🏽💪🏻 and fast 🏃🏾🏃🏿 So let's smash through the 1000k 100 good deed barrier by the end of the month!! Make sure you log all your training runs and coach runs!! If you need any help with this just drop me an email (Joel@GoodGym.org). The Victoria Park 10k is approaching on the 24th of January if you would like to start the year off with a traffic free, flat road race sign up here. If you would like any training advice come and have a chat to me next week.

We set off skipping down Mare street after a mobilising dynamic warm up getting our walking lung and side to side squat on, looking a bit like we were playing the old computer game space invaders with the passing commuters. We were talking about this weeks Triple T (Tuesday Talking Topic) strangest food we had eaten in December. Keeping together and getting aquatinted we kept a steady pace as we took in the various sights and sounds of our tour of Hackney on our way to the marvellous Wilton Estate community garden. Where we meet Lisa would took us through all the areas needing to be weeded and cleared so that more local residents have space to join the community garden. As quick as a flash we were off! Gloves on, head torches turned up 🔦🔦 we split into 3 groups of Ninja gardeners and got to it. The first group made light work of a weed dense flower bed and were soon filling up the bins at a great rate.
Group 2 were hard at work battling with big tree and bush roots calling to tool reinforcements to really work hard to get the unwanted roots out! Group 3 were having a bit of a party in the original community garden, head torches flashing and DJ Pat rocking the old school 90's tunes on his water proof speakers showing all the new comers how at 113 Good deed vet gets it done while having fun.

As quick as that in just 35 minutes of lung pumping root pulling work the fearless Hackney GoodGym team had cleared 3 flower beds filled 2 huge bins and only left 1 pesky root! Great work team 👏🏽👏🏻👏🏾

We cleared the tools back to shed and Lisa thanked us for our super speedy work and we headed on our way. We tested the Wilton 500 meter track to make sure it would be ready for our next time trial when I noticed a few runners chomping at the bit to go a bit faster and longer on the way back so we split up with Kev leading the long range tribe on a speedy 4K loop back to base past Hackney Downs with a super sprint finish from first timer Amy breaking the finish line first 🏁🏁. The sexy crew knew they wanted to have so speedy fun but in the more refined 2k glide back to base. We set the streets alight with some land mark Fartlek bursts and we took to the back streets to get one last interval in before a calm and relaxing warm down at base before we said our goodbyes and disappeared off into the night having done Good had Fun and started 2016 in a great way!

Hope to see you all again next week, same time same place where we will be off to St Luke's to do some more great work and get fit! Sign up here.

Keep it Ninja

Joel

I often wonder if we ever take stock of the amount of good we have actually done.

Due to some Last minute rescheduling 11 wonderful awesome amazing individuals took to the streets for a GoodGym tour of Hackney.

It's not every week we get an opportunity to check in on how projects are doing nor is it every week we get an opportunity to run a 9k loop letting our legs loose on the roads.

We had 4 newbies on this muggy wet evening, all of which were amazed at what had been done.

Visits to sites where trees had been planted, planters had been built, fences had been painted, manure shifted, sheds built, benches constructed, weeds dragged out, flowers watered, grass cut, estates reclaimed and more importantly communities reunited.

When you come for a run with GoodGym just remember that it's more than just a run, you're making the world a better place for those that reside in it.

Join us next week for more awesomeness.

After a small blip the sun was back out in force to top our great GoodGymers vitamin D as 15 brave souls headed 1 mile deeper in to the depths of East London in a bid to make St Luke's garden look sexy once more whilst two others headed to a mission where a front garden had become really overgrown.

Jamie and Kevin arrived at Sharon's house and got elbows-deep in weeds and litter to restore it to it’d former tidy glory. They packed seven bags full of green waste then headed back to join us at London Fields.

Meanwhile the rest of the group listened to a quick briefing and we were out the door, a nice steady pace as we planned to save the real work for later.

We arrived at St Luke's church and were greeted by the lovely Betsy smiling as always. She said hiiiiiii had split us all up into groups. Some tended to dragging weeds from whence they came, others revarnished the beautiful wooden garden furniture we built months ago, some moved chairs and tables whilst the rest put together a group of pipes to make a hose for watering the garden.

45 minutes later all the weeds had gone, the chairs were shiny and new, all the rubbish had gone, the grass was soaked, the chairs were where they needed to be and more importantly everyone was smiling.

Betsy said thank you and requested we return every week if this is what we get done in 45 minutes. We said our goodbyes and headed to London fields for a head to head relay, some core and lots of work on these lovely arms of ours.

Always a pleasure, hopefully you all enjoyed the sunshine, hopefully see you next week.

44 of you. 27 degrees. 5 tasks. Over 150 miles covered. Painting, digging, lifting, weeding, watering and of course running.

Here's the round up;

Team Papas were the magnificent three. And they were bloody magnificent, they might not have run anywhere due to injuries, but the girls laid down some serious work at Papas with as we commenced painting on the fence… harder than it looks with a brush the size of an Argos pencil. The flowers and plants of Papas also got watered, and given the weather I’m pretty sure they gave visible sighs of relief when the water hit their pots.

Team Wyck Garden ran a mile each way to help Loughborough Junction farm to do some serious digging. Lovely Anthea worried that the ground would be too hard, but our crack team made light work of the task much to everyone’s amazement. That was some serous muscle work kids… grrrrr

Team POP Brixton took a central run down to Shakespeare Road to pick up trees that had been donated to POP Brixton. They carried the adult trees (that means BIG) a kilometre to Brixton’s newest hot spot ready to be planted. In fact they did it so quick the new home wasn’t even ready for the trees. BEASTS… great work.

Team Portico Gallery took on the vixen that is Brixton Hill and a 5 mile run as they headed down to The Portico Gallery to help our wonderful friend John to move tables and put gravel into ballasts. When asked what the ballasts were for John explained they were for runners to put around their legs for strength training… then swiftly demonstrated. Oh John.

Team Nature Garden also got a good run with four miles in order to take on the jungle with some serious weeding and general tidying of the garden ready for a fate in a couple of weeks.

Great work guys… send me pictures!! (of the task. Not nuddy pics.. although…) in the meantime here's some Glastonbury shots of out runners and the lottery ticket that failed to pay out... next week kids.. next week.

Make sure you get your red T-shirt here … http://www.goodgym.org/membership_flow

37 runners and Molly the dog met at Papa’s on a magnificent Tuesday evening – it was a night where we completed 4 big tasks, covered the length and breadth of Lambeth, celebrated Rebecca Nellis’ big 100 good deeds, ate some cakes and drank cheap fizz. It was perfect.

Unfortunately we didn’t win the lottery, but the round up of the night’s events tell me we are very much winners.

Team Papas

So the Papa’s park crew might not have run anywhere but don’t be mistaken by thinking this meant they got off lightly…. far far from it. These brave souls were rewarded for their excellent sanding and painting skills with 15 minutes of full body circuits. Burpees, press ups, squats, lunges, dips and sprints were banged out non stop. Legs wept and waved white flags begging for a ceasefire whilst upper bodies gave up hope and emigrated to Turkey . An impressive display of technique and grit ensured that these guys are one step closer to getting stronger and faster and injury free. It’s not just about running folks, make sure you train your muscles folks to condition that tank of yours. Just as we were finishing Jitendra turned up with the most wonderful cakes I have ever tasted (and I know my cake) instantly winning my “Man of the Match’ ,. Bravo

Team Myatt’s - errrr... In lieu of an actual report from anyone, and based on the photos I believe that the Myatt's team lifted some serious wood.... (not a euphemism).

Team Olive - By Beth

Lovely Dyfed (he remembered me from last year and even remembered that I'm 'some sort of doctor or scientist') definitely deserves a good deed, no way we would have managed to get it done without him.

After jogging just around the corner with Dyfed and his dog Molly, Laura and I arrived at Olive's house. I was really looking forward to seeing what it was like after coming almost a year ago to help chop down a massive bush that was taking over the whole garden. Pleasantly surprised that it was still under control we got to work. While Laura and Dyfed chopped branches and pulled up weeds, I did my best to bag it all up. I had the usual panic about two-thirds of the way in, with big piles of greenery in the middle of the garden I wasn't sure that what we were doing was actually helping but once we were done and had filled about 20 bags it was clear we had made a big difference. All that was left was to head back to Papa's for some bubbly and delicious madeleines in celebration of Lambeth's first wings, congratulations on reaching 100 good deeds Nelly!

Team Nature Garden - By Alex

On a warm balmy evening, five GG'ers tootled up Brixton Hill to visit Palace Road Nature Garden where they met the very calm Gerry. Splitting into two groups the lads took it upon them selves to move logs, and lay down some wood chip next to the pond. The ladies, wielding machetes, took to clearing nettles and prickly plant things from the path. Gerry pointed out the muriel on the back wall, which is well worth a look! And before we took out leave, we had time for a cheeky photo with him too! On the run back one runner had to stop and walk, but in good ol' GG fashion no man was left behind; and a rescue service on bike was soon to their aid. Meaning we all got back in time to celebrate in style!