Another park session was on the cards this week with every intention of a beach volleyball 'cool down' at the end.

Fresh from the anniversary games the park was a bit more alive than usual, with virtually no signs of obtrusive building work around the stadium....Whoop!

We did our intros, welcomed Newham newbies Allie and Nick and set off towards our garden project. Buzzing from our last visit and soil manicures we were ready for some fast paced wheelbarrow action and plenty of lifting.

Once in we were briefed that our job this time round was to start filling the planters with soil. We quickly realised this was a lot more tricky than just topping them up. The first release of soil was oh so important. The female duo of Ros and Allie mastered the technique of precision pouring and after a couple of test runs they repeatedly achieved 0% spillage. The other duos were not quite as neat but still did a wicked job.

As we worked we had a chance to admire the progress in the garden; plenty of edible plants rising up from the beds, a Spoken word/workshop shed fresh from a project in Hackney Wick, newly built compost bins and new signage to name a few. The site has had plenty of help from team building events and volunteers so development is fast. (particularly when we're there).

After our task we got ready to do a 1km fartlek lap and some group planking where the main words of encouragement were...

'Don't kick one another'.

Post session it was time for one thing......BEACH VOLLEYBALL!!!

Luckily Beach East was open this time round so we quickly migrated to either side of the net, put on our game faces and played volleyball until the sun set. By far my favourite end to a GoodGym session.

Same time and place next week.

Kirsty

21 runners ran 5km focus on hip position to shift a tonne of Compost for Dalston Curve garden.

This session focused on hips. Good hips means good running.
We had to shift a mound of earth for Dalston Curve Garden. Home of Becky Greenwood's Pizza oven.

We jogged over to Dalston at a nice steady pace lead by Mark. Mark has great hips, and a nice light running style.

When we arrived they were not quite ready for us so we strengethed our cores and hips on the sand, in front of a band who played us some delightful music.

purple tunnel of "buddleja"

By this point we had a lovely load of spades and shovels ready for us to start shifting the mound of earth hidden behind the purple tunnel of buddleja.

Those not digging did more work on their hips, strengething with some flutter kicks, planks and mountain climbers on the sand.

"Space for a van"

By the time the reps were over the mound of earth was moved leaving ample space for a van.

"hip partners"

We headed to Hackney Downs for some more hip interrogation . We got ourselves some hip partners who kept their eyes on our hips to give us some feedback.

HIP INFO

If you're interested in little bit more hip stuff, here's a short video of Americans talking about good hip position, and here's a longer article about why it's important.

MISSION REPORT

While the rest of GoodGym Hackney headed to the Curve Garden, Ros and I did our best Charlie Dimmock / Alan Titchmarsh impersonations at a Groundforce-style mission in Stokey.

"rolls of astroturf"

We ran 4km to visit the friendly Rachel, who was ready to meet us in the front garden with rolls of astroturf and a selection of paving slabs. It soon became apparent Ros had been a Landscape Architect in a previous life, as she talked Rachel through her “vision for the space”.

"climbing into the brown bin"

We set to work clearing the space of garden waste, with Ros climbing into the brown bin to maximise capacity. With light rain falling, we laid the astroturf, pinning it in place with carefully arranged slabs.

"a very generous round of applause"

We all agreed the finished article was a lovely sight – and if Groundforce were rebooted, Ros would be top pick. We said our goodbyes and made a speedy run back to meet the others for a very generous round of applause and some much needed stretching.