10 sizzling Westminster GoodGymers ran 5k to the Oasis growers garden to rehydrate some very thirsty herbs, vegetables and plants.

On a scorching Wednesday in Central London we met at the perfectly air conditioned New Balance store. After a few DBS checks and a briefing we headed off in totally the wrong direction seeking the clearest possible run to the Oasis leisure centre. A strong and sweaty 2.5k run got us to the centre in good time where we were met by a sea of sunbathers in the garden. Undeterred we unleashed the watering cans and brooms to get stuck in. Some very thirsty growing beds required a huge number of watering trips. Working hard carrying the 8kg full watering cans up and down stairs and carefully distributing the water all over the garden.

35 minutes of watering, sweeping, rubbish clearing had the community garden looking in top prefer and gave us a strong workout!!

Heading off avoiding the temptation of a dip in the outside pool or the sadistic sauna we headed up to the Squared circle of Bedford square where we hammered out a combo circuit!! Alternating a 300m running lap with 90 seconds of strength exercises we pushed the fitness adaptations before a calm 2k jog back to base where we stretched out.

Great work everyone this evening! Lovely to have you along! Hope to see you all next week when we run to St Andrews Youth Club the oldest youth club in the world to help them with a physical task up keeping the super busy building!

Have a great week

Smooth Running

Joel

For GG Westminster's final run of the year we welcomed first timers Pei and Mollie and a total of seven of us ran 3.4k down to St Andrew's Youth Centre to give the gym a spring clean.

Armed with anti-bac wipes, cloths, paper towels and sprays we went from machine to machine wiping away the gunk. And everybody knows a clean squat rack means you can increase your 1RM by 40%.

We even gave the mirrors a good old polish. Now the gym bunnies can watch themselves do biceps curls in high definition.

I think it took us about 12 minutes. We dropped off bin bags and then headed off to The Mall for our non-gym workout.

First up was secret surges. My favourite game. Numbers, sprinting, surging, trickery. You know what it is. And if you don't you need to get down to a GG run.

Then we had a two-team three-person relay with a brief pause for some work on our elbows. First timer Pei was announced arm driving champion of the evening.

Then on our way back we finished off the tougher stuff with a race up the stairs, incorporating our newly-discovered arm driving technique. Chris came out on top by about a millisecond.

The journey back was uphill but we were consoled by the sight of all those lovely Christmas lights.

Well done everybody. GG Westminster is back on the 4th Jan. I hear it's the best way to work off all those extra mince pies.

Simon