Welcome to David for your first GoodGym task!

After a ~4 km run along the canal from the city centre for Peter and Ben, we collected the key from Gorse Hill Studios and met with Katie to see what seeds could be planted out. They had some potted up and boxes of seeds so we took what was ready and able to be planted outside in late March and met up with David in the allotment.

With 2 project managers and a biochemist, we set to work. Weeds were pulled, tarpaulin was pulled up, and we managed to make another 3 or 4 new beds ready for the volunteers in the studios to plant things out of the coming months. We planted some lettuce and rocket in the salad beds, planted carrots, onions, peas, and broad beans from last year, with space made for footpaths and the future potential shed to go in. We shifted bags of compost and emptied some out.

All in all, a productive session and we hope to be back before too long to help with planting, maintenance/weeding, and shed building. All things GoodGymers are specialists in.

Express delivery this evening as we delivered a whopping 250 Manchester Post community newspapers in the Longsight and Rusholme area. Filled with local good news stories to spread positive, community focused highlights, we took just under an hour to get around our patch.

With a short run either side from and to Ardwick, we also got a few more km in to add to the Strava stats.

Good to see the positive reception from locals and maybe we'll have a few more to deliver next time.

Welcome to Robert for your first GoodGym Manchester session 👏 Great to meet you.

This evening was a bit different. After being approached by Natalie Kate Moss Trust, a charity raising funds and awareness for the treatment and prevention of brain haemorrhages, we combined GoodGym with their Brain Gym resources to get us thinking about our brain health and lifestyle. As part of that, we covered ~4.5 km from St Peter's Square around via Hulme, University of Manchester, Ardwick, and circling back to Sandbar. The combination of a brisk jog and social interaction both forming a significant aspect of the Brain Gym suggestions 🧠

We had bumper numbers this evening, with Scott fresh from a speedy Media City Half Marathon, Hazel joining from Stockport, Peter back from Sri Lanka, Tanoshi and Fanette joining for their 1st Monday night group run, Robert, a journeyman of Bath and Merton GoodGym groups, and regulars Sam and Ben.

We self-quizzed ourselves on the Brain Gym recommendations, including taking small steps, keeping a record or journal, having a support network, "colouring our plate" for food, and keeping a good sleeping routine. All this while enjoying refreshments and tasty pizza at Sandbar (some were more colourful than others) and discussing a potential Mam Tor litter pick in the spring... watch this space 💪

Peter and Ben shrugged off Blue Monday to set out and donate some much needed items for Manchester South-Central foodbank.

With lights and fresh GoodGym t-shirts, we set off, laden with bags of donations.

In all, there was several kilos of items mostly cans and non-perishables, including:

• peanut butter 🥜
• tinned veg 🥕🫛🥔🌽
• tinned fruit 🍑
• tinned fish 🐟 & meat 🍖
• rice pudding 🍮
• UHT milk 🥛

Much easier and lighter run on the way back 🏃‍♂️ hope the food donations go to good use 💪