This evening we ran around 5km to move coffee grounds from a mushroom farm to a community garden

25 runners tonight!!! Fantastic to see some of the new runners from last week back as well six new runners so a big GoodGym Croydon welcome to Helen, Sarah, Tim, Claire, Iljeet and Kerry - look forward to seeing you all again soon.

We started with our customary group photo – needing to huddle together nowadays as my camera doesn’t have a wide enough lens to take in the whole group. Then off we headed for a warm-up in the nearby car park where we had to dodge a surprising number of workers heading home just as we got started – no collisions luckily. We headed in one large group, ably led by Ellie, Amatare and Andy and back marked by Sally and Rob down towards Reeves Corner to the Reuse Centre where mushrooms are grown and furniture made from pallets. Andrew met us at the corner and explained a little bit about what goes on in this well-hidden plot and then got us to work loading up the van with many many bags of coffee grounds which were heading to Wandle Park Community Garden to help fertilise the earth there. So with 25 runners in a chain(gang) formation we made very light work of moving the coffee and as soon as we’d finished we headed down to the park to help unload. Slight glitch with the key to the park gate not working and with discretion being the better part of valour we decided not to try and climb the fence so carefully threw the bags over for Andrew to sort in the morning.

Lots of time for a fun fitness session in the relative dry of the underpass. Amarate kept the group warm and moving while a few of us laid out the circuit – hopscotch, squats, hill sprints, lunges, chest presses and many more “fun” activities were done for 2 minutes each. We worked on strength, balance, speed, coordination and having fun which they were all very good at.

With burning muscles we finally headed back to Solutions gym for our stretches and a chat about next week’s task and also the GoodGym January Challenge – hope we are still leading at the end of this week. Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total.

I just had a quick flick back through some old run reports and apart from our very first run tonight was the largest run ever – Well done everybody.

Our next run is on Tuesday 16th of January - an indoor task!

This evening we ran around 3km to help clear up the litter from last year

At the weekend I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of a run on the 2nd of January especially as only 6 runners had signed up however………… the amazing GoodGym Croydon runners did not let the side down and on the night we had 17 intrepid runners turn up even although rain was forecast – well done everybody!

Off we headed for a warm-up in the nearby carpark and then headed less than 1km to the beginning of our task. Litter picks and bags in hand we split into 4 groups and started to clear the litter from the raised beds along Addiscombe Road where quite a few commuters returning home asked us what we were doing and thanked us too – think they may have been glad they were heading home to a warm house though as none offered to help!

With such a large and efficient group the task was finished early so we headed up to Parkhill where I’d planned a hill training session however with so much extra unexpected time on our hands there was time for a loop of the school (750m) even before the hill sprints. The aim of the loop was to finish as strongly as they started and not to collapse out of breath by the first corner. Everybody seemed to manage really well and still had enough energy for 3 hill sprints. We concentrated on form over speed and in particular using the arms to drive up the hill. There was even some imaginary Pringle action but that did seem to put some runners off – maybe they were hungry. Just as we were coming to the end of the fitness session the rain came down and we headed back to base where we lined the entrance hall and did our stretches inside for a change.

There were 6 new runners to GoodGym Croydon today so welcome to Tracey, Kate C, Reena, Ingrid, Kate P and Erin and we hope to see you back soon.

GoodGym has gone a bit “Facebook” and if you login and look at your profiles you wil see Your GoodGym year in review and see all the runs, good deeds and cheers you had over the last 12 months. Speaking of Facebook when I went on our open page GoodGym Croydon Runners there was a Your year in review post which is worth watching.

Our next run is on Tuesday 9th of January - the full details will be posted soon but it does involve coffee grinds, a van and muscle power!

This week 12 GoodGym-ers ran 4km to shift sawdust and sweep leaves in a local park.

We started with intros at the Phoenix as always. I mentioned that there are 10 coaches in waiting for runners - so if you're interested in visiting one of those people, please do complete your coach runner training so you can get the ball rolling!

Shout out to our two new Task Forcers: Nicola and Paul – Give 'em a cheer!

Damian lead us to the Northway Gardens while Graham was our trusty back-marker.

Brian was waiting for us with two cars full of tools and leaves, ready for shifting. We split into teams to grab all the things and head through the park to our drop off point. Luckily, there were many of us with lights, as the gardens had no lights. We are now running in full-blown darkness, so I really recommend getting yourself a head torch. My fancy hand light was from Morrisons - £7. My head torch from Poundland no longer stays on my head – but still makes light and fits in my palm.

We shifted many wheelbarrows full of sawdust from the chopped down trees from around their stumps so the people could come back and finish the job. We also swept many leaves into buckets for compost.

We'll be back on 7 November to do the next bit. Be sure to sign up!

We then played Duck Tag and Squat Runs on the tennis courts, where we discovered Paul and Nicola are incredibly spry.

We soon ran home, with a little sprint finish UP the hill. Props to Graham and Jack for being so speedy!

Next week we've had a change of plan - We'll be running to the WDP not Community Focus. 3km each way.

26 excellent runners face INCLEMENT WEATHER on way to Vauxhall Foodbank, before completing the stock take in record time and running (swimming) back again

Another Tuesday in July where the weather was against us. The train station warned of inclement weather and they weren't wrong. There was work to do in Lambeth, however, and luckily 26 runners pulled on their running macs and got on board. One of those runners was Victoria, who hit her 50 good deeds - NICE!

We ran the 2.5km down to Vauxhall Foodbank where we were quickly organised into 4 teams. Two teams went with John and Katie to do some core exercises and the other two got to work taking crates off the shelves and getting them weighed, before taking them back to the store room. There was a lot of stock to weigh and we got it done in record time!

On the run home, there were some lovely comedy moments where coaches drove past us and splashed water up to our heads!

It's like being on the log flume! Said Katie

On return, we gathered up our belongings and squelched off into the night, happy with another great week of running.