Cracking run (and cycle) tonight with 22 lovely Goodgymmers, tackling a huge pile of branches and foliage at Sunnyside Community Centre.

After a short warm-up around the slopes of the Emirates Stadium, we connected on to Hornsey Road and powered up the 2.5km of incline to Sunnyside Community Centre. Upon arrival at the volunteers portacabin, Bridget handed us rakes, shearers and clippers and directed us to a large mound of branches, leaves and bushes, collected from the gardens. This would usually be a task for a shredder, but the groups machine suddenly broke down just as Autumn began, leaving the space covered in green foliage!

In 40 minutes, our Goodgymmers raked the massive pile of branches into lots of smaller piles, and snipped them down to a smaller concentration of greenery. Before we left, we moved all the branches back into an orderly spot, away from the main entrance to the community centre. Amazing effort considering the light was fading as we worked. We were treated to a steady downhill slope back to the Emirates, some nice easy relaxed stretches and a few jammy dodgers and lotus biscoff biscuits for the road!

Plenty of runs, events and get-togethers next week, continuing Goodgym's 10 year anniversary celebrations:

• Goodgym Lambeth will be leading a monthly long run this Sunday, starting in Brixton, and following the Green Chain Walk to Crystal Palace. Sign up here.
• Former Islington trainer and all round excellent fellow, Paul Bown has announced the dates and details for Goodgym Euro Trip Kiev 2020. 4-5 days of holiday fun with 10km or half marathon races in between! More info can be found here.
• We will be visiting Thornhill Gardens for next weeks task, helping the organisers with some willow tree weaving for decorations (pop your name on the list here). Hoping to test out some new portable flood lights as well, but I still recommend bringing a headtorch if you can!
• Also, we plan to visiting the Victoria Tavern after our run next week and you are very much invited to join us!

Have a smashing week everyone, and see you for the next one!

It is my pleasure to announce that 21 lovely Goodgymmers joined us for Simon Fitzmaurice's first outing as GoodGym Islington's new trainer, and ran to fix up an overgrown garden at the amazing Mildmay Community Centre. Great to see familiar faces, Goodgym tourists (Thanks Nurjehan!) and new participants (Becca, Caitlin and Gerry- welcome everyone) getting stuck in!

Shout outs to the Goodgymmers who helped out at the Crouch End Open Space over the weekend- the well-deserved picnic looked delicious. More information can be found here.

If anyone fancies a long social training run (not for setting PBs!) next weekend, Trainer Simon will be leading the Goodgym Monthly Long Run on Sunday, a route called "The Tour of the Docklands". 10km, 10 mile and 16 mile distances are available, starting from Greenwich and finishing in Stratford Olympic Park, passing loads of River Thames landmarks on the way. Sign up here if you want to get involved!

After a few warm-up exercises, and learning everyone's favourite biscuit preferences (I think Dark Chocolate Hobnob was the most popular...), our crew ran through Highbury Fields Park and past Newington Green to Mildmay Community Centre, and were greeted by Mus, the head gardener for this evening's task. Armed with secateurs and trowels, the team uprooted weeds and snipped back thistles and thorns from the main garden area at the site, whilst concentrating on staying upright on a steep slope! Lots of really impressive teamwork on display, and we ended up with loads of bags full of green waste by the end of our session.

The Mildmay Community Centre is a fascinating building- the whole place is fully sustainable and eco-friendly, boasting a roof full of solar panels for everyday energy usage, green gardening spaces and rain water receptacles to store water for the plants. Some really exciting projects are coming up, so we will be sure to return soon.

Just a reminder- next weeks task to Caledonian Park will start at a different location due to the Bank Holiday. Our start location will be:

The Arc Centre 98b St Paul Street London N1 7DF

(Nearest tube stations are: Highbury & Islington or Angel)

Have a fantastic week! Happy Running! See you soon!

20 Goodgymers ran 4-6k to help Ramsey Flowers Group and Mildmay Community Centre!

Welcome along to Haus, Amelia and Heather whose first time it was last night - woop woop!

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Graham who did Finsbury Park 5k on Friday and Sally who did the Maverick 15k on Saturday!
2. This Saturday is the Night of the PB's - more details here and sign up to volunteer here.
3. We've got a couple of Community Missions coming up: helping CREOS and Notting Hill Genesis

Mildmay Community Centre Report:

A group of us ran to Mildmay Community Centre where the very well prepared gardener took us out to the garden where we'd be working. After everyone eventually found a left and a right glove we got to it - weeding around the edge of several planters, removing ivy from a fence line, and clearing the ground around a rare apple tree then surrounding it with fresh compost.

Weed-free

There was talk of a competition to see which of the planters could be rendered the most terrifically weed-free, but in the end it was pretty obvious that we'd all put in a winning performance. Nice work team.

Ramsey Flowers N1 Report:

Ten of us headed to Ramsey Flowers N1, which are a local group who look after the area behind the Rose Bowl - including St Paul's Walk. We met Becky who gave us a few tools and bags, and then tasked us with wedding and sweeping the park area.

We focused a lot on generally cutting things back and tidying up the borders of the flower beds. During our tidy up we saw Dawn and people from Rose Bowl, they are lookikg forward to us helping next week. Over 30 minutes we got tons done, bagging up 7 bags of weeds and debris.

Next we took on a conditioning and sprints game, took a group picture and ran home. An all around great evening of Goodgym!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping the Single Homeless Project and Rose Bowl.

PB out

16 GGers ran 5km to help Mildmay Community Centre with loads of gardening!

Welcome along to Elizabeth whose first time it was last night - great to have you join us.

In the news this week:

1. Great work to Steve Lee and 14 others who did the Community Mission at CREOS on Sunday - report here. May's date tbc.
2. Represent Islington at the GoodGym Olympics on Saturday 3rd August in events from Egg and Spoon to 5000m - sign up here.

After warming up we headed to MildmayCommunity Centre via Highbury Fields and Canonbury Station area. This fantastic community centre puts on classes, education programmes and provides support for the local community.

Upon our arrival we met Teena who tasked us with the following:

• Laura, Claire, Steve, Chris and Katie cleared the sloped bottom garden of long grass and weeds
• Alix and Kike mowed and strimmed the overgrown lawn areas around the top garden
• Caz, Leah, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Heather were tasked with clearing two areas of weeds which included digging over the soil so pretty flowers can be planted.
• Sarah, Sofia and Ellie weeded around two raised beds which is a massive help to the two older ladies who look after them.

Of course as always our work makes a huge impact to the community around us. More people will be able to use the garden because of our hard work.

15 people + 30 mins = 7.5 hours work!

After sweeping up, putting the tools back in the shed and taking a group picture we headed off back home for biscuits and mini eggs.

Sign up for next week here - we'll be meeting at the Arc Centre because it's Bank Holiday and helping the Police.

PB out

16 GGers ran 4-6k to helped Newington Green Alliance and Caxton House on an Earth Hour Special!

This week Goodgym is partnering with WWF as part of Earth Hour, the world’s biggest switch off event. Earth Hour highlights the changes needed at a global level, but also encourages everyone to take personal action. You could, for instance, change the way you eat, embrace reusables and buy less plastic, or help to restore nature in your community. You can share your pledge using #VoiceForThePlanet throughout March to show how you are making a difference.

Caxton House Report:

8 of us headed north for 2.5km to help Caxton House Community Centre. Over the last few months we've been helping with a long term task of clearing away unwanted bushes, tree's, brambles and thorns. The plan for this area next to the carpark will be to rebuild the wall and then turn it into something prettier and more useful for the centre.

Pre-biscuit biscuits

We got spread out around the bushes - cutting back as much we could. Using saws, clippers and more we took down small tree's and heaps of ivy and brambles. After around 20 mins of chopping we started cutting it into smaller pieces and then put it in a big bin.

After sweeping up we took a group picture and run home for our second round of biscuits.

Newington Green Alliance:

A team of 8 led by Steve, Al and James headed to Newington Green to meet a man called Chris about some leaflets. He represents Newington Green Alliance, a group that are having a fantastic event at the local Primary School this weekend. It's all about bringing people together and improving our environment.

The group collected around 400 leaflets and distributed them in the neighbouring streets - to both homes and businesses. An extra great thing about these leaflets is they came in both English and Turkish - well representing the local community.

Thanks all for a great evening. Sign up for next week here (task tbc).

PB out

20 Goodgymers ran 3-4km to help Compton Square Gardens shift 100 bags of compost!

Welcome along to the newbies - S.Tilly, Jordan and Chloe - lovely to have you along!

It was lovely to do a GoodGym in the morning and in the light, plus it was a little warmer than it was been this week - all very good things!

We did our intros outside and had a good warm up along the slope before heading towards Highbury Fields. During our 1.5km run to the task we passed Highbury Fields Parkrun packing up and the hustle of H&I area. Our task this week was to help the wonderful Compton Square Gardens, a volunteer run group look after the gardens outside the wonderful Union Chapel. The task was simple but involved lots of peoplepower - shifting 100 bags of compost from the shed area to points across the north garden.

Handy flags and labels pointed to where to place the bags of compost, with numbers indicting the amount of bags needed. Steve needed for this to be explained a few times over, but he got it in the end... haha.. With three wheelbarrows, strong muscles and teamwork it only took 15-20 mins to spread all the bags across the garden. Well done all!

That Morning Manure Smell

After taking a group picture we headed off to Highbury Fields for a fitness session - either a 1km time trial or different conditioning exercises.

Thank you all for coming - regulars, newbies and the Barnet contingent - great to see you all. Remember GG Islington runs every Monday, Barnet or Hackney on Tuesday's and Westminster or Camden on Wednesday's. Question is will GoodGym reach it's Good Deed Target?

See some of you on Monday.

PB out