Prior to setting off tonight we acknowledged the achievements of several people who had run the Stowmarket Scenic Seven on Sunday, with a number celebrating PBs at this unusal race distance.

Andrew agreed to be lead runner with Nicola and Sally taking on the back marker role, leaving me free to mooch about in the middle of the pack and moan about my tight calf on the 2.5 mile run out to Castle Hill.

How many goodgymers does it it take to paint a community centre lobby?

Tonight's task was part 1 of what was anticipated to take 2 visits, with next week scheduled as part 2. The job was to paint the the lobby in the centre, including the stairwell. What looked like a major task wasn't made any easier by a lack of paint brushes and rollers n only one dust sheet available to cover the carpet.

However, in typical Goodgym fashion everyone got stuck in. A few old newspapers and cardboard sheets were eventually found and used to cover the floor. We also created a crack S.A.S. (Spot A Spillage) team, armed with wet J cloths to mop up any paint dripping on to the carpet or the painters clothes!

Within half an hour the task was complete - quite an achievement given the size of the hall and lack of suitable equipment. Once again Goodgym Ipswich exceeded my expectations!

On the longish run back to base the group splintered right from the start with the route passing short cuts home for some and various appointments & commitments needing to be met by others - most impressive was Lesley rushing off to get to core strength and conditioning class - By the time we got back the Waterfront for a stretch there were just a hardy few remaining!

A big task and and big run completed - Boom!

Our original task fell through tonight due to a breakdown in communication at the task owner's end. So instead of delivering flyers we had a last minute change to litter picking around our base.

We kept the litter pick to a concise area around the Waterfront building bordering the river This meant, with a small group, we could be thorough in a short space of time - leaving more time for a smorgasbord run, incorporating a variety training elements - I like to think there was something for every taste!

With the litter picked - we set off at a gentle warm up pace, adding a few drills before taking on a pyramid interval session 30 secs/ 60 secs/ 90 secs/ 120 secs /120 secs / 90 secs/ 60 secs/ 30 secs (all with 30 secs recovery). We then continued on our way at an easy pace until arriving at Bishops Hill.

Here the challenge was 3 x hill repeats (about 200m each) with downhill recoveries - this was everybody's favourite! And how they all cheered on discovering our route was to continue back up the hill they thought they'd just ran up for the last time. We looped round to head downhill on Cliff Lane taking in a small part of the Great East Run route back towards the Waterfront.

Once back on the flat next to river a final fartlek session came into play, with hard efforts and easy recoveries. The whole run was almost 5 miles with a good portion being done at fast pace intervals or up hill - Fabulous effort from everyone!

*More photos to be added .

Sadie made her Goodgym debut this evening, joining us on one of our longer runs to Castle Hill Community Centre. Hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you again soon.

A fairly steady run out took us across the town centre and out along Norwich Road. On arrival Trevor showed us this evening's task to paint an entire room magnolia, including one feature wall that was currently a very dark teal colour

I thought it was going to be a real challenge, given the size of the room and the dark wall. However, as usual the Goodgym guys exceeded expectations and managed to make a massive impact, working quickly, efficently and with fabulous teamwork. Brushes and rollers were flying across the walls - you can see the "before" and "after" version of the dark wall in the attached photos.

We ran back into town and regrouped for session of "trains" running through the town centre and back down onto the Waterfront. - Excellent work from everyone tonight to get so much done on the task !

Before tonight's run I spoke about the introduction of a walking option on some of the shorter Group Runs - this link explains more about the idea and why Goodgym is introducing this nationally. This will only apply to shorter runs and will depend on some one (who is a task force member) volunteering the be " walk leader" - to find out more about becoming a task force member - see this link