A 2018 vintage - subtle aromas of windowlene and paint

So big news tonight, Laura's off to Portugal for a couple of months (we'll miss you Laura!) & Jon ran his longest ever run on Sunday. Jason & Polly joined us for their first run & Leah was back for her second. Well done all!

Under a bright red sky, we warmed up on Richmond Green. With a definite autumnal chill in the air, the warm up was more necessary than it has been for a long time. Mark got us going with a shout of 'Let's get lunging' as we did a 'round the clock' set in every direction. Then we split up into pairs to do drills. After meeting a confused member of the public who was concerned about our warmup methods, we hopefully set his mind at ease and got on with our run.

We headed out along the river & across Petersham Meadow. With our head torches on we did our best to stay together. Jon did laps back & forth between the front group & the back, in an effort to keep us together, so if his strava says he did more than the 5.5k, you know it's not lying!

We knew something else must be in store though as this seemed much too straight forward! Sure enough hill sprints awaited us. Up Nightingale Lane, 5 times for those who could manage. Anita & Jenna took the sensible option of heading back towards Petersham & up the 'not for the faint hearted' Star & Garter Hill.

Were we drunk on fun from the warm up in that photo? Or were we just imagining how we would feel after those hills?

Those of us doing the Hill sprints set off as fast as we could, powering ourselves up the steep incline. It certainly was a challenge and the sting of the cold air on the lungs warranted a quick break at the top & a gentle jog down. But back up we went with Laura commenting that Aran must have motors in his trainers at the speed he was going! We were all feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, only to be suddenly over taken by a man pushing a buggy! Having ducked out of the last hill sprint, Holly & I set off after him in a real effort to catch him... but he was just too good!

After a quick group picture at the top of the hill, we set off to the Vineyard community centre knowing it was not far away & thankfully all down hill now. Desiree was waiting for us with water & Samia was there waiting for us too :)

No pane, no gain!

Tonight's tasks for the hardworking Vineyard Community Centre was to clean the windows, move some slabs in the garden and paint the glass doors on the summer house. With so many pairs of hands we made light work of all the jobs, although those slabs were very heavy!

Before we knew it Mark was calling time & gathering us up for another group photo. As a thank you to us, Desiree brought out some great cakes. So, as is almost a vineyard task tradition now, we ran back to Wholefoods carefully cradling slices of red velvet, chocolate fudge or lemony Madeleines. Mmm delicious!

Well done everyone, you deserve a "slab on the back!"

As mentioned in the news tonight, ETNA are crowdfunding for a new kitchen , if you wish to know more details on how to give your support or see the video we featured in for the centre then get in touch with Mark.

Also, please don't forget, if you wish to join the task on 8th October at Kew Gardens station then please sign up by end of Friday this week

Great pun eh? It's all thanks to Seren , one of the new GoodGym runners tonight. She was joined by another new runner Miranda and 9 other hard core regulars ready for another night of good fun, a good run and a good deed.

After talk of drunken texts that led to someone signing up for a 10km this weekend and other more sober commitments; we set out to Richmond Green for our much needed warm up – where has the sun gone?

Mark tested our co-ordination tonight - BIG TIME, with partner work, swinging left and right feet, inch worms that were a half inch in some cases! and that funky move that see’s us doing something that resembles an Irish jig – we definitely got warm!

From here we ran up Richmond Hill and into Richmond Park, heading down the trail in the park rather than up this week, greeting the local wildlife on the way. Although hot and humid with us all feeling ready for bed before starting out tonight, the run off road was definitely worth it. At the bottom of the hill, in Petersham Farm we met Ken from Richmond Council ready to offer our “guns” to carry logs and fences through the common.

As we walked through Petersham Farm, some of us commented on how it would make a beautiful GoodGym retreat and some were ready to camp out for the night. Instead of having a jolly, we were there to move logs and fences ready for Ken and the council to erect around Petersham Common in order to keep the path clear and protect the natural wildlife.

For this task we looked like participants from the World’s Strongest Man/Woman competition (those CrossFitters won’t know what hit them come Friday!) We teamed up to carry the posts for the fences and the fences themselves 400 meters at the bottom of Petersham Common. Such a great physical task, our muscles will ache tomorrow.

#GoodGym bicep on the move! #Richmond #doinggood #mondaynights pic.twitter.com/oqUfff4XuZ

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) June 4, 2018

We then headed back to Wholefoods, pausing to take a selfie with the cows along the way. We also passed a Heron or “the grumpy men of the river” as Kate informed us and ended the night with some good stretches.

Welcome again to Seren and Miranda. Don’t forget to all sign up to the Tug of War this Friday - if spaces are gone please still come down, you may still be able to have a go. Well done to Kate and Seren on their recent PB’s. Good luck to Kate on her 10km this weekend and to other runners taking part in the Turks Head 10km. Salwa is also taking part in a 400km cycle before the end of the year from Boston to New York. Lots of great stuff happening!

We are very busy over the coming weeks with some awesome new tasks, next week is no exception! We need as many runners as possible to join us in scrubbing down the posts around Richmond Green so that they are ready for painting. Please sign up and bring people who might want to try something different on a Monday evening.

pic.twitter.com/74aUdPgsu0

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) June 4, 2018