13 people ran 6k to help feed the homeless and organise clothing

Tonight we welcomed Nick and Dan to GoodGym Brum for the first time, please give them a cheer.

On a lovely night for running, sunny and slightly cooler than recent days, we headed for the mission. Taking advantage of the light evenings we made our way via the canal once again. On arriving at the Mission the group were split in three. One group helped in the kitchen, another did the serving and the third group helped sort out some clothes and rather a lot of socks (hence the pun!) upstairs. I haven’t seen as many socks as that since Christmas!

Everyone ‘loves’ hills!

Once done the group gingerly headed to our fitness session destination, just around the corner for the dreaded hills! The task was eight minutes of the them! That was run up as hard as you can, then jog back down to recover, before turning for another oxygen depriving sprint! Dave led the way, showing fantastic form. Aaron, Rob, Dan and Richard were pushing him all the way. Nick was fantastic on his first session, showing great promise. Lee and Simon dug in towards the end on tiring legs, showing great determination. Karin put in a great effort, driving up each hill. Maria, Laura and Fiona, pulled each other a long, Fiona’s form getting better and better as the session went. After eight minutes, everyone was glad when I called ‘time’. Again it was a fantastic group session, everyone working hard and supporting each other. Top work!

Once done the group had a couple of minutes sat on the wall to get their collective breaths back, so it was time for a quick picture before heading back to 1000 Trades.

Ever present Aaron will be missing the next few weeks, as he’s on his holidays before going under the surgeon’s knife for a minor op, but he has promised he will come along to the World Cup social on the first Tuesday in July. Incidentally we have now got the upstairs room in 1000 Trades booked from 7pm onwards with a screen, so hopefully see as many of you there as possible :-)

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

15 people ran 7k to drop off Suit Drive donations to Suited for Success

After a rather chilly morning the sun shone down brightly on us GoodGymer’s this evening.

It was great to welcome Dave back after a while away for tonight’s run.

Karin led the way initially tonight as we had a very short 300 metre ish run to her place of work to pick up lots of donations for Suited for Success, as tonight was the GoodGym Brum/Suited for Success Suit Drive! These donations had been dropped off by various offices in the surrounding area. On arrival we had five flights of stairs to climb up to get to the office in question, so it all worked out as part of the workout. On arriving at the office there seemed tons of bags and we were unsure if we would be able to carry all of them. However never fear when GoodGymer’s are nearr, as we collected each and every one! Once outside the office, apparently called ‘The Peg’ due to its appearance we had a few piccy’s.

Next job was to carry the stuff to Suited for Success. It’s only around 1k, so with some of us carrying two bags it was decided we would walk this bit, well it was a lovely evening anyway!

Once at Suited for Success we were warmly greeted by Janice, having some more pics as we dropped our donations off.

Untimed time-trial

On leaving Suited for Success we were going to head to the Reservoir to do a one lap (2.4k) time trial. However Rob and David suggested doing the Soho Loop as a time-trial instead. I had never run this loop, as hadn’t most of the group, so we thought we would give it a go. As it was the first time and we were unsure of the exact distance, it was decided not to time it, but to just use it as an ‘effort run’. Dave shot off like a scalded cat, with Aaron, Rob and Sam not far behind. I got towards the front so I could catch some good shots of the group coming over the bridge on the canal. In the end the distance was 2.7k, so just over a mile and a half. Once done the group waited for everyone on another bridge which crossed over the canal, looking out over the gleaming canal water. You don’t get many nights like this in England, so it's good to enjoy them when you do! While the group were getting their collective breaths back Run Birmingham bumped into us, with Taz doing a bit of filming, so keep your eyes peeled as I’m sure we will pop up on social media somewhere!

After that we headed back along the canal, past Brindley Place, back to 1000 Trades and that was mission complete for another week.

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here

18 people ran 5k to do a litter pick on the canal

We met in our usual spot in 1000 Trades, the lights suitably dimmed to give us a slight Halloween feel. We had four GG Newbie’s which we were delighted to welcome, they were Sally, David, Julien and Lola. Please give them a cheer. Once we found our litter picking equipment, (maybe a ghost or ghoul had moved it!!) we went down to the aptly dark and rather spooky canal to do our litter pick. Once on the canal we split up into four groups, each group clearing a different section of the canal towpath.

HIIT

We all met up with our bags at Aston Lock, were Ken did a great job of taking the group selfie. Once all that was done we headed back. We stopped under Snow Hill Station where there is a little more light to do some high intensity work. It started with press ups on the lock gate, followed by a sprint to the steps, then a sprint back to the lock gate were the grouped smashed out some reverse dips, giving those triceps a good pasting! Top work by Aaron and Dionne with those dips. This was then followed by some high knees running, squat jumps, straight leg kicks and tuck jumps. Everyone doing a great job. Ken showed great form with the squat jumps. Annie got the knees right up in the tuck jumps and Paige put in some great work with the straight leg kicks.

A staggered wall squat?!

The final part of the session was the whole group getting into a line to do a wall squat, with the person at the far left having the least time to hold the wall squat and then the person at the far right having the most amount of ‘wall squat holding to do’. When I in turn told each person to ‘go’ they then had to do one last sprint to the stairs! Most of the group understandably looked like they were running through quicksand after that, as even the first in line had to hold for 30 seconds before they sprinted. Well done to Garry and Sam (the last two) who held the wall squat for 2 mins 35 seconds and 2 mins 45 seconds respectively and yes you both definately looked like you had pooped yourselves when you did your sprints!!!

So that was that, the group then had a steady run back to base, well done to everyone, you all deserve a few Halloween treats after that!

Next week we will be out doing good again, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

18 people ran 6.5k to SIFA Fireside to do a deep clean

It was a surprisingly mild and extremely humid evening for late September at tonight’s GG Brum run. We had a rare week of no newcomers tonight, but once again we had another good attendance. Tonight’s task was to run to SIFA Fireside, do a 20 minutes or so deep clean and then run back.

Clean, Clean, Clean

After a steady run down to our task destination and a warm welcome as always from Geoff, the facilities manager at SIFA, it was on with the task. I set the group 25 minutes to do as much cleaning as possible while I took plenty of pics. There was showers and toilets to scrub. Door knobs, doors and chairs to clean. The group did a great job making a massive difference in the time we were there. Geoff was very appreciative as ever. Once the task was done, we had the usual pictures and of course when Chan is around there will always be a selfie, I reckon someone needs to buy him a selfie stick for Christmas……or maybe not, I reckon we would end up having the most pictures ever for a run report, it would probably crash the GG website!

Bootcamp time

Once we left SIFA, we headed back, but stopped in our usual car park and did a very quick extremely high intense bootcamp. We had jump lunges, high knees running and tuck jumps, all exercises to get the heart rate shooting through the roof meaning the metabolism would be revved up hours after tonight’s run…..yep you will still be burning extra calories now and even tomorrow morning (if that’s when you read this report) again it was fantastic work from everyone. Simon put some top work in on the jump lunges, Lee and Maria were fantastic with the high knees stuff and John, Hannah and Laura did great work with those killer tuck jumps. Once done we had the best part of 3k to run back. I told the group if they wanted to push on ahead of me at the front they could. Aaron, Ken and Rob led the way. Karin worked hard and Abbie showed her endurance is improving every week. Chan showed all the running he is doing (if you aren’t already get him followed on Strava) is paying off as he has improved so much since GG Brum started back in January. So that was that, done for another week, top work everyone!

Next week we will be out doing good again, this time at a new task, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

14 people ran 5k to do a litter pick on our adopted part of the canal

On a bright and for a nice change a rain free evening we tonight welcomed Fiaz along for his first Goodgym run, give him a cheers fellow Goodgymer’s! The reigns were handed over to myself for this group run while our main trainer Jonny is away enjoying the sun. I worked out this was the 34th Good Gym Birmingham run since starting out in January, impressive and many more to come I’m sure. With the briefing done we headed off to the canal for this week’s task armed with litter picks, bag hoops, bin bags and those all-important gloves. Like a flash mob of red off to do good! After getting to the start of our adopted section on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal we split up into 3 groups each taking a smaller area to work on. We did 15 minutes work to clear as much rubbish as possible and met everyone back at Aston locks to drop of the bags ready from collection by our friends at the Canal and River Trust. We finished with 6 bags full of rubbish so a great effort from all. We could all really notice the difference though of Goodgym’s regular work litter picking as there was far less than we have found previously tonight, signs of our success in making this part of canal a cleaner place for everyone to enjoy! With our selfie king Chan present we of course got in a few snaps by our GoodGym sign showing we have adopted this area of canal, great to see they all remain in place after putting them up a few months back now!

Say quack?!

As all this was going on some of the group had found a baby duck or to be more precise a Coot that had become trapped in one of the locks. So, it was Goodgymer’s to the rescue, after a few ideas of how to help from the dangerous and certainly not risk assessed jumping in to the more traditional - get a big stick! We in the end decided on a simple opening of a lock was enough to free our feathered friend. RSPCA eat your heart out! With our litter pick and animal welfare tasks complete it was back to running heading along the canal towards the city centre.

Lung bursting sprints

On finding a nice flat and straight section of canal I set up an interval ‘sprint’ session. Focusing on keeping the posture stable starting with the head, powering through with the arms and trying to push up onto those toes. The group did 5 sprints between myself at one point and a handy bench which stored all our equipment, each with a recovery in between and an extra recovery jog to finish back to the bench after I realised we needed to return with the tools! Fantastic effort and energy all round by the group, Aaron and Simon leading it through strong with Dionne and Maria showing great consistency! The group then ran back to 1000 trades rounding off with those injury preventing stretches! Next week it’s back to normal with Jonny returning with I’m sure stories of sun and beer to make sure us jealous with! We will be returning next week to SIFA Fireside to help them out with all manners of cleaning jobs, be great to see you there please sign up here

So this morning 7 GG Brum runners ran the Cannon Hill Parkrun!

It was a chilly morning with a slight breeze, so after a pre-race selfie minus Ken we were on our way. Everybody had a great run, times are below.....

Jonny - Trainer - 15.38 (new parkrun pb :-))

Simon - 24.10

Ken - 25.36

Annie - 26.00

Laura - 26.28

Abbie - 29.14

Garry - 29.15

Great effort by everyone, many doing Parkrun for the first time! Deserving of a post race selfie! Afterwards we all went to the MAC Centre for a well earned sit down and cup of coffee (or fizzy water in my case!) Thank you to everyone who came, hopefully we will see you all and more at the next GG Brum race!

16 people ran 5k to sort clothes, organise tinned food and feed the homeless at the Birmingham Mission Care Centre

Tonight, we welcomed three newcomers to GG Brum! Step forward Ken, Dave and Aaron. Thanks for coming chaps! Tonight, we were on our monthly visit to Birmingham Mission. Annie kindly did the back marking and I led the way. Once there we were warmly greeted by John who said there was a lot to do tonight, so the group were split three ways. One group went in the kitchen to help serve the food and wash up, one group helped sort the clothes and another group sorted the tinned food by itemising it all. The task took a bit longer than usual, especially all the clothes sorting, but as Dave said the strap line ‘many hands make light work’.

More rain?!

Last week most of the runners got a soaking on the way to GoodGym, tonight it was on the way back. The wet stuff was falling pretty heavily as we left the care centre so it was probably just as well the task took a little longer! But a bit of rain didn’t deter our runners anyway! We headed off at a good pace. Before stopping at the bottom of a hill to do a bit of HIIT training. A nice mix of lunges, tuck jumps and high knees running got those hearts racing and metabolisms fired up! Then the group did a ‘sustained effort’ rep……a hill climb, straight into stair climbing in front of the town hall, once at the top a sprint to some crossroads. The group put in some great work. Dave led the way with Neal chasing him down. Simon and Philip worked hard all the way, Abbie, Kate and Morwenna pushed each other, driving hard through the rain. Once done we pushed on back to 1000 Trades and that was another run done 😊

GG Birmingham race

Remember it is our first official GG Brum race this Saturday, the Cannon Hill Parkrun, meeting at the bandstand at 8.45am ready for the 9am start. Followed by a coffee afterwards. It would be great to see as many people as possible from any GG group sign up here.

Next week I will be on a sunbed in Majorca, however don't worry Aidan will be 'me' next week, so don't worry you will be able to do good once again sign up here.