Oh what a night! Most of us arrived at the YHA soaked to the skin and by the time we went home we were soaked to our very bones!!!

The light rain forecasted by my weather app turned out to be an absolute deluge of freezing bucket fulls of the stuff but still 18 of us turned up to get fit by doing good, a record for 2020!!

And that included first timers Nancy & Victoria and visitors all the way from Portsmouth Manuel & Samantha! They all deserve huge amounts of kudos, likes, hearts, thumbs up, rounds of applause and massive cheers for deciding to spend the rainiest Tuesday night since our launch in July 2017 with us!

Also huge cheers tonight for Paul, becoming the latest Brighton Goodgymmer to ‘take the black’ by reaching his 50th Good Deed. Paul has recently become a member of Task Force and is also the first TF to list a Community Mission which you can sign up for here. I’m sure there’s lots more good to come from Paul in the future, and its definitely not a case of ‘’That’s Paul Folks!”

The task tonight was a regular visit to the wonderful folk at Brighton & Hove Food Partnership to clean their hard working Community Kitchen that does a fantastic job of teaching disadvantaged groups about good food via its paid for cookery classes which you can find out more about here. Jobs included cleaning the outside windows which had taken a battering from recent storms Ciara & Dennis, cleaning the inside glass, door cupboards, light switches and bathroom. With 18 of us working hard we completed the jobs in about 15 minutes, leaving plenty of time for a big fitness session!!

Oh but the rain!! I decided to add a bit more running to try and keep us all warm, so with the freezing rain blowing into our faces we headed around the Peace Statue and back to the i360. With sheets of water running off the floor, even I wasn’t going to make you do any ‘floor work’ so all those burpees, planks and sit ups I’d planned for you will have to wait for another less rainy day. Instead we did a few dips, lunges, hip openers, squats and hill sprints before taking a unanimous vote to call time and head back early.

Thank you all so much for coming out in what I’m sure is the worst weather ever, you guys continue to amaze me with your dedication to Goodgym. Good luck to Roy who is running the Brighton Half this weekend. Kick off is at 9.30am, so get yourselves down there to cheer him on!

GoodGym Leeds is back! After a short break that felt like absolutely ages (I missed you guys!) we're back to doing good and having a great time while we're at it.

It was a great crowd tonight for our first run of 2020, with 32 runners! We also welcomed a HUGE 7 newbies which was amazing. Sam, David, Rob, Romina, Shannen, Victoria and Karl all got stuck in and did a great job, so they definitely deserve a massive cheer!

There was loads of news to share tonight, with Jenny and Liz reaching their tenth good deeds! Well done guys! We also welcomed Helen to taskforce after she joined over the Christmas break. Taskforce is now a super strong group of six and they can help out with all sorts to make GoodGym in Leeds even better. As always, if you have any ideas for how we could be doing things better, feel free to drop me an email.

Tonight's task was to head back to the fabulous Unit 11 for Kirkstall Valley Development Trust. We had a quick warm up before heading down the hill. Heather and Katie were marshalling the back to make sure nobody was left behind.

On the run down it was lovely to be back amongst happy smiling faces, and it was even better to see all the new runners getting involved and chatting. One new runner was a little concerned about our route:

"I live in Kirkstall so the run down is fine, but I know that it means we're going to have to come back up again on the way back!" New runner Romina

After a bit of looping around to keep the group together, and some terrible traffic light decisions, we eventually reached Unit 11, where Adele was waiting for us with our task. We had to fill some small holes in the walls where they weren't too big, then one wall was being painted white (leaving the fabulous painted map well alone), while another wall was to be painted a lovely green. There were also some baubles left up from the Christmas decorations which needed to be brought down.

We quickly realised there weren't quite enough rollers and paintbrushes to keep everyone busy, so we split the group into two, and decided that one group would do a fitness session while the others painted, before swapping over halfway through. While the painters got on with their tasks I took the group through a tough but simple routine to work on their strength, balance and flexibility.

• Calf raises
• Single leg hops
• Knee raises
• Single leg touch, hop, reverse lunge, hop
• Jumping Squats
• Meet and retreat run

While the meet and retreat might need a little work (or a better explanation from me!) everyone got stuck in and there were a few complaints of tired legs on the way back so you were definitely working hard!

By the time both groups had done their fitness session, the work inside was done! The walls had been painted, , the edges tidied up, and the baubles all gone. The watching crowd were suitably impressed:

"We've just been sat here watching how amazing you all are!" Adele, task owner.

Our painting and fitness session also attracted the attention of a new recruit who signed up on the spot, so hopefully we'll see her next week!

We set out on the run back with a slight burn in our legs for some of us, but that didn't stop the speedy group, led by Tom, from powering up the hill. Everyone else went at their own pace, with Carol sweeping up the rear, before we all reconvened for a stretch back at base.

Thanks for making our return in 2020 so fabulous, you've all been great! I'd also like to say a special thanks to our Taskforce who are really stepping up to help with the running of the group, it makes my job so much easier!

See you all next week!