Last night 7 fantastic runners were not put off by the rainy forecast, and were determined to use their Tuesday evening run to do some good in the local community. We even had two new faces to welcome to the crew - give Josh and Muhammad a cheer everybody!

Luckily for us the clouds held back long enough for our entire run and we managed 4.6km, a tough outdoor fitness session and a whole lot of litter picking around Waterloo Farm. But before we did any of this, we had some news and introductions. After congratulating Paul on his MMM (Mega Manchester Marathon) we heard about...

• Westminster Monday lunch run clubs: Each Monday of April at 1pm Joel will be leading a session from Westminster pier, perfect for those wanting a fitness fix on their lunch break. He will go through some drills, conditioning and of course some running. You can sign up for the next one here

• Volunteering at the Hackney Half, for which you will be rewarded with a shiny free place at future races. You can sign up on the virgin sport volunteer portal here, then let me know (alyx@goodgym.org) so I can add you to the GG water station. You don't need to select a role when signing up.

• London Marathon GG Cheer Stations - find out more here

• North London long run happening this Sunday: Sign up here if you fancy doing a 9-10 mile run with some friendly GoodGym faces this weekend. There will be a couple of groups running at different paces, so hopefully something for everyone (so long as you can do the distance!).

After a quick warm up, and finding out that it was Anna's 50th good deed (this shows she's spent a lot of time giving to others in the community and making London a much better place to live for us all, so give her a cheer!) we made our way over to Waterloo Farm, with Paul back-marking. Unfortunately the Farm Manager wasn't able to get into London today, but he did tell us of some areas around the farm that were in deep need of a clean up, that him and his volunteers could not usually get around to doing. So donned with some very fetching "bluple" (blue and/or purple?!) gloves and some bin bags we split into two groups and made our way around the outskirts of the farm, picking up any litter that we came across. We managed to fill 4 bags full, which is 4 bags worth of litter that the community won't need to see when visiting the farm this week - great work team!

Following our task we did a quick Tabata style HIIT workout (thank GG Wandsworth's Ana for the fitness session idea!) which involved 20s of hard work, followed by 10s rest and this was repeated 8 times (4 minutes total). We did this twice, so well done everyone for sticking with it! For the first round we alternated between squats and burpees, and for the second round we did curtsey squats and spidermans - an all-round great workout for the legs and the core, both important muscle groups to work on for posture and power when running.

We ran the final 2km back to base and did some stretches to finish off our evening piece of getting fit and doing good. If you're up for joining us next week, when we will be heading to Brunswick Square, you can sign up here.

We said our farewells, and wished Paul luck for his Brighton Marathon this weekend (yes, he's got 2 weekends of back to back marathons - give this man a cheer!).

All of the pun credit goes to Paul and Anna - fabulous work!

Before running a total of 4km on our Tuesday evening, we heard about some upcoming events to keep an eye out for! GoodGym are heading to the Hackney Half on May 20th, and if you'd like to enter the event then let me know as we have a discount code! Some runners are also volunteering at the event by hosting one of the water stations - we already have about 15 volunteers, so let me know if you'd like to be added to the list.

As a small group we managed to dodge all the commuters really quickly, and everyone kept up with our speedier than usual pace. We did some sightseeing en route as we picked our way through Westminster, and over the bridge, spying the London Eye and Big Ben. After a brisk 2.2km, and some red light squat challenges, we arrived to meet Roddy, the Oasis Farm Waterloo manager, who welcomed us in and showed us what we needed to do. Oasis Farm Waterloo is a fantastic space in the centre of the city where people from every background can come to enjoy the space, animals and plants. They are working to build a safe and inspiring neighbourhood and run initiatives, such as one where local school children can come and learn about the importance of mental health whilst taking care of the new piglets.

The task: We had 3 big planters to move. This involved removing the soil & bricks, moving the planter, and then replacing the soil and bricks! Now last time we visited the farm we had about 15 runners, and managed to move 3 planters, so we had our work cut out. Here at GoodGym King's we love a challenge, and got stuck in straight away. After lots of hard work, and a very good back & arm workout, we managed to get all 3 moved in just 50 minutes - something that would take their usual volunteers a week or two to do, so Roddy was really grateful!

We spent a few minutes in awe of the little lambs and piglets that were at the farm. Last time we came it was dark so we could hear them all, but couldn't see them. With the evenings getting brighter, we can enjoy the visual elements of our runs much more!

We headed straight back to King's, over Waterloo Bridge, and did a full body stretch after all our hard work.

I won't be about next week, but remarkable Rachel will be here in my place, so you'll be sure to have fun! You can sign up for next week here.

Tonight we visited Oasis Farm Waterloo, an urban farm and community resource in Waterloo, a hidden gem just moments from the Southbank, and the closest farm to Parliament. We also managed to run 4km and fit in a quick but tough circuits session.

Joining us for their first ever GoodGym group run, we had the amazing Rajmund, Anna, Georgia, Octavia and Theo (wow so many!) – give them a cheer for coming out in the cold and using their run to do some good. As well as welcoming these fab runners we also heard about the Long Run taking place in South London this weekend for anyone that’s about, and a little reminder of the Thursday running fitness session happening in Vauxhall this week.

As well as braving the cold, here at GoodGym King’s we also had to brave the busy Waterloo Bridge Commute as we couldn’t head out over Blackfriars Bridge as usual due to the location of the task. We practiced our dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge techniques and headed out. With everyone safely over the bridge, we made quick work of the rest of the journey down to the farm and met Roddy outside.

The task: The super organised Roddy split us up into groups when we arrived and showed us each to a planter – we needed to remove all the soil, take out all the bricks, move the planter, and then re-fill it with the bricks and soil – we had a tough 40 minutes ahead of us with a good arm workout! Between us we managed to fully move a couple of planters and make a great start on 2 or 3 more which some volunteers are going to finish off in the morning. I think the sounds of the animals settling down for sleep helped us work hard (especially the pigs from the Pig Palace!).

Roddy kindly let us use the farm's new barn for our fitness session as it started to rain. We went through questions like "are you scared of spiders?", "have you eaten any pancakes already today?" and "do you cycle to work?" - if you answered yes to the question you had a 40 second strength exercise to do, if you answered no then it was a 40 second cardio exercise. After lots of squats, high knees and mountain climbers (great suggestion Sophie!), we were ready to head back to King's. We waved goodbye to Roddy with promises of coming back soon to help with more tasks (hopefully in slightly warmer weather)! We ran back a slightly longer route, with slightly better views, over Westminster Bridge and did some stretches back at the base.

Credit to Gosia for the pun!

Next week is student volunteering week, so join us for our special run to help Rhythm of Life, a superb homeless charity in Covent Garden.