Every year the RSPB asks the public to be more scientific. More precisely, they ask to sit for 1 hr during a weekend and count birds. Yes, birds.

Luckily, they also provide a list of birds they are interested in and...instructions as to what counts as a sighting of a bird. If it is a finch and it perches on your garden fence, you can count it. If it hovers over your garden, then no.

Did this stop the good gymmers from pointing at birds every time they flew over? Of course, not and here is why.

The task was carried out at the Oasis Cardiff which is located on a busy street. The fact they could spot the some birds was already a success. The task was important nonetheless because the results of the survey provide the Oasis gardeners with evidence about the state of wildlife and therefore plan a strategy for the next year.

Today 3 runners: Ellen, Aimee and Nathan, made it to the Big Yellow storage facility on Penarth Road to help RSPB Cymru empty its lock up of unwanted equipment and materials. This was needed in order to make space for materials from the RSPB office to be archived or stored away, because the RSPB Cymru HQ office is going to be refurbished soon.

When we got there, there was already one trolley of old and broken equipment loaded up: A-frames, tables, screens, marquee frames, etc which we then added to from the rest of the 'small stuff'. The heaviest materials still needed to be loaded onto another 2 trolleys including a multi-tiered bug hotel, made up of pallets and lots of habitat friendly materials (straw, pine cones, twigs etc where creepy-crawlies love to hide). Plus a meadow habitat display, made up of 4-5 large slaps of fake earth, grass and meadow flowers, which had been used at various public events here in Wales (Royal Welsh Show, Hay Festival etc) to demonstrate how valuable meadow habitat is for the health of our environment. However, it all had to go, so onto the trolleys it all went.

In just under an hour, we filled 3 trolleys with stuff for the council to come collect the next day, and freed up enough space for much needed material to be stored there properly and safely. Result!

This Saturday, as part of #JanuaryChallenge, 14 runners took part in the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch! Now in its 41st great, this is the UK's oldest and largest wildlife survey of its kind!

Armed with spotter sheets and pens, we headed out in 3 groups to spot the largest number of birds of any species as we count find, at once. And what a result!

One group saw: 2 blue tits (titw tomos las in Welsh!) 11 coal tits 3 wood pigeon 1 long-tailed tit 1 blackbird

Another group spotted: 2 swans 8 mallards 1 crow 1 heron 3 wood pigeons 10 (approx) longtailed tits (we think) 1 robin 1 female blackbird 2 blue tits

And a third group found: 3 pied wagtails 2 song thrushes 1 great tit 2 woodpigeon 2 blackbirds 1 robin 6 goldginch 10 long tailed tits 2 goosander 11 mallards 5 magpies 2 bluetits 2 coal tits And 150 crows (yep! But we may not enter that many onto the website 😆)

Don't forget you enter you're results onto the RSPB's website, here!

This evening 24 GoodGym runners ran gallantly to help out the RSPB with clearing the grounds at St Mary's Church on Bute Street

"Welcome to GoodGym!" Ben said loudly, greeting runners old and new! This week, a whopping THREE new runners took part in the GoodGym; Welcome Owen, Yacub and Nian! It was also really great to have Tom running with GoodGym again, he last ran with GoodGym last year and since then he has been to the land down under, Australia - We are glad to have you back :) . This week Emma celebrated her 100th good deed with GoodGym - this means that she has run 100 times to help out community projects and older people in the community ( Not only are you amazing, but you also get to wear the rainbow GoodGym wings for the duration of the group run - I know, how exciting! )! Ellen and Darren were also congratulated for taking part in the St David's day 10k on Sunday and Mikey and Emma were applauded undertaking a mission to help out an older person... Remember to bring your documents for the DBS check so you can do missions/coach running too.

After a brief warm up everyone was eager to get on their way. For the run there we split into two groups. Ben led the group of runners who wanted a further and faster run to the task and the Daz man led the runners who wanted to look elegant whilst running, taking the direct route through town to the task. And in what felt like no time at all, we arrived!

Welcome to St Mary's Church, GoodGym!

Susan and Dean welcomed the runners to the church. As some of the runners were new and had not run to help out there before, Susan told everyone about the RSPB and the wonderful project they are leading on at the church grounds, to help turn the green space into a place where wildlife can thrive.

Without further ado everyone got stuck into the task before darkness drew in. Here are some of the tasks runners got involved with:

• Litter picking the church grounds - Nic, El, Rosie and Aimee
• Digging up tree trunks - Su, Mikey, Darren, Owen, Nian, Adam,
• Sawing down trees - Yacub
• Weeding the paths - Tom, Keira, Lowri, Lucy, Ellen, Amy, Jack, Peter and Ellen
• Raking the piles of soil - Charlotte and Lydia
• Chopping the trees - Emma

As it began to get darker Ben whapped out his portable floodlight and gave out some head torches... "Let there be light" he cried! And so there was... Charlotte said "this is a right pickle," while using a massive rake! A huge trunk got excavated during the task and Lydia and Charlotte both found an animal!! (a cushion toy pretend... thing).

After 30 minutes of helping out the task was done. Susan and Dean were both really impressed by our hard efforts. Yacub got a special mention who sawed through the trees as if they were twigs!

Bakers, time is up! ... I mean GoodGym, time is up!

Our run back to Big Moose

With about 17 minutes remaining until 8pm, we had time to take a slightly longer route back. We ran down Bute Street and then up some steps and back down Lloyd George Avenue and then back through town.

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With the task over it was time for the Pun for the Run. Well done to Emma who came up with it this week and takes away the RunPunStiltskin award!

What are you waiting for?...

Now is the time get signed up to next week's group run! Click here to get signed up

The end of the school summer holidays saw a cooler Tuesday evening than of late and 26 enthusiastic Goodgym runners assemble at the Big Moose café ready to help out the RSPB. There was a buzz in the air as the newer runners and regular members chatted excitedly and shared stories of their running and Goodgym experiences so far. At 6.30pm, the group hastily made their way outside for the warm up, round up of the weekly news and head count. Tonight’s headcount featured everyone naming their favourite thing to eat for dinner. Pizza came out as the most popular choice – yum! The runners who took part in the Cardiff 10K were cheered for their efforts and Darren and Nathan shared their experience of the gardening mission they completed last weekend for a lovely 94 year old lady.

Without further ado we were off! We ran as one group on a less than direct route to the task at St Mary’s Church just to give us a slightly longer run and time for more of Ben’s en route fitness torture including holding a squat for one whole minute! There were a lot of groans and shaky legs. Within 15 minutes we reached our task location. Sue from the RSPB was there waiting for us at St Mary’s churchyard armed with tools galore and information about what the RSPB do and in particular are doing with this site. Sue explained the site was being transformed into a Buzz site to encourage pollinating insects and bugs which she told us are losing their habitats with more and more becoming endangered. The project also aims to increase awareness and involvement of the local community especially in educating children and allowing families to join in and get hands on.

So to the task at hand…

The first team set to work were Rosie and Fiona who were given shears and a rake and asked to trim an area of overgrown grass which will be turned into a wildflower meadow. Rosie got chopping while Fiona used the rake to make neat piles of the cuttings. Later in the task she asked Darren to move the piles to the area where all of the cuttings had been piled up awaiting the return of the skip for removal from the site and exclaimed, ‘Darren’s got piles!’ – he took the joke well. Next to be given their task for the night was team Jess, Jess and Rachel. They were handed loppers and asked to clear an area of overgrown shrubs and weeds. Those pesky weeds stood no chance with these three on the case chopping away with their super sharp loppers. The remaining runners were split into two teams. One team collected spades and forks and were asked to dig over an area that we had cleared on a previous task ready for creating a woodland wonderland for the insects. The other team were tasked with moving a large pile of cuttings closer to the exit of the site ready for the skip coming at a later date. Martin scooped up a huge amount of cuttings in one go and posed beautifully for a photo taken by Ben with Ben shouting, ‘show me your bush Martin!’ There may have been a few cheeky sniggers. Lucy and Darren saw an opportunity for a litter pick and went around picking up the litter from the area to be turned into a woodland habitat. Encouraged by their actions, Nathan, Marian and Elle joined in and picked up any litter they saw in their vicinity to make the site look a whole lot better. During the task Ben kept us entertained and our minds active with a riddle or two. ‘What’s red when you start and green when you finish it?’ Did you get the answer?

One minute to go!

Before we knew it Ben gave the 1 minute countdown and the task was over. A couple of group photos in the churchyard followed before collecting up the tools and gloves. Sue thanked us for our help and difference we had made and said she hoped we would be back soon, hopefully to fill the skip when it arrives in a couple of weeks time.
We said goodbye and made to run back towards town and the Big Moose Café. ‘Ha, not so fast guys’ said Ben, we have lots of time left for more running and fitness so he led us off towards the Bay along Bute Street. On reaching the Bay we turned back towards the city centre and a series of sprints along Lloyd George Avenue followed. We managed to gain an extra little runner for part of the sprints with a young girl and her dad wanting to race with us. She asked if she could win so we gave her a small head start and we just couldn’t catch her! Her efforts earnt her a high five from Emma. After the sprints we ran through town and back to Frederick Street where the speedier runners supportively cheered in the sexy runners. A cool down and stretch followed with Ben letting everyone know that he will be posting some training plans in the Goodgym Cardiff facebook group for 10K and half marathon distances. We were also reminded about this week’s fantastic second group run on Thursday to help set up the Insport Disability Wales event. For all the details click here

And with that we were finished. With the Glassworks being closed for refurbishment it was a trip to Central Bar where Emma provided the snacks of peanut butter M n Ms brought back all the way from Canada – thanks Emma! The famous tweet-off warning came and a rare winner emerged in the race to be the first to retweet the Goodgym Cardiff post about tonight’s activities. Well done to… me actually!

Next week’s run is ‘plogging’ with Keep Wales Tidy. Litter picking will never have been so much fun, such great exercise or so satisfying. Get signed up here folks…

19 runners turned up at Big Moose ready to run and collect some more good deeds by doing good in the community!

There would be no other way to start this write up than to say a huge thank you to our friends at Big Moose. It is not often we are up the creek without a paddle, however two weeks ago we found out that Yr Hen Llyfrgell could no longer be our meeting point for our runs and this left us without a place to meet each week. Big Moose have kindly allowed us to use the café indefinitely, so we can keep doing good in the community (which is exactly what their mission is too) – if you are reading this with a tea, coffee, beer, glass of pinot grigio or maybe something as exciting as a glass of water, then raise it in the air for these guys now. And next time you are in town, pop in there for a coffee! Click here to find out more about Big Moose

At 6.30pm it was time to get stuck into our warm up. We all jogged on the spot whilst Ben told everyone about GoodGym – who knew that so much positive difference can be made in the world with running?! Ben then started off a headcount and as an icebreaker he announced what his favourite type of cake was (FYI, his favourite cake is carrot or coffee). Everyone else shared their favourite cake flavours too… Lemon drizzle, Walnut, Red Velvet were amongst the flavours that got mentioned, YUM! With cake on runners’ minds some people struggled with the headcount – oh dear oh dear. A HUGE welcome to the 4 new runners joining in the GoodGym run for their first time; Katie, Rachel, Harvey and Emma (Well done for coming along guys, you did awesome during tonight’s run!).

Salivating with all the talk of cake, it was time to head off on our run. Tonight we were running to clear pebbles from St Davids 2, load them into a van and then empty them at St Mary’s Church on Bute Street. The stones would then be used to create a habitat for wildlife at the church. Steve, who was our task organiser for the evening, met us at Big Moose and to everyone’s surprise started leading the run at an incredible pace, especially given that he was wearing boots with steel toecaps, full length work trousers and a smart white shirt – He must have a superman costume underneath!

After approximately 0.4 miles we arrived at one of the back entrances to St David’s 2. This was a no running zone and so we power walked the rest of the way to the task.

When we arrived at the task Steve explained what he needed us all to do. He set some runners the challenge of bagging up all of the rocks on the floor into white bags and instructed another team of runners to escort him to the roof where there were more pebbles that needed putting into bags. After an intense 10 minutes the pebbles on the roof were bagged and the pebbles on the floor were also bagged. “Great going guys” Steve said, impressed with our efforts so far. Steve then said, “that was challenge 1, now it’s time for challenge 2”. Challenge 2 was to load up all of the white bags of rocks into the van. After about 15 bags of pebbles were loaded and we all thought the van couldn’t take anymore weight, Steve proved us wrong by going up to the roof, dropping more bags of pebbles down the chute and asked runners to load the rest of the pebbles into the van – Steve was definitely a man with a van with a plan!

Some task antics!

• Fiona had the urge to slide down the chute
• Darren and Nathan were both amazed at the roundness of the pebbles
• Harvey made lifting the bags filled with pebbles look easy
• Amy and Keira managed to fill a bag full of pebbles each within 10 minutes!
• Ffion was running with her new running watch
• Nathan was getting stuck in on a Tuesday evening run now the youth club he leads has taken a break for the summer

Anymore antics i've missed? Comment them below!

Challenge 3 was still to come…

The task was not over yet. Steve set off in the van to St Mary’s Church on Bute street and the plan was for us all to meet him there. We ran through town and after about 10 minutes of running we arrived at the Church. We unloaded the van of all the rocks and we all breathed sighs of relief… the van was okay! We were proud with our efforts and with the knowledge that all of the pebbles we moved are going to be used to create a habitat for wildlife on the church grounds.

”Thank you for all of your help, you’ve really made a big difference and if the RSPB need anymore pebbles, we’d love for you to help out again, if you’d like to!”

We all waved Steve goodbye and thanked him for such an awesome task.

It was still only 7.30pm so that meant there was time for some FITNESS FUN!

All of the runners were excited about what was to come for the second half of the session and Ben had a treat in store for them. Ben led the runners from Bute street onto Lloyd George Avenue and informed everyone that there was time for some sprints! Everyone’s face lit up (Or just Adam’s face; he is a big lover of sprints). Ben then instructed everyone to do 50 metre sprints followed by a slow paced recovery jog and to see how many they could do in 10 minutes.

A round of applause! Everyone embraced the sprints and definitely had a good work out!

It was now time to run back to BIG MOOSE COFFEE CO! We took the Smart Way back – we genuinely did, check out the photos. Big Moose had really kindly made us some of the most scrumptious cakes in the world for us to have after our run (Maybe that’s why the run back was slightly quicker eyy?).

When we arrived at Big Moose we did our warm down, collected out belongings and the headed over to the Glassworks for………. Yes, you guessed it! Drinkypoos!!!

Don’t forget to sign up to next weeks run! CLICK HERE to get signed up! Do it now, don’t wait another minute :P