We introduced two newbies to KCL goodgym this week... Welcome Sam and Chloe - give them a cheer!

We started with a warm up on the pavement, where we made an effort to remember everyone's names by matching up 'everybunny' with an animal - and it certainly worked! As we got going, 'Rachel the Rhino' led the way over Waterloo Bridge charging past the pedestrians (in a polite and gentle charging kind of way...). We had to stop half way for a sun appreciation photo - check out those sunshine smiles!

We were welcomed with huge smiles by Lynnsey at the Nursery who was ready with a list of jobs for us to get stuck into. 'Paul the Panda' was most excited to meet the bunnies, and was first to volunteer to clean out the hutches, with Sam opting to join him with the dirty work - nice one lads! I think Paul was a bit dissapointed that clearing out the hutches didn't involve much cuddling time, however he was lucky enough to have a cuddle while they were transported into the fenced garden. Check out the photos and give Paul a cheer if you think him and his fluffy friends look super cute! Meanwhile, with gloves and secateurs in hand, Nat and Chloe got stuck in to the gardening tasks, hacking at overgrown Ivy, tidying the edges, weeding, and dodging rabbits hoping around the garden! 'Nat the Newt' said she had NEVER done gardening before (maybe they don't have gardens where newts live?), but she did a great job so well done Nat - let's give her a cheer for her first gardening experience! The boys did a fab job with the hutches, including managing to catch one rabbit when she escaped the fence!! Lynnsey was 'hopping mad' about the awesome work we had done, and before we knew it it was time to tidy things away and say our farewells.

On our way back we stopped at the gardens in St Johns Church for a fitness circuit. We did tricep dips, burpees, abs, mountain climbers, sprints, press ups, supermans .... the lot! We even managed to incorporate some of our very own bunny hops, which 'Chloe the Cat' absolutely bossed - give her a cheer! (Perhaps she was more chasing the bunnies that immitating them..?). We didn't cover much distance on the run this week but the circuits definitely made up for it - top effort team!

As we headed back over the bridge 'Sam the Snake' took the lead snaking his way through the busy pavements until we returned back to base where we had a cool down and stretching session.

Don't forget about the King's Big Run happening this Thursday. Hope to see some friendly faces again soon :)

Happy hopping, bipity bopping!

Tonight we visited St Patrick’s Montessori Day Nursery, who deliver a fantastic service for children in the local area (0-5 yr olds!). We also ran 4km and chucked a few hill sprints in for good measure.

We had two new runners this evening - Liv and Meran - so give them a cheer for coming along GoodGym!

We had a lot of news this evening, so just to remind you all:

• Running Fitness sessions with Westminster trainer, Joel: whether you're a fitness newbie or a seasoned marathon runner Joel can help you improve. Beginners very much welcome. They are meeting at 6.45pm outside Vauxhall tube station in front of Nando's, and everything will be wrapped up by 7.45pm. Sign up here for the first one this Thursday.

• GoodGym Social: It's next Thursday 8th Feb at the Square Pig in Holborn, 6.30pm. We can revel in our successful January Challenge results - see you there! Sign up here.

• King's Sport Rave Runs: A women only event on the last Wednesday of every month, 7-9pm from London Bridge Gym - first one is tomorrow, you can sign up here.

• Love Running Strava Challenge: Spend an hour running in the two weeks before Valentines day to win the Love Running badge. Find out more here.

• Mini marathon trial mission: Help out at this event for the athletes of the future! If you would like to help out here but haven't had your DBS check done, then let's get it done this week - just email me!

• There are still places available for the Big Half: At just £10 a pop, you can enter the Big Half with GoodGym. It's taking place on 4th March and you can find out more info here.

After all that news it was about time we headed out on the run - with Nina and Bryony back-marking we made our way down embankment and over Blackfriars Bridge, waving to a cheerful runner in a GoodGym top as he strode by. We stopped off to do a squat hold and some step-ups on the way over, but that didn't slow us down and we made it to the nursery very quickly.

The task: We met the very cheerful Lynnsey at the nursery and she split us up into 3 teams. 1 group tackled cutting out some flyers to put into jars, another took on the tricky task of filming the windows in the newly decorated baby room, and the final group headed to the kitchen hallway to clean some walls and re-shelve some storage. With lots of work to do we got cracking straight away. It took a while to work out how to re-shelve the kitchen storage, but with all our GoodGym minds put together we figured it out just in time and managed to raise all the shelves up before we had to leave. The group filming the windows had a big task as they had to make sure the windows were perfectly clean before measuring and cutting the film to size and sticking it to the window - I'm sure the nursery kids will love the work we did in there! With all the jars filled, 2 windows filmed, kitchen hallway cleaned and storage re-shelved, we waved goodbye to Lynnsey and the nursery and ran back to King's.

We arrived back with 5 minutes to spare - just enough time to squeeze in some hill sprints on Surrey Street! We focused on making sure the front of the foot made contact with the floor first, pumping our arms and keeping our torsos upright.

Fab running everyone! Join me next week for some more fun, games, running and doing good!

For our final run of 2017 we certainly had a chilly one. Plus this week we also welcomed some new runners to King’s - Anna and Annabelle - give them a cheer everybody!

After find out what GoodGym is all about we locked up our bags and went outside for a brisk warm up. We discussed what everyone is hoping to open up on Christmas day, and most answers related to warm clothing - I'm think we weren't prepared for this cold snap?!

We had a short 2km run ahead of us, but with Nina backmarking, we took it easy due to all the ice about.

The task: We soon arrived at St Patrick's Montessori Nursery School to find Lynnsey and her colleagues dressed up in amazing elf outfits from their day's activities with the kids. It filled us with such festive spirit walking into the nursery! Lynnsey grabbed us some gloves and showed us out to the garden where there were brooms and dustpans waiting for us. Our task was to sweep the garden, and do some weeding around the edges. We split up into pairs to tackle different areas and got it all done in just about 20 minutes - such a speedy team! We even had time to meet bibbity and bobbity, the nursery's pet rabbits.

Once finished we made our way to King's Sport Waterloo Gym for a cheeky indoor fitness session with Paddy. He had come up with a great 12 Christmas buns HIIT session for us, with 30 seconds on, 20 seconds off. It was all about working on our core and legs, key muscles to concentrate on for runners! Damian was excluded from the group as he was too tall for the tuck jumps, so had his own area of the gym to workout in. Here it is if you want to try it again! 12 days of squatting 11 days of burpees 10 days of lunges 9 days of Glute raises 8 days of jump squats 7 days of jump lunges 6 days of split squats 5 days of lateral lunges 4 days of tuck jumps 3 days of donkey kick backs 2 days SL RDL 1 day of plank

We then headed back to King's for some very gentle stretching.

Fab running from everyone in the cold today - try to keep it up over the Winter Holidays! If you need any motivation, advice or want to get your docs checked then just email me. Our first run back is on 2nd Jan and you can already sign up here.

Merry Christmas y'all - have a lovely time!

Mm ba ba de Um bum ba de Um bu bu bum da de

Queen was in our heads last night as we were under pressure to complete our task to make sure the garden was safe for the children to use the next day!

Last night was a power women night as we took to the streets and welcomed some new runners to King’s GoodGym - Kaz Joyner and Daniela Mittelstadt - they definitely deserve a cheer for coming out on such a chilly evening!

We started our evening run with a warm up in the quad and some quick introductions to find out what everyones favourite thing about living in London is - with parks and friends featuring! We also heard a bit about the Neon Run that King's have planned as part of their This Girl Can week - you can find out more here. We then set out on our run to help St Patrick's Montessori Nursery with tearing down a trellis in their garden.

After a longer jog over Blackfriars bridge there, we were greeted by Lynnsey, who explained to us everything that needed doing and we got straight to work.

The task: We needed to remove the trellis and plant bed it was attached to - this will make much more space for the children of the nursery to enjoy in their garden. We also cut back lots of the ivy to make sure the garden was safe for everyone to enjoy! We made quick work of the trellis, and after a bit more time we managed to pull apart the plant bed too We found a treasure haul of plastic food toys amongst the mud (wonder how long that had been there?!). It was a struggle fitting it in the bin, and everyone got mud poured all over them, but Kaz climbed right on top and managed to squish it down - great work.

Once finished we made our way (with our trainers and clothes full of tiny grains of mud) to the King's Sport Health and Fitness Waterloo Gym for a fitness session treat with one of the coaches, Connor. He led us on a 12 minute spinning session and we learned that doing some interval cross training like this can really help with our power when running, and is a good activity to do as a workout with less impact on our knees and ankles (which can sometimes cause an issue amongst runners!). Thanks Connor!

Great running from everyone today - see you next week, when we will be heading back to the British Legion to help with dismantling their Poppy Appeal boxes. It's going to be a great task so I will see you there!