Five GoodGymers left the Showroom on another glorious Monday night with half an idea of where we were going! After finding Sustrans Simon and the other Sustrans volunteers, we found Curly Cat too. Armed with litter pickers, shovels, snippers and brooms we spent 45 minutes clearing up an overgrown section of the cycle network. We snipped picked, brushed and scraped at the vegetation that was narrowing the path and cleared up around the benches and stairs to make the area more appealing for both foot and bike passengers.

As ever, there were some excellent finds including a duvet! We dragged out a load of Himalayan Balsam and stinging nettles. We also saw a beautiful flock of geese land themselves in the river.

By the time we left, this area of the cycle network which it very widely used was much more inviting for the public and as we were working, lots of the users thanked us which is always lovely to hear!

Another great job for the GoodGymers.

Looks like the evenings are drawing in us again and so from next week, it is probably time to dig out those head torches!

On a very muggy Sheffield eve we headed out to meet Sustrans Simon and the 'owner' of the patch of the NCN we were working on; Jerry.

Simon had arrived on his legendary trailer full of all the tools of the trade from pickers and hoops to spades and brushes, all delivered and returned using sustainable transport.

We got stuck in with some of us litter picking and others weeding and shoveling all sorts of detritis into bin bags for the council to collect at a later date.

By the time we were done this stretch of the National Cycle Network was looking much more inviting to all who would use it.

Whilst on site we had a number of joggers and cyclists thank us for our efforts which is always nice.

Until next time, happy running! :)

After an initial 'design concept' visit we returned to the Sustrans Sheffield lock up to finish what we had started and make the lock up more organised and in doing so make it better for other volunteers to quickly grab what they needed tool wise before heading out to improve and maintain our fantastic National Cycle Network!

We welcomed a new runner this week. Give a whoop, hola, cheer and follow to:

Nathanael

Thanks for joining us Nathanael and hope to see you back next week!

We split the group as the space was small and litter was at large! Some got to picking the litterbug hotspots whilst some of us got on with finishing tidying and organising the lock up.

Rachel did a fantastic job finishing the tool racking, ready for tools to be safely organised and maximise space in the lock up.

Tom and Annie set about re-organising other areas of the lock up to maximise the efficency of the space!

Annie was even planning colour schemes for the walls!

After we had spent our time there, the place was looking more organised than ever and ready for future efficient and organised volunteering!

Nice work everyone!

Back to a classic GG task helping out Sustrans litterpicking and cutting back vegetation on our nation cycle routes!

It was grand to welcome a new runner - Mark! As our task wasn't too far from our starting point, we chose to take a little detour to add some extra kilometers on to the run. Obviously, because this is Sheffield, we hit a mega hill along the way but this small but perfectly formed team handled it like the bosses they are.

Whenever we litter pick, we like to start a competition for the best find; one shoe and a toy diver who watch over us whilst we worked. 5 bags of rubbish and 45 minutes later we had a clear and tidy cycle route!

We ran a more direct route back to base and had a good stretch out. Job well done!

Something a tad different this week...

On a stormy looking Bank Holiday Monday we headed up hill to the SUSTRANS lock up to help Simon with sorting the SUSTRANS tools to make it easier for Sustrans volunteers to get into the lock up, find what they need and get out to do the fantastic work that they do all over the city helping to look after the active travel routes all over Sheffield.

After some discussion and tool placement trying we settled on some designs for how we would recycle/upcycle bookshelves and pallets to store and organise the various different tools that are in the lock up.

By the end of our time at the lock up it was already looking loads better and more organised and we think with one more session there, we should have a really useful and well organised lock up for the volunteers to use.

Until next time, happy running! :)

5 Women Goodgym runners went in a group run to Lynnwood Gardens. With spades the wonder women digged dashed and cleared soil and debri along the path to make it tidy and safe. John and Liz from Sustrans really appreciated our teamwork. strength and cooperation. Worked really hard in the dark with additional lighting.