4 runners ran 5km taking donated items to Oasis Playspace

Our GoodGym runners stayed positive after downpours and lightning only an hour before the run and arrived with smiles on their faces and tales of their parents taking up Pilates and completing a first 10k!

Inspired by these stories we picked up the four bags full of nappies and newborn care packs from King's College London Health Centre, that they can no longer use.

Four bags for four runners – it was meant to be!

The donations were to be dropped off at Oasis Hub Waterloo for the charity Oasis Playspace so they can be used by families with babies who are in need of help.

The charity’s vision is to play a central role in facilitating those all important social and support networks for parents and whole families in the community.

The bags weren’t the easiest to carry but it did mean we had to concentrate on running technique such as quick steps and travelling forwards rather than bouncing up and down.

We took a few meanders through the streets (thanks to Amy for the navigation assistance!) but we all agreed how it can be nice to take the back streets and new paths.

When we arrived and it took a bit of work finding someone to let us in but Katrien spotted a man in the Hub so we knocked the window and the kind chap came to our rescue.

It’s not often you get a smile handing over a bag of nappies!

We stopped off at the Jubilee Gardens on the way back and did a few rounds of Tabata HIIT training and wow we worked up a sweat! 20 seconds high intensity 10 seconds rest, a really great way to increase your aerobic and anaerobic system with short four minute rounds.

A big thanks to Anna for helping to capture the Tabata and run action on camera!

Sign up for next week here we'll be heading across to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge to help with the city's Big Clean Up event.

We all met for a lovely spot of running and doing good - making the most of our lunchbreak in the sunshine! It's super important to take a break from studying (especially at this time of year!), and from work, to get involved in your local community and do some physical activity at the same time.

YMCA Group

We started off with a nice warmup to get ready for our 2km run up towards Goodge Street. Our task was to help the YMCA charity shop sort out there mounting donations and have a general tidy up. The team got involved with sorting clothes onto the appropriate hanger sizes, tiding donations on shelves, pricing cds, dusting shelves and tidying the shop floor. The gang achieved loads in just 30minutes. After our time was up we said our goodbyes and headed back to base on the back streets to avoid the lunchtime pedestrians. Lovely stuff.

Groundswell cards group

A fabulous four ran 4km, passing by the LSE, along the Strand, over the Thames and under the IMAX. As we ran we stopped every-so-often to hand cards to homeless people, informing them that they can access GP care when they need it, without having to give an address or present ID. We chatted as we ran, talking about parkrun, exams and boat trips on the Thames. Taking advantage of the grass in Temple Gardens and the benches on the terrace, we also managed to fit in a little fitness session, working our cores and our upper body - great work everyone, thanks for a lovely run and good luck in your exams!

St Luke's Community Centre group

Our group of 10 runners were pumped for a 3k run in the sun to the lovely St Luke's Community Centre, and, avoiding the lift, we hopped outside for our warm up. After having a quick discussion about our favourite ice creams for summer (how were there only two votes for the king of icecreams, the Twister?!) we got our heart rates up with a series of fast feet, high knees, heel flicks and a brief coordination exercise. We set off along what was possibly the busiest road in London, but all that weaving round people just tested our reflexes and make us run further, which can only be a good thing.

With a few stops along the way for squats and wall sits, we arrived in good time to find Marco waiting for us with a massive job. This charity, on the edge of the City, aims to improve the lives of the people living in the area by providing a community centre and services that will help break down barriers and contribute towards making it welcoming, safe, healthy, and active. They have recently established an edible garden complete with some very beautiful chickens, and our job was to sort out a huge shed that needed completely emptying, cleaning and restocking. It sounds like a simple task, right? That's what we thought, until we saw that it was stacked to the brim with oil cans, massive bags of compost and chairs. Unfazed, we got stuck straight in, starting on what turned out to be a great strength work out. 15 minutes later, the shed was clear so we gave it a clean down, knocked up some flooring, and then moved everything back in to the shed more efficiently. By the end of the task we were muddy from top to toe, had aching arms, but a proper sense of satisfaction for getting the job done. Nice work, everyone.

Splitting up into two groups to head home, we gradually picked up the pace and finished with a last push to get back to King's, where a delicious and well earned lunch was waiting for us. Well done team St Luke's!

If anyone is interested in more runs then check out the GoodGym King's runs here and GoodGym's run to do good from City Hall on 4th June here.

We had a brand new task this evening, with a slightly longer than usual route planned, to Providence Row, a charity that tackle the root causes of homelessness to help people off the streets.

With a long run ahead of us we had a very quick introduction, where we welcomed our two new runners Lizzie and Becca (give them a cheer for coming to their first group run!), heard about the Free GoodGym Long Run and the social in Penge. We did a quick warm up and spoke about all the wonderful things that Spring brings to London and then headed off down the Thames.

After dodging lots of commuters, we made it to Providence Row in quick time, and met Olivia there who showed us up to the roof garden. It was up lots of flights of stairs, so we got a good leg workout en route, and were rewarded with a view of some of the city and a lovely looking roof garden. They use their roof garden to grow food that they use in their kitchen to teach their kitchen apprentices how to cook. The garden is being displayed in a garden show soon, so our task was to scrub away the moss on the deck, to make it look as lovely as possible! We grabbed our handbrushes and brooms and got stuck straight in.

Whilst working Michael thought of not just one, but two puns for the run report, so I had decide between the two and we hope you like it!

We stayed for about 45 minutes, incorporating our fitness session into the task as it was such a good arm workout! We finished scrubbing the moss from one big area of the garden, but may have to go back another time to finish the job in some of the other areas. We waved goodbye to Olivia and made our way back to King's to do some stretches and talk about next week's task. We are heading back to Providence Row to give their art room a good clean and tidy. You can sign up here.

Before setting off we had a quick warm up outside the Student Union and all discussed what we hoped we would be having for dinner - Beth surprised everyone with porridge (apparently a common dinner choice!) and Danny hadn't made his mind up yet so we all helped him out with some ideas! With some food motivation on the horizon we began the run...

Our task this week was to give Groundswell NHS cards to the homeless so they could access the local GP without having to provide a proof of address. Keeping in mind the vulnerability of the people involved we decided we would run along the river to to get our legs working before slowing it down and splitting off into groups to hand out the cards in a gentle and approachable manner.

We ran from the strand up to Blackfriars bridge, crossed the river and made our way back down towards Waterloo. We crossed the jubilee gardens and headed towards the station and under the iMax in hope to find some people who would appreciate the NHS cards. It was a slow start, and despite previously noticing a number of homeless people around this area we had only given out two cards after the first 15 minutes. We kept morale high, hoping to distribute as many cards as possible, but also grateful that there weren't as many people sleeping on the streets as we had hoped. Michael cleverly spotted a sleeping bag on the floor in the distance which turned out to be a couple sleeping, so as to not disturb their peace he left them a card next to their belongings. We crossed back over the river at Westminster and handed out a few cards on the home run back along the strand.

As we were cooling down and stretching we discussed the task and all agreed that it was very worthwhile, with each person we approached being incredibly thankful for our reach out. It was also surprising that most people hadn't heard of the scheme, so to be able to create this awareness was a wonderful experience. As well as a fantastic task, we managed to cover a whopping 6.5km!

Fab work today everyone, I hope you enjoyed your salmon, stirfry, porridge, fruit and Guinness (!) for dinner :) see you next week when we are scrubbing the deck of a rooftop garden!

Last night we ran along to Covent Garden to visit Rhythms of Life, a superb charity who feed, educate and provide clothes for the homeless.

Rebecca came along to her first ever group run tonight - give her a cheer for using her run to do some good on a Tuesday evening! Egg, the trainer for GoodGym York also paid us a visit, and it was lovely to have her. We had a little reminder of the Thursday running fitness session happening in Vauxhall this week (the final one of the series before it moves to another area!), and wished everyone luck in their upcoming races. Next week we also have a one-off lunchtime group run for University Mental Health Day! It's on Thursday lunchtime and you can sign up here.

We did some warm up exercises to activate all the muscles we'd be using for our run before doing a headcount and finding out which company everyone would like to be the CEO of. Answers ranged from the likes of Cadbury and Itsu (I suspect for never ending free goodies), to the V&A, the Dog's Trust and London Zoo - all very worthy organisations! If anyone makes it, let me know, as I'd like some special perks for helping you realise your goals!

The task: As it was just a short run there, we arrived in super speedy time, and met Faris, who told us a bit about the charity and showed us to the different rooms where they had tasks that needed doing. Once small group took on the Atrium, where they needed to remove lots of the furniture that was cluttering the room up, to make space so they could use the room for activities for the homeless. The main bulk of the group set to work on the clothes donation room. The charity are very lucky and get a lot of clothes donations, however it currently takes their volunteers hours to find the right piece of clothing as it's not in any kind of order. We helped to categorise all the clothing by putting it all in crates with labels. A splinter group removed all the bags of clothes that didn't have labels on, rifled through them, and put labels in the top so we knew what was in there as soon as the bags were opened. This will make it easier for some of the regular volunteers to sort through the items (or for us next time we come!). There was so much to do and so we could only make a start today, but we will be back to keep working on the task soon.

After washing our hands, and getting a quick photo by the Rhythms of Life sign, we headed off into the night to make our way back to King's. When we arrived back we used the hill outside for our hardcore fitness session. This week we combined a typical speed skater's workout, keeping in theme with the winter olympics. Speed skaters have to generate a lot of power in their legs for their initial sprints at the beginning of their race. They do this by integrating lots of pylometric exercises into their programmes. Pylometrics is a type of jump training where your muscles exert a huge force in a short space of time. This helps with building the power! We split the group in half, and while one half did the hill sprint (focussing on an upright posture and pumping their arms), and easy run back down, the other half completed an exercise such as frog jumps, jumping squats and tuck jumps. They then swapped over, and did it all again!

Thanks Gosia for the photos as always!

Next week, Rachel and/or Sophie will be leading the run and you're going back to the YMCA charity shop by Goodge Street to sort through some of their donations. You can sign up here. Plus don't forget the lunchtime group run, leaving from our King's Sport Health and Fitness Waterloo Gym on Thursday 1st March. Sophie and Rachel will also be leading this and you'll be heading to Oasis Farm Waterloo - a fab task! You can sign up for that here.