Sun, run and fun

25 runners gathered on what was probably our warmest run of 2019 yet, to head to Meath Gardens for some urgent gardening work.

We briefly warmed up on our hotel steps before heading a short run around the corner where task owners Asia and Julia were ready and waiting with a top plan for the evening...

A treeally urgent task

The young trees which we helped water from the canal last summer are all currently being swamped by various weeds, and so following some expert leafy lowdown from our task owners, runners were divided into three teams: two weeding the bases of the new trees; one on mulch-collection in the far corner of the park. Thistles were plucked, nettles nixed, sticky weed sent packing… But despite lightning-speed work, time went quickly and before long, it was all hands to the pump as we filled the last few remaining buckets with mulch and carefully laid it at the tree bases. This was a tiring task, wading through long grass and huge thistles – and running trolleys full of mulch around a very large park. Steps galore. But we made good progress, and achieved a lot by 8.10pm, and Julia and Asia were delighted.

Top-to-toe before we go

And then we made our way to the centre of Meath Gardens for this week’s speedy head-to-toe conditioning work. Alas, the promised ‘pulsing playlist’ was more of a tinny tunefest in the absence of the usual trusty speaker. But luckily the runners got to hear me talking non-stop, instructing them through this evening’s line up of jack squats (sorry, but they are really good for you); scorpion and grasshopper push ups (again, sorry, but lovely to continue our wildlife theme) and some killer abs exercises. They looked bemused but managed to squeeze out every last rep, which is the main thing.

And so we called it a day, finishing with a couple of stretches before heading back to The Official Stretching Railings in Peel Grove for some final flexibility work.

Amazing. Amazing energy, amazing work, amazing humour, amazing friendliness…Team TH, it's official: you are amazing.

And so to this week’s big shout-out’s

Big shout-outs to backmarkers Leanne and Katherine, and massive thanks for pun fun and suggestions to Bryon and Steve and Rachel.

A big thanks and cheerio to our runner Pauline, who leaves us this week for more travels, but who’s contributed bundles in her short time with us.

And, as per pics, a very big shout out to all our runners and volunteers who put in such a big effort in yesterday’s Hackney Half. Really great stuff. You can read all about it here, in Danny's brilliant report. And, talking of Danny, an extra special shout-out to him, who's helping us find our way with our race volunteering events, and who helped us out with this one with everything from talking me through the sign-up and admin process, to helping TH GoodGymers get their best freebies on the day. Hope to see you soon, Danny!

What’s coming up...

Right, two things to flag up before I head off…

• This coming Saturday (25th May), our Friends of Meath Gardens will be at the wonderful Globe Town Spring Community Fair, which is taking place at Globe Town Market. Running from 11-2, you’ll have the chance to eco-craft with Plastic Free Roman Road, chat more to Friends of Meath about the work they do at the park we were at tonight, and, if you fancy it, you can get your face painted too. What’s not to like?

• And then next Monday, it may be a Bank Holiday but we run as usual! Hurrah! And we’re heading back to Parkview, for more geranium-planting fun, and saying hello to residents with some new seeds!

In the meantime, enjoy the sun, go for a run – and have fun. Have a wicked week, everyone!

A large crew headed to this much-loved local arts centre this evening for painting and Pilates.

A cool sized crew

Yes, we were a team of 34 this evening, with a real flurry of new runners, which we were delighted about. Gathering on our hotel steps for our briefing of this evening’s activity, we were in high spirits as, not only were we heading to one of our favourite tasks, the sun was still shining and the skies a beautiful blue. What. A.Treat.

TSB (Taping, Scrubbing and Brushing)

After making our way through some of East London’s busiest streets, we arrived at Oxford House where task owner Sarah was ready and waiting with kit and task perfectly planned and prepped as usual. After the speediest of briefings, three teams were despatched to all floors of the building: two teams were split over two floors to pain large wall spaces in the corridors, while a third team was dispatched to the dance studio corridor to finish the high spec scrubbing runners had started last time we were there.

Runners worked tirelessly at top speed, sealing off woodwork with masking tape before rolling and brushing thoroughly over these large surfaces. It was a speedy effort, working in a tough temperature, in a confined space in all three areas - GoodGymers, you did good.

The work was so efficient, ahead of time runners came forward to volunteer to start the clean-up effort, and so the pace continued as any spillage was dealt with swiftly by enthusiastic sugar soap-ers and mopper-uppers.

Posture, pelvic floor – and a proud trainer

And then it was a little after 8, and we all gathered in the theatre for this evening’s Pilates. I must, at this point, thank Sarah and Oxford House for giving us such generous use of this space every time we visit. It is a real treat to be able to offer our runners an indoor venue for our fitness - we really love it and appreciate it, so thank you.

So back to the fitness session - after a little Pilates theory, we proceeded to practise our abdominal vacuums, posture and pelvic floor basics, and a little stretching.

Runners took the tougher moves such as the time-honoured Double Leg Stretch in their stride and gave it their all, before finishing with some lower back mobility work and that lying pretzel glute stretch.

Job. Done.

And then we cheerfully (and maybe somewhat wearily), made our way out to the front of the building to get our first daylight end-of-task pic in eight months.

Another treat! What an evening!

Monday mentions

A massive GG welcome to our first time runners, Beth, Tom, Lorhaine, Victor, Mate, Anna, Eugenie, Lily and Michael! 8 new runners! Thank you so, so much for your incredible contributions to this evening's run. And I hope you join us again very soon.

A massive thanks to Katherine and Liz for back-marking; Katherine for some great pics, while possibly the biggest thanks of the night goes to Tim and Michael who stayed behind at workout time to clean up the painting equipment, missing our Pilates session. You're heroes. Thank you for going that extra mile.

Okay, well that's nearly it from me this week, other than to highlight what is...

On this week’s running radar…

• The GoodGym London Monthly Long Run is happening this Saturday, 18th May, offering distances of 19K and 10K, with runners running at different paces, and no one ever getting left behind. It’s a picturesque, multi-park route, with a food finale at POP Brixton, so definitely one to check out here.

• …While on Sunday, here in Tower Hamlets we’re manning the bag-drop at the Hackney Half, in exchange for your free placeat either: the Asics London 10K, or the Oxford Half, or next year’s Hackney Half. There’s still time to sign up for this Sunday 19th May - details are here.

Right, that really is it for this week. Have a wonderful week, everyone, and hope to see you really soon.

Bank Holiday new faces!

We gathered for this evening’s run welcoming a flurry of new runners. What a treat!

14 of us then headed around the corner, half a mile away on leafy Sewardstone Road to meet Catherine, our task owner and Parkview Estate power house, leading the initiative to get the estate greener and full of food.

Two trees - and plants for the bees!

Runners were quickly despatched to all areas of the estate: Team Tree headed out to the front gardens, onto Old Ford Road with barrows full of compost to plant new apple trees in some stubborn soil.

The rest of the runners quickly filled buckets with compost and plants, grabbed a watering can and made their way to the estate's Sydney House to see if residents wanted balcony planters filling with geraniums and other small plants that bees love! Plenty of residents took us up on our offer to tend to their planters, with one resident even opting for the new Resident Association plants over what she currently had in her planter! The runners worked tirelessly, both on their seedling sales pitch, and on ferrying new compost back and forth from the garden to the balonies.

Meanwhile, the apple tree crew had their work cut out. Digging deep in that soil was no mean feat. And even with some useful tools at their disposal, the runners still broke a sweat on what was a chilly Monday evening. But they did it. GoodGymers don’t give up. Never mind not giving up easily, they don’t give up full stop. And so with the apple trees in, they set about replacing the grass, watering, and planting water tubes. Job done.

Going full pelt in the park

And so with minutes to spare, we raced ‘round the corner to neighbouring Victoria Park and played two rounds of the greyhound-and-hare game, with every runner speeding across the grass going full pelt. Impressive. And then they were met by me, and the burp-free burpee to a soundtrack of the Backstreet Boys. Monday motivation or WHAT.

Then we stretched, and made our way back to the hotel, animated and over the moon at what we’d helped to achieve.

Big shout out’s

A big warm welcome to our new runners Hester, Alice, Annie and, absolutely not new to GG but new to TH, Hannah. Thank you all for so much hard work and laughter on your first run.

Thanks to David for fabulous backmarking, Charlotte and Sarah for some wicked pics, and to Hannah for this week’s wonderful pun.

And a really huge shout out this week to our very own Hass, who recently hit 300 good deeds, and who has been a consistently active member of GG Tower Hamlets since January 2014.

Coming up...

Okay, we’ve got some biggies coming up…

• This Thursday it’s the GoodGym Social, hosted by our splendid Southwark crew. Details can be found here.

• And don’t forget, you can still bag a free place at the Asics London 10K, or the Oxford Half, or next year’s Hackney Half, by joining us on Sunday 19th May for volunteering at this year’s Hackney Half. Details and sign up are here.

Right, that’s it. Have a wonderful week, and hope to see you soon!

24 runners; 3 task owners, many different tasks…

A good sized group of us made our way to the Haggerston Orchard this evening to help task owners Camilla, Benoit and Sophie tackle some stubborn tree stumps head on.

On arrival at the task, we were speedily briefed and divided into three teams: a large group headed over to the tree stump area, where tree expert Benoit explained to the crew how they were needed to help whittle and prise some tough old trees out of the ground, route network an’ all, to make way for some new beginnings.

Groups of 3-4 worked on each trunk which was tough work. But unbelievably rewarding when the trees finally broke loose, and the area was free to be filled in with new compost. This ended up being quite the plant production line.

Meanwhile, Sophie and Camilla juggled some fine runner distribution, speedily shuttling runners between different areas of the large garden, juggling task overlaps such as nettle-plucking with soil-turning in the vegetable bed; rubble-clearing with watering…It was an industrious remaining two teams who shuttled themselves (and piles of stones, compost, nettles…you name it) from one end of the garden to another.

Glutes ‘n’ roots

And before we knew it (I say that every week, but honestly, the time flies) it was 8pm and the ‘all hands on deck’ moment arrived to start the clearing away effort. A small crew of 5 opted to remain on Project Tree Stump, filling in remaining holes with compost, while the remainder of the group obediently made their way to a clearing in the garden for our Glutes ‘n’ Abs session, tonight’s content chosen by my fitness panel, Jo, Andrea and Lucy.

Wicked work here tonight. I swear you’re all getting lots stronger, with improved balance. We enjoyed quadruped hip extensions, single leg deadlifts, cycling crunches to name a few.

…And then it was time to say cheerio and head back to base for our final stretches of the night. Another amazing night, everyone, it really was.

We enjoyed very much having our new runners with us, Anthony, Emma and Charlotte – thank you for your brilliant input, and humour!

And thanks to Si and Bryon for navigating, and to Jo and Lieke for backmarking.

What a team! You’re all amazing – everyone says so.

And before I sign off, I just want to give a big shout-out this week, to our two runners who ran yesterday's London Marathon, Becky G and Leanne. A massive congratulations to you both. And another shout-out to members of the team who volunteered, including Becky J and Sarah M who did a cracking job manning a bag truck.

Now, next week, we’re heading back to the Parkview Estate to check on those fruit trees and visit the residents. This is not one to miss, so get involved now.