Loads to celebrate last night, not least lots of great new faces joining us for their first run! Please give a big GoodGym cheer to:

• Vanessa, Tina and Alice

As always, we got the weekly news done before we set off for our evening task:

• We have a community mission coming up this weekend helping put away chairs and equipment after the community day in Tooting where all profits go to St George's hospital. Sign up here to help out.

• But the best news of the night came in the shape of a double 100 milestone - that's right, we have not one but two new GoodGym centurions! After clocking up 100 good deeds, many community organisations helped, and a huge number of kilometres run, it was three cheers for the lovely Helen and Emily. Give them a high five when you see them next for all the amazing effort and commitment they've put in!

Summer runnin', happened so fast

After all that great news, a warm up and a poll where we discussed our favourite things about London (the parks, food, pubs and people came out on top!) we headed down to the Venue Community Centre.

The Venue is a busy centre managed by Hadas which is home to amazing organisations like Waste Not Want Not - the first project in Battersea which collects surplus food from nearby markets and distributes it through the local area - and many other community projects such as intergenerational art and support for children and parents.

So after a 2km run down there we arrived to find Hadas with a list of jobs including composting boxes of unusable lettuces, sanding benches, litter picking the outside area, clearing the overgrown plants and transporting compost to the roof garden.

Getting stuck straight in, there was lots to talk about while we worked. The brilliant weekend GoodGymers had enjoyed at Love Trails and Night of the 10000m PBs, how brilliant the flash new litter pickers are that even manage to do cig butts and cocktail sticks, and why cherries are the most expensive soft fruit (something to do with them having to be dried if they get wet on the tree? This is being verified for next week's run!). We even had the newly patented 'lettuce train' - thanks to Viv for her bright idea to get the heavy boxes up to the roof garden!

After 45 minutes of hard work we waved goodbye to Hadas and set off for a local green space to do our fitness session, which this week focussed on alternating core conditioning with exercises to get our heart rates up. That way we got a tough all over workout, whilst getting some strength work in too. Nice work team, especially Emily who soldiered on with a helium balloon tied to her waist, and all of the rest of you who had a very vocal and very young audience 'supporting' you!

You all faced the hill head on on the way back, with every single one of you running all the way to the top, which was fantastic. Next week we're back for more fun and fitness. Go on, get yourself signed up!

Last night was full to the brim with bank holiday heroes spending their evening doing good in the local community and getting themselves a nice old workout in the process!

• Welcome to Paul and James who both came along for their first run last - give them a cheer!

• A huge well done to all of you that got out there running this weekend. Especially to Sam who did his 50th parkrun, Stephen and Oliver who incredibly raced at lunchtime in the Vitality 10k, John who smashed the Vitality Westminster Mile on Sunday and Matthew who did a half marathon lap race.

It was brilliant to see so many of you last night given that it was a day off for most of us. We kicked off proceedings with a warm up that featured a range of dynamic movements, and an equally important discussion about our fave ice creams. In this very official poll, it was - drum roll - Solero that came out top. A true classic!

Our job last night was at Paradise Cooperative garden, a charity that was set up to connect food, nature and people through sustainable urban farming and community gardening. They combine participation, education and celebration in cultivating under-used land in Wandsworth. It was a 2.5km run away, so we set off in the last of the evening sunshine at a good pace.

We soon arrived (after a few squats and planks along the way) to find trustee Brendan there waiting for us with a list of jobs. It was great to see the place in the light as we have often had to rely on our headtorches, and discover all the beautiful things that the team there have been busy with. Most noticeably is the new pond, which we were tasked with raking around, and all the gorgeous plants coming into fruit and flower (noticeably some quite delicious strawberries that miraculously survived our visit!). We also got stuck into moving huge logs, creating new seating areas, weeding. moving railway sleepers and having a go on the rope swing. Hard work, but a lot of fun, too!

Before we left Brenda thanked us, and let us know that the work we did tonight would have taken two regular volunteers a week to complete. What a brilliant way to spend a bank holiday -well done gang!

Next up was a quick fitness session in Wandsworth Common, starting with a game to get our heart rates up, then moving on to some tough clock sprint circuits where some teams were kinder to others when it came to keeping time! With squat holds, planks, press ups and mountain climbers, this was a good all over body workout, so well done team.

A quick run home was all that was left of our bank holiday GoodGym fix. Nice running everyone. Next week we have our final visit to the community garden in Battersea that we have been helping transform into a safe and welcoming place so it can be opened to the local residents. Sign up here to see all the details. Until then, have a great week GoodGymers!

Bank holiday Sunday had all the ingredients for a great mission. The sun was shining - Andrew and Helen were ready to tackle the overgrowing hedges with their scissor hands along with an array of other tools.

After a warm welcome from Mrs S we got to work and made steady progress across the front garden getting it back into a more manageable place. Mrs S, initially ecstatic of Andrew’s height, was much appreciative despite their dog’s best effort to show us who’s boss!

A good job all round.

HAPPY NEW YEAR GOODGYM WANDSWORTH!

We really started off 2019 with a bang - no less than 46 amazing runners ran 5k, smashed out a whole range of jobs for a community garden, and took on a tough fitness session all in the name of getting fit and doing good.

The January Challenge!

As some of you know, every year we take part in the January challenge. This is a bit of (friendly!) competition between GoodGym areas to see who can rack up the most good deeds and distance in the gloomiest month of the year - it's a really good motivation when it's a bit dark and cold outside. This year our goal is a biggie! We have no less than 220 good deeds to reach, and a whopping 3000 kilometres. We can do it! Just make sure you're connected to Strava so all your training miles are counted, and come along to as many group runs and missions as you can squeeze in - everything counts towards our target. Go team!

Well done to everybody who did races and parkruns over the festive season - don't forgt there is a parkrun every Saturday morning at 9am. It's a free, timed 5k and a great way to get fitter, improve your times and also to meet up with your GG buddies - wear your red tshirt with pride!

Need for Speed

After a quick intro and catch up in the BAC we headed outside for our warm up which got our muscles ready for the run ahead. We also found out about eachother's resolutions for 2019. There were a happy number of running and GoodGym goals (hurrah!) as well as promises to cut down on plastic, drink more, drink less, remain fabulous, eat less meat and read more books. You are an inspiring bunch!

Our task tonight was at Doddington and Rollo rooftop garden, a space which has been transformed from a neglected multistorey roof into an amazing community garden for local residents to grow their own fruit and veg. So after a stead run down there, stopping only briefly for some conditioning reps, we arrived to find the volunteers waiting for us with a list of jobs.

Tasks included cutting back vines, weeding, shifting heavy pots, sorting compost, turning over soil and we quickly divided up into teams to tackle them. It was incredibly seeing you all work so hard - looking round the garden is was a buzz of activity and so impressive to see what a big team of people can achieve in half an hour. That work would have taken the volunteers a significant chunk of time, so well done for making such a difference.

Tools down, we jogged over to Battersea Park for our fitness session. We kicked off the first one of 2019 with everybody's favourite/worst challenge - Sally Squats. This is a serious bit of thigh-burning conditioning, and we all found ourselves how blimming long Sally was going to be up and and down - was it the extended version? Was it on a loop? Finally it came to the end with everybody gritting their teeth and nobody giving up. If hat wasn't enough we then did a total body workout circuit, which sadly (I can tell you were devastated) had to be cut short because we ran out of time.

After a speedy run back to our starting point we paused at the bottom of the hill at the BAC for a final tough sprint before Danny kindly led us though our much needed stretches. What a brilliant way to kick off the year, team. Next week we're back doing the same and edging ever closer to reaching our January target! Hope to see you - until then, happy running!