Brrr, the cold snap wasn’t letting up last night, but that didn’t stop our awesome group of runners from showing up and getting straight to work! There was no time to hang around in the freezing temperatures, we were all eager to get moving, warm up, and make a difference.

We welcomed some new faces to the group this evening — a big GoodGym welcome to you all! We’re so glad to have you with us and hope you’ll be back for more fun in the future. Great to have you join us Hannah, Lisa and Benjamin

We kicked things off with a quick warm-up, and Catherine came up with an excellent Monday question - where is the best roast in the area to be found? It got us all thinking (and hungry) — there were some great suggestions but we decided we definitely need to find a good veggie option. Suggestions welcome!

Once we were all warmed up and ready to go, we ran down to the Venue, a community hub that serves as a space for healthy eating classes, kids' groups, storage for donations, and more. Our task for the night was a massive tidy-up. There was plenty of composting, cleaning, and clearing to be done, but the biggest challenge? A pool of dried, spilled cream that had made a sticky mess! It was a tough one, but there was no use crying over spilled, er, cream. With hot water, cleaning fluid, and plenty of elbow grease, we managed to get the job done. No more rancid spillage, just one big sparkling floor!

There was lots to clear away, but with so many hands working together, we got through it all in no time.

After the task, we finished off with a core session. We all got to know each other a little better as we squeezed into one corner and got down to business.Core work helps with stabilising your body when you get tired during a run, so you can maintain good running form. It’s a key part of injury prevention, so well done on some great efforts from everybody.

After a run back we wrapped up with some stretches after all that hard work. Next week we have a new task in Balham, which means we’ll be leaving sharpish to get there. If it sounds like too much of a stretch, you can always meet us there. After the task, we’re having a social at the Four Thieves with some board games — it’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’d love for you to join us!

Some more dates for your diary:

• On Saturday there is this great mission to help clear the paths at a nature reserve

• We have a new regular community mission helping out with a kids club at the Doddington community garden late Thursday afternoons

• If you're free on the morning of the 24th and have an hour to spare, this amazing organisation which is home to several charities needs some help moving two offices around

It was certainly nippy last night, but that did not stop a group of buds coming together to, er, nip some leaves in the bud...

We kicked off the first Monday group run of 2025 with lots of cheers, some bad puns, talking about our favourite cheeses, and by welcoming Helen to her very first session - great to have you join us!

Feelin' gouda

We did a much needed warm up whilst discussing all the future plans that January holds - like this excellent new mission gardening at St Barnabus Church this Saturday and another the following weekend clearing paths at Unigate common.

The Age UK Wandsworth day centre is also looking for old magazines to use for an art project for their older service users. If you have any that you'd like to donate then you can drop them off at the Gwyneth Morgan day centre on East Hill for the attention of Frank, or let me know and I'll sort something out.

Just before setting off we each chose our fave cheese. There was blue (clearly influenced by the sub zero temperatures!), brie, gorgonzola and Wensleydale (which was accompanied by a very interesting Wallace & Gromit fact!)

Brie the best you can be!

It was a short run down to the garden and we wasted no time with cracker-ing on with jobs. There were plenty of brown leaves to be picked to fill the raised beds, compost to be shifted, naked trees to clothe and dead branches to transport. There was an interesting disparity in the size of tools on offer, from massive spades to a teeny tiny fork.

Still, it didn't hold us back and it's always amazing to see just how much can be done in a short amount of time. This is our traditional first task of the year, and it's been a joy to see how the community garden has evolved over the years.

It doesn't get cheddar than this

Job done, and with very little feeling left in any of our extremities we made our way down to the square for some EMOM based fun. With five rounds of exercises completed against the clock, we soon warmed up! Great to see you all work so hard and don't forget that if you have any goals this new year I can help with then don't hesitate to let me know.

Most of the team headed off for the monthly pub quiz social which came down to a nail biting finish. There is another one planned with games towards the end of the month, so watch this space!

Great to see you all for a fantastic start to the year. Don't forget you have three more days to make your GoodGym good deed pledge for January - it's a great way to aim for a target and stick with it.

Looking forward to seeing you all at another session that is guaranteed to beat the January blues soon!

So much has changed since our last monthly visit to Doddington community garden, and the joy of going regularly means that we can see the difference we're making over time! This visit we were delighted to see that the beds we had dug last time were flourishing with courgettes and other crops.

But first things first. We kicked off the session at our usual meeting spot for some warm ups, and it was brilliant to welcome back some familiar faces and to have Rida join us for her very first session - great to have you part of the team!

We did some warm ups which tested our coordination as well as our muscles, and given we have just had a bumper week of fireworks, Halloween, Diwali and there are now 50 days until Christmas, we asked the group which is our favourite holiday. Answers ranged from Christmas, Boxing Day, bank holidays, Easter, Eid, Halloween and our annual leave. Goes to show we all love a party!

It was just a short run or cycle down to the Doddington, where Malissa wasted no time getting us to work. There was weeding to be done, trees to transport and a new bed to be dug, lined with cardboard boxes and then refilled with compost again. This is going to be planted with red onions for the community to enjoy, so keep your eye peeled next month!

After a good 45 minutes of hard graft we downed tools and went down to the square for a lower body challenge. Three minutes of seriously tough exercises with no break, all working those glutes, quads and calves - and everybody rose (or squatted) to the challenge. Great job!

All that was left was to run to the pub for the monthly pub quiz, and this time there was two bumper teams ready to battle it out. Team IstanWool (who will ever forget from this day forward that angora wool comes from the Turkish capital?) were pipped to the post by Paul, Dave, Jo, Laura, Justin, Jason and Catherine's megabrains...but we still have to beat our nemesis at the bar! Definitely next month.

Speaking of which, don't forget to sign up for our Christmas party where there will be plenty of festive fun to be had, and also this special mission to get everybody a warm coat this winter.

Autumn is definitely settling in but that won’t stop Goodgym Wandsworth! A great group of us came out and just about dodged the drizzle. We were flyering in support of Foodcycle to build awareness of this great local charity and try and drum up more support. We flew through the pile very quickly and covered some solid distance with some stair sprints thrown in to get round some of the blocks. We even managed to grab a celebratory drink afterwards. Well done all but particularly Ali who did their 50th good deed which is a fantastic achievement! More celebrating to be done for that on our next Group run.