Lovely to see blue skies, new faces, and some GoodGym tourism at our Monday group last night.

• Let's give a huge cheer to Zuhaib and Jess who both came along for their first GG session - welcome to the group!

We started off with lots of bits of news...

• If you're wondering about GoodGym and the Coronavirus, have a look a look at our advice to runners here

• A huge well done to all your mission runners this weekend, you are community heroes. If you're looking for something this weekend, then check out this great River Wandle clear up on Sunday.

  • Social time - the monthly GoodGym social is BACK! If you haven't been to one before then it's a great chance to meet other GGers from different groups, find out what's been going on, and generally have a good old knees up! All the details are here.

After all that, we were ready to hit the road, but not before a warm up outside, and a quick poll to find out where in the world would be our dream running location. The places we chose were seriously exotic - Paraguay, Peru, all the mountains, by the sea, California....basically anywhere with a bit of sun. Roll on summer!

We had a new task location last night at a local school, so after a couple of kms we arrived to find headteacher Jane waiting for us with our job for the evening. We were delighted to find that it was indoors!

The school is over 130 years old, and has more than 700 children, so Jane asked us to help with a good clean down of all the woodwork. They were super prepared for us, with loads of bowls or soapy water, and with several floors and many classrooms to tackle, we got straight on with it.

We oohed and aahed over the tiny furniture, little bowls of fruit and cute kids paintings as we worked, and Frances, who had come to drama classes at the school when she was a kid, even offered to reprise her award-winning role as tin man. It was just Oscar season after all!

After half an hour of elbow grease we had scrubbed, washed, wiped and disinfected, and we all regrouped in the staff room, which felt like we'd been a bit naughty, for a group photo.

A short jog to the common later, it was time for fitness and this week we took on a twist on tabata. Usually this is short bursts of different exercises with 10 second breaks designed to raise our heart rates and increase aerobic capacity. We decided to incorporate a speed session into this as well, so switched up 20 seconds of sprinting with short rests and did it eight times over. Everyone put in max effort, which was great to see. Nice work team.

All that was left was a lovely downhill run back to base and some stretching. Fancy some more next week? I hope so, because we have got a great task shifting bags of compost up to a rooftop garden. You can sign up for more Monday fun here, and until then, run happy GoodGym!

We started off our run last night with some stats from our month of doing good to kick off 2020. You did an incredible job in Wandsworth, racking up a brilliant 188 good deeds, and covering a huge 1821 kilometers. Seriously impressive. As a whole, the numbers are even more amazing - the GoodGym community managed 8646 good deeds, and ran 98521 in the process. What an incredible wave of good happening across the country!

• Welcome to GoodGym Christina, Emily and Karen. It's all about getting fit and adding purpose to your run, and we're really happy you've joined us!

• Well done to all of you who got out there at the weekend, including Caroline who ran her first parkrun, and to Kate and Diego all spotted covering the miles at parkruns across London!

The Venue is a community centre we visit fairly regularly to support - it is run by Hadas, who organises the Waste Not Want Not , the first project in Battersea which collects surplus food from nearby markets and distributes it through local community . The community centre is run by volunteers, so we were happy to run the 2km down there to lend a hand.

Before we set off we did our weekly warm up, and also discussed the objects in our life that bring us joy. Top of the list were bikes, food, our beds and of course, cheese. What more could we need?

After a quick stop to knock out a wall sit, we arrived at the Venue and split into groups to tackle the jobs. While one team set about giving the community kitchen a deep clean, ready for another week of cooking for local people, a human chain was quickly formed to transport crates of mushrooms and compost to the roof garden around the corner. Meanwhile, several GGers got to work emptying the storage room to be able to fit in some beds which will be going to a refugee family. There was also a spot of tidying up to do outside the centre, as well as window washing and hoovering. What a lot of elbow grease!

With all the jobs ticked off it was time for our abs blast, and we kicked off with a core triathlon, before moving on to various planks and other abs focused moves. Great for keeping our form in good shape when we run and preventing injury, it's good to make this sort of conditioning part of your weekly training. Hello abs of steel!

We finished off the session with a run back to base, a bit of a hill sprint, and some nice stretching. Great work everybody! It was off to the pub for the monthly social for some of us - watch out for March's post-run fun on March 2nd, and in the meantime why not sign yourself up for next Monday's run here. Hopefully see you then. Until then, run happy!

Yesterday was Blue Monday - apparently the most depressing day of the year. In Wandsworth last night there was zero evidence of that, with 46 happy GoodGymers running 6km to lend a hand at a children's adventure playground. We even started off the night discussing what cheers us up when we're feeling down; food definitely came out on top along with running (of course), dogs, cat videos, rum and sunshine. If last night is anything to go by, we can most definitely add GoodGym to that list!

With the BAC being shut for the night we were lucky enough to be given a temporary home by the lovely people at Share Community, a brilliant charity that supports local disabled people. Thanks Share!

It was really lovely to see new faces, familiar faces, runners from different areas, from central office and even from Wandsworth council. Everybody is welcome at GoodGym, and always will be. A special welcome to Sara, Alex, Alexa, Becky, Rachel and Jessica who all came for their first group run last night. Give them a cheer, GoodGym!

We started off with a run through of the news - here's a recap:

• The January challenge is in full swing. In Wandsworth we racked up 129 good deeds and run a total of 1,176 kms which is pretty great. There's still a way to go though, so get yourself to as many group runs and missions as possible and don't forget to strava the heck out of every run!

• Looking for a community mission? Then check out this brilliant one next Tuesday lunchtime. The job is shifting furniture for a LGBTQ+ charity which supports young people locally, so not only will you get a great upper body workout but you'll be helping out an important organisation too. What's not to love?

• Like burgers? Feeling social? Want to catch up with other GoodGymers while not trying to trip up on the pavement or elbow deep in mud? Then our monthly port-run social is for you. Every first Monday of the month, just round the corner from our starting place at the Four Thieves. And it's even two for one on the burgers!What more could you ask for? Sign up here to join us at the next one.

After a rather squished warm up, we set off for our task at Oasis adventure playground. This wonderful place is a local charity that has fun facilities and learning opportunities for disabled and non-disabled young people enabling them to lead happy, fulfilled lives and play positive roles in the community.

We arrived to find David, who manages the place, waiting for us with tools and a pretty inspiring welcome. We were only there for 40 minutes, but he reminded us in that time that we would be playing an active role in improving the lives of young people. With that feel good factor, we got straight to work shifting old pallets from an area that needed to be dug over. We got a nice little chain gang going, before the real hard work began digging over the area, as well as creating a firepit. Which sounds about the most excellent and dangerous thing to introduce in to a children's playground.

Meanwhile, some of the group were treated to an extra conditioning session (lucky!), before getting on with weeding the enormous area - as well as testing out the facilities (which GoodGym trainer was spotted having fun on the trampoline cough, Beth?).

After just over half an hour of hard graft, we downed tools and headed over to the neighbouring park for a very short fitness blast. We warmed up with a game of clusters. While I wouldn't like to fling around any wild accusations of cheating, there was definitely some interesting counting going on! We then knocked out a little conditioning versus high intensity drills, with Chi encouraging everybody to work harder as we squatted, lunged, balanced and high kneed.

All that was left was to run the three kms back to base, and stretch out those tired muscles. Well done on working hard for a brilliant charity, getting a good run under your belt in the process, and giving blue Monday a smack about the chops. Next week we're off to clear leaves in a community garden, you can find out all about it right here. Hope to see you, until then, run happy!