15 people ran 5k to do a litter pick or our adopted part of the canal

On a mild evening we set off in the light to the canal. We soon, split up into four groups each group using their litter pickers to collect up the rubbish on a different section of our GG Brum adopted part of the canal. The group spent a good 20 minutes collecting rubbish before all meeting up to dump the bags off at Aston Lock, for our friends from the Canal and River Trust to collect on their 'rounds' tomorrow.

Intervals followed by circuits!

It was now pretty dark so the group did some interval work on a nicely lit part of the canal. All the group pushed hard, Ken showing some top work in the middle of the pack. After that we ran a bit further before stopping underneath Snow hill station, were the group did a set of reverse dips on the canal lock gate for those ‘bingo wings’ followed by around a 100m sprint to some steps, before sprinting back then doing some press ups. Paige showed great work with the dips with Aaron, Lee and Annie looking like they should sign up for the military with some top press ups!

One for the bum

Once that was done, we left the church and headed for St Paul’s square were the group did some more circuits. This involved running a fast lap around the church followed by a set of tuck jumps after the first lap and then a set of killer burpees after the second lap. Rob and Sam led the way around the church, Garry did a top set of tuck jumps, Philip and Hannah put great effort into the burpees. Then after all that, it was time for the bum exercise, 3 sets of 45 second wall squats with 15 seconds recovery, now that’s a tough finisher, but as I say it is great for that booty, so if it’s painful to sit on the bog tomorrow you know which exercise to blame! We then had a short run back to base and that was that!

Next week we will be out doing good again, possibly with some weary legs after this Sunday’s Birmingham Half/Full Marathons! sign up here.

20 people ran 5k to Birmingham Vernon Sea Cadets to help clean boats and stock take life jackets

Tonight we welcomed Beth, Mark and Axel to the group for the first time. Axel is from the GG Central team and is flying from Birmingham to Doha tomorrow on an exciting two week running trip! Once all the introductions were over and the exciting news that our first Birmingham Mission was going ahead tomorrow was announced we were on our way to a brand-new task.

Sea cadets, but weres the sea?!

You may wonder if you are reading this report how is there a Sea Cadet group in Brum when the sea is so far away, well you would be surprised, there are actually a few groups in the city. The group we were visiting were based by Birmingham Reservoir, so it's not quite the sea, but plenty of water to take their boats out to. On arriving we got a great view over the water with a pink sky (see the pictures) as darkness was falling. Jenn also warmly greeted us. Once on with the task the group had to work as a team to tip the boats over and move them. Everyone showed great team work, whilst a few of the group did the stock taking of the life jackets. I got a great vantage point for some pictures, by walking up the stairs onto the roof, initially it didn’t do my acrophobia much good, but I survived!

Sam got his big hose out

While most of the group turned the boats over Sam and Annie looked very excited to use the power hose, cleaning the boats off! Once done we were on our way back. We stopped at a quiet road no cars could drive down to do some interval work. What we missed in traffic we also missed in lighting meaning the group had to go a little slower than usual. I also had problems taking pictures as I thought I couldn’t unlock my phone, only realising I was trying to use Aaron’s phone which I was also carrying in my bag! Doh! Once nearly back I added in one more sprint up a hill, getting the groups heart rate right up before we finished. Once back it was time for a quick stretch off and we were done.

Next week we will be out doing good again and my mistake we aren’t going to Birmingham Mission Care Centre we are going to do a litter pick on the canal, I forgot that I had bought it forward a week, so we could make good use of the last of the light! sign up here.

18 people ran 6.5k to SIFA Fireside to do a deep clean

It was a surprisingly mild and extremely humid evening for late September at tonight’s GG Brum run. We had a rare week of no newcomers tonight, but once again we had another good attendance. Tonight’s task was to run to SIFA Fireside, do a 20 minutes or so deep clean and then run back.

Clean, Clean, Clean

After a steady run down to our task destination and a warm welcome as always from Geoff, the facilities manager at SIFA, it was on with the task. I set the group 25 minutes to do as much cleaning as possible while I took plenty of pics. There was showers and toilets to scrub. Door knobs, doors and chairs to clean. The group did a great job making a massive difference in the time we were there. Geoff was very appreciative as ever. Once the task was done, we had the usual pictures and of course when Chan is around there will always be a selfie, I reckon someone needs to buy him a selfie stick for Christmas……or maybe not, I reckon we would end up having the most pictures ever for a run report, it would probably crash the GG website!

Bootcamp time

Once we left SIFA, we headed back, but stopped in our usual car park and did a very quick extremely high intense bootcamp. We had jump lunges, high knees running and tuck jumps, all exercises to get the heart rate shooting through the roof meaning the metabolism would be revved up hours after tonight’s run…..yep you will still be burning extra calories now and even tomorrow morning (if that’s when you read this report) again it was fantastic work from everyone. Simon put some top work in on the jump lunges, Lee and Maria were fantastic with the high knees stuff and John, Hannah and Laura did great work with those killer tuck jumps. Once done we had the best part of 3k to run back. I told the group if they wanted to push on ahead of me at the front they could. Aaron, Ken and Rob led the way. Karin worked hard and Abbie showed her endurance is improving every week. Chan showed all the running he is doing (if you aren’t already get him followed on Strava) is paying off as he has improved so much since GG Brum started back in January. So that was that, done for another week, top work everyone!

Next week we will be out doing good again, this time at a new task, it would be great if you could join us sign up here.

16 people ran 5k to sort clothes, organise tinned food and feed the homeless at the Birmingham Mission Care Centre

Tonight, we welcomed three newcomers to GG Brum! Step forward Ken, Dave and Aaron. Thanks for coming chaps! Tonight, we were on our monthly visit to Birmingham Mission. Annie kindly did the back marking and I led the way. Once there we were warmly greeted by John who said there was a lot to do tonight, so the group were split three ways. One group went in the kitchen to help serve the food and wash up, one group helped sort the clothes and another group sorted the tinned food by itemising it all. The task took a bit longer than usual, especially all the clothes sorting, but as Dave said the strap line ‘many hands make light work’.

More rain?!

Last week most of the runners got a soaking on the way to GoodGym, tonight it was on the way back. The wet stuff was falling pretty heavily as we left the care centre so it was probably just as well the task took a little longer! But a bit of rain didn’t deter our runners anyway! We headed off at a good pace. Before stopping at the bottom of a hill to do a bit of HIIT training. A nice mix of lunges, tuck jumps and high knees running got those hearts racing and metabolisms fired up! Then the group did a ‘sustained effort’ rep……a hill climb, straight into stair climbing in front of the town hall, once at the top a sprint to some crossroads. The group put in some great work. Dave led the way with Neal chasing him down. Simon and Philip worked hard all the way, Abbie, Kate and Morwenna pushed each other, driving hard through the rain. Once done we pushed on back to 1000 Trades and that was another run done 😊

GG Birmingham race

Remember it is our first official GG Brum race this Saturday, the Cannon Hill Parkrun, meeting at the bandstand at 8.45am ready for the 9am start. Followed by a coffee afterwards. It would be great to see as many people as possible from any GG group sign up here.

Next week I will be on a sunbed in Majorca, however don't worry Aidan will be 'me' next week, so don't worry you will be able to do good once again sign up here.

Once again, we were lucky after a rainy day to have a sunny evening for a run around Barnsley.

An intrepid team of 4 including Barnsley newcomer - Katie - headed over to the Carer's Garden to meet Gordon, who had all sorts of jobs for us to do. We liked the sound of potato picking the most.

We were introduced to one very overgrown raised bed. Our task was to dig the whole thing over, bagging all the good potatoes, removing the weeds and replanting any tiny potatoes for next time.

Gordon was an amazing source of horticultural knowledge and throughout the task we learnt as much as anyone could ever learn about growing potatoes.

They'll grow anywhere, you could grow them in a wellie boot!

We'd cleared the plot with ten minutes to spare so Gordon had another job for us, which was to relocate a whole wendy house. We were momentarily distracted from this by gargantuan raspberries which proved to be perfect fuel for the big lift!

Our fitness session included a hill sprint warm up, followed by a round of circuits for upper and lower body and finished off with some plank exercises for the core.