The evening was a bit grey and I need to wake up before the training task was about to start. I thought it would be a great idea to stretch the legs before the task. Quickly realising that I would not be able to do this and the task, I decided to get to the leisure centre a little early to grab a caffeine boost. Already there were James, Anne, Claire, Karen and Laura. Quickly having a chat I told them I needed a coffee and does anyone else want one. James said he would and to usher out both Nadia and Luan who had done the same thing.

After the coffees were drunk and everyone had arrived, Kirsty enthusiastically started to welcome all the runners to the session and went in to some details about GoodGym and what the groups is all about. When Kirsty had finished and there weren’t any questions, James, who put on the session went into the details on what we were going to do. James took his time to clearly relay the instructions for this session. The session starts with a light warm up, 1 or two laps of the park, during this time he will put markers to show the turning points for the distances to cover. He said, it will be 6, 3, 3, 6, 3, 3 , 6 with a two minute recover time after each distance completed. James clearly went into detail on how this type of run will help build muscle fibre to both help build speed and endurance ability.

As the session started, I lead the warm up by running a few laps of Woking Park. This was a light run just to activate the muscles and to get the blood pumping around the body. Making our way around and being conscious of the reps we were about to start on I thought that taking a shorter route around the park would be kinder for all of us, while James marked the distances. Heading along the shortcut took us to a flooded path so with a quick turn around we carried on following the outside path of the park. Just after half way round and to let everyone have a little change from the slow running we paused and started to do reserve lunges. After that we went into squats before returning to running back to James where we can start the session.

So having all arrived at the start, James kindly went through what was to be done again before we all heading off for the first 600 meter run which involved running to the marker placed by James and then back to where we started. Everyone went off at their own pace so everyone was able to maintain a pace that was going help push them to the next level. After the first 600m I quickly realised I had gone off too fast and was gassed out before I had even started!! Lucky Nadia had followed with me and was able to help me maintain that pace. Anne and Karen grouped together as there running speeds were very similar, although they were steaming through the recovery times!!!!!

Laura, Claire, Luan and James were all making great gains with their running speeds and keeping to the distances really well. I kept hearing lots of cheers and words of encouragement as other runners were taking their recovery rests, but not too sure if that is the best way to recover? But it didn’t seem to effect the runners and for me, it gave me a huge boost to find the will to keep going at a difficult pace. As we were all drawing to completing the interval session, everyone was giving it their all to finish on a high.

Brilliant, determined and gritty run from all the GoodGymers that did today’s session and we all went celebrate Anne in being awarded with the Sean Coxhead Inspiring Individual Award 2024 for GoodGym. Inspiring Anne, keep being brilliant 😊

Until the next session.

...Have you any litter? Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full!

A big thank you to the 9 runners for this fun rhyme that perfectly sums up our evening! On a crisp January evening, Anne, Adam, Alys, Claire, Katie, Kirsty, Jack, Nadia and Julie gathered at the Leisure Centre for a warm-up before heading over to Barnsbury. There, we collected three full bags of litter from the pavements and verges, all while enjoying great conversation and camaraderie.

A special shout-out to Jack from GoodGym Head Office, who joined us as part of his January Challenge to visit as many regional sessions as possible. Once the litter pick was complete, and after a passing motorist kindly thanked us for our efforts, Anne led us on a quick uphill run. Nadia impressively demonstrated a fantastic burst of speed, leaving the rest of us in the dust!

We returned to the starting point feeling much warmer than when we began. A huge thank you to all who participated, your efforts made a real difference to our streets. We hope to see you at the next task!

Tonight Anne, Wayne , Nadia, Claire, Kirsty, Agathe, Luan and Katie took on the first Wednesday night task of 2025 - leafleting around the local area and spreading the word about Goodgym and "Yoga with Jim".

Anne led the group and Wayne made sure no one was left behind. Despite the freezing cold weather and sleet, the group ran over 5km around Woking. We hope that people feel encouraged to join GoodGym.

Will you help either:

• on Saturday when we will take part in Brooklands parkrun then run to St John's The Baptist to help removing leaves from low lying gutters and gullies;

• on Sunday to support Woking junior parkrun and join some of us cheering the young runners along their loop of 2 kms;

• or next Wednesday when we will pick up litter along some of Woking streets?