The cold weather has arrived in earnest but it didn't stop a hardy team of goodgymers rock up ready to go off to the trenches for their weekly workout.

We started the session by celebrating Barbarapassing her 700th good deed and Laura her 50th, and welcoming new comer Alex to the group.

Vicky set off first with the party pace group and were met at Glen Allotments by an enthusiastic team. Ed's group arrived very soon after and we were all armed with spades and set to work.

The task was to dig one trench of 30 metres and another 20 metres, in preparation for a water pipe. There was some discussion about how deep 18 inches is - quite deep it turns out! No problem for our crew, who rose to the challenge! Within our alloted time we'd completed the task and were rewarded with home made flapjack.

Vicky set of back with the party gang whilst Ed's group did a spot of fun fitness.

Back at base we were rewarded by more delicious homemade biscuits courtesy of Laura!

A very enjoyable task!

There were 8 crooked GoodGym folk, and they ran some crooked miles,

They ran through crooked level crossings in really crooked style;

They bought some crooked beers which made them all talk crooked crap,

And they all chilled out together in the little crooked tap.

Laura was tippy tappy timekeeping

Barbara was name and number checky

James was fast fingered finish token hander outerer

Sam was clicky snappy barcode scanning

Vicky, David & Neil were pudding promoting on fire with the fliers

Santa suits were worn

parkrunners were supported

Chase the Pud Santa race was promoted

a fun morning!

Unfortunately Vicky had to pull out last minute when someone decided to set alight the allotments (hope not too much damage done and the firefighters were heros) but 5 of us met on time and completed a loop of the Ings - a mild night with a nearly full moon and plenty of firework displays to admire. Often difficult to get out on these dark nights but we all agreed it was just what was needed, keep your eye out for the next one - all paces and abilities welcome and we particularly welcome anyone that prefers not to run alone....

Tonight we met for our bonfire special. We started by discussing the best thing about autumn, where leaves features heavily, then set off to Wild Things Forest school. Ed led the runners, Stef guided a walking group and a few made their way on bike.

When we arrived Emma met us with a long and varied list of jobs ranging from sawing wood and raking leaves, to removing ivy and putting up bunting.

Once the tasks were complete we headed over to the hill for fun fitness hill reps. Some of the techniques were questionable for the exercises, in order to get back to the team quickly! The winner were rewarded with extendable forks for the bonfire.

After fitness we headed back to the fire pit and had marshmallow or camembert smores. Martin also brought a tub of aptly named heroes, because thats what you all are!

can anyone guess who's knees are on the Photo?

The main task was to clear the leaves from the basketball court and paths to stop them getting slippery. We started by lifting up a couple of the leaf bins to see if there was any leaf mulch that could be dug onto the beds. There was a small amount of older matter but it was mostly very dry. Becca dug a wheelbarrow full of the best bits into the beds. Amy and Laura started by emptying and resetting two of the leaf bins. Sam and Barbara swept the basketball court and David swept and cleared around the drains and attempted to unblock them of soil. Whilst all this was going on Jane pruned the two large apple trees, the blackcurrant bush and the Jasmine. Once the basketball court was mostly clear we managed to clear most of the leaves from the paths and start clearing some of the beds before the end of the hour.