With some other litter pickers spotted in the park this morning, we thought we might have missed out on the good stuff.

Although there wasn't much around, we picked what we found and left the park a few bin bags lighter of litter than when we arrived.

Shout out to Leah for her first good deed, and Georgia for her 50th good deed 🥳

Week two of adjusting to a new world where we work out online and guys, I think we smashed it!

After practicing the routine once before the live broadcast I must admit that by the end my quads were on fire, so I hope everyone else got a good workout from it too. There were reports of jelly legs the next day which means it probably was!

Here's what we did in case you missed out or would like to do it again at home:

Warm Up - 25 Seconds each

• Jog in Place

• Slow Butt Kicker Arm Swings

• Lateral Steps + Overhead Pulls

• High Knee Press

• Leg Raise Jacks

• Walkdowns

• Squats

• Fast Butt Kicker

• Lateral Jumps

• Jumping Jacks

• Stuttering High Knee

• Slow Squat + Jump

HIIT Workout - 20 Seconds On, 10 Seconds Rest x 4 Each

• Toe Touch Squat Pop

• Power Skips

• Burpee Split Jumps

• Knee Up Jumps

• Power Curtsy

Last night, in this crazy new world we’re trying to adjust to, it was so good to connect with the GoodGym Ealing crew! ❤️

We went round and shared something positive we’ve been able to do in the past couple of days, despite the situation we find ourselves in, before embarking on a favourite fitness session. Sally Squats assemble! 💪🏻

Can’t wait to see everyone in person once this is all over but for now I’m just so grateful of this wonderful community we have and that we’re still able to ‘see’ each other like this in the meantime. 🥰

Last night 10 runners favoured a night of doing good over watching the football and ran 7km to help The William Hobbayne Charity down by the canal!

Joined by some lovely GoodGym regulars and Andy visiting us from Hounslow we set off on our run through the parks and back streets of Ealing down towards the canal. We did a few (unnecessary given the glorious weather) warm up drills through Walpole before continuing with a nice relaxed run to meet June and her team ready to work on the area by the canal the charity manages.

Our instructions were simple, flatten and cut back as much of the overgrowth and weeds around the planted saplings as possible. We were armed with a treasure trove (wheelbarrow) full of different tools including a couple of scythes which a few of us were very keen to have a go with!

GoodGym 1- Nettles 2

With tree-mendous team work we cleared a big area and the saplings could be seen in their full glory! The only thing that got the one up on us last night was the nettles but for a hardy bunch like us we could hack it and we were all rewarded with some delicious watermelon for our efforts!

We all pitched in and smashed our goal!

A warm night and England playing last night meant I was concerned about how many we tempt out but I needn't of worried as we still had a super strong team out in force and got so much done! Much like the aforementioned game we did go slightly into extra time but it was worth it for the reward of a pint and cake in the pub for our monthly social (and to celebrate my birthday, thank you for the lovely card everyone!)

Special mention this week to Jenni who was on GoodGym day 3 of 4, a mission on Sunday, Richmond on Monday and she'll be heading down to Hounslow tonight. The plan is for her to reach her 50th good deed on Tuesday 7th August which will also be her birthday! Get it in your diary now and ask her about all the other areas she's visiting and see if you can join in!

Hopefully see you all next time!

11 runners formed a well oiled machine last night in Ealing as we took on trimming and Transition Community Orchard, The Ealing Mile AND an abs blast workout, gosh I tired just thinking about it all!

A big welcome last night to Erika who joined us at GoodGym for the first time and also to tourists Hannah and Chi visiting Ealing GoodGym from Wandsworth and Haringey!

With lots of new faces in the group we got things started by getting to know everyone a little better and in honour of our task (where on previous visits we've been given magic beans to take away and grow) we decided this week to discuss out favourite legumes, a bit random even by my standards! We had everything from the humble chickpea through to the baked bean as well as a few confused 'what the hell is a legume?!' answers, now I'll know you all by your favourite pulses!

Raising Pulses

With the pulses raised verbally it was time to raise some physical pulses with a quick jog down to Wapole Park for a warm up round of squat, squat, goose. Think duck, duck, goose but with added squats and sprints and you've got the gist of it! Then a quick stop off to retrieve the tools needed for the job before a final wheelbarrow jog down to The Transition Garden where Grant was ready waiting for us with a couple of big trimming jobs in mind.

We had two mains jobs to tackle last night, taming the hedge surrounding the site and the ongoing task of keeping the brambles inside the wild area under control. Everyone quickly grabbed their weapon of choice and got snipping! The hedge received a much needed hair cut and we cleared a good few wheel barrows worth of brambles from the wild area too. Great work everyone! Transition is such a lovely local project and a big thank you to Grant for coming down to meet us last night, I'm sure we will be back again soon to help some more!

Just One Mile...

With the task behind us it was onto Lammas Park for the second installment of The Ealing Mile. Throughout the lighter months our Tuesday night routes often take us around Lammas Park which is the home of The Ealing Mile and within the park there are 100m markers to mark out the distance. It's a great place to do intervals and the mile is a fantastic opportunity to test your fitness. Here are the results from last night:

Chris 5:52

Chi 6:11

Lauriane 6:41

Michael 7:37

Carlos 7:40

Beth 7:41

Jenni 8:32

Amanda 8:34

Erika 10:19

Hannah 10:21

Well done to Chris who took 25 seconds of his last attempt, Lauriane who shaved off 11 seconds and Jenni who came in over a minute faster! We'll get in a couple more attempts before summer is out so keep your eyes peeled on the future tasks!

With the mile done and dusted you'd think we were spent for the evening but as part of his tourism Chi likes to treat his chosen group to an abs blast workout, who was I to argue?! We dropped off the tools and hit the floor for grueling round of core exercises before a final jog back to the start.

What a night!