The cold weather has definitely hit us now, but the promise of an indoor task seems to have done the trick and we had a great turnout of 23 runners! This was our first week with no new runners, which is something we definitely have to remedy over the next couple of weeks. Time to start talking your friends, colleagues and random people you meet on a bus into coming down to join us!

There was loads of news to share this week. In just our 11th group run, Leeds has hit 300 good deeds! Give yourselves a pat on the back! Also, our taskforce more than doubled this week, with Carol, Adam and Katie joining the ranks, taking us up to 5! There's also a christmas social booked in for the last task of the year so get signing up to that. Fancy dress is very much encouraged.

With the news shared, we returned to the Big Wave warm-up, with some squats, star jumps, lunges and general incoordination amongst the group. We'll get there eventually!

We headed out by the now familiar route down towards Kirkstall, as lots of tasks have been falling in a similar area. Rach was back running, which is great to see, but she took the sensible option of backmarking on her return.

The run down was a lovely, steady, chatty one, and we all arrived ready and excited for our task. After a late change of plan during the day, we were no longer headed to the Abbey for marquee decorating, but would instead be doing some tasks at the community centre.

We arrived to find a huge table full of toys of all shapes and sizes, some with pieces missing, some looking like they were missing their friends, and some just looking plain weird. Our job was to find all the right pieces, devise a way to sort them and then to put them into big plastic containers. The second task of painting some decorations was hampered by the fact there was a choir rehearsing in the room next door. The gang got on with the job of sorting the toys, first working out how to separate them up, and then putting them all neatly in the correct boxes. In the meantime, Aron tried his best to look choir-like as he sneaked through to collect the painting materials.

"Are you sure you don't want to join in with us?" Choir member trying to get trainer Aron to do even less work.

Aron resisted the temptation to take up singing, and instead hastily repositioned the painting task from the choir rehearsal space to the kitchen and by now the toys were pretty much done! Magic! Everyone grabbed a paintbrush (of varying size and usefulness) and got down to painting. Some techniques were questionable to say the least, with some people resorting to finger painting, and others pouring the paint directly onto the decorations.

"I call it the squirt and smear method" George.

With the Christmas tunes playing, and everyone squeezing into any available painting surface to finish their masterpieces, there was a lovely atmosphere. Two GoodGymers were not quite satisfied with the sorting that the group had done with the toys, and set about making some small tweaks (or possibly just playing with the toys). Heather found herself a hamster that she looked pretty pleased with, while Rach looked for the creepiest toys she could find.

"I don't really like dolls, to be honest" Rach, with a shopping trolley full of dolls next to her.

With both tasks wrapped up we paused for a quick photo with our creations (and creepy toys) before heading out into the night.

There was just time for a quick round of Sally Squats, with the group not believing that the song could possibly be that long. Sally squats will return, and next time we're going to get the whole way through the song!

The run back up the hill was steady on our already-burning quads, but a few pushed on for a speedy finish.

After a quick stretch and a debrief, we headed out into the night, already excited about getting even more Christmassy next week!

Every time we head to Growing Better it seems to be a wet one, and tonight was no exception.

The rain put a few people off, but we still had an amazing turnout, and Catherine, Mia, Ciara and Charlie all chose tonight for their first run with us. They definitely deserve a cheer for coming out in weather like that.

It's also great to see that people are bringing along their friends to GoodGym which is exactly what we want to see!

Our HUGE news tonight was that it was tenth event, and two amazing runners have been to all ten! Adam and Katie both deserve a massive cheer. Click on their name and then find the loudspeaker symbol next to their activities to give them a warm fuzzy glow inside! Or better yet, hit support and you'll see all the amazing stuff they get up to every time you go onto the GoodGym website!

This is the third time we've been back to Growing Better as they're always looking for things for us to do, so most of our crew knew the drill by now. We had a quick 10-themed warm-up in celebration of Adam and Katie, and then made our way down the hill towards Kirkstall, with Katie back marking.

As we reached the cricket club, we let the speedy bunch head off down the hill at a quicker pace, with Adam taking the lead, and Helen stepping in to backmark.

As we all arrived at Growing Better the rain was really coming down and we set about our tasks. While a small group tried to work out the logistics of attempting to build some compost bins, the rest of the team grabbed their tools and headed over to the allotment site.

There was more orchard clearing and pallet fencing to be done and the team got straight down to it. It seems that for some people GoodGym is about more than just going for a run and socialising with new people, particularly when they have a spade in hand:

"This is better than therapy!" Riobhne, GG Leeds

With the Orchard looking even better than before, and another section of pallet fencing completed, thoughts turned to the potential of building compost bins. The Pallet shifting crew had brought a huge stack of pallets across the field to the allotment (which is no mean feat when it's so wet) with Adam and Alex even getting an extra workout by carrying two at a time!

As we started the task of digging in for the compost bins, we realised the ground was just too sodden, and it wasn't going to be possible, and so we called time on our attempt. I'm sure there will be a next time, possibly when the weather is a little drier!

We then all made our way back to base in the same groups as before with much of the conversation revolving around how amazing it would be to eventually get home and dry out! One anonymous GoodGymer (to protect their modesty) was most concerned about what to wear for the journey home:

"I think I might have to drive home in my pants!"

Hopefully everyone got home safe and has finally dried out and warmed up! Our next three tasks leading up to Christmas are all in Kirkstall, meaning a similar distance run. They're all inside, and Christmassy, so hopefully we'll all start to get in the Christmas spirit!

See you next week!

Aron

The promise of staying around for a drink after tonight's session obviously convinced enough people to run with us this week and we had a bumper turnout. 32 runners were part of our amazing crew, including Leah and Suzie who both joined us for the first time. Go and give them a cheer!

This week's task was in aid of 'The Lost Plot', who use gardening at their allotment to offer an alternative to traditional talking therapies for people in sustainable recovery. We were tasked with collecting as many leaves as possible which the group could then use to turn into leaf mulch. There was no task-owner on site with us, which meant trainer Aron went wild with the power.

The whole group was split into 5 teams with their tasks as follows:

• To collect as many leaves as possible in their teams, and deliver them up the hill to the allotment before the time ran out.
• To come up with an excellent team name - as it's GoodGym, ideally a pun.
• To take a great team photo.
• To come up with an inventive exercise that they could demonstrate to the group.
• Bonus points would be awarded for excellent teamwork, camaraderie and general excellent banter.

There was also the promise of a fabulous secret prize for the winning team, which really got everyone's head's in the game. After a quick warm-up demonstrating some potentially inefficient leaf collecting techniques, we were off.

The allotment is in Hyde Park/Woodhouse moor, which roughly 100m away from our start location, so we took a slightly scenic route to the allotment to make sure we were all thoroughly warmed up for our task. We pointed out where the leaves needed to be left and headed down to the edge of the park where there were loads of leaves and a bit more light.

Armed only with gardening gloves and some bags, the teams were free to collect leaves wherever they wanted, and on Aron's shout, each group raced off to claim their own patch. With the 30 minutes of frantic leaf counting underway, it looked like the breakneck pace might prove unsustainable.

"It's like the crystal maze!" Goodgymer whose name was lost in the melee.

Bags were being filled quicker than we could count them, and they were stuffed full to the brim. After realising we definitely weren't going to have enough bags to last us the full 30 minutes, the decision was taken to start running the bags up the hill before emptying them into one gigantic pile, and then refilling them.

After the initial buzz started to fade, thoughts turned to the other tasks the groups had been set. Here's what they all came up with:

• Team 1 - Don't stop beleafing

Exercise - frog squat/leaf collecting

Photo - team frog squat with added leaf throwing

• Team 2 - The Unbeleaveables

Exercise - erratically falling leaves with wide stance fast feet

Photo - Team tree, with a two person trunk, and everyone else as leaves.

• Team 3 - Mulch ado about nothing

Exercise - Tree pose

Photo - group tree hug

• Team 4 - Don't stop beleafing (again)

Exercise - choreagraphed workout (The Monster Mulch) with 3 exercises set to the music of Journey

Photo - Boomerang of leaf throwing with added musical accompaniment

• Team 5 - Mulch ado about nothing (again)

Exercise - Curtsy squats (another gloriously inefficient leaf collecting technique)

Photo - leaf throwing action shot

By now, a huge pile of leaves was forming and with 5 minutes to go, teams started collecting closer to the allotment gate, with everyone congregating around the two trees that were closest. As the final countdown commenced, everyone raced into the finish line to make sure their leaves counted. The final pile was enormous, and even though Team 1 tried to keep their own pile separate, eventually common sense prevailed and all the leaves were piled in together.

We got a quick snap of the whole group before heading down to the corner of the park where the teams demonstrated their exercises. There was wonderful mix of strength, endurance and even flexibility, and so obviously this had to be a group workout. We started with the Monster Mulch's high energy, before running through each of the exercises and finishing with the relative calm of the tree pose. All of the exercises were 'creative' and left people surprisingly tired. Awesome work everyone.

We jogged back to our start location for a stretch and the big reveal of our winners! Despite picking a team name that was shared by another team, the judges were impressed by their commitment to a theme, and with everything either about or set to the music of Journey's Don't Stop Believing, there could only be one winner. Team 4, Don't stop beleafing took home the Curly the Caterpillar cake, and more importantly the glory!

We all then moved inside to the warm of the pub for a drink and a chat to fully debrief the day's evening's events, and the winning team even shared their spoils! What a team.