11 awesome runners ran nearly 5km to clean up the streets of Greenwich!

Last night didn't quite go to plan but I think we definitely made the best of a bad situation! We were supposed to be shifting soil at More 2 Childcare but sadly Eve had forgotten, but these things happen and we are going back there anyway in a few weeks to build some benches anyway, so maybe the soil will still be there for us too!

We welcomed two new runners, Chris and Lewisham runner Bradley, hope you had a good first run with us guys!

After a quick warm up we set off round the uni to try and up the mileage a bit. We arrived at the childcare centre and it looked quite empty and dark... but we arrived early so I was still hopeful! We ran down by the river, enjoyed the nice views and even bumped into Bliss on the way! After a photo we headed back and sadly had to deliver the bad news to the crew that they won't be shoveling soil BUT we had 40 minutes of time to kill, that's LOADS of time to do something good!

It has been in the news a bit recently about this "new" thing called Plogging which basically stands for picking up litter while jogging. The trend started in Scandinavia but GoodGym has actually been doing it for years! So after a quick trip to the Co-op for some bin bags we set off on our plogging adventure! And then we bumped into another Greenwich GoodGymmer out on his run home from work... it was Brin!

So much rubbish!

I think we all very much underestimated how much litter there would be! My bag was getting weightier by the minute! We cleared the streets of glass bottles, flattened cans, bits of paper, cigarette boxes, bottle caps, drinks cups, even a whole bag of KFC?! It's crazy what people leave out, just knowing that someone else is going to have to deal with it. But we got some lovely comments from passers by which was nice :)

After 40 minutes, everyone had a decent amount in their bag and we called it a day. Fiona kept going for a little while longer, she was top litter picked last night! GREAT JOB!!!

We distributed into various bins and headed back to the uni for a quick little circuit! We did some sprints, some stair climbing and some planking. Two rounds, 45 seconds on each exercise and that combined with all the running and squatting we'd done picking up the rubbish got us pretty knackered! We finished off with a little stretch and we were done!

Great job last night everyone! Sorry again about the main task but thanks for getting stuck in anyway, hope you still had fun!

After what felt like one of the wettest days in January, the rain thankfully held off for our 15 dedicated runners. Good effort guys!! Luckily Chan came prepared for all eventualities with her umbrella hat and sunglasses just incase.

Firstly, as Sarah was away sunning herself in Thailand, and with Thai food being a very popular take-away choice, what better way to start the evening by getting everyone to think about their favourite take-away dish to get the tummy rumbling.

Quickly taking our minds off food(if only for a moment or two) we warmed up with a quick round of Indian file, running in circles with the person at the back sprinting to the front, hopefully no-one got too dizzy!

Slap dash down trafalgar road - trying not to take too much notice of allllll the take-aways on offer, we arrived at The Greenwich & Bexley Hospice Community Charity shop to be greeted by Jane and Lee. Just a bit of a general tidy up and clothes tagging was needed, so the team split into 3 groups, upstairs, downstairs and tagging. Very efficient and great work by all. Alex's hoovering was on point, what a transformation. Spick and span, almost ready to head back, but not before the essential 'grab your favourite item' shot and a bulk purchase of CDs by Andy.

Another dash straight down Trafalgar road, heading for the Cutty Sark, no one could imagine the treat that was in store for them in the fitness session. Splitting into 4 groups of; squats, tricep dips, step-ups and sprints around the boat, rotating around after the sprinters had completed 2 rounds of the ship. Incredible effort put in by all, and to think Sam was ready to head home after the charity shop and miss out on all that fun (or was it the Greenwich Goodies that kept you sweet?).

Well done everyone, really great input throughout the whole night, but fear not!! Normal business will resume next week as Sarah will be back to fill us in on her adventures, and maybe even her favourite eats. Now who's hungry?? Until next time! *Pun credit goes to Alex

17 lovely runners ran 3km to help out at Christchurch community garden!

Well what a lovely morning that was eh folks! So this was the third starter session in a series of four aimed for runners doing The Big Half in March (but of course everyone and anyone is welcome!). The fourth and final session is on 10th February and you can sign up here!

We had lots of lovely new GoodGym runners today as well as a few familiar faces which is always nice. And lots of people who travelled far and wide to make it over to Greenwich this morning, some all the way from Richmond! Now that is dedicated!!! Hopefully it was worth it.......!

After everyone had dropped off their bags at the gym and emptied their bladders(!) we headed up the stairs, found out what everyone was having for dinner tonight and then did a quick little warm up just down the street before we got going!

We arrived at the church a little under 10 minutes later and were greeted by vicar Andrew who explained a few things which needed doing in the garden. On the whole, it was a general tidy up which included removing all the moss and grass from between the bricks and sweeping up the leaves! Everyone grabbed some gloves and a weapon of choice and got stuck in!

After about 20 minutes the place was looking LOVELY! Those bricks had been set free after being engulfed in moss and were now able to breathe! All the leaves had been swept up and put into a nice pile. Now it was just time to get everything together into a big bag ready to be emptied onto the compost later on.

After all the tools had been put away, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the uni for a fitness session!

We started off with a few partner exercises to target the core muscles, because a strong core means a stronger, faster and more efficient runner! And then we finished off with 3 minutes of continuous running at varying speeds to get used to the feeling of running at different paces rather than just your standard plod which everyone is guilty of! It's something that can easily be incorporated into your training and will make a whole world of difference, I promise you!!!

Once everyone was suitably puffed, we headed back to the gym for a little cool down stretch and called it a day!

Wednesday group run!

As I mentioned, our usual run is on a Wednesday evening, 6.45pm at the Old Royal Naval College. The format is the same as today except the run may be a little further and it's dark because it's in the evening... but it's still fun! You can sign up to Wednesday's run here.

Well done today everyone! It was great seeing you all get so involved with the task and there was some amazing running going on from everybody so you should be really pleased with yourselves! Hopefully see you at another GoodGym run soon! Good luck and enjoy the rest of your training!

23 runners ran 4km to help out at Clothes 4 Causes charity shop!

A great start to the year so far from GoodGym Greenwich! We had 4 new runners join us last night, Finn, James, Ophelia and Mahim... welcome all! Hope you had a good first run with us!

The grand opening of Greenwich Zoo!

With a shorter run on our hands, we had a little bit of extra time to have some fun in the warm up! We played a little game where everyone was given a bit of paper with an animal on it and then you had to run around acting like the animal with the aim being to try and find the other person in the group who is the same animal as you! Lots of moo-ing, baa-ing, squeaking, neighing, barking and hissing going on... now I know how Noah felt on his ark... crikey! After a couple of rounds, we headed off on our run!

I forgot to take a group snap the beginning so we stopped along the river with a lovely lit up London skyline as the backdrop... beautiful! Then we continued our journey and arrived at the shop a few moments later.

We were greeted by Veronique who sadly broke the news to us that they had recently been flooded so had to move out a lot of the clothes that we were meant to be sorting. Instead everyone got stuck in with tidying the shop, making sure everything was nice and neat and in colour order. There was also loads of rubbish from the downstairs room which needed bringing upstairs to be collected by a man (or lady!) in a van tomorrow!

Amongst the rubbish were a few wicker baskets which looked far too good to throw away and were quickly snapped up by Nina and Marta! And the only price they had to pay was running back carrying them! Not bad!

15 minutes of tidying and sorting and we were done! It doesn't take long when you have 46 helping hands!

Strides!

We ran back the way we came, past the Cutty Sark and a little further along the river where there was a nice long straight, perfect for our fitness session which consisted of 5x 20s of strides with jog back recoveries! This is something you can do once or twice a week at the end of a run and it will really help improve your running form. If you want to read a little bit more about it and the benefits, have a look here. All you need is a nice straight bit of road! Give it a try next time and let me know how you get on!

After everyone was suitably puffed, we headed back to the uni for a cool down stretch and called it a night!!!

FB group

For you 4 lovely new runners, please feel free to join our GoodGym Greenwich Facebook Group where you can find out what other people are up to. We've got loads of Greenwich runners doing all sorts of races which you can of course get involved in as well! Christian has managed to get us 10% discount for the 10k race in Greenwich Park and we're getting a good crowd together so feel free to join!

Well done last night everyone! Top work on the task and great running all round!! See you next week!