8 enthusiastic GoodGymers met outside of The London aquatics centre.

The weather was nice, it was a relatively warm evening made even warmer by the amazing people that attended last night's group run.

We All gathered by the Aquatics centre reception at 7pm setting off with a swift briefing at 7.15pm. We had a short jog up to the first set of traffic lights, some warm up drills followed.

• Side shuffles
• High knees
• Heel flicks
• AND Superman squats where the order of the day.

We then ran to Durning Hall Community Centre in Forest Gate via the Romford Road with some gruelling Glute and quad burning exercises along the way.

Upon arriving at Durning Hall the receptionist did not seem to know we where due to show up, however we we're soon provided a task but found we did not have sufficient tools to get the job done.

None the less! It was no bother and our GoodGym Good Goers remained enthusiastic and ready for Action!

We Ran back sprinting every other corner until we all gather by the Morrisons in Stratford before arriving at the Stratford Olympic City.

With the scene set and reflections glaring from our eyes we rounded up the evening with some circuits! Awww yes I said circuits.

• Press ups
• Tricep presses
• Knee tucks
• Step ups

As we know, no Good session is complete without any stretching.

We Stretched our calf's, hamstrings, glutes and obliques.

All in all it was a fantastic evening, I must say I was very pleased with the efforts of the whole group.

Big welcome to our two new members Vanessa and Ben.

17 runners, 7km, 1 new trainer

This week was a mile stone for GoodGym Newham; it was a type of changing of the guard, as I stood down as coach and welcomed fellow Beagle Andres to the GG runners circle. An accomplished runner and trainer he wasted no time in getting the group warmed up with some not-so average exercises. High knees, sumo squat jumps, supermans....yeah, I herd you all breathing heavy. Forehead down to toes all warm, LET'S GO!

Armed with a 17 strong running pack I feel like we owned Westfield this time round; we stretched out and cruised down to Urban Wilderness at varied speeds. Weaving and dodging people traffic at every turn we arrived at Urban Wilderness where the flower bed plants now stood as tall as us, the number of planters had increased and there was an addition of some pretty looking fairy lights in preparation for Autumn nights.

We split up with some of the group tasked with shovelling soil into a large planter at the far end of the garden and the rest of the group disturbing and pulling up weeds at the other end. Darkness sneakily started to creep up on us making the work a little bit more challenging, but as you know we’re pretty much nocturnal, we work all year round in all conditions, so we accepted the dark. And plus, I brought my ever so bright bike light and strategically placed it around the garden for a bit of help…. I KID, it was pretty much the smallest two LED’s known to man stuck together but it’s all I had….Every little helps and all that.

Time for the return, two groups:

• Group 1 cruised back at a comfy, aka Chatty pace, whereby they would live to fight another day.

• Group 2 went hard….It’s still somewhat of a mystery to me as to what this group did as I was with group 1, but as they sprinted back through the park with a Usain Bolt style arm drive, heavy breathing, and a few grimaces I knew it was serious.

Finishing off with a series of stretches which brought everyone back down to ’Shake Shack prep’ levels we ended the session. Whilst simultaneously contemplating what we order in the Shack. To my suprise the group said a few words and presented me with a few goodies, before I embark on my new adventure.

A massive thank you to everyone who came, and everyone who has supported GoodGym and GoodGym Newham. IN SHORT, YOU ARE ALL SERIOUSLY AMAZING and it has been a pleasure to work alongside you all

Get behind Andres once again this week as he leads you through the bustling streets of Newham, Over and out GG Newham

Kirsty

9 pairs of hands, plenty of top soil and 6 rounds of tempo runs - No monsoon was holding us back this week.

All morning London had been battered with heavy showers, but once again nature was looking out for us in all our lycra glory and the heavens switched off the taps for a while. So we successfully stayed dry...whoop whoop! However the soil we would be shovelling at Mobile Garden City had spent all day soaking up the water and as a result it was trickier than usual to shift due to its extra water weight. But we had a stellar line up so it was fine.

We had the Cornick brothers who for me are a bit like the Brownlee brothers in the triathlon, The C&A duo (Carol & Alice), along with seasoned runner Steph and MGC garden pro Nish. And if that wasn't enough we topped it off with newbies Holly and Angela. Both of whom were well and truly initiated this week with their first GoodGym run and accompanying Good Deed; neither wasted any time in getting dirty with the rest of us. This is the start of something great, I promise.

Gabby who was overseeing us for the evening informed me of the abundance of veg that was currently floating around the garden. The harvest is ready, and there's not enough takers at the mo so as we worked Gabby picked, and later we loaded all the delicious veg into Alice's bag.

• FYI Had the said bag not have been at our disposal the impending tempo session would have turned into a 9 man vegetable relay around the park. And a possible earn it, to eat it type of plank challenge.

After shovelling and loading plenty of stodgy top soil into planters along with a bit of planter moving we were ready for our main run. 3 rounds of 2 tempo runs with a gradual pace increase from 60-80%.
Holding your form and picking up the pace when your already fatigued is always a challenge but one that massively helps you to inject some speed in your longer runs and maintain it.

RANDOM FACT I noticed that Nish has been the only runner to join us on every visit to MGC over the past couple of months...insert round of applause. In that time the growth in the garden has been immense, check it out.

• VISIT 1
• VISIT 2
• VISIT 3

Great work as always, I hope to see you on the next one for my final run with the group. We'll throw in a bevy, coffee &/or bite to eat in Westfield post run too (throw out any suggestions).

Kirsty