18 GoodGymers ran, did squats and got in touch with their creative side last night in support of this years Hanwell Hootie Festival and The William Hobbayne Charity!

Not your average group run!

Last night we broke with tradition and did all our running before the task, meeting at our usual base at Bodyline Studios we kicked things off with a head count and welcomed new GoodGymer Roisin to the mix! We run did a few drills focusing on getting some nice high knees and glute activation (very good if you've been sitting all day!) before heading to Hanger Hill Park for some undulation training. Everyone had a go at taking on the loop in the park which gives you the ability to run a fast downhill, hard uphill and a recovery along the top before doing it all again! We also did a few balance and strength exercises before doing a recovery jog back to the start.

Now that's where we'd normally call it an evening but not tonight, now it was time to get crafty! It just so happens that the first Tuesday of the month is always our social in Ealing so tonight we combined our task with just that and headed to the pub to get creative! We had two big MDF guitars to decorate for this years Hanwell Hootie for their Wall Of Sound Installation where for charitable organisations, schools, and community groups will present their message about how they support the community and promote the great work they do! We are very excited and honoured to be asked to create one for GoodGym and we were also asked to help The William Hobbayne Charity create theirs as over the last year we have been so involved with them and lots of the projects they work on!

We are very lucky in our group to have lots of talented and skilled people who got the extra mile to help on some tasks and this week Lionel was a star! Our resident handyman and fountain of knowledge when it comes to DIY primed and prepped the guitars ready for us to release our artistic side onto! Another special mention goes to Daniela who had the most beautiful handwriting and made the William Hobbayne guitar look like a professional job!

Everyone had a part to play in the final products, all working together and using our different skill sets. There's just a few finishing touches I'll need to add on once the paint is dry but what a great result so far!

Next week we are back to the normal format, where we'll do some good sandwiched in between a run! Details to the right hand side >>>

A gloriously warm Saturday day led into a beautifully mild Saturday night and 9 of us met to trail run by headtorch and complete a litter pick as part of this years Earth Hour!

In Ealing we are extremely lucky to have Horsenden Hill, a lovely open space packed with great trails and views in all directions across London. Unfortunately sometimes people reach the summit and leave litter behind so as part of this years Earth Hour we decided to take the opportunity to run here and address the problem! A few of us have run here before but never at night so it was wonderful to meet as a group and experience the area in a completely different way.

We stayed as a group, lighting the way with bobbing headtorches weaving through the trails until we reached the top where we rewarded with (slightly darker than normal, thanks to Earth Hour!) views across London. There we stopped to pick any litter we could find, which thankfully wasn't a lot! It's great to see that people are actually using the bins provided to dispose of their litter and we only found one bad spot which we quickly cleared up. Lots of cigarette butts were scooped up along with excavating a few partially buried bottle caps which was very satisfying!

Hot on the trail!

After we'd picked all we could find we took some time to just enjoy running a few of the different trails over, up and down the hill in all different directions! Most of us were so warm we were down to just shorts and t-shirts, which whilst is enjoyable is very unusual for this time of year. It really brings home the message Earth Hour is giving about the effects of global warming.

We finished our run on the Gruffalo trail (how could we not!) and then ended the evening the way we like best, in the pub! It was great to chat with all the GoodGymers who'd come from different areas of London to take part and also get to know Sophie who joined us tonight for her first ever GoodGym run!

I'm hoping to arrange more events like this in the future so keep your eyes peeled!

16 runners, 2 store cupboards sorted, one patio swept, a laundry room painted and an action packed hills session. That's a lot of good in one evening, all in aid of helping our local Hestia Refuge!

We continued our trend of stealing runners from other areas as we welcomed Sam to his first GoodGym Ealing experience (west is best, don't you know!). Previously found doing good things in Hackney Sam has seen the light and is now residing in Ealing, much like fellow steal-ee Annie who we were delighted to see back again this week!

We also had one Megan join us for her first ever GoodGym run, give her a cheer! I can tell she'll fit right in with our group as shes's already admitted that she has set herself the challenge of running a half marathon a month this year, we like that sort of nutty running behaviour here in Ealing! She obviously did her research as she arrived in her paint covered leggings ready to get stuck straight in, nice one!

After a quick warm-up and discussion about favourite races, it was just a short run up to Hestia leaving us plenty of time to spread out across the site and get LOADS of jobs done for them. We had a couple of teams upstairs channeling their inner Marie Kondo and organising storage cupboards, a few people out the front of the building sweeping up and finally a team cleaning down and repainting the laundry room.

After we had all given half an hour of hard graft we packed up and Sandra, who runs the house, gave everyone a little bit more information about what Hestia does and how they help the people living there.

We were also delighted to see a photo from one of our previous visits proudly displayed on their noticeboard. The quote reads, 'GoodGym volunteers, always smiling', how lovely!

Be running up that road, be running up that hill...

Now we could have taken a nice easy jog back to the start and finished up early for the evening but no, no, no. It was time for hills! We did a mixed session of running fast downhill and fast uphill. For the downhills we focused on having an 'active recovery of rear leg' which is to make sure you're using that momentum from the downhill to push off on your backwards stride (no shuffling downhill!). Then for the uphills we focused on having relaxed shoulders and a positive backwards arm drive. A hills session that combines both fast uphill and downhill elements is a great strength and speed session for those wanting to push themselves a little bit in their running but it totally adaptable to all fitness levels, have I mentioned before that I love hill training?!

Everyone tackled the session really well and hopefully took away a little technique point to focus on when you come across a hill in your next run or race!

A nice recovery jog and stretch was all that was left before heading home for a well deserved dinner and sit down!

>>> Details of the next run are on the right of the screen, get clicking and signing up! >>>

12 Hackney GoodGymers ran 4.5k to help Hollybush Community Garden.

Thanks for looking after me this evening!!

Social next week after group run to celebrate Toyin’s 50th GoodDeed!! going to a Thai restaurant on Mare street post Group Run be great if you could make it along!

Running down to Hollybush Community Garden this evening to see the amazing Margaret and Michael a 2k run down to the Rocky garden started us off.

So much Moss to shift so make the garden safe for the older residents as it makes the ground very slippery. A wide range of tools and scraping techniques all making that beautiful scraping sound on concrete!

Scraping to the beat we also had out flower pot sorters going through 250 potted plants deciding weather they were able to be planted or had to hit the compost heap.

Powering through the moss and the plants we also swept up and tidied up the garden helping to create a huge bag of garden waste which we were able to lift and carry to the bins for the council to come and collect.

Rewarded in the best way possible with so treats gave us the power up to do the longer route back to base and a nice pace!

Big shout out to Sam on his last run with us before he moves West. Thank you for your huge efforts with the Hackney crew!! Hope you get along to a West London GG group soon.

See you next week for a trip to Hackney Parks before out social!

Smooth Running

Joel