After a quick welcome chat and task briefing we headed outside for a warm up. As we walked out the door hundreds of other runners went past us on a Runthrough event. Thankfully, by the time we’d finished our dynamic stretches the hordes had cleared. With Dan up the front keeping us on the right path we set off along the river towards our task for the night. This week we were off to Cody Dock - a local social enterprise and creative space that including a sensory garden, art school, boat cafe and it the start part of The Line Sculpture trail.

#dogoodgetfit

As soon as we got there the first 6 people got straight to work watering all the raised planters around the site. This was a great arm workout as it involved filling up and carrying lots of watering cans.

The other 7 were tasked with applying wood oil to big plywood panels. These panels were going to be used to re-clad the boat interior walls. There was also some sanding to do around the windows too. So with the windows open and rags at the ready they got stuck in.

The cat caught a rat

The time flew by without any drama, accept when the resident very cute and fluffy cat at lightening speed caught a rat - that surprised us all!

Then our time was up, so we grabbed a group photo and said our goodbyes to Simon. We attempted an Indian file on the way back, but no one was very good at keeping in the line, so we resumed a chat and run on the way back.

Once we arrived back at base, there was 10 minutes left for a circuit session along the wooden seating. After which we finished up with some cool down stretches.

Lovely stuff. Thanks for having me Newham!

London town was looking vivacious, radiant and under dressed yesterday evening, the hoards took to the park and the fair weather runners danced with aerobic hustle down the canal. Simultaneously GoodGym Newham was assembling a mighty hit squad of nineteen, driven by altruistic intentions and a catch up with their team-mates.

We welcomed Christiaan to his second session, hope you enjoyed it mate. Also gave a respectful applause to young Scott, who smashed a sub 4hr marathon, paced like a pro in Paris, well in dude. Our weekly random question this "what's your favourite city?" a bit of stale question, sorry, one you might ask on a first date to fill that awkward silence. Fortunately the answers were better than the question, Marakech, Tokyo, Lisbon, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Granada Amsterdam, Istanbul, Vigo, Manchester and Seville to name a few. Somewhat of a European preference to our clan.

A plethora of tasks met us at the school. Shifting boxes up and down stairs, moving a massive unwieldy table across the school, jet washing and scrubbing the outdoor patio, de-constructing raised beds, shifting soil and clearing out the nursery pre-demolition. Lucky we came in numbers yesterday, there's no way we would've got through that otherwise.

To finish off our slot, we simply glided on back down a sunset canal - I mean, what's not to like about that? Thanks again for your graft, Headteacher Paul loves it and is always full of praise.

ps. Good luck to our aerobic monster and fundraising powerhouse, Brad. London Marathon awaits him this Sunday, he's done the hard miles, now the main event awaits. I'm equally impressed and proud at how he's approached this, from the training to the quiz night and video promos. You've really owned the process. Let's have it!

See you beauts next week, sign up here for our task. I'm just finalising it at the moment, so details to come.

Make those weekend runs count guys, summer may finally be here, as good a time as ever to be fit.

Cheers

B

Swollen numbers this week with all you fine east london folk getting stuck in, crisp blue skies and almost spring like weather potentially conducive to the bolstered presence. Terrific to have a big team out once more. With Rosie rollling up and running through her pregnancy we could even lay claim to one more, if only I had an email address for your wondrous fetus. Next week. Chrisanna joined for her first session after having a chat with us last week - lovely to have you part of the team.

Manorfield Primary School was our task site so to speak, a room replete with junk, our job was to remove and organise like diligent worker bees (with a social conscience). Thirty five mins of back and forth action, moving some unwieldy objects, smooth teamwork, a debate about the heat rating of beech Wood and a cheesy picture later we were done!

As always thanks again for your efforts, I received a highly complimentary email from a local councilor last week, waxing lyrical about GoodGym and your local efforts, never unnoticed.

See many of you later tonight for Brad's fundraising quiz, see the rest of you'll next week.

PS. Dan - buy foam roller, use foam roller. message me. Hope you good.

Cheers

B

Unexpectedly low numbers last night, clear skies, positively balmy compared to previous weeks...where were east london's most effervescent volunteers? I'll stop guilt tripping you. We did have a a lovely dynamic group of thirteen

After discussing "if you could have any vehicle, which one would you have?" From niche m2575 (?) helicopters, to batmobiles, jetpacks, quadbikes, teleportation machines, fire breathing dragons, yachts (classic), stealth fighter jets (for the blood thirsty), private jet (international player) to the pedalo swan outside the aquatics centre. Our dreams and desires are not uniform, it seems.

Cody Dock for another simple classic session, led by the seasoned pro, Simon. Setting us off to work aerating the grass with pitch forks, which was successful, in that no one gouged it right through their soft fleshy foot tissue. Then we put up some fencing, and methodically threw some seed to plump up the flat looking grass sections. We blitzed through that rapidly, be great to see how it looks on our return, next month. We will also have light for the majority of that session, I think we should celebrate it with crisping up some pizzas in their outdoor oven. Last year we had a hoot doing it, maybe bring jackets, I recall spooning the oven to keep warm.

Next week we are at Manorfield Primary, sign up here some more 'organised fun'. Hoping to see the whole crew for this one!

A wondrous white dust painted our urban training arena an unrecognisable bright white. Crunching through the snow with each fresh print, very satisfying stuff.

Rewarding to see so many of you wanting to have a wee jog in the powder eleven this week, I would've taken that pre session! There was a fascinating contrast in attire, Hilary opting for the double ski jacket classic, Graham in his usual beachwear - honestly wouldn't have known they were doing the same sport.

Two groups headed to the applecart theatre, a fast group and a back group, of course the back group reached first. I was actually not leading this time, Tim can take the navigational pot shots on this occaision! The vast building was looking majestic in the snow, we helped clear out a room on the second floor, taking the junk down a couple flights. Boxes, carpets, a stuffed chicken.. all the usual stuff. The guys were rewarded with free hoodies and tshirts for their efforts. Decent kit! We headed back with our haul, into the naturally lit night, no head torches required this week.

Cabana brazilian restaurant was our social spot, with it being Alice's birthday and all, good reason to have a beer and some half priced mish-mash of brazilian food, top evening.

Thanks again for your efforts, see most of you beauties on sunday. Should be great fun - I foresee many a PB!

Till then,

B

The unlucky number of 13 rolled up yesterday, our favourite Primary School needed some help painting a wall.

Many of our core group were sadly unavailable last night, unfortunately all at once, hope to have your energy back next week, you were missed. We did welcome back Suraj and Paula for their third run, very useful team players to have.

We recycled our random question this week, sure we've done it before, but a classic doesn't go bad."what's your favourite home cooked meal?" Lasagna came up twice, boxing day lunch bonanza with cold meats, chorizo and chicken, mama's home cooked tomato pasta, a rich broth, cottage pie, mama's dosa, papa's yorkshire puds and Nepalese dumplings from a place in Stratford that turns into an eastern european club at night. Hey, London does multiculturalism its own way.

1.5 miles to the school, met by Paul, who was on crutches after tweaking his knee. Ouch. He's out of The Big Half, but expect him to be bringing some noise road side. For those of you who not doing it, consider going out for a jog and giving your team mates a shout. They/we'd love it.

I'm personally super impressed/proud of the amount of mileage and training happening at GGN at the mo. So many of you are signed up to a race, dabbling in the unknown, getting faster and fitter...it's a real pleasure to see.

We made it back for a wee stretch. No pub pints this week, as Graham wasn't there gesticulating repetitively, so much power in one man's hand. Next week we make a return visit to the theatre, where the team were victorious last week in the quiz. Beat those geeky kids and all. Ace.

There is a talk of a parkrun in Highbury, 20 mins from Stratford on the overground, we'll move that over to whatsapp.

Have an ace week and see you all soon!