Despite a scorching evening, five GoodGymers made it out for an evening run and a spot of doing good.

We welcomed Amanda to the crew - so everyone please give her a cheer! She chose a long run and a hot evening as her way into using her runs to do good, great work.

With a long run ahead of us we set off quickly and spoke about our favourite ice creams en route - I hope you're all enjoying one on your way home. After passing through the city we made it to Providence Row - a lovely charity that help the homeless with learning new skills (such as art, cookery and music lessons!). Our task this week was to clean the art room floor, which after years of use by community groups and the several PR art and music groups, was covered in paint and other marks.

Armed with our brooms, mops and scrubbing sponges we got straight to work and 30 minutes flew by. There were still a few marks left that were a bit too tough for us to remove, but overall the floor was clean and sparkling!

For our run home we had two options: get the tube and get back on time, or do a lovely Thames path run back with a slightly late arrival time. We stopped at tower hill so those who wanted to get the tube could do so, and the rest of us ploughed on down the Thames.

Racking up 8km on a very hot evening is a great feat - so fab work everybody!

See you next week for more doing good, and hopefully a slightly shorter run!

Tonight we visited Oasis Farm Waterloo, an urban farm and community resource in Waterloo, a hidden gem just moments from the Southbank, and the closest farm to Parliament. We also managed to run 4km and fit in a quick but tough circuits session.

Joining us for their first ever GoodGym group run, we had the amazing Rajmund, Anna, Georgia, Octavia and Theo (wow so many!) – give them a cheer for coming out in the cold and using their run to do some good. As well as welcoming these fab runners we also heard about the Long Run taking place in South London this weekend for anyone that’s about, and a little reminder of the Thursday running fitness session happening in Vauxhall this week.

As well as braving the cold, here at GoodGym King’s we also had to brave the busy Waterloo Bridge Commute as we couldn’t head out over Blackfriars Bridge as usual due to the location of the task. We practiced our dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge techniques and headed out. With everyone safely over the bridge, we made quick work of the rest of the journey down to the farm and met Roddy outside.

The task: The super organised Roddy split us up into groups when we arrived and showed us each to a planter – we needed to remove all the soil, take out all the bricks, move the planter, and then re-fill it with the bricks and soil – we had a tough 40 minutes ahead of us with a good arm workout! Between us we managed to fully move a couple of planters and make a great start on 2 or 3 more which some volunteers are going to finish off in the morning. I think the sounds of the animals settling down for sleep helped us work hard (especially the pigs from the Pig Palace!).

Roddy kindly let us use the farm's new barn for our fitness session as it started to rain. We went through questions like "are you scared of spiders?", "have you eaten any pancakes already today?" and "do you cycle to work?" - if you answered yes to the question you had a 40 second strength exercise to do, if you answered no then it was a 40 second cardio exercise. After lots of squats, high knees and mountain climbers (great suggestion Sophie!), we were ready to head back to King's. We waved goodbye to Roddy with promises of coming back soon to help with more tasks (hopefully in slightly warmer weather)! We ran back a slightly longer route, with slightly better views, over Westminster Bridge and did some stretches back at the base.

Credit to Gosia for the pun!

Next week is student volunteering week, so join us for our special run to help Rhythm of Life, a superb homeless charity in Covent Garden.

Tonight we visited the Sainsbury's by Warren Street Station to pack up their food collections for the amazing charity Rhythms of Life, who feed and educate the homeless. We also managed to run about 6km and get in lots of sprints, squats and lunges in the process.

Tonight we had a whopping five new runners - Bryony, Annie, Hannah, Sarah and Amy - these people all decided for the first time to use their run tonight to do some good, so I think they deserve a cheer, don't you?! We told them all about missions and coach runs which are great ways to get involved in the community on a more personal level, and really see the difference you can make to someone's life first hand.

We also found out that GoodGym have some Big Half entries for just £10! GoodGym are also putting on some Big Half specific starter sessions where you can get help with your training and advice on your running technique (plus you get to do a good deed too!) - you can see if any fit with your schedule here.

After this big intro we had to get started with our evening run sharpish, so we headed out onto the terrace for a warm up overlooking the Thames, before heading North through central London on a 3km run. At every other set of traffic lights we stopped to do some squats and lunges, and even had an elderly man join us for our squat jumps.

The task: We arrived at Sainsbury's with time to spare, so while we waited for them to get the boxes ready for us to pack the food into, we did a speedy fitness session right outside. We worked on our legs, our glutes and also managed to sneak in a little arm exercise (a muscle group that runners often forget about). With the ever increasing strange looks from customers getting a bit overbearing we made our way inside to pack the food collections into boxes, ready for the charity to pick up in the morning. Once in boxes, and while we waited for the manager to show us where to put them, we took over the pasta aisle with some very well formed planking action - great work on the fitness for this run, team!

On the run back we practiced some sprinting techniques, focussing on backwards arm drive and positioning ourselves upright.

Tonight was one of the strangest evenings of our lives, but it was certainly entertaining - see you next week for some more running and doing good.

Tonight we visited the YMCA Shop by Goodge Street to help them sort through some of their vintage and new donations. It was a 5km round trip, so we got lots of miles under our belts to get even further past our January target of 100km, which we had already surpassed before tonight’s group run took place!

We welcomed a new runner for their first ever group run - Hannah – don’t you think she has earned a cheer?!

After some brief introductions, and with a busy central London run ahead of us, we set off quickly for a night of running and doing good!

The task: We made our way up past Covent Garden and Fitzrovia until we got to Goodge Street, where we were greeted by Usukh at the YMCA Charity Shop. She showed us where they stored all their donations and split us up into groups to complete all the different tasks she has prepared. We had one group checking CDs and DVDs for scratches, one hanging all the new clothing donations onto hangers, and one lucky group tidying up the shop floor, and choosing new attire for the mannequins. Whilst singing a little bit of YMCA - Village People (you can enjoy it too, below), we got all our tasks done!

On the run back we practiced some sprinting techniques, focussing on that backwards arm drive, and warming up all those leg muscles.

Tonight was great fun - see you next week, when we will be helping out an awesome charity who feed and educate the homeless. We’ll be packing up some of their food collections into boxes for easy transportation!