On the 6th day of the month, 17 Brent beauty's braved the icy rain for 90minutes. Ran a fierce 4K , dropped 200 leaflets and even had time to plyometric their their way through an adrenaline pumping fitness frenzie. Track attack but I should have work a rain Mac Just another average Monday for GG Brent. Pow Pow

Housekeeping to begin as always and to my delight another Welcominng of newbies was in order for the third week in a row. Not one but two new faces into the fold hurrah Stephanie and joining the ever increasing familia Ananda was push AKA Mum, brought along for the night too!!!

Another newness shout out came in the form of Our Big proud intro to the new lord of the GG Brent Twitter -Lucky Enrique, who would be sprinkling our goodcheer all over the socials for the next coming weeks YAY.

After announcements and a discussion on the best abs and core excersies to do (little did they know these were in store later ha ha ha ha ) the crew stepped up to the plate for task reveal time.

It was team effort all the way with seasoned Brent Goodgymer Eliza providing the deed for the night: Hand out the mighty big stack of leaflets for : Brent's affordable counselling service. So with all hands full, the paper chase was on & we were more than ready to rock, paper, scissor(kick) to track.

Stepping out into the night one word whistled through the air like a speeding train hurtling down a tunnel.... "Collllddd" omg was it cold and if that wasn't enough, no sooner had we ducked out, we were greeted by the biggest downpour of rain known to mankind and boy oh boy was it freezing too!! But completely and utterly unfazed (my crew is hardcore y'all) we rolled out regardless with smiles and laughter that lit up walm lane brighter than the street lamps themselves.

The 2.5k dash down to Willesden track took no time at all in the wake of our 'paper-trail' where passers by and Willesden-ites were both thrilled and dazed by the good vibes being flung at them, at every turn!!

Arriving at the track, with practically all leaflets handed out, YAY, the team reviewed the torrentials and absolute slip and slide of a track, with nervous anticipation ..... hummmmmm thinking on my feet, like any Goodgym coach would do I used my noggin and set up the plyometrics session under the blessed covering of the bleacher stands YAY!!!! It was the only way!!!!!! and to my delight, what was laid out in front of me to use - stairs!!!! Yessss!!! Stretching out to provide the perfect gradient level simulated track as an alternative option. Pow Pow!!

So without further a do, teams split in 2 and now the real work could begin: Team one began with: High knee runs up and down the stairs of the supporter bleacher seating, hitting every stair with their feet as they chopped and sped their legs at through 4 sets. Team two with me, got a lesson in plyometrics; Tuck jumps, explosive jump lunges and 2 feet to 1 explosive hops.

Now because i know you like the science part; Plyometrics, also known as "jump training" or "plyos", are exercises in which muscles exert maximum force in short intervals of time, with the goal of increasing power, speed and strength. This training focuses on learning to move from a muscle extension to a contraction in a rapid or "explosive" manner, such as in specialised repeated jumping. Although Plyometrics are primarily used by athletes, like sprinters and high jumpers to improve performance, they can also be incorporated into a cross training routine for an endurance runner too, to support conditioning of muscles and bonus time, act as a neat little fat burner as well.

After a minute of each split the teams switched and after a 4X repeats we all regrouped for some essential core work to finish. Using planks, split low legs and scissor kicks to blast the bods for one last effort as a united crew.

After the blitz in the rain the team wasted no time and with jackets zipped, hoods up we headed straight back out into the storm, to weather the last couple of km back to base.

Yes it was wet, yes it was cold, yes we welcomed newbies into the fold. But were we glum, highly strung? Think again, it was nothing but a Brent bonanza of fun fun fun!!!

See you next time!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Thirty Seven delightul Islingtonians were raring to get out there and be good, do good and look good last night. Let's give our first timers, Katy, Ranj, Selina and Colleen a massive cheer.

So, THREE tasks means three mini reports. Here we go:

WHITTINGTON WANDERERS

John and Steve led a crew of 10 people up to Whittington Community Centre for a spot of weeding. A place we journey to every couple of weeks. I don't know what they put in the soil in Whittington, but the weeds seem to grow with ferocity, so there's always plenty to do. That said, there was a bit of uncertainty over what was a weed and what wasn't. A debate ensued, which is just as well because we had forgotten all about Simon's debate......oops!) Weeds? Some said anything green, some anything not pretty. The superficiality of modern life won through, and we yanked out all the ugly weeds and left the pretty ones in place to brighten up the place. Job done, we jogged back a bit early just to make sure nobody stole our seats in the pub.

GORGEOUS GRENVILLE

It's been a while since we've been to Grenville and a few of us had forgotten that's it's quite uphill to get there. But having not been there since the winter, it was lovely to see it in the sun! We had three tasks to tackle at the garden. The most popular was varnishing the raised flower beds, but with only six brushes to use the task was taken by the quickest to grab a brush! We also had a classic task for GoodGym...shovelling and moving soil. The guys eagerly grabbed some forks and shovels and got it all cleaned up, sieved and into bags, ready to be used in the garden. The third was to rebuild a bug den (no we didn't know what it was either) that had fallen down. After a bit of creativity and a balancing act the bug den was rebuilt as a 5 star hotel to house all creatures great and small, see photo. After a quick team photo we started a much nicer downhill run back!

BARNSBURY BEAUTIES

A lovely outing to Barnsbury Community Centre for 12 of us. We had two jobs: Del, Will and Mel planted an olive tree, which looked simple, but wasn't so straightforward when they realised they had to dig into what was practically concrete. The rest of us set about painting a couple of wooden seats (constructed from pallets) with preserver. the job was done in next to no time and Colleen even made sure the grass was free of spills with some paper towel positioning. Following a bit of core while Kike and Dina cleaned the brushes (hurry up!) on the journey back we played our favourite game of secret surges, which included a cheeky road crossing surprise from Dina and Caroline trying to get us all run over. We then did various skipping and sprinting bits and bobs before passing one of the groups already on their way to the pub! Arrgh!

OTHER BITS

Biscuits were chocolate oaty things from Tesco. They were pretty good.

The big debate question was about the true start of the week. Sunday or Monday? Strava forces you to start on a Monday, Garmin defaults to Sunday (but gives you the option of changing to Sat, Sun or Mon). Some university timetables start on Sundays. Traditionally the working week starts on a Monday. Sunday is part of the weekend* surely? Well, we put it to the vote and poor old Sunday only got a couple with the vast majority loving Mondays. Del said Wednesday. Naughty. Of course, Monday must be the correct answer since your week doesn't truly start until you've GOODGYMMED

Post-tasks it was down the Famous Cock for a pint, a platter or a smoothie. Thanks to Kike for organising this. Word on the street is this will become a monthly event!

Loads of good done all over the borough this evening. See you next week (that's the start of the week, which is Monday). It's Bank Holiday, but we still have two tasks on the go. A choice of Barnsbury Square Gardens or Thornhill Square. Oooh.

Love, hugs and kisses xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Simon

How many?

They didn't stop coming last night. A whopping 43 GoodGymmers - our second highest turnout ever - rocked up to Highbury Pool ready to get fit and do good.

Newbs

Big hand to first timers Cath, Weronica, Dan, Fran, Wendy, Kirsty and Alix and nice to see a couple of last week's newcomers now old hands in brand new red GG shirts!

Tasking

Our task for the evening was to continue putting the finishing touches to the ongoing project at Barnsbury Community Centre, and luckily there was plenty to do: one team worked hard on shifting sacks of soil from one side of the gate to the other; another team weeded and turned over soil around the magnificent centrepiece; we had a group watering the abundance of plants and flowers that are now everywhere; and a final group grabbed dusters and wipes and gave the heaters, sides and windows within the centre a jolly good clean.

Maths

People sometimes worry that 30 minutes or so on a task isn't all that much, but when you consider that 43 x 30 minutes = over 21 hours, which if you include breaks and going home to sleep and stuff is about 3-4 days work for a single person, it becomes obvious how effective the GoodGym style of volunteering is.

Bunch of Planks

As always, we stopped halfway through the evening for a biscuit which fuelled us well for the post-task PLANK CHALLENGE. The plank world record was set at the weekend and we wanted to see how close we could get to the eight hours and change achievement.

Everybody spread themselves out across the garden (a sight to behold) and just kept planking until they could plank no more. Everybody made the minute mark and a majority got to two minutes. Then they started dropping like flies. With five minutes approaching, and the sun going down, only four remained. We decided that anybody who made it to five minutes would be a joint winner and all four did. Core! Big hand to Patrick (still grinning at the end), Oli, Rich and Dan. Plank-off final next week?

Activities Abundant

For our journey back we split into four groups: Patrick led a group for a game of Coney McConeface on the fields; Simon took a group for some sprinty bits, including secret surges, indian file and the tennis ball reaction game, which badly needs a name; Aidan sorted out the long running group; and Kike worked people hard on the hills. For this final group their good-deed-doing for the evening wasn't over since they witnessed a collision with a motorbike and cyclist. Luckily no major injuries and first-aider Kike and co. calmed the cyclist down and got him off to have his scrapes seen to. Well done team.

Town vs. Country Club

Debate for the evening was town vs. country. Do you prefer the tranquility of the countryside or the hustle and bustle of a city? Some of us liked being able to drive, park, leave our doors open, seeing cows & sheep all the time and buying eggs from our neighbours; but the majority preferred a lifestyle that extended beyond Londis staying open until 9pm on a Friday night and the occasional car boot sale.

Next Time

Reckon we can manage 50 runners next week? We're going to have at least three tasks on offer which will be confirmed very shortly, but you can sign up now!

See you soon,
Simon