More Than Keeping On The Straight And Narrow

Another A' Blazing evening

On what turned out to be a historic evening of breaking news in Paris, nearly 300 miles across the channel in Worthing it was just another normal (are they ever normal?!) evening for the GoodGym team in Worthing.

This evening our task was to return to The Rowans for our routine visit to give a helping hand to this day centre that specialises in the care and rehabilitation of brain injured patients. On chatting to Debbie the manager there our visits became even more valuable when I heard, later in the evening, of further cuts to staffing budgets and resources.

Rough and stumble avoiding the bears

With early birds Gill, Barbara and John already ready and raring to go it was a relief to see Jay and Lucy arrive safely after Jay had literally thrown himself down in a commando roll to fend off a bear attack on Lucy . What a hero and only a few scratches to add to growing collection to show for it ( We have to go along with his little fantasies! )

We also warmly welcomed Paul and Paula . Special mention to Anne and Nick who were both hand in hand ( not in a literal sense ) on their 48th good deed. Will it be a joint 50th celebration for them both ? Yippee! More prosecco Mondays on their way !

Nick headed off with the walkers and a short time later the runners set off too together with Gill on her bike.

Yet again the time machine kicked in with the walkers apparating at the task before the runners.

GG MUA's make up courtyard ( make up artists! )

The task was well under way with Nick , John and Paula already upended with some weeding and path clearing. Joined by the runners everyone pitched in for a 30 minute makeover of this attractive colourful courtyard which is enjoyed by the patients during the day.

It was interesting to see the OCD tendencies of some of the team with some addictive weed clearing of the lines between the blocks. closely followed by Jay scurrying around with further brrooom broom moments.

With the walkers setting off whilst the runners finished clearing up, the team were eagerly anticipating their promised 800 metre efforts on the track.

Amazingly the runners just managed to arrive back at base just in front of the walkers and nobody got lost!

Worthing Bears thunder around Worthing Leisure Centre

There was no sign of the basketball team this evening but the GG team made their own carbon footprint on the centre with the fitness element of the workout tonight.

Barbara had requested that we focus on increasing her speed and endurance in readiness for some relays in a few months time.

With this in mind the team did 2 x 800 metre efforts at an individual pace that was designed to challenge them. As they lapped I checked on their perceived exertion and guided them on how to maximise their efforts through pushing themselves a bit harder than they might choose to.

Collectively this was the hardest I had seen the team work for a while with heart rates running sky high. Arguably this level of effort together with other strength work and running drills will give the most improvement on speed and lets be honest, we all want to run faster don't we ?!

Next week its Easter Monday but we will still be meeting at Splashpoint leisure Centre for our task which is cooking at Byron Road. It would be great to see as many as possible of you.

Sending get well wishes to our very own GG ( temporarily fallen) angel Belinda who after her epic week of angel duties,working ,good deeds and volunteering,unsurprisingly succumbed to a bit of cold lurgy. we are looking forward to seeing you wearing your wings next week B.

Until then I would like to wish you a very happy, energetic but peaceful Easter.

Julia X