It was all hands on deck, when 18 Brent Goodgymers rolled deep for 5k, in 0 degrees to shovel and roll 15 wheelbarrows of soil, rocks and compost for a Harlesden Town Community Gardens' allotment site. BOOM

Was it cold? - Yes. Was *The Queensbury** and it's open fire inviting us to stick around and chill with a beer or two? UMMMMM Maybe..... *But did that stop us from getting out into our fair old borough of Brent to sprinkle some goodgym charm all over the joint? - Hell No!

Thrown into the mix this Monday eve was a merry band of newcomers - Samuel, Fiona and Vojtech (our new resident chef!!) and of course joining them was my regular squad of lovelies - The Familia Ananda. "Spice up your life" Samina. Sister Sledge Tabitha and Debs. Amy (Pole Fit Goddess) Crawford. Take no prisoners man like Neil. Clairey (Veteran) birthday Bell. All the sass and bringing some Class Liz James. The one and only mouse in the House Clare. Never not smiling Karen and always Awesome speedy Queen Andrea.

Also joining the masses on Monday was one in particular, so happy we were to see for the first time this year was Lucky Enrique back and recovered from a poorly Jan. Also one big fat massive delight for night came in the shape of Sparky Sparkes Irwin a vintage GG Brent original bringing some nostalgic vibes.

So with housekeeping done and welcomes wrapped, we set off into the darkness for our last GG Brent of January. Full speed into the night we dashed along to our how for the night Harlesden Town GardensA green space in the heart of Harlesden where people can grow things, play and learn together while meeting and making friends. Helping the community to grow together this is an amazing community project supported by the Brent arm of the charity Crisis. https://m.facebook.com/harlesdentowngardens

Setting an inspiring pace up front, Irwin proved he'd been keeping up the fitness in honour of his big 2017 return. keeping us all well and truly on our toes for a 7.30min mile pace to base. Wowzer!!

After our very swift cavort we arrived on site and even though we may have been out of puff, we certainly weren't out of energy or enthusiasm for that matter, as we set to mission on the tasks ahead. Waiting for us at the gardens, with his usual good cheer and positive vibe was Gabriel from Crisis who manages the site, dishing out the evening tasks. Before long the team were split into groups and got to work, shifting and wheeling the various piles of soil and rocks to their new homes for use elsewhere in the fantastic community arena.

But while the team were busting it out, I of course (never not one to miss a chance to act the kid) had my eyes on some fitness fun in the playground YAY. So over to the apparatus I did go and breaking off in teams of 4 the crew took turns to join me on the bars for a good old monkey around, practicing all manner of body-weight challenges, in particular testing upper body strength.

We hung, swung and knee tucked our way to a fitness session jungle style, with plenty of Pow Pow along the way!!

With all the excitement and glee, What felt like 5mins of fun was in fact 40mins of graft and even though we wanted to stay (and play) much longer we sadly said our goodbyes and off into the night we flew again.

Staying as a pack we jogged a light foot comfy pace towards Roundwood Park to partake in one last fast fit challenge in the moonlight. Partners squat hold and punch arm challenge, 1 min on and 10squats to rest. Great for muscle condition. Rinse, repeat and don't step on the Shame(dog)poo!!

After the exertions we weren't finished there and after we walking lunged our way towards the gate, there was only one more mile that stood in between us and home. This point in, Enrique took to the helm driving the squad for one last challenge up the infamous "Out of Puffington Hill" Wham bam thank you mam. Eat my dust, now onwards home was a must.

Speedy and agile the team dashed off the last mile with glorious Good(gym) cheer and ample crew love. Even with pace group splits and back markers bringing in the final few, it was a team effort and everyone finished off the night with 5k under their belt, biceps bulging and big fat smiles to boot! HURRAAHHH

Epic night, awesome task and stupendous squad. Just your average Monday night for GG Brent.

Do good. Feel good. Inspire.

30 GoodGymers and a dog named Bunty ran between 5-6km, made beds for the homeless and helped garden for a sheltered housing association

Welcome along to the newbies this week: Amanda, Amelia, Nancy and AraKang! Thanks for coming along :)

In the news this week:

1. Tom Benson is organising a 5km and 10km time trial this Sunday in Regents Park at 10.30, get along it's gonna be good! More information here.
2. Also as GG Camden we are organising to do Regents Park 10km together on April 2nd, watch out for updates.
3. The first GG Social is next Thursday at the Joker of Penton Street in Angel, sign up here
4. Lastly the amazing Polly Skeats-Beswick got her wings today (100 good deeds), she has been running with us for two years and has a coach she has been seeing since June!

After the news, headcount and an active warm up we split into two groups, one helping C4WS and the other going to the sheltered housing.

PB Sheltered Housing report:

16 of us headed North running 2.6km to Kentish Town, the air was cold but the GoodGymers were spritely!

We arrived and met the wonderful Cathi who explained that the block of flats at Ashdown Crescent has over 40 people over the age of 65 living there, she helps look after them and the garden we worked on is used by them.

Barking!

Our tasks for this evening were as follows:

• Steve led a team of sweepers to clean up the garden, paths and general space.
• A team of six planted flowers and plants in a flower bed.
• Polly, Chris and Jess shifted mulch over the plants and bed.
• Kat led on planting in another section of the garden.
• A team of four, including Mi put together a bird feeder

Everyone did brilliantly and we finished everything in great time to help this fantastic project!

We ran 2.8km back home and stopped off to do four Strides. These are good to do at the end of a run because they stimulate fast-twitch fibres, running faster increases the range of motion and they're a great opportunity to practice good form. Read an article on Strides here.

Frances' report here:

Frances and Pritesh led 14 runners to the American International Church to help set up beds for the homeless shelter again. The good news was that there were fewer beds than last week as some of the shelter users had found some more permanent accommodation! We added a bit of a twist to the task by also helping to shift some chairs to the hallway, but we still finished in super quick time.

Good news!

The task completed, we headed to Russell Square for a fitness session. A relay seems like it should be a relatively simple thing to arrange, but it turns out a three-point continuous relay with only three teams means that some people are going to have to run some extra turns – SURPRISE! Hopefully it kept you all warm!

We followed this up with a slightly longer route home than normal, via Gray's Inn Road, and made it back with plenty of time for a thorough stretch!

Thanks for leading Pritesh & Frances and thanks for coming everyone. Sign up to next week here, we will be helping Abbey Community Centre and continuing to help C4WS at the homeless shelter.

PB out.