First of all a big big welcome to our first timers this evening: Pip, Will, Christina, Amanda and Laura. Great to have you all along.

New Barnet trainer Pennie was on the scene tonight leading proceedings in preparation for the GoodGym Barnet launch tonight.

Following the briefing and the look of amazement on Pennie's face as the group pointed out that she had a whistle attached to her rucksack, we set off on our two tasks. Aidan and Patrick were in charge of taking a team up to Caxton House to carry on with what we started last week. Aidan describes what went down:

5 Goodgymers took the challenge of a longer and faster run. We set off just after Patrick's group but immediately detoured to do a lap of Highbury fields, with the noise of a Corbyn rally in the background. We started as we meant to go on, at a nice fast pace. Taking the usual route past Emirates where we enjoyed the late night sun and of course the gentle incline all the way to Caxton!

We made it there with a great pace, but sweaty and out of breath, and Rose put us to work. Today's jobs were a second coat on the benches we painted last week and continuing to de-weed the brick path. With Patrick's group close behind us (we had beat them there of course!) we soon had a sea of red painting the benches a duck egg blue and plenty of weeds flying in the air.

Still plenty to do at Caxton House, so I'm sure we will be back next week to see the lovely Rose again. For the run back we gained Dan who wanted to join and also suggested a sneaky detour to Emirates. Everyone had the option: 1/3 lap run or 2/3 spartlek and of course everyone chose the harder 2/3 option!

Great group run guys!

Aidan

And Pennie led the rest of us to Barnsbury Community Centre.

We spent a good 25 minutes on a variety of tasks: adding compost to hanging planters, watering the plants, getting rid of some nasty weeds and painting pallets.

Post-task Pennie took everybody through their paces with a variety of drills and exercises: high-knees, planks and a gruesome squat/tuck jump combination was on offer. Barnet are gonna get pretty fit!

We (almost) broke tradition and had a cheesecake instead of biscuits tonight (but cheesecake does have a biscuit base). It tasted pretty good post-run. We also debated whether cheesecake is cheese or a cake (thank you, Caroline). A few voted for cheese, Steve abstained, some said pudding/dessert, but the majority reckoned it was a cake. Yum

Pennie will see you tonight and we'll see you back in Islington next week.

Simon

A movie-themed run report by Andrea

Set free from our Office Space(s), eight My Fair Ladies and one Ironman came out for a night of running and gardening here in Brent.

Tonight we were graced by the leadership of Lisa, who’s set to lead the Ealing group come next week! The crew set off, undeterred by the wet weather (it was quite Cool Running). Two miles later we had made it to Kingsgate’s Secret Garden at Kilburn Grange Park.

We were led to the Temple (…aka Toolshed) of Doom featuring the best array of gardening equipment this team has seen to date. Though tempting, we avoided a Chainsaw Massacre by keeping to the equipment we (mostly) knew how to use – the highlight was definitely the giant eyelash -curler-esque weed scoopers.

In a quick break from gardening, we dashed through La Vie en Rose (…aka rose garden) in partner squat and sprint races. Soon it was time for the 2 mile run home, where we again incorporated some Speed work. Running like The Fast and the Furious, we found ourselves back at home-base with five minutes to spare… just enough time for the 100 squat challenge Bring It On. The A-Team pulled together in some of our best form yet to Power Ranger through this final piece of the workout.

Now.....That’s all folks!!!!!

Until next time

Two tasks on this lovely summer evening in Islington.

One group popped up to Whittington Park. Aidan describes:

We arrived at Whittington Park after our longer run down Holloway Road. Our fortnightly task awaited us with Martin ready with bin bags and gloves.

The majority of us tackled the 1 o'clock club's garden as we need to keep up our good work of maintaining a weed and nettle free garden for the kids who use the club.

There was also the task of de-weeding the entrance of the main building, keeping it looking great for everyone!

After working hard for twenty minutes what better way to treat ourselves than with some circuits. Everyone got a chance to pick an exercise for everyone else to do whilst they went on a short lap of the field. Although some of the ladies did get a bit lost along the way! We had all the classics; press ups, sit-ups, planking and two types of squatting for good measure. All before rejoining Holloway Road for our run back.

Aidan

The other group travelled to Barnsbury Community Centre. We've spent a lot of time over the last year helping create a wonderful garden in the disused space behind the centre and we're now just putting the finishing touches to the project for their grand launch on 25th August.

First job was to get gloves out the storage cabinet. Simple, right? Nope. A combination of stupid rain and then stupid heat meant the combination lock for the cabinet had seized up completely. Despite the best efforts of Caroline, Patrick and a pair of pliers it remained stuck. Not to worry: we'd just have to be extra careful.

We spent 25 minutes carrying old pallets and broken bits of wood round to the estate's waste disposal site, having a thoroughly good weed and watering plants. Nice work.

Following the task we played "Dice of Doom" with Simon's new giant foam dice: everybody had a chance to throw the dice and determine the activity that had to be performed for 15 seconds. There were alternate squat thrusts, running high knees, start jumps (LOTS of start jumps), sprints, dreaded burpees (boo) and the elusive jogging on the spot. We then played a game that Caroline made up. Nobody was quite sure what it was.

Back at the pool we had a free stretch, a biscuit and voted on the proper way to eat scones: jam then cream, cream then jam, or Claire's suggestion, butter, jam then cream (which is apparently the traditional Cornish way of doing things)? Jam then cream won by quite a large margin. Some people were disgusted at this - especially Steve - but the people have spoken.

If anybody wants to make scones for next week maybe we could put it to the test.

xxx,
Simon

9 GoodGym do gooders ran to Ellis Court to clean up the gardens and litter pick.

Tonight saw Dan Fisher lead his first group run after he completed his run leader training, and what an evening for it. The sun was shining and Brent has delivered three NEWBIES. We welcomed Katie, Charlie and Jen and were soon on our way to meet the lovely Abraham or should we say Baberaham to do some gardening.

We arrived soon enough and were set our task of clearing two garden beds that had overgrown. Special mention to Clare who managed to take down the BIGGEST thistle we've ever seen. While clearing out the beds we came across two abandoned sledge hammers, the things you find in Willesden!

One thistle down and two hammers later we were off, waving goodbye to Baberaham we made haste to the hill where Dan had set us 3 sets of hill reps, working specifically on focusing driving the hips and arms. Once suitably sweaty we finished off the drills with some fast feet work and squats, and then a cool gentle run back to the Queensbury.

Well done Brent you smashed it, till next time..