The threat of flooding rivers and falling trees couldn't stop Cardiff & Bristol GoodGym from making their cross-country debut at the Gwent League Cross Country in Cardiff on Saturday, and our bravery was rewarded with a surprisingly warm and dry afternoon of cross-country fun.

Our team tent, complete with makeshift GoodGym flag, was well stocked with cake for re-fuelling (or pre-fuelling?!), and the Cardiff GoodGym cheer squad (including doggy mascot) turned up to support our five runners - Lisa, Lucy, Ben, Nathan and Darren. As well as being a Gwent League race, Saturday's race was also part of the Cross Challenge, which meant there was some pretty impressive running on display. Not easily intimidated, our GoodGym team of cross country novices all ran fantastic races to be proud of, including showing off some impressive hurdling technique (the race organisers took advantage of a fallen tree to make the course more "interesting"...!).

Success was celebrated afterwards in the pub, and we are all looking forward to the next race, and hopefully welcoming more people to the team!

GoodGym Does Tough Runner Pacing

On an overcast Saturday morning, three Goodgym Cardiff runners, Ben, Adam and Martin, supported by Lucy, turned up at Porthkerry Park, Barry to pace run the Barry Epic 10K Trail. The park was bussing with excitement coupled with a little trepidation, as people surveyed what they could see of the course and looked to the sky to observe the weather conditions. It had been raining and parts of the course were possibly muddy.

Ben, Adam and Martin found Adam, one of the race organisers who supplied each of them with pace runner t-shirts for the run. Martin had originally volunteered to pace for 70 minutes but on discovering that wasn’t an option and enticed by the prospect of a free t-shirt happily agreed to pace at 65 minutes, which meant a quick bit of recalculation of the pace at which to run. Meanwhile Adam had come prepared with the pace per mile carefully calculated and written on his arm. Pacing trails with hills is very different to running on the flat, as every mile is going to be different; therefore, you need to account for being slower in certain sections and slower overall.

Very soon, people gathered at the start of the run for the briefing, and a few minutes later, we started, with Ben right at the front, pacing at 45 minutes, off to a flying start. The first mile or so was fairly flat, but very soon the going got a little tougher with the first uphill section leading to the top of a ridge. Again, at the top, the going was reasonably flat, before the first downhill section, where runners had to be careful of their footing over the slightly uneven terrain. After the downhill section, the run remained flat until about 4 miles in, when we came to some steps. By steps, I mean like a hundred or so steps, on a brutal uphill section of the run. We continued along the ridge before another downhill section where runners had to be careful again of their footing. The race looped around the first uphill section again before finally continuing along the flat for about 400 metres or so to the finish.

Running into the finish felt great with people at the sides cheering and supporting enthusiastically. This run was tough, but great fun and gave us a sense of enormous satisfaction at the finish. In conclusion, the race was brilliantly set out and well planned, with the marshals doing a sterling job. Highly recommended but the next time I will wear trail shoes ☺

Hiking up Blorenge in preparation for Mount Snowdon later in the summer!

Runners conquered the Bath Two Tunnels. Check out the epic photos!!! Well done everyone who took part - You were phenomenal :)

I'm back! After three weeks in Cyprus, I have returned to GG Barnet, just in time for one of my favourite tasks: pond building at Archer Academy.

This week we were joined by GG newbie Louis, who came along with Phil – giving me an excuse to hand out some limited edition GoodGym laces. Give them both a cheer!

We gently jogged down to Cherry Tree Woods for a quick warm up including some high knees and some stuck in the mud. After some confusion regarding stuck in the mud, I realised it's been too often since you all played playground games and we'll clearly have to play more often to refresh your memories.

Heather wanted a slightly longer than 500m run to the school, so after a vote, Damian lead the gang through the woods and around to Archer Academy for a slightly extended run of 1.5km. Amanda and I held up the rear with our matching knee injuries.

We were greeted at the school by Maaike, who gave us a quick brief on today's task – filling the pond with water, clearing the old fence and dead trees, building hedghog houses and litter picking – and a quick safety run down. Then we collected our tools are got to work.

In typical GoodGym fashion, everyone was hard at work right away, splitting into teams to get things done. The hose could reach all the way to the pond, which meant nobody needed to be on water carrying duty and everyone could focus on the other tasks.

After 40 minutes of wire carrying and cutting, metal shifting and twig snapping and bundling, it was time to tidy up. Maaike was super happy with how much the team got done especially compared to how slow the 15 year olds work. Take that, kids.

Once all of our tools were back where we found them, we headed on to the astroturf for 10 minutes of conditioning work, starting with burpees and shuttle runs. There was a fair bit of flailing around and extended periods of time lying on the ground, but also lots of burpees and running. We then moved onto some core work. I was about ready to let everyone rest when the team told me Ana worked them so hard last week their abs hurt for days, so I figured they could work through a couple more exercises. Everybody loves V-snips and alligator crawls, afterall.

We then said our goodbyes, with Maaike promising to join us next week as we run to Martin Primary to do good. You can sign up here. It's another short run and garden work.

The Barnet Biscuit of the Week this week was the trusty chocolate wafer.

Jody is organising a massive game of ultimate frisbee this Sunday at 12pm in Regent's Park and everyone is invited. See the details here.

And Joel is running his fitness for all sessions from the Phoenix for the next four weeks. Sign up for this week's session here

See you next week!