The numbers game

What a wonderful turn out this evening with 14 of us. Such a great turn out that we couldn't stop talking long enough to get out of the door! So many exciting topics to talk about! This Friday we will have our delayed party with 22 of us sitting down to a festive meal together. The theme is 'dressed to impress' https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/our-christmas-party-rearranged

We also discussed the January https://www.goodgym.org/january_challenges/2021#fuary and took a gulp at the KM challenge we have of 3,075 km, We currently are at just over 2.000 so its going to take a massive commitment from us all to reach our goal. Get those steps in and don't forget to start and upload your strava! Dont forget you can also manually upload too. Cycling also counts too so you can also jump on the bike too !

On the plus side it looks as if we are well on track to reach our 52 good deed goal :)

Pier pressure

We headed off in 2 groups of walkers and runners and then almost ( all) met up at the pier. Thank you to John for chasing Stephen and the litter pickers down :)

Off the back of the running, we turned the session round and did the fitness first tonight. It was a partner based drill with 1 person running laps around the pier whilst the other did a variety of functional bodyweight strength exercises ( shuttle runs, press ups, tricep dips, bunny jumps, squats, burpees and squat jumps.

*Not a load of rubbish *

Tonight, I was hoping, that we could find any warmth there was, under the Pavilion end of the pier and also under the Lido. This is where the litter is often left and gathers. Getting rid of any litter on the beach is a great thing to do. On this occasion there wasn't a lot to do but now there's even less!

Star of the day

Special mention to Tamsin who did her own good deed tonight and that was sorting out our delayed Christmas meal and all the endless admin and financial complications it involves. THANK YOU Tamsin. We REALLY do appreciate it.

....Is it a cheeky question to ask if you will arrange this years too ? We could give you a title if it helps? You choose and you have the job!

See most of you Friday night in your glad rags and if not next Monday :)

Julia x

*In the bleak mid winter *

On another beautifully still and crisp January evening we found ourselves gathering outside the homeless hostel in Byron Road. We haven't done any work here since before the first lock down so there was plenty to do!

It was a wonderful turn out on a chilly January night and the vibe felt very close to BC ( before covid)

*Ooooh la la *

It was lovely to see Natacha back tonight. I especially loved her reaction to Tamsin sumo squats during the fitness session. What a giggle we had !

Also back were our lovelies Rosalind AnneRoxy and Paula

Mr and Mrs R Belinda John did the B YR O N tools invite perfectly ( no surprise there ha ha ) No blackmail required!

It was good to catch up with Sue and her great running progress together with Duncan about the current South Downs Leisure news.

Paul was doing his own good deed acting out a personalised version of the 'Carry On Matron' film looking after husband John who, sadly, has covid. We are hoping it will remain a mild case and that there wont be a role reversal next week.

After a 15 minute warm up run with an attractive walking option too we set to work. The team loved this task today because there was so much to do! We will head back in a few weeks for Part 2. Massive thanks to Paula who literally threw the bags in the back of her truck and drove them to a bin!

After the task we headed down to seafront where the walkers kept walking back and the runners embarked on a 25 minute fitness session.

You already know that we did Sumo Squats! We also added tempo running, sprints and bulgarian squat lunges. Fitness is definitely the focus for 2022 :)

See you all next week. Hope its a good one for you.

Julia x

Our Christmas Fun

On our last session before Christmas it was all about the fun! With our Christmas meal postponed it was even more important to ensure we had a good laugh tonight.

We had a walk and run option for the warm up but both groups headed around our gorgeous pier. We were so lucky as it was a beautiful calm, mild starlit evening.

We started with a tug of war and followed it with some traditional sports day games including egg and spoon, sack race, bean bag on your head, another round of tug of war and finishing with throwing the bean bag.

it was a lovely, happy way to finish the GG Worthing year.

T'was a cold winters night

It was also an early start for our final task of the year cooking for the guests of a Worthing Churches homeless shelter. This task was the one I had been looking forward to for weeks but also the one I was most nervous about . I'm not sure why after all what could possibly go wrong? Cooking for 15 people with 8 of us in a kitchen and no idea what we were going to cook!

All was calm all was bright

The fabulous 5 of us set off all sporting eye catching hats on a freezing cold but beautiful winters night ( post run endorphins have already blocked out the cold memories! ) Michelle, Gill , Belinda, Roxy and I breezed through the 1 km warm up to a warmly decorated and cosy house in Byron Road where we were welcomed by Luke and Martin who pointed us in the direction of the kitchen.

Causing a stir in Byron Road

It really did feel like Chrismas with a huge box of fresh food ready for our ready steady cook task of turkey stir fry with an oriental kick ! The 5 of us set about chopping vegetables ( Makes a nice change from pruning ) and planning the running order of events We were quickly joined by Paul ( fresh from his travels) Tamsin and Anne.

A recipe for ..........success

A range cooker ,two big frying pans, a large saucepan , a huge deep baking tray , a selection of utensils plus an amazing team of cooks were all the ingredients we needed and 30 (ish) minutes later we were serving up our gastronomic delight onto individual plates ready for the taste testing by the residents.

Tree - mendous

It seems that our cooking skills went down very well and it was thumbs up and thanks all round form our hosts. After the usual photos we togged up with our warm weather gear and headed off for the mystery run with a few surprises in store!

There were stars in their eyes and lights fantastic

We ran along to Goring and in particular a house which has been beautifully decorated at the top of Sea Lane in aid of The Chestnut Tree House. After the obligatory 'oohs' and 'aahs' and a few photos we then set off for our homeward journey.

Surprise Surprise Carol singing

We couldn't resist a bit of doorbell ringing and a GG rendition of 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' outside my house . Wow we were good ! So good Nick went running upstairs to get money before he opened the door !

Running home for Christmas

We headed for the seafront where the group did some extended efforts along the seafront before heading back via Byron road where we waved an 'adios' to Tamsin and Paul before heading back to Splashpoint and, for some of us, the pub for Christmas drinks with our park run buddies featuring the debut appearance of Belinda's home made amazing park run mascot ( yet to be named ) but you saw it first here !

Although this is our last task of 'term' and we are officially broken up for the holidays we are, in fact meeting up next Monday at 6 pm for a pre Christmas social run followed by food ! Watch out for the weekly fitness email for the final arrangements.

Festive wishes and lots of GG cheers

Julia :)

GG runners get movie'ing tonight

The evening started really well with the GoodGym troops falling in line for their Monday night training expedition.

Michelle and Roisin were there first closely followed by a last minute flurry of arrivals with newly joined up member Roxy ( yay! ) followed by time traveller Belinda then Duncan and lastly Gill sporting camauflage yet lit up headgear on her bike after an epic 27 mile marathon on Sunday.

Huge GG cheer and kudos to you Gill n your mouth to mouth event . Check out Gills journey on strava relive [(https://www.relive.cc/view/1300826467)]

Just as we were leaving Splashpoint I'm hoping that I may have a scored a new recruit who approached us for more information and left armed with my email address and promising to join us in January.

I must also mention our virtual attendee . Good evening Beth in London! WE MISS YOU and also Nick who took a man flu check on tonights adventure ( flu got to be joking Nick! )

We ran like Grease light'ning to the task

On a calm evening in sunny worthing we had a great run weaving through the streets and pausing for a great team photo outside Heene cemetery where we have done several tasks within the last few months.

The cast was there - Sandy'ing the doors

We were warmly welcomed by Andy at Kamelia kids and wasted no time in donning gloves and grabbing tools to continue where we left off last time sanding down doors ready for a lick of paint to brighten the nursery ready for the new year. My eyes wandered to the children's Santa post box and I wondered whether it was bigger or smaller than Beth and quite what antics she would have got up to had she been there!

Excellent Riz'ults - Everything was blue'terful

Covered in blue dust once again we waved a cheery farewell to Andy who sent me a text after we had gone saying

*A big thank you for all your help this year to you and the team *

Ahhhr ....Our pleasure ! We will return again next year to help our favourite special needs day nursery.

On yer bike ...Beat the bike Anderson

After a sociable run down to the seafront Duncan set off at a pace with Gill in hot pursuit on the bike. Michelle , Roxy and Roisin set about some of their own pace work and Belinda and I took a steady run back to Splashpoint. We all finished together with a quick warm down to make up the 6 miles.

Stretches followed before meeting new member Nicky for a quick chat and document check to enable her to do a coach run early in the new year.

These puns are no good for your elf

Thanks so much for all the puntastic help this week one and all

Remember next week we will meet at Worthing churches homeless 5 Byron Road,BN11 3HN at 6pm or as early as you can get there for our ready steady cooking task . We will then take a Christmas spectacular last run to a secret destination. Be prepared to be wowed!

Monday 18th is a run at 6pm from Splashpoint followed by our Christmas shin dig at Tex Mex, 187 Montague street BN11 3DA from 8pm onwards.

Please feel free to run / not run /eat / not eat / drink /not drink / just pop in/ stay all evening. It would be lovely to see you all.

An early Christmas star has appeared

I just wanted to end this weeks report with giving massive kudos , huge GG love and an enormous cheer to our very own Belinda who set herself a challenge of running a 10 k in December and who on day 4 totally smashed it ! Fantastic running B ! You are way better than you realise . Time to set yourself a new goal for 2018 ( I can help with that !! )

Have a great week and remember ... Keeeeeep Running !