Wonderful Worthing

What a fantastic achievement we had in our little town! 65 good deeds done ( our target was 52) and a whopping 2868 km covered from our huge target of 3075km. We may be small but we re MIGHTY ! Well done everyone and especially for putting in a huge push to the finish in the last 7 days.

This evening we returned to Byron to finish what we started 2 weeks ago. With a little more space to move in and lots of willing helpers we got stuck straight into the task. JohnBelindaSue and Barbara had all walked to the task with Lucy andDuncan having run from Field Place and Rosalind and Natacha having run from their end of town.

Thank goodness Paul was on hand to shape and cut back the shrubs and also deliver some valuable pruning advice to me !

An hour later and we called it a night. With all the extra effort in the previous 7 days I let the team off the fitness session plus they all had to walk/run home too !

I'm very proud of our little gang In Worthing and all that we achieve every week, month, year.

Well done everyone and see you next Monday at Worthing Leisure Centre.

Julia xx

GoodGym Heroes

What a proud moment for our GG team after the Worthing running festival this weekend . Following her recent 10 mile triumph Belinda achieved another epic milestone and finished her first half marathon in our very own borough of Worthing. Anne and Beth also pulled out a great times with Anne achieving a personal best and Beth feeling the energy of her home town.

Big shout out to Katie, GG trainer for Portsmouth who made a road trip to Worthing and also pulled out a great appearance and time and smiled in every photo too !

Our very own snowflake ,Jay achieved an amazing PB in the 10 k . Super speedy and always so very entertaining both in person and in the photos he pulled out his super hero powers to achieve this time.

It was great to welcome John to the group tonight. John had pitched in to help with our extra January task so that we reached our goal . Tonight he came for the complete experience. We hope this is the first of many GG Monday night check ins !

Duncan and Lucy, Nick and Barbara completed the team tonight and on a beautiful still and relatively mild evening the walking group set off promptly followed by the running group for the 1 mile to our task tonight.

Mr and Mrs Muscle , Mr Sheen and our very own J cloth

The evenings task was to give a helping hand to Byron Road homeless hostel and give their kitchen a much needed clean . In particular the team concentrated on the oven which was black . They also turned their attention to other utensils, equipment and general cleaning.

Lots of muscle power was needed to shift the dirt and great team work achieved a remarkable result in such a short space of time.

35 short minutes and after an impromptu chat about March race challenges the team headed out for part 2 of the walk and run.

Game on !

The challenge was for the walkers to take a route straight back to base before the runners who went on a slightly extended loop . Goodness it was a close one ! With John and Belinda fired up with the challenge ( and the promise of escaping fitness if they won ) they walked and ran so efficiently that the runners only just caught them on the parkrun home straight !

With some strength and cardio exercises including chest and tricep press ups, squats , squat jumps and the dreaded burpees we wrapped up the evening very happily looking at photos of the runners from yesterday.

Next week - Important info

We are meeting at Worthing Leisure at 6pm . I will look at the route in the next few days and decide if we need a different walking start. Watch the online Worthing GG page and our cheeky whats app thread for further details.

Have a great week everyone :) Lets try and UYM.

Julia x

Dr Who's up for a challenge ?

On our final GG task of the year we rounded off 2018 with a toasty task.

11 runners arrived at Byron road homeless hostel to cook up a feast. Welcome and thank you to Belinda, Michelle and Romeo, Barbara, Anne, Ros, Paul, Tamsin, Emily, Sue and Gill for your time and your energy tonight.

Last week was a great rehearsal for how to improve this weeks experience so tonight the task was divided into 2 choices to accomodate the delightfully larger numbers. The group chose between cooking cheesy cottage pie or planting bulbs in our GG seafront bed number 41.

Gill had very kindly enabled one of the tasks by picking up the spring bulb selection from the town centre office earlier in the day. Thank you !

Kudos coming your way to all of you who adopted the festive hat theme. Check out the photos to see Barbara who wins top outfit of the evening , being the most festively organised with her christmas cards together with the top dating advice of the evening to Tamsin ( Ooooh Matron ! )

Need Light bulbs for planting

Armed with light tools, bulbs and head lights Sue, Belinda, Michelle and Romeo and Ros headed off on the short run along the prom to our flowerbed that we have committed to keeping looking amazing for 2019. A selection of bulbs were swiftly planted and in no time at all the team were back at the hostel.

Smashing time cooking

Meanwhile back in the kitchen the 'ready steady cook' team were at full power. Potatoes, carrots, peppers and onions were chopped , mince fried before all the ingredients were combined by chief stirrer Tamsin.

With the cheese grated and now topping the gourmet home made mash we finally worked out how to use the oven and loaded the masterchef(s) creation into the oven before heading off for our festive fun and fitness session.

Advent(urous) team conquer Christmas pyramid

After a short run to the pier we settled on a sheltered seafront (?) spot for our 12 days of Christmas fitness pyramid. Everyone chose an exercise, Paul was chief chorister and off we went .

In reality this proved slightly more energetic than the team realised .Combined with the wet ground and cold, it meant that keeping the teams spirits and hands warm was challenging . With hindsight gloves and an alcohol shot may have been a good idea!

Heres the playing order !

1 Star Jump ( Ros) 2 Squats ( Barbara) 3 Planks ( Michelle) 4 Press ups ( Tamsin ) 5 Burpees ( Julia ) 6 Mountain climbers ( Michelle) 7 Bicep curls ( Thank goodness for Belinda! ) 8 Tricep Dips ( Sue) 9 Inchworms ( Paul ) 10 High knee runs ( Anne) 11 Lunges ( Julia - representing Gill ) 12 Christmas Stars ( Smiley Ros)

Finishing with 12 Christmas stars and having maximised the burpees the team peeled off with Paul, Tamsin , Emily , Anne and I heading back to rescue the cottage pie out of the oven to serve to the residents.

With a slightly fragmented task I didn't remember get a team photo so have decided to use a team one from a different night for our feature photo.

With many thanks for some fantastic experiences and memories both energetic and social during 2018 heres to an even brighter and burpee filled 2019

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and hope to see lots of you at The Christmas Day parkrun

Julia X