Well it all dried up nicely for our Monday Goodgym in Bexley. Tonight we focused on our running techniques, building our fitness, having fun, and meeting new Goodgymers. And meeting new Goodgymers is what we did. A massive hi5 goes to Sara and Emma welcome to Goodgym Bexley., we hope you loved it. Basecamp Crooklog was virtually empty so we had most the area to ourselves. Having all levels of runners this week, we split up into two teams. One doing a longer loop, with Eileen leading (thanks so much) and one team doing a shorter loop. Thanks Caz for looking after our back group. The beautiful thing about this weeks run is both groups could push to their full potential and no one would be left behind.

There's no better feeling than heading out on to the road with all those Goodgym tee shirts on display, it just feels brilliant.

On heading back into basecamp Crooklog, smiles were a many so we headed strainght into fitness mode. It was time to introduce everyone to burpees 😁 I'm a true believer that fitness should be hard work but real fun and that was the order of this evening. We split into two teams and suddenly it was pure rivalry, all love had disappeared, no team wanted to lose, no team wanted the losers punishment. At tonight's fitness session every part of the body was worked, and worked hard, but guess what, there always has to be a losing team.

I am glad to report it all ended pleasantly, with massive smiles, lots of laughs, and friendly hand shakes.

Well it was that time again, the time where we all go our separate ways, but with the promise of all coming back next week and doing it all again. See ya next week Goodgymers! We've got an awesome task for an awesome community charity.

On the last Monday of the month, GG Brent tackled timber, banished branches, cropped & chopped, then hopped their way to a tasty 6k. All in a days work for the West London tribe. That's definitely what I'd call a Grandville day out POW POW

What a happy GG leader I was to be greeted by the always smiling faces of my delicious gang of Brent beauties this Monday night and can you Adam and Eve it, this week we had not one, not two but three brilliant boys YAYYYYYYY.

Even, the threat of an impending down-pour, was still no deterrent for my fierce force of favourites as we laced up and braced ourselves for the wet and wild whisk over to Carlton Vale for our goodgym antics for the night.

However, to our delight, as we stepped outside base camp, the skies had cleared and a lovely sunset was all that guided us the 2 mile jaunt over to south Kilburn for our terrific task for the night - The chop and pop operation of the Granville Community sites gardens!

So what was it all about then, I hear you cry???? Well, Grandville is this amazing centre, that serves the local community in so many ways. Believing that everyone no matter circumstance has the right to fresh, good quality, nutritious food, they serve their patrons via their community allotments, community cooking nights, classes and feasts and school education programmes. Food for though wouldn't you say

Upon arrival our fantastic host Leslie explained the deeds we had in store for our 45min blast and let me tell you, there were plenty!! The strenuous task of yanking out dead tree roots, the sawing and chopping out of control bushes and the ever so yucky stamping down of the compost Debs and I got our hands dirty with this one. *NICE***

Without further-a-do, the team set to work with magical momentum, wasting no time at all and grabbing all the tools that Leslie could throw at us. Special credit must go to Sam, who with his own bear hands yanked out not one but two massive tree roots, which was no easy Roots Manoeuvre I can tell you!

As the time etched away the team cracked on, with Sean and Dan sawing their way through the devilish nasties of the blackberry spikes. Laura, Sam and Amy the dream Yank and Pull team and Enrique, Debs and Myself busying ourselves with the clear up and stack jobs leftover, but of course not leaving out time for tom-foolery in the bushes!!! Standard antics And after a genuine back-breaking 40mins, the clear up and clear out was upon us and out the gates we did boost, wishing our hosts a fond farewell, with our echoes of See you sooonnnn singing in the air.

I think it's safe to say we we came, we tasked and we conquered that garden (for this week anyway) but there is plenty more work to be done, so we will most definitely be back. Not only to get our revenge on the Blackberry branches, who managed to give me personally one final leg jab on the way out!! OUCH

So with 2 miles left to dash, the team set to running and funning all the way home and with more boys in the mix this week, the boisterousness banter was upped a level, with Enrique and Sam chasing and racing each other all the way home!!

Not wet Hurrah but most definitely wild, thank you team for yet another wonderfully, weird and fun filled week in Brent!

See you next time!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Twelve runners set out on a beautiful Monday night for short trot down to the Old Harlesden Police Station where a huge task awaited them out the back...

Abraham was there to meet and greet, and introduced us to Colin, who explained that a new art complex called CREATE SPACE will soon be opening there and will be available for local community use, and that they are fighting to make it a great space for everyone, rather than letting it be developed into blocks of flats. Anyone looking for more information about volunteering or signing up as members can contact colinlearatceatespace@outlook.com (0749 232 1626).

Colin led us out to the previously unexplored territory round the back of the station, (where the creepy old Willesden gallows are located!!!) and set us all to work, with Sadhana, our intrepid (and prolific) photographer catching all the best action moments!

There was (quite LITTER-ally) heaps to do;

• moving wood

• weeding

• sawing branches

• moving piles of mattresses

• litter picking

• fighting unruly ivy...

...but the team were undaunted - we had no trouble with the rubble! and cleared some space in that place! Bravely ignoring slugs and wee beasties, brushing past clumps of nettles and thistles and enduring their nasty stings, we worked on for 50 minutes, searching for doc leaves to soothe the pain, but to no avail... We packed up and set off back for the Queensbury with just a sliver of daylight left - yay for spring!

Before you go... The next GoodGym monthly drinks will be on Thursday 6th April from 6.30pm til late, upstairs at the Marquis of Cornwallis, WC1N 1AP (near Russell Sq). All the details are here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-monthly-social-april I hope you can make it!

The next is a 'save the date' for the GoodGym Olympics, which will be held on Saturday 10th June at the Parilament Hill Track from 1-6pm; the idea is that different boroughs compete in events like 400m, and the elimination mile, to more novel events like a welly throwing competition and even hopefully a wheelbarrow race with real wheelbarrows. Each area will be encouraged to make their own flag for the event and even have a GoodGym Bake-off (ala a summer fate style), so hopefully it will be something for everyone.

Bye for now, till next time! XXX

13 Strong, tackled 4.5miles and dropped a whopping 200 leaflets for mental health charity Mind. That's one successful Monday and one massive sprinkling of Good(Gym) cheer all over our beloved Brent. POW POW!

At yet another awesome session, GG Brent continued to jubilantly jump into Jan with the third one of the year. The task this week was to hit up the Brent base for mental health charity Mind, collect a batch of leaflets and advertise their upcoming community run which takes place on Thursday the 2nd of Feb at 6.30pm. Easy peasey lemon squeezie..... or so they thought.

The warm up run was cruised in style, 1.7miles through the windy streets of Willesden, past Roundwood Park and up to Harlesden, our home for the night. But soon enough it was revealed that the location of Mind wasn't just the point of pick up, oh no, it just happens to be on the corner of the most perfect grid/block system of roads..... This basically meant that what could have been perceived as just a row of ordinary streets, was in fact the absolute perfect arena for Block Sprints & our outdoor track for the night. Where jog/sprint combos could be carried out, every time a corner of a road was encountered. Tempo training with a twist!! Oh yeah

Wth a successful collect and then total completion of ALL Leaflets delivered, the team continued the paper-chase. Bobbing and weaving through the block tempo track with the added challenge of real deal hurdles via the hopping over of cracked curbs and pavements!

Not once but twice the team annihilated the block sprints challenge, with only motivation and good vibes in the air. With the fitness and tasking nailed,it was heads down for the final Push (and one last stop for a photo pose of course) Straight back to it, the cool down run back to base. Chatting and laughter filled the air as the last of our efforts pounded pavements and our tired legs carried us home.

With The Queensbury at last in sight we finished up, stopped, stretched and said our farewells. Hammy only after as I travelled on the tube home did I realise I'd forgotten to carry out the 100 squat challenge I'd so gleefully promised!! Dammmmm!!! and no one reminded me hummmm I wonder why!??

See you next week for sore bums galore!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE.

Hi, Hi We're your weather girls (and Dan) and have we got news for you......You'd better listen "It's raining Brent, oh yes, it was raining Brent but a special (eight)" Came, for: 4Miles, lots of smiles and a mean clean up of Harlesden Methodist Church. ITS RAINING GOODGYM

If you didn't catch that - The rain was frighting!!! So much so I needed a pep talk call to Ruth at head office to get me pumped to hop on the old moped and brave the tube strike fall out traffic, in the torrentials, to get to my crew!! The love oh for the love... It's deep and its real!

And to my delight 7 more die-hard Goodgymers greeted my soggy entrance, with gleeful smiles and motivated madness in their eyes! ahhhhh my running familia and happy to see them was I!!

Welcoming Newbie Amy into the folds were the sexy six sisters with soul - Liz, Karen, Tabitha, Debs, Andrea and of course Moi!!!And it couldn't be a weather girls special it weren't for our "Tall, strong, dark and Lean. Rough and tough and never meannnnnnnnnn - Dan Heller of course!

Humidity is rising (uh rising), barometer's getting low. According to all sources, the street's the place to go (we better hurry up) and hurry we did! 'Cause tonight for the first time (this year)Just about half-past seven For the first time in (2017) history. It's gonna start raining Goodgymmmmmmmm!!!

Okay I'll stop with the singing now! So hot to trot we buzzed down to our task for the eve, Harlesden Methodist Church for the big clean! Slap bang in the heart of Harlesden High Street, this place is more than just a community church hall. The fantastic team offers a range of amazing services for the locals including counselling, homeless soup kitchens, clothing trade events, funding drives for the community, you name it they do it! So what better place to give back than here!!

So we set to work for a 40min blast of spruce up power, but not to let the fitness slide, simultaneously utilised the copious amounts of stairs for walking lunges and squat jump drills, taking it in turns to power up those glutes and work on those quad muscles too!!! BOOM

It wasn't long before DJ Dan's music was blasting out cheering us on through the task and drill, helping the time to fly by and before long - DING DING.... Disco over, it's time to roll out once more.

Packing up swiftly and back on the road quicker than you can say glitter-ball, the team got straight back to it, engaging those newly woken up butt muscles in hill sprints and solo dashes all the way back to base, the final 2 miles!

So despite the rain, the cold and the awol tubes, Goodgym Brent, proved once again, that obstacles do not exist when you are determined, motivated and jumping into Jan with POW POW Power, enthusiasm and Goodgym-Vibes!

See you next time!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Happy New Year!! Was the cheer from the 12 on mass, doing the dash, in a flash, with a whole heap of sass! That's one big welcome back from Goodgym Brent. POW POW

On the most FREEEEZZZIINNGGG Evening of recent months, 2017 was kicked off with a ferociously frosty start. But not letting that swine Jack frost stand in our way, warming up the atmosphere was the beaming faces of the courageous crew who bravely stepped up to the plate, for the first Goodgym Brent of the year! Horrah

Joining me on week one was a gallant gang of fabulous familiars; Dan the (only) man, Foxy french Isabelle, Lovely Liz (fresh from smashing her 5k goal time woo hoo), Clare Mouse in the house Moscrop, The one and only Les-Sharpes, and Debs and Tabitha (aka Sister Sledge). Joining the ranks were also three sensational newbies Lois, Karen and Beth, all just as motivated to kick start the year with some awesome Goodgym community spirit and fitness fun!

Task Master

So after housekeep and welcomes the crew set to work on the task at hand and paper-chased their way into January with a leaflet drop and healthy trot around the glorious borough of Brent. Encouraging the masses to crack a smile and join us for the weeks to come of community do-gooding and working off the Christmas puddings.

First Celeb spot of the year

With our sights set on the track for the night (The Queens Park 1 mile challenge) the team continued weaving through the streets while sprinkling the Goodgym message. Not 1 mile from base did we stumble across our first celeb sight of the year, 'Friday night Dinner' TV actress Tamsin Greig who we accosted on her doorstep with our leaflets and POW POW positivity. With her hands otherwise engaged carrying a dangling child she shouted Put the leaflet in my mouth so Lois happily obliged!

Show business

Once the 'Show biz' spots were behind us, we got down to the real business of the night, the ready made track - One mile circumference of Queens Park. Lining up the troops timer at the ready, just about to begin, we were joined on mass by another runner, excited by the positive vibes we were pushing out like a tornado. So, never missing a chance to recruit, we joined forces with our solitary runner - Toby, who joined just in time, for stop watch special of the one mile challenge. Delighted to join the club he stepped up to the plate with the rest of the team and it was THREE, TWO, ONE and their off!!

Dozen get better than that

With our gang of 12 rolling deep the dash went off in a flash and before long the athletes were gunning down the last stretch in impressive form! Every single runner coming in under 9mins with the first in place just shy of 7! Amazing!!!

Homeward bound

Breathless and steaming (literally steaming) a quick stretch and catch of breath and the team were off once more. A gentle cool down run took us the last mile back to base, with chats and laughter in the air. So much fun to be had that we barely even felt the cold, that was until back at The Queensbury we all walked in dribbling down our frozen faces. LOL

It was an absolute pleasure, a first week back I shall treasure! See you next week to continue the New Years' Runsolution to a life of passion and purpose.

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE