Things don't always go to plan and sometimes tasks fall through at the very last minute. But with some quick thinking and a bit of improvisation, good things always come. We did not run to BFC this week. Luckily, Hazel and I both had a bunch of GoodGym flyers in our bags. Quickly, Plan B was hatched.

As ever, the gang met at the Phoenix ready for the run ahead. We were joined by GG newbie Jack who had spotted us running about and decided to come and see what we were all about. Give him a cheer!

We congratulated Hazel and the other Jack for their great running in yesterday's 10km and gently ran down to Cherry Tree Woods to warm up. There was jogging, running and bear crawling. Nobody likes bear crawling, but I promise they're really good for you! In terms of efficiency, they're right up their with burpees – and you all know how much I love those.

We then headed off out of the park for a big ol' loop up to Muswell Hill before stopping for a few tricep dips and press ups at the top of the road while Amanda and Hazel caught up. The perfect spot to split into teams and flyer hard. In traditional GG Barnet style, we speedily flyered the whole road using our honed leap frog technique, making a huge loop.

Once the two teams joined back together, Nicola lead us up to Highgate Woods for an extended return to Cherry Tree Woods. The team were promised 7km today, and without the run to BFC, we wanted to make sure we still got close. We managed just over 6km in the end, including a really lush run through the woods.

I had to run up the hills in the woods as it was way to hard to scoot through the mud and can happily report that it didn't hurt! This is very exciting news indeed. (I will be testing out the running on Sunday for the first time in AGES – wish me luck!)

Once back at Cherry Tree, after six whole kilometres of hills, it was time for the fitness session. The group reported a knackered rating of 8/10, so I decided to be nice and stick to floor work. Everybody likes lying down, right? Abs it is. Shawn came out victorious with some very speedy ab work, winning him the honour of first dibs on the Barnet Biscuit.

This week Barnet Biscuit was the mighty Jaffa Cake, courtesy of Freya, who was with us in spirit.

Thank you for all your hard work tonight team. See you next week when we run back to Dell Fields to paint some garden furniture. Sign up here

36 brilliant runners moved loads of garden waste for gardening social enterprise Streetscape before saying a sad goodbye to Vicki

It was finally a mild enough evening to meet outside at Papa's and this was good news as our numbers were big this evening. Katie would like to think it was due to her superior run leading skillz but in actual fact it was due to many folk wanting to say goodbye to Vicki. Our favourite New Zealander is heading back to live Down Under and, after three years of pounding the pavements across many London boroughs, we are all sad to say So Long.

Vicki managed the great task of earning her 100 wings last week and whipped off her top as soon as her t-shirt was given to her. Thankfully / sadly (delete as appropriate) she had another top on underneath. With wings newly donned, we were off to the basketball court with Beth for a lovely warm up.

We split into two groups, Tom Benson's group ran down the right side of the road and George and Elise's group ran down the left, so that we didn't mow down all of Lambeth as we sped the 1-mile towards Myatt's Field. We have been visiting Streetscape for over three years now and it is always a physical task. There was loads of garden waste that needed moving onto a bigger pile of garden waste at the back, to make space for more garden waste.

Move this garden waste onto that garden waste, said Alex

We also learnt from Alex that 75% of the unemployed young people who enter the Streetscape programme find employment upon graduation, which is a pretty awesome figure. Of course this is something that GoodGym wants to help, so we kept in our two groups and Tom's group went into the park to do some strength work with Katie and George and Elise's group got stuck in moving some gaden waste on top of other garden waste.

After about 12 minutes, the groups swapped over so that everyone got stronger bits (ankles and core to be exact) by the end of it and we had cleared a massive space ready for MORE garden waste!

I can't wait to receive more garden waste! Said Alex

And with our good deed done, we whizzed off into the night and George took us through some lovely stretches. We then presented Vicki with her leaving gift, which was a school-style tea towel with our faces drawn on it. A brainchild of the Lambeth crew, Tom Benson had set about getting input from all the Boroughs that Vicki runs with. Polly had made the lovely GG border and Emma had been kind enough to make all of the backgrounds the same shade of white. A true team effort and also an interesting psychological insight into the minds of each GoodGym artist.

Wow guys I love my tea towel! Said Vicki 'Now let's hit the pub!

We all know Vicki loves a drink and so how could we say no? Off we went and some people even had some food! Great work Lambeth and we shall miss you Vicki. We look forward to shots of you wearing your GG wings on the other side of the world.

This week 20 GoodGym-ers ran 5km to deliver 600 fliers for the RSPCA

This is THE MOST amount of runners we've had on a run in Barnet ever – not including the launch run when we had lots of tourists.

Everybody welcome GG newbie Sarah to the gang!

After a quick intro and warm up outside the Phoenix, we were off. I lead the way up to Strawberry Vale, while Freya was our trusty back-marker. Once we got there, Damian, Freya and Heather each lead a team around the estate flyering all the houses and flats we could get to. We then ran back up past the Green Man community centre and delivered the remaining flyers along the next road along.

With 600 flyers delivered in record time, using our trusty GG Barnet flyer relay technique, it was time to head back. Joanna suggested we run via the RSPCA clinic to get a photo, which the team all agreed with – meaning this week's run turned out to be just slightly longer than planned. Fab work on the 5km, folks! Well done to Heather for her fab navigational skills. I really enjoy how well everybody knows their way around Finchley – it means I never have to look at a map!

Even with the little detour, we still had plenty of time for a workout. And what better place than a nearby path of grass. Over the wall we went, fully risk-assessed of course, for a few relays in the dark. I used my running light to illuminate my face, so everybody knew what I was saying – which made me feel like I was on a stage dancing in the spotlight. There were some sprints, squat jumps, frog walks, skipping and some bear crawls – which, as far as I could tell, was everybody's fave. More of those then, for sure.

Graham then lead us back to base with Paul our trusty back-marker. Lots of ice along the way tonight, so well done to everyone for staying upright – although it was touch-and-go at a couple of corners.

Props to Del for bringing his docs along for DBS checks this week. All you need to do is bring proof of address and some ID (two of one and one of the other) along to the next run to get the ball rolling. If you already have a DBS with someone else, that won't count. You'll need to get one through GoodGym to be able to do any missions or coach runs.

And finally, the Barnet Biscuits of the week were: homemade chocolate-covered ginger cookies from Freya and bakery-made salted caramel cookies from Graham! Thanks guys! Delicious week! Jody said she was on it for next week, which is very exciting!

Don't forget we have a starter session this Saturday at Sweettree Farms at 11am. Sign up here

And sign up for next week's run here

See you soon, folks! Pennie

This week 17 wonderful GoodGym-ers ran 6km to paint a carehome's garden furniture

This is a very special week for GoodGym Barnet. Not only is it our 20th group run! (Applause) But it's also Hazel's 50th good deed. Give her a cheer!

We were joined by GG newbie Thais tonight, who totally smashed her first run with us! Be sure to click her name and give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up and intro outside the Phoenix Cinema we were off on our journey to Dell Fields to finish painting the garden furniture. I stalled for a couple of minutes to wait for Simon who was visiting us from Islington (with CHEESECAKE), but we decided to text him the route so he could catch up. Damian lead the group out while Paul was our trusty back-marker. This gave me the opportunity to float about in the middle and talk to loads of you!

On the final stretch a man stopped me to ask GoodGym and seemed very excited to hear we ran regularly and did good. He promised to tell his wife, so hopefully we see her next week! (This is a great reason to make sure you're wearing your GoodGym shirt!)

As we arrived at the carehome, so did Simon, who must have been running behind us just out of sight!

The group quickly took on sanding and painting roles as we finished varnishing the chairs from our last visit. As GG-ers slowly finished their tasks, they were treated to some strength and mobility drills up the garden path. There were duck walks, bear walks, hops and squats, while the others put in those finishing touches. Then it was a quick tidy, before heading out front for a very brief round of exercise before our run back.

We split into two groups to head home, with Damian, Freya and Paul taking the speedy lot back, and me and Hazel leading the slightly less speedy group.

Back at base there was stretching, cheesecake and, of course, biscuits.

The Barnet Biscuit of the Week: HOMEMADE BISCUITS courtesy of super TF member Heather, who couldn't run with us tonight but still baked us cookies!

We also had a bonus #BarnetBiscuit in the form of cheesecake from Simon AND oreos from Del. There were so many post-run snacks this week we didn't get to the oreos, so Freya has been tasked with keeping those safe for us until next week. Biscuit-sitting is a tough job. Let's hope she doesn't accidentally eat them all after one of her many runs (she's already don't over 60km this month)... Be sure to link strava up with your GG profile so your runs get counted in the heroes section too.

Don't forget we have a starter session THIS SATURDAY at Community Focus in Friary Park at 2pm. It'll be less running than a usual GG run, so definitely one to tell your friends about if they're a bit nervous about keeping up on the group runs. There will also be some running drills and some gardening. And probably biscuits. Meet at the community centre. Sign up here

And be sure to bring along your ID to the next group run or starter session so we can get you mission verified! Just need to see some photo ID and an official letter of some sort with your address on it and a date within three months. Two of one and one of the other. So, for example, a passport, a driver's license and a bank statement from less than 3 months ago – or a passport, a utility bill and a bank statement. We need lots of runners to help Ms F on 22 Jan, so if you're already mission verified you can sign up here.

See you on Saturday!

Pennie

6 wonderful goodgymmers ran 4.5km to help promote goodgym in Ealing!

It was a sad day for many as it was the first day back at work after all the festivities! However this didn't stop this hardcore bunch from getting out there and smashing the first run of the year. A big welcome to Manvir who came along for the first time and did an amazing job especially with all the squats in the middle! And welcome back Gaia, so glad you are back and running with us again!

We started off with a jog along good old Gordon Street heading towards West Ealing and the Salvation Army building in a bid to introduce ourselves! Sadly they weren't open so we posted a flyer and got to work doing some squats...10 body weight squats, 10 pulse squats and 10 squats with a 10 second squat hold...a nice little quad burner for everyone and, of course, squats make you better at running!!

We then took a nice jaunt around West Ealing, flyering into all the charity shops and getting a bit of obstacle work through the busy streets! We managed to fit in a few 'round the world' lunges working on proprioception and unilateral training before arriving back at Haven Green for some final bodyweight exercises and balance work; single leg deadlifts, lunges, hip mobility and a few nice stretches. We discussed the merits of yoga as an aid to running (and life in general) and before we new it, boom, the first run of 2017 was over!

So if running with an awesome group of people and working on improving your form, balance and general fitness sounds good to you...join us on the next run! We have a starter session this Saturday and sign up to next Tuesday's run here I can't wait to see you there!

18 GoodGym-ers ran 9km to set up Santa's grotto

This was the last GG Barnet run of 2016! It was also the 18th run ever! (Sorry, I told you it was the 17th... my bad!)

This was also the most amount of runners we've had on a run excluding the launch run – tying with our run to Newstead to paint the walls. It was nice to see so many of you – particularly the return of Aimee from the Phoenix, who arranged for some incredible mulled wine, mince pies and popcorn for us for after the run. She definitely deserves a cheer for that!

Also a massive welcome to GoodGym tourists Sarah and Frances who joined the Barnet crew this week.

This week we split into two groups, with Damian leading the speedy group with the help of Sarah as back-marker; and Heather leading the less speedy group with Hazel's help back-marking.

Sarah and Jody ended up taking a little detour after a quick costume change at the trafic lights. Luckily they had a map and were together!

When we reached Community Focus, we were greeted by Danusia and the team – and Buddy the dog. 30 very speedy minutes and a tonne of GoodGym magic later and a plain white room was turned into a grotto Santa will be proud of!

The team did a great job decorating the grotto, whilst having a little dance to some Christmas tunes.

We split into two groups again for the run back and celebrated the end of 2016 with a festive Barnet Biscuit: mince pies. Plus some mulled wine and popcorn – all courtesy of the Phoenix. So wonderful I thought it worth repeating =p

We also had some Lindt chocolate balls courtesy of Jody – which is probably my fave chocolate of all time.

We'll be back on 3 January 2017 with a run to Dell Fields care home to do some painting. Sign up here

Have a wonderful Christmas ( / winter holiday season) and I'll see you all soon! Lots of exciting things waiting for us in 2017. Well done for all your hard work so far.

Pennie

42 runners went to Vauxhall Foodbank to sort a MEGA Christmas delivery. Phew!

It was a MEGA turnout in Lambeth last night with runners old and new gathering for a run to the lovely Vauxhall Foodbank. They had spent 3 days over the weekend asking shoppers to buy and donate one item of food from their list and the public had been very generous. The Foodbank supports individuals and families who are in sudden crisis over a short period with food donations. Christmas is a key time for families in need and we always enjoy helping them out.

We split into two groups and headed off to Vauxhall. One group took the shorter route of about 3km each way and the others headed off on a longer version. Once we arrived, the lovely Faith gave us an intro and we got down to the sorting.

There was so much food that we ran out of crates and had to use the cardboard boxes to store everything in. Some people did some excellent labelling and others did tremendous packing. All in all it was a massive effort and we look forward to hearing exactly how much we weighed in - it must have been a record!

I wonder if we made a weigh-in record?! Wondered everyone

On the way back we ran in three groups - the relaxed runners set off, leaving the other two groups to finish weighing and squash any unneeded boxes. The entirely mediocre group 2 headed off next: would we be equal to grade C+or a B? Who knows.....

Finally the speedy group took to the streets and headed home for some stretches and a well earned dinner. Great work team and thanks for coming. We made a massive difference tonight.