A Dozen of GoodGym's Finest

On yet another hot Monday in the summer heatwave of 2018 it was truly delightful to have another great turn out. Special mention to Nigel whose work schedule allowed him to join us again. Kudos to you! It was also great to welcome back Jay for his second task with us.

Lucy ( AKA Tracey Tra'Lucy and on occasion, Jane ) also came along for her first time as a fully fledged member. Next time we hope to see her wearing her new red tee shirt! Lucy has set a goal to improve her speed ( although she alledges she doesn't remember ticking this box) so we are all looking forward to helping her to achieve this :)

Lets not forget a large handful of my trusty regulars Sue, Gill, Belinda , Barbara,Tamsin Duncan , Paul and Nick.

It was an epic evening for Belinda because after months of not running she arrived without her bike and with her running legs back in the game! There were several cries ( especially from me ) of 'Where can we put all our gear' after months of the luxury of using Belinda's bike basket!

After some GG chit chat and banter we set off on our warm up 1 mile run.

Avoid Pier Pressure

Always one of my favourite warm up runs we headed along the prom where we ran around the pier admiring the coastline and the general happenings of a summer evening in sunny Worthing.

In no time at all we arrived at out task for the evening which was pruning a large line of hedges just surrounding beach house gardens and the volleyball courts. We were met by our regular park ranger , Keith who was pleasantly surprised or was it shocked to see so many of us this evening.

As the task was more popular than expected we split into 2 groups with me taking one group over to the green for a fitness session whilst the others donned gloves, armed themselves with tools and set about some fine pruning.

Re-lay good

On the green we split into teams of pairs. One partner ran as fast around the circumference of the green as possible whilst the other did a series of squats, burpees and ab work . The challenge was on when the first partner tagged the second and the pursuit began to catch , or stay ahead of the person in front.

This was a mixture of high intensity running efforts with some strength recovery. Looking at the photos it appears that some may have recovered more than others :)

After 4 repetitions the fitness group swapped with the pruning group who arrived for their workout with me whilst the other group reported for duty with Keith.

Finally we all met up to pile into the last 10 minutes of the gardening task together . Clearly energised by all their activities the team revved up a gear and carried out some fairly extreme moves with a spot of climbing from Gill and Nick and almost total immersion into the hedge from Jay.

Nigel used his height to our great advantage . Lucy , Duncan and Belinda polished off the end of the hedge whilst Sue, Tamsin , Paul kept consistently ploughing on through the foliage.

Summer Loving happens so fast

Maybe it was Keith's sense of humour or the task or maybe it was just how happy the whole group seemed to be, but I did get the feeling I had to drag them away from the task to the next phase of the evening - the run !

Instride out

We set off in 4 groups and out and back and around Brooklandslake. The front group were on a mission to run just that bit further and faster but still meet and connect up with the other 3 groups on the way back . It worked perfectly to ensure we all supported each other at the same time as everyone getting a decent challenging run. It was a delight for me to see the progression and striving towards personal fitness goals from all the group and so good to see Belinda building up her running again.

Wave runners

After some stretching , brief inpromptu burpees and some chatter the group dispersed either to the sea for a swim or home.

Happy vibes, plenty of splashing around in the waves together with great photos and whats app follow up messages all contributed towards another great evening at GG Worthing.

Hoping to see as many as possible at this weeks social at the Fat Greek Taverna at 7pm on Wednesday. Its not too late to join in. Just let me know today if you want to eat or feel free to pop down for a drink.

All the best for a great week whatever you are doing

Julia X