Twenty three tree-mendous GoodGymmers ran 5km to Stephen's House to help in the gardens 🌿

Meeting at the Phoenix, we welcomed first timers Vaggelis and Jess to GGB - nice to see you! ✈

We also welcomed back our runners from a stellar weekend of missions and also the Race The Neighbours 10k here in Barnet: well done all 🏅🏅🏅

We set off to Stephen's House with Abi and Laura backmarking. It's about 2.5km so we took it at an easy pace to start with and we scooped up Claire, Jenny and Vicky on arrival.

We met the gardener Peter who showed us our tasks for the evening: Team one litter picking, team 2 sawing through logs and stacking them, team 3 chopping up and condensing branches, team 4 tidying and condensing wood in the yard, and team 5 chopping up a fallen tree. Good thing there were so many of us today!

Using gloves, saws, sequiters and grabbers the teams got to work chopping, grabbing and squashing into bags 💪 You can see the before and after in the some of the pictures above.

After half an hour we had made huge progress and tidied everything up. A massive effort that delighted Peter and will save him loads of time. The gardens do look particularly gorgeous in this weather so it's great to help keep them that way.

After a quick group pic we found some open space and worked on everyone's favourite: sprint drills! We did them with a twist: chests to the floor, the team popped up, sprinted 50m then spun round put chests to the floor and got ready to do it again. With 6 repeats this was tough work in the heat 🔥 Well done everyone, especially after such a physical task as well!

From there it was a nice run back to the Phoenix, then stretches.

Stephen's House have their annual fete on Sunday. They would love some help setting up if you're free - check the missions listings!

Great work everyone! See you next week for more gardening at Long Lane Pasture.

Goodgym Barnet ran on a search and destroy mission in Highgate woods for the ranger Cindy. We gathered at the Phoenix cinema to greet each other and number up. A quick survey of favourite colours produced three purples in a row! Welcome to Niall on his first run and tourist Pete from Stockport. Give them a shout out! We set off for Cherry tree woods for a warm up, and then on to Highgate woods a short run away, doing some paired exercises on the way. Cindy met us at the Pavillion Cafe and explained our task which was to remove some of the dens created by the public. They are a fire risk and also removing the wood from the ground destroys the micro habitats for some of the woodland organisms. After completing our mission Cindy generously gave us a tour of the woods including taking us into a conservation zone. Highlights included hearing Britons smallest bird the Goldcrest and pointing out a couple of lightning strikes on the trees. We then had a little time to pair up to do a running frisbee drill before running back to the Phoenix.

Thanks for coming running and destroying …makes a change!

Eighteen excellent GoodGymmers ran 2km to help at Martin Primary in East Finchley.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Alice, Andras and Grace for their first ever group run - welcome!!

It was a glorious sunny evening so we set off running in good spirits with Paul backmarking. Vicky led a walking group with Sally and Fay, while we met Charlotte, Claire and Graham at the school itself. For Rupesh, it was another return to the school he attended as a child (not that many years ago I am assured).

After the short run we met the caretaker Tristan who explained the task for the night: we would be shoveling, transporting and spreading woodchip for the children's outdoor area in the woods and the path through to it. Perfect for an energetic group of GGers!

So we got to work. Dividing into teams of shovelers, wheelbarrow (and bin!) movers, and rakers we had half an hour to get as much done as possible. In no time at all we had halved the size of the main pile of woodchip and spread it throughout the areas the kids use. They use a clearing in the woods for their story time, so having a clear and dry path makes sure it stays usable.

From there it was time for a quick team photo and then a fitness session! This week we worked on strides and changing our pace: using a football pitch, the team ran around the edges and changed their pace every 30 seconds between 5k and half marathon modes. We did warm up then 3 minutes of varied speed, before a flat out lap to finish. It was a brilliant effort and we saw a few tired faces after!

From there it was a chilled 1km run back to base for stretches. See you next week!

D