Sol Mates

On a beautiful day in sunny Worthing nine GoodGym buddies met up for our Monday evening fix. It was great to welcome back Michelle who was of our first runners to join the group back in 2017 and who has been a loyal member ever since.

Fresh from 'Beat the Tide ' Mr and Mrs R came along with a few aches and pains. Big kudos to them both. They could have sat in the sun and drank beer but instead they came to do good and have fun !

Welcome also to Barbara , Paul, Dr Emma , Steve and not forgetting and our very own super hero Cake Man

We headed out onto the grass for a mobility based warm up designed to free up aching muscles and stiff backs before setting off to walk or run to the task nearby at Lyndhurst homeless hostel .

Worthing Border Force

At the hostel we were tasked with creating an edge around a rectangular bed that is going to be a vegetable garden together with weeding it . There were also a number of pallets that needed painting.

The team chose what they wanted to do with Paul , Steve , Michelle and Emma grabbing a paint brush . The two B's attacked the weeding followed by the bindweed and John and Jay took a leap of faith by jumping on the spades to create some sharp lines around the bed.

35 short minutes later we reluctantly called time. We could easily have spent a lot longer there but we bagged the bindweed and headed out front to get a sunny team photo.

We are going on a Bear Hunt

For our run we decided to stay close by to give flexibility to our very own doctor in case of an emergency! I decided on some laps and Steve had the great idea of heading to Homefield Park . The team split into pairs and did some efforts around the perimeter of the park focusing on speed and stride length.

It was at this point that we spotted a brown bear in the park but sadly, no Lucy for Jay to protect this evening, so it went mostly unchallenged apart from a celebrity photo being taken by me!

As it was such a beautiful evening we finished with some agility and core based games that felt like an old school sports day! We split into 2 groups with jumping,hopping and jumping jack relays finishing with the plank game. As the photos show there was a fair amount of cheating with this final game!

Cheers to a sunny Monday

Steve very kindly hosted drinks at his afterwards which I know was very much enjoyed by all that went along . Thanks Steve. We love that social feeling and I look forward to joining you on the next round :)

Next week we will be back with our friends from Breathing Spaces. Keep an eye out for more details on meeting point and task details.

Have a great week . Good Luck to all of you doing events . I'm looking forward to hearing all about your experiences.

Sending lots of GG happy vibes to you all

Julia xx

The Bee-st team

Another Monday evening in sunny Worthing and that can only mean one thing ! Its GG time. It was great to welcome Keith back for his second visit to us together with Birthday Barbara ,Dr Emma , John , Nick , Lucy, Paul , Emily and Tamsin.

We headed to the track for some warm up laps followed by some strength and flexibility exercises before a short walk around the back of the leisure centre to our task.

Welcome to our hive - The best place to bee

This evening we were excited to work with the lovely ladies from the Food Pioneers Fran and Debbie representing a local food social enterprise project.

Debbie explained that there were 3 hives in the compound each with around 40,000 bees in them. Our job for the evening was to make the new bee hive area a little more attractive ready for visitors. Fran outlined the jobs that needed doing and the team all picked a task.

To bee or not to bee

The biggest job was to paint the fence around the bee compound grey. Nick ,John,Lucy, Tamsin and Paul set about this whilst Keith opted for the litter picking .

There were some beautiful and diverse wall canvasses that some talented students at Northbrook college had painted. Barbara and Emma grabbed a brush and set about weather proofing the paintings with a protective layer of clear varnish. Emily set about some gardening and in Gill's absence some 'fine pruning'

Debbie asked if anyone was interested in some bee keeping and outlined how to get more involved with the group. Barbara, Paul and Lucy all seemed keen so watch this space on future progress

Un- bee- lievable progress

30 minutes later amidst loads of chatter and a large number of grey paint splatters I reluctantly called time on the task . Debbie and Fran could not have been more grateful to us plying us with snacks , water and banana's. After a quick group photo and a promise to return soon ,we split into 3 groups for our jalk/run down to the seafront .

400 metre bees- tings

We all regrouped for the 2nd time on the track for 2 x 400 metre extended efforts. I love watching the commitment and improvement of my runners and observing them on the track enables me to review their technique and form.

We all commented on the improvement that John showed this evening . Running daily in June plus taking a few rest days afterwards really seems to have worked for John and he is getting ever nearer to achieving his goal of running parkrun, without stopping, by September.

Lucy and Emma also did their 90 second plank whilst everyone watched !

Happy Bee day to our very own Queen Bee

We finished the evening with stretches and Barbara's delicious homemade vegan peanut butter and banana cakes to celebrate her Birthday. She had even bought some gorgeous red velvet gluten free cakes for Belinda who was out on Parkrun blind runner training. Kudos to both B's ( bees -ha ha )

But where was Cake man tonight ?! It is rare to have cake leftovers!

Next week we are meeting at Splashpoint and back at Lyndhurst Road for a garden tidy up.

Have a good week everyone . I hope you have enjoyed the plethora of bee puns today:)

Julia xx

ARight Royal 'To Do'

On an extremely chilly bank holiday Monday it was a complete delight to welcome 14 yes 14 runners to to this special evening in Worthing.

Tonight we celebrated a joint double of 50 glorious good deeds for Anne and Nick together with a new royal prince who was born earlier today. Many congratulations to all.

Being a bank holiday I wasn't expecting a big turn out but I was delighted with how may regulars rocked up for the usual fun and fitness. With holiday heads on they can be forgiven for me having to repeat the run instructions 7 yes 7 times :) To be fair it was a slight diversion to our usual format so understandably confusing.

With the walking team comprising of Barbara, John and Nick setting off promptly the runners consisting of Anne,Emily, Ros,Belinda, Lucy, Duncan, Andy,Dr Emma, Snowflake legging it in at the last minute the team set off for a gentle warm up run east along the seafront.

Following the warm up the team were tasked with 2 x 800 meters of running as fast as they could over this distance . With everyone working towards their individual personal goals it was great to see all the effort going into this drill (Special mention to Gill at this point who joined us on the prom near the pier)

Avocardio

All the team headed back to the green next to Splashpoint where the front runners did 4 circuits of the green in an impressive crocodile format. After a little more confusion (!) we carried on with fitness training with some quick fire drills working in pairs and one threesome.

We did 5 sets of the following

• Jumping Jacks
• Ski Jumps
• Squat Jumps
• Skater
• Plyometric Lunges

Adding to the challenge the timing was variable so this meant the team didn't quite know what to expect ! There were alternative options for all fitness levels and injuries meaning everyone kept busy.

As it was a holiday day and celebration we divided into two teams and finished with a fun party balloon game before settling into the tasks for the evening.

Pole position

There were 2 tasks to put our energies into

• parkrun finish marker pole painting
• Beach clean after the busy bank holiday weekend

The team divided into two groups with the beach team setting off into the sunset and the painting team finding a sheltered spot behind bushes!

20 minutes later and the beach combers returned with surprisingly little rubbish . Was it the cold weather or are Worthing beach goers particularly tidy? A few of the team decided to go off for a further run around the pier to look for the promised picture of our very own prodigal child , Beth before heading back to base.

The painters also wound up their task with a promise to return to finish the job with a second coat next week.

Meet me at the bar - heir heir

Leaving Barbara's champagne on ice for a warmer evening we headed to the pub to raise a glass to Anne and Nick's joint 50th .

With glasses in hand both opened their GG gift . This represents a small token of my huge appreciation and massive thank you to you both the time and energy you have given and continue to give to GG. Big cheer and kudos to you both.

Cheer cheer

With Barbara's 50th milestone approaching in 5 short weeks it wont be long until we are back in the pub again celebrating!

Have a great week everyone and don't forget to refresh and upload your goals to your profile... oh and watch out for that cheer leader board. Can anyone catch Belinda's current total of 188 and thats in just 7 days ! Get your thumb on the cheer icon!

Sending loads of feel good GG energy to you

Julia X