Ten jewels in the Brent crown braved the unpredictable weather (Storm Angus will have to do better than that to stop this bunch doing good!!!) to run to Ashford Place, London's first 24-hour shelter for the homeless dedicated to promoting inclusion and reducing isolation.

We were delighted to see a rather more hirsute Dan back in the ranks after a break and a brief foray into GoodGym Barnett - but we forgave him ;-P... especially as he's been busy growing a Movember moustache, good for you Dan, keep it up! We also welcomed Fausto back to the fold after a few months' break, and long-standing and newer runners, Elisa, Tania, Deborah, Tabitha, Enrique, Clare Mouse, Mel, and cover run leader Claireybell.

Our friendly group managed to recruit two more runners for next week's run before we even left our base at the Queensbury pub, good work guys!

We managed to tear ourselves away from the glowing pub fire and out into the night (which wasn't as cold as it looked from indoors!), leaping over puddles and piles of wet leaves like sprightly pixies to avoid soggy socks and squelchy shoes.

After a short run and a quick stretch, we arrived at Ashford Place where Alan met us and explained what he wanted us to do, opening the door to a room bursting with bags of donations and furniture - our task - to make it look "different"... So we rolled up our sleeves and hauled out bags and bags of clothes, bedding and toiletries, sorted, re-bagged, and labelled, a jumble of chaos into an orderly oasis of organisation and calm - it was one of those jobs that you would put off forever if you had to do it on your own as it would have taken 2 days, but ...

with ten pairs of hands, we had it done in about 20 minutes!

We still had time to fit in a run to Gladstone Park where we set to some tempo runs cleverly disguised as a game... we ran a loop of the park in single file, with the person at the back having to accelerate to make it up to the front of the pack again, the person at the front setting the pace - there was definitely some healthy competition going on with Deborah and Tabitha leaving us in the dust as they vied for the lead. We finished off with some cool down stretches and a jog back up the hill to base again.

A quick reminder, if you are interested in coming to a GG Brent Christmas meal and/or drinks (no run involved, lycra and high-viz optional, name badges will be provided for identification purposes...), there is a doodle poll on GoodGym Brent's Facebook page, we will confirm the date by the end of this week.

Well done guys, keep shining your light around Brent and beyond!

Sprinkling a special dose of Goodgym cheer, 13 radiant runners, pounded pavements, highjacked hills and put to bed PBs on a marvellous Monday night in Brent.

Full squad on deck for the first Monday in November, GG Brent were thrilled to welcome not one, not two but three newbies into the fold. The Super-Spanish addition - Cecilia and Helena and although new to Brent, a fabulous familiar face - Hazel, doing the famous Goodgym borough rounds tour. Additionally awesome was the fact that Hazel had brought along with her some home-baked treats of Brownies and Biccys for afters YAY!!

Joining me (coach Ellie) and our new runners in the ranks were a gorgeous gang of regulars including: Clairey-Bell, Mouse in the House Clare, Tabitha and Rebekah (aka sister sledge), Daring Debs, Lovely Liz, Super-dooper (don't forget the first aid bum-bag) marathon trooper Sadhana and... Man alert Monday: Neil and Enrique YAY.

Confessions before sessions, I had to relay the news that all my efforts to rescue the cancelled tasks had been unsuccessful this week. However, with some quick joined up thinking from Hazel and the crew, we turned our misfortune into a chance to spread the message of Goodgym with a handy leaflet drop, while grabbing the opportunity to stretch our legs and tackle a full on fitness fun and run session in the Wonderful streets of Willesden.

With this in mind, the team bounced into action. Led on in the front by the one and only 'Mouse' we set to work on the 1 mile dash to Queens Park, where the, circumference of the park, perfectly offers a one mile timed challenge op for the troops.

So armed with my timer and cheering lungs of steel, it was 3,2,1 AND THEIR OFF Dashing the fastest their legs could carry them, to set the bench mark.... here's lap one!

Breathless and quite literally steaming, the teams raced in, one by one.... under 7mins, under 8 and under 9s AMAZING Shocked at their own speed, there was no resting on our laurels and after a quick catch of breath off they went again. Incredibly, round 2 brought in consistent times for each athlete, proving there was no fluke and thankfully also..... no puke phew

Even after the epic 2 mile dash, this team of warriors finishing off, only the best way they could......squats of course to the glorious chimes of our Balearic beautys..... This will give us the Culos Perfectos in town* and that is a bunch of PERFECT BOTTOMS to you and me..... HA HAAAAAA

So after such an epic achievement of a session, there was only one way to finish, with Hazel's bountiful bake and stuffing our faces with goodies. Hurrah I suppose it goes to show, we will get the rewards when we Pud-in the work

Until next time x x x x

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

13 Goodgymers, Dropped 200 leaflets for 2 worthy causes on a wintery but wonderful Monday night in Brent.

Greeted by the awesome sight of not one, not two, but three new faces and a whole bunch of awesome oldies too, I was over the moon to be back from hols and straight back into the warm embrace of the one and only GoodGym Brent.

With welcomes and housekeeping underway, the team were introduced to the task for the night - The Bi-Monthly track session and leaflet drop. This week I was delighted to welcome Tania's contribution for the Brent Social counselling services, an opportunity for low income and out of work local people to be supported in achieving positive mental health, through talk therapy in the borough of Brent.

With no time to waste the team were off, speeding down the road and engaging with all the community along the way. Newbie Rebekah was the woman with the effective 'wink' and used these Eye-rresistible (sorry) charms to drop the most out of the whole team.

After the one mile dash to Willesden Track the team didn't rest on their laurels and got stuck straight into the the most Hard-Core strength and abs session known to mankind. Strength work started with: *Walking lunges *Piggy back runs *Squat sequence Quickly followed by walking held planks and scissor kicks for..... well as long as I could do it so that was a looonnnnggggggg time!!! HA HA

Mixing in with the strength work the team bashed out a series of speedy 100m sprints followed by 200's and recovery runs. It's safe to say they gave it a Good-Gym run for their money (again sorry, it seems my holiday away has been plenty of time to come up with the cheesiest of all cheer puns)

After sweat there was the stretch and one last dash home to freedom. Despite the cold and teasing drops of wintery rain, there was only good vibes and good times had by all, what a way to get back in the game!!

Another successful dose of community goodness and athletic throw down to boot. There's only one place to fuel body and soul and that's ramping it up with West London's finest - GG Brent.

Until next time.....

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

9 GG Brenter's ran 6k, to shift 4 wheelbarrows of rocks, 8 of leaves and avoid 1 crafty little fox

On the coldest night of the year so far, the wrapped up and raring to go crew of Brent gathered eagerly at the good old Queensbury Pub on the high road of Willesden, for a housekeeping full of good cheer, good chats and the welcoming of 3 newbies into the fold YAY - The lovely Enrique, our only fella for the night and Sisters Tania and Eliza.

After welcomes and warm-ups the team hot-foot it through the chilly winds down to Harlesden Town Gardens where Gabriel was waiting with his trusty torch. The task to be achieved this night was a Wheel-barrow of laughs shifting piles of rocks to support the development of a rockery and leaves into the newly built comps patch. Needless to say we totally rocked it

After 40mins of back breaking shifts cheered on by a medley of my weird and wonderful spotify treats (summer and holiday inspired) We spaded, pushed and shovelled our way through the lot, managing to avoid Mr Fox who had taken up residence there.

Back to the road and it was fast, fast, fast all the way home. The team were like a speeding bullet, running like a pack of wolves in formation, a beautiful site to behold! Up hills, round bends, through the darkened parks. As we raced through the blackness there was only one thought in our minds, it's head torch season and our short shorts days are numbered.

Back at base we stretched and reviewed. Another epic night, fantastic vibe and laughter that carried our legs through the distance.

See you next time.

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Wow, a whopping 12 first timers this evening! Take a deep breath... welcome to Ryan, Cherith, Rhys, Ranald, Liv, Ben, Eva, Kirsty, Pauline, Isabelle, Ksenia and Amel

They joined another 22 of us for a trip up to Whittington Park Community Association where there were loads of little jobs to do. We cleaned windows, we weeded in front of and behind the nursery, we weeded around the main entrance, we had a bit of a clean up in reception, we removed old plants and bulbs from a planter and we planted a new plant!

But all that doing good didn't tire us out too much. Oh no! On the way back to the pool we did our amazing "monthly" Emirates time trial. 641 metres around the stadium.

Fastest lady tonight was Lies with a 2:44 and fastest gent was Hugh with a 2:10. Well done to everybody. Some top efforts.

And a rather popular debate question tonight: who is the most attractive person in the world? Forget personality and character and intelligence and all that other rubbish. We wanna know who's the sauciest celebrity!

The winner with two votes is Ryan Reynolds

Other mentions:

• Clare Grogan (Steve insists that it is the Claire from about 1981)
• Jensen Ackles (the correct answer! He has saved the world several times for crying out loud!)
• Bruce Willis
• Cillian Murphy
• Monkey Bones
• Zooey Deschanel
• Ryan Gosling
• Rachel Riley
• Lily Cole
• Levi Roots
• Sean Bean
• Louis Theroux
• Bananaman (Thanks, Caroline)
• Las Ketchup (I had to watch Patrick and Claire do the dance)
• Heinz Binz (Kike met a real bloke calle Heinz Binz!)
• Lloyd Grossman (ok)

Started feeling rather ugly reading that list, but things picked up again near the end.

Great deeding all. We will see you next week for some FROGGY goodness.

Until then,
Simon

Two tasks on this lovely summer evening in Islington.

One group popped up to Whittington Park. Aidan describes:

We arrived at Whittington Park after our longer run down Holloway Road. Our fortnightly task awaited us with Martin ready with bin bags and gloves.

The majority of us tackled the 1 o'clock club's garden as we need to keep up our good work of maintaining a weed and nettle free garden for the kids who use the club.

There was also the task of de-weeding the entrance of the main building, keeping it looking great for everyone!

After working hard for twenty minutes what better way to treat ourselves than with some circuits. Everyone got a chance to pick an exercise for everyone else to do whilst they went on a short lap of the field. Although some of the ladies did get a bit lost along the way! We had all the classics; press ups, sit-ups, planking and two types of squatting for good measure. All before rejoining Holloway Road for our run back.

Aidan

The other group travelled to Barnsbury Community Centre. We've spent a lot of time over the last year helping create a wonderful garden in the disused space behind the centre and we're now just putting the finishing touches to the project for their grand launch on 25th August.

First job was to get gloves out the storage cabinet. Simple, right? Nope. A combination of stupid rain and then stupid heat meant the combination lock for the cabinet had seized up completely. Despite the best efforts of Caroline, Patrick and a pair of pliers it remained stuck. Not to worry: we'd just have to be extra careful.

We spent 25 minutes carrying old pallets and broken bits of wood round to the estate's waste disposal site, having a thoroughly good weed and watering plants. Nice work.

Following the task we played "Dice of Doom" with Simon's new giant foam dice: everybody had a chance to throw the dice and determine the activity that had to be performed for 15 seconds. There were alternate squat thrusts, running high knees, start jumps (LOTS of start jumps), sprints, dreaded burpees (boo) and the elusive jogging on the spot. We then played a game that Caroline made up. Nobody was quite sure what it was.

Back at the pool we had a free stretch, a biscuit and voted on the proper way to eat scones: jam then cream, cream then jam, or Claire's suggestion, butter, jam then cream (which is apparently the traditional Cornish way of doing things)? Jam then cream won by quite a large margin. Some people were disgusted at this - especially Steve - but the people have spoken.

If anybody wants to make scones for next week maybe we could put it to the test.

xxx,
Simon