Well thankfully you were spared me leading the run in a suit... though it seems the idea might be welcomed... we'll see what we can do next time I cover in H+F (if you'll have me!)

An awesome ten of you joined me in Hammersmith and Fulham to help Pauline at the Maystar Estate. We were joined by Miteki who was attending GoodGym for the first time.

We did a quick intro talking about the three ways that you can do good and get fit with GoodGym: Missions, Coach Runs and as we were doing... Group Runs! With that done, a quick warm up despatched and, with only a slight vehicular interruption, we were ready to go. I had leapt on Jason's offer to back-mark the session and quickly persuaded him that his knowledge of the area would make him a much much better leader for the journey to Maystar Estate. I took up the back-marker post (to ensure that is noone is left behind) and we were off!

Front- or back-marker!

Arriving at Maystar we met with Pauline who outlined the tasks for us:

• Turning the soil in four planters and one flower bed
• Helping to move some damaged fence posts

We were slightly hampered by a lack of tools but everyone got down to it and we had the planters and the beds looking great in no time. Special mention to Tom and Miteki who, at my suggestion, tried to turn the planting tool into a soil turning tool - let's just say tools tend to be made to do what they're designed for...

Meanwhile, after Jason had assessed the damaged fence posts Anders and Helen joined Jason and this little crack team got to work dismantling and carrying the posts to the bins and ensuring that was couldn't be moved was left in a safe state - great work!

River run

With plenty of time to spare we decided to extended our run back to base by going via the Thames Path, Jason again led the way and we had a well paced run back. With that done it left just enough time for us to stretch off, here some news about the Hammersmith + Fulham Social on the 17th April and the GoodGym Monthly social next week on the 5th. Polly even checked in all the way from Costa Rica and then we were done.

Thanks for having me, hope to see some of you next week at the social and don't forget you've got Paul covering next week with another trip to Maystar.

Cheers, Pritesh

A cracking turn out for the last h&f GoodGym in January. Bring us up to 68 good deeds this month. Amazing effort!

The evening started with a recap of the Goodgym January challenge as we kept one eye on the door for more red t-shirts to bring us to a round number. Our area had already clocked-up 911km and 53 good deeds so far. This week we had newbies Grace and Lucy helping us add to the deeds total. And Amy touristing from Wandsworth to add to their area target - good effort all round.

Once we’d covered the rest of the news and events coming up, we headed outside for a warm-up... and the forgotten head count. Then it was off to the task via the river. Another running group had also decided to take this route so for a while there we though we might be able to steal some of their strays. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

The rest of this run was peppered with exercise stops, including squats, squat thrusts, star jumps and bum kicks.

Now for the arm workout

Our task for the night was to help our at Maystar Estate. They had asked if we could come and help wash the walls and windows down in the community hall. Used by all the residents, this area needed some tlc. The gang quickly got to work with the soapy water and cloths for an early spring clean. Special mention goes to George and Ellie for going where no person had gone before... behind the oven.

After our time was up we gathered for a group photo and said our goodbyes to Pauline the Housing Association (volunteer) treasurer who organises our visits.

Then for a finally short run back to base, followed by a warm-down.

Congrats to everyone that made it out in January!

We started the night off with an update on our January target. 38 good deeds had been done already! 8 of which had been by Jason - give him a cheer. Our 200km distance target had been totally smashed, with another 440km on top. Check out the latest here.

The task for the evening took us down to Wentworth Court Communal Hall to meet Catherine from Community Champions. We had been asked to help deliver a flyer around the Bayonne estate to promote a group trip to Kew Gardens (family entry for just £1) and some of their events including yoga, mindfulness and creative movement.

Catherine gave the group a brief introduction to the work they do and the leaflet, then we split up into three teams of four. Each with a section of the estate to target.

In no time at all, nearly all the estate had been covered and runners were back at the meeting point ready for a run back via the river.

The run back included: fixed point repetitions, a silent fitness session and a 30s wall squat finish.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Quiz

Then onto our January social, organised by Will. This included a delicious meal at Wagamama, a quiz and an unplanned mindfulness colouring intermission. Thanks Will.

Our first run of 2018

Four awesome runners came out to start the year off with firtastic task. We were helping move Christmas trees that had been dumped on the pavement to the council collection points. The council are doing a street collection for houses in the borough, but some still get discarded in random places.

A bit keen

Due to it only being the 2nd January, not many trees had been put out yet. We managed to relocated a grand total of 9 trees to the drop-off points at Normand Park and Fulham Palace Cemetery Road. At the second drop-off, inspired by The World's Strongest Man Competition, we did some squat presses with the trees (see the photos that looks like we're hiding behind the trees).

Then we were just setting off again to pick up a some more trees around the area, but the heavens decided to open so we headed back to base. Stopping under the underpass to do some stretch exercises and running form drills before doing some stretches to finish.

Thanks to George for the awesome double punnage for this week's run report. And warm welcome to Barbara on her first run. Give them both a cheer!

13 of GG Barnet's finest ran 4km, helped Northwold Rose Gardens & did a pyramid session

On a full moon Halloween evening we gathered at the Phoneix Cinema, welcomed newbie Wendy and talked about the news:

1. Last GG Monthly Drinks of the year next Thursday in Stratford - all details here
2. GG Christmas Party is on Friday 8th December at Battersea Art Centre - costume theme is BLACK & RED!
3. There is an Unofficial Unofficial GoodGym Facebook Group if you'd like to join, it's full of news, races, meet ups and more. Just say your from Barnet in the request and I'll accept you.

Led by Damian and backed by Freya we headed to Northwold Rose Gardens to help Brian with some gardening. This was none of your weeding in the dark lark, our tasks for the evening were follows:

1. Shovelling, wheelbarrowing and laying woodchip around hedges and trees.
2. Emptying out three compost (curry flavoured) bins onto various plants to help keep it rich and well fed.

Splitting into small teams we got to work. Various tasks featured Skelton (Freya), BadGym Rep (Damian) and Death (Paul) - nice one for dressing up guys! Slightly terrifying...

Pyramid session IN the dark!

After 30 mins of spooky graft we were done and went to the dark tennis courts for a pyramid session - 1-2-1 for speed efforts with 1 minute recovery in between. Using the tennis court fences we could work out where we were.

Once we completed our 2km run back, we stretched and handed our treats (no tricks).

Sign up for next week here, I'm covering for Pennie again as she'll be recovering from NYC Marathon - good luck!

PB out