Right, no messin’ about. Sunday 11th February. Arriving promptly at Paddington or East Acton, 20 heroic GoodGym runners went on a west London longrun finishing in the delightful Ealing Broadway Franca Manco for pizza.

With a few longrunners nursing memories of maybe one too many drinks the night before (your author included), we set off at a steady pace. Km after km down, we saw the delightful sites of the Grand Union Canal, Horsenden Hill, Pitshanger park, and Cleveland Park, stopping to take the odd photo on the way including…a half-submerged canal boat. Yeah, we didn’t see that we coming either. Every day’s a learning day!

Arriving at Franca Manco on time(…ish), we settled in for a well-deserved meal. Running. Canals. Hills. Pizza. What else are Sundays be for?

See you for the next run on 17th March – full details coming on the training sessions page soon!

All photo credits to Damian Mitchell and Paul Gray

16 glorious goodgymers came out in style to run roads and speed sidewalks, all in the name of wonderful willesden.

It's always going to be an ace evening when so many warriors show up to do good in terrible weather. Let me tell you, it was absolutely throwing it down this Monday in Jan. However, the Goodgym gods seemed to smile upon us, as the rain reduced and finally stopped ready for our evening of fun.

Welcoming all faces of the familiar and one new - James, who had joined me at the taster session a couple of weeks ago. This lovely lad making up a brilliant new battalion of SIX boys now!! woo hoo! Not to be outshone it was girl power all the way, with a gallant gaggle of ten girls as well.

Painting the (willesden) town (Goodgym) red After housekeeping it was a very swift jaunt down to our task for the evening - First one of the year for the community hub of the old police station, where the regeneration is now a full year in swing. Meeting our host Colin on arrival, we were quickly shown our two jobs for the night - Painting the entrance room ceilings and of course some extra hauling of debrit and waste outside into the van ready for removal.

So the teams split into two and began the 40min shape up of the old cop shop, quicker than you could shake an old paint brush.

In between the sweat and sawdust work, the teams broke off into mini teams of players for me. Of course I couldn't let them get away without some fitness fun in the yard: Relay races, squat combos and conditioning work for good measure.

Before long the final hour was upon us and after the final countdown chimed, we reviewed our amazing efforts!! What a team, who could tackle such a big task and get 90% done in just 40mins flat!! Even though it may have looked like we spent more time painting ourselves (liz getting a colour job on her very own crown) we did in fact paint the walls as well!

The hills are alive After the final farewell there was just enough time to hit the hills of St Peters Road for a short blast of tempos and a final chance to get heart rates racing and muscles aching.

This crew of fitties didn't let me down as they huffed and puffed their way to glory and all the way back home for a final cool down and stretch to say goodbye.

What a great night to paint, thank god we didn't faint, while running up hills, covered in painting spills.

See you next time!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

On the eve the hallows, there were some scary sights to behold in Brent! But thankfully amongst the horrors, were 14 local heroes, who, although wearing masks, carried out tasks, in the name of what's Good(gym) in Willesden. YAY!

SCREAM QUEEN The usual meet up was a freaky affair, in our old haunt, The Queensbury! But making a play for old Queenies crown, was I, the Goodgym prom queen of death, in all my crowning glory!! But to my absolute delight, I wasn't alone in my Halloween costume efforts, with the majority of the crew bringing a whole lotta fierce, with faces painted, masks, head dresses and props! Hurahhhh haaaa haaaaa haaaaaaaaaa (that was an evil laugh by the way!)

Amongst the familiar faces was another I'd seen before, although a member of my Peckham flock who appeared to have flown West for winter! Michael, a regular Southwark speedster, but due to a change in address was ready to bust out with Brent!! Hurrah!

So after housekeeping and the big reveal of what would be the prize for best costume - A pumpkin disguised as a chocolate orange and my crown, we hit the road for a fast mile down to the police station.

ELLO ELLO ELLO The Old Police Station is a site we've been visiting for months and months and are proud to say have contributed to its complete regeneration. Once a den for squatters, thanks to Colin and his community crew, it has been shaped into a glorious hub for artists. What was once an unsightly eyesore, is now a tremendous center for arts and crafts, which values community spirit and supports local business.

Devil may care, artistic flare So after our pavement pace down the high road, we arrived excited and raring to go. Waiting at the door for us was Colin, our host, ready to explain our missions for the eve. First up on the agenda was was the most important task; The creation and painting of our very own Goodgym mural, representing all the hard work that we've achieved since beginning our volunteering, way back in spring. So with paper at the ready, the crew began sketching the designs, that would later be translated onto real life, painted wall art!

Rubble in paradise As the sketching began a few of the scary soldiers peeled off to tackle some lifting and shifting of rubble and rubbish outside, into Colin's trusty old van. This task was EPIC to say the least!! Led by Uzman, the gang of Goodgym ghosts and ghouls, hoiked and slung mountains of debris and made way for some much needed outdoor space! As the crew formed a chain of shifters and lifters, Joe was put to work inside the van, where he felt far more comfortable than standing on the roof, like last time!!

Paint by numbers With all the action outside going on, I nearly missed the excitement inside, when the actual wall painting finally started! Crammed into the mini room where our mural would take shape, the team worked tirelessly, chalking up outlines, then painting on the infamous GG logo and all manner of related images, from running shoes, to wheelbarrows and spades. Michael worked particularly hard on the creation of MEEEE, now to be remembered forever doing pull-ups on the tube!!

Drop it like a squat Even though the night was brimming with all manner of tasks to be completed, I still found time to put my Halloween hotties through their paces. Splitting off in teams of 4, a HIIT session was on the menu, consisting of squats, stair runs and sprints!!

We've only just begun Even though we would have loved to have stayed all night long, we feared the inevitable of turning into pumpkins ourselves, so I had to wrap the timer on the cop shop task drop. However, we still have loads and loads of our mural to complete and will therefore be back to do more in 2 weeks!!

But before we could say a final farewell, sister sledge - Tabs and Debs were crowned the winners of the Halloween Prize for their fantastic face painted efforts!!! However the twosome turned out to be not so gruesome, when they shared their choccy orange prize out with the troops.

Homeward bound So that's a wrap the winner revealed as Debs the cat. Oh and Tabitha too, as a scary ghoul. We ran home feeling pleased, with all we'd achieved, on this Goodgym for Brent, on all Hallows Eve.

See you next time fit fam xxxx

OMG, is it true? Your damn right it is..... We hit 22! Not just that.... Now hold onto your hat Four Boys did come for some Goodgym fun!!

On a beautifully sunny Monday, we hosted Brent's largest ever familia affair, with a whopping 22 runners, rolling deep to represent the west wing of Goodgym! YIPPEEE And yes you did read that correctly we had not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR marvellous males, holding down the fort for the Brent Brigade. This is a big dealio y'all, because up until now, we've been a largely female populated crew, so to welcome these guys, filled us with delight!

Also in the mix this eve were four fabulous newbie faces: Dinesh, Zara, Simon and Audrey who to their credit threw themselves straight into the old familia faces of the beloved Brent crew, with all the smiles and enthusiasm under the setting the sun!

So after welcomes and housekeeping, we set to stepping the 2 mile dash down to the task for the eve, a Granville day out gardening jobey for our great friends - The Granville Community Kitchens in south kilburn. As we set off it was clear to see, with such great numbers there would be some diversity. Some were fast, some were slightly slower, but everyone running hard to get to the lawnmower!

With Debs and Joe taking on leader of the fast pack roles, there was no stopping the speedy twosome, as they pushed pace and got the front pack to the task in swift time. I led from the back and enjoyed every last chat with my gang of girlies; Mouse, Amy and the fabulous familia clique the Anandas, who as well, to my delight, had brought mum back!! Hurrah!!! Ready to rock the roads and give back for Goodgym looking fresh to death in her floral enemble. Go on Mum!!!

So with crew 2 arriving with me in 30mins flat, we were delighted to enter into an already busy scene. The weeds were being wacked, the plants watered, the holes for compost being dug and the awesome foursome of guys on deck, putting themselves to good use by shifting some Shhhhhhhhhhhshould we move on..... It definitely needed some expert MANoeuvring that MANure!!

While the gang worked their magic, Leslie our host served up some delicious treats! Fresh watermelon and some lovely cold H20 Water way to be treated hey!!!

With 30minutes of hard graft under our belts, the gang didn't stop there. Next up they got to stepping with some fitness drills to finish off the session. Three rounds of plank holds, with various arrangements: Low holds, high holds, hip dips, high to low changes and press up practice thrown in for good measure! Core blimey they were working hard and putting in the real-deal efforts..... I expect nothing less from this team of legends

Last whistle blow and it was sadly time to go. One last pose, because as we all know, I do love a snap of my Goodgym pack.

Last shutterbug of the night achieved and we were off once more, into the eve which was still gloriously light. The speed demons head off like bullets and leading the back-packers once more, we cruised it home with all the good vibes in the west! Snapping selfie pics with pink elephants all the way home.

Back at base and it was stretch and last banter, with The Ananda's mamma telling us of her secrets to youthful looks..... wait for it...... A full bowl of spicy curry before every run!!! Yikes But you should see this woman, like Benjamin Button, getting younger every step she took!! Think I may try that one out, but perhaps a Korma, no warmer?!?!?

BOY OH BOY, What a night, to welcome our blokes in with the female folks. We focussed our run, towards a wonderful cause in Kilburn. Ran four hefty miles all with big smiles. The weather couldn't have been hotter, but no group could be better, than GG Brent, from Goodgym, heaven sent.

See you next time fitness familia!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Amazing GG Brent tonight!! 2 tasks, 2 teams and 2 run reports!! POW POW

Part one - Elle Energy talks shaking asses with the masses and chopping the grasses

OMG Could it be... A number sixteen, who came out to clean, chop and shift and pick up sticks across the borough, it could be none other.... Than the Brent GG, hurrah and Yippppeee!!

So there I was on this sunshine filled glorious evening with tasks coming out of my.... heavily branded Elle Energy leggings clad bottom!! Not one but two of our community friends requested support tonight and so as not to let anyone down, my glorious crew showed up in masses, to shake their asses down to Harlesden Community gardens... and.... our old pal Col, at the Police Station for a last min help request to make the building a safer environment by clearing some crazy debris!

So with a 9/7 split we head down Walm Lane in our two teams, red tees glistening in the sun and making people stop and stare at all the laughter and good vibeing fun.

At the turning up to St Peters Av, we said our goodbyes and departed, with me leading the 4mile gang to the gardens and Mouse and Sadhana leading on to the Police station. And can I just say it was absolutely wonderful to welcome back so many beloved old faces - Nisha, Dimple, Roshni and Isabelle and...... the incredible Karen back from her half marathon charity run in Kenya!! But as Karen was used to running next to Giraffes in her last big jaunt, she may have been disappointed by the lesser impressive wildlife on offer in Harlesden so chose instead to hit up the Police station for some much needed grounding. With our jungle runner specialist lost to the coppers, it was left to me and crew 2, to Get down, get down and jungle boogie with Gabriel at the gardens and tackle the massive branches for some serious tree surgery!

Along with the jungle bashing affair with our resident dare devil and head for heights honey Liz leading the way, the gardens played host to all manner of other nature filled fun - Watering the plants although Debs mistook my ass for grass at one point, soaking me entirely!! Thank you cheeky monkey!!, clearing litter from the grass with help from some extremely cute local kids, stomping down compost and breaking up branches and with only 30mins to do our best, we wasted no time and threw ourselves in to the tasks with motivation and grit!!

In no time at all, it seemed, the time was up and wishing farewell we turned on our heels once more! Fast pace and gunning for a race, there were a few points where the gang were smashing pace below 7min miles AMAZING aghhh but wait.... was it because they heard from team one that if we swung by the cop shop on route back, we could enjoy some of Colin's home made banana and date smoothies..?!???!!! No monkeying around, because these chasing chimps couldn't be stopped from getting to those bananas!!

After the jungle-juice pit stop we had less than a mile to trot back to base and rejoin our lovely gang once more! So as we reconvened, we shared our stories of the wet and wild adventures on both sides and how maybe one day if we were lucky, we could be selected to join Colin's special boat party VIP's!! Dunno how my land loving jungle Janes and Joe our resident (not so good with heights) Tarzan would do on water..... guess we'll have to see when the invitations arrive!!

Ok here goes - Part 2. Second half of the run report, from the marvellous Mouse

Colin’s milkshake brings all the girls to the yard…

Seven super strong GG Brent ladies (Dimple, Roshni, Nisha, Isabelle, Karen, Sadhana and Mouse) smashed the short distance down to Willesden Green's old police station to assist Colin in his cop shop clearout.

And imagine our delight to be welcomed with by a lovely pear….of juices (clear and cloudy) and homemade banana and date milkshake. Fruity!

After a quick refreshment break we set to work in clearing a variety of items (tents, musical instruments, boxes of ladies shoes that Colin offered to us but alas - despite lots of interest from Karen, Roshni and Nisha - no-one was Cinderella and the shoes did not fit) out and up into the gallows. We didn't hang around… and before Colin knew it we'd lifted and shifted everything bar a bit of tinsel that made a bid for freedom. He was almost lost for words… almost.

And so we moved on to our second task of the evening… clearing out Claudia’s closet! Thankfully there were no skeletons to be found, just a huge variety of theatre costumes and props, which Sadhana created a one-woman show with... whilst pocket rocket Dimple scaled a ladder to heave everything up into the loft.

Jobs all done there was just time to check out the “medicinal herb” garden and the hives on the roof...the bees knees! before we bid farewell to Colin and his trusty sidekick Rob and ran back to base to regroup with the rest of the GG Brent team and swap stories.

And there you have it Fitness Familia. A lot of LOLs and always Good Vibes, I am in love with this fierless, happy and wonderfully weird Goodgym tribe

See you next time!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

After welcoming Hannah, Craig, Dom and Meena for their very first GG runs and lots of cheers for loads of great racing over the weekend (running AND swimming). 35 GoodGymmers ran a total of 7k to help clear paths of weeds, ivy, nettles and general debris at Sunnyside Community Garden.

With headtorches and mobiles lighting the way we snipped, spaded, shovelled, raked, yanked, swept and bagged like crazy for 20 minutes with amazing results.

Then a blast home and back at base Caroline led a stretch we munched on Custard Creams and discussed our favourite running tips. Lovely.

Aidan's leading proceedings next week. At Freightliner's Farm! Have fun,
Simon

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

On Monday night 17 runners headed down to Stepney City Farm from the Town Hall Hotel. A nice mix of first with GoodGym runners, first time Tower Hamlets runners and familiar faces made the 2km run down to the farm where we met Simon and a collection of goats, pigs and ducks.

We split into two teams, one to start on the huge pile of compost that had built up since our last visit, the other to empty a pond. With loads to do we stayed on site for early 50 minutes, slightly curtailing our run home, but with the satisfied knowledge of a task well done.

We then split into 3 groups to head back to base with the help of Bryon, Andrew and Alison via different routes, at different paces.

Until next time!