This week 11 marvelous GoodGym-ers ran 6km to clear weeds in the dark for a local care home.

We were joined by GG tourist Lucy - Give her a cheer!

After a quick warm up in front of the Phoenix we headed off towards Dell Fields, with Damian leading the pack and Paul our trusty back-marker.

As expected, the garden was pitch black on arrival. Luckily most of the runners remembered their torches! Working in pairs, the group got to work weeding the flower beds and tidying up between the tiles. Darkness can't stop us.

20 minutes of hard graft later and it was time to tidy our things and get in a quick conditioning circuit. Damian had requested I show him commando planks earlier in the day, so we worked through a few of those, mixed in with press ups and squats, to build a strong trunk to carry us through all the running (and the weeding).

We said our goodbyes and headed outside, where we paused for a quick teaching moment on foot positioning before heading off. This time I lead the gang, while Damian was our back-marker. Nicola, Avital and Lucy kept me company up front, giving me a chance to remind them to push off their back foot and pick their feet up. A lesson Nicola momentarily forgot along the way, which lead to the longest stumble of all time - but with a fantastic recovery. Well caught!

Once back at base we did all the stretching followed by chocolate digestives, courtesy of Paul.

I have two Tuesdays left in charge of Barnet, so please do come along and see me! And feel free to follow me the gram @SuperPennie to stay in touch!

This week's pun, courtesy of Rob

Eleven fabulous GoodGymmers ran to the North Way gardens to help prepare the community garden . Meeting at the Phoenix it was great to be running in normal temperatures! After a warm up we headed off with Graham in the lead and Rupesh back marking. We stopped to do some paired exercises and not ballroom dancing as suggested by the photos. We were soon at the gardens and met by Brian who set us to work .The gardens are a great community project involving 130 people who offer money, time ,plants and TLC. Set beside a small stream the long park runs next to the A1 into London but we could have been in the middle of the country as it was so dark and quiet. Thats whats great about good gym runs we are always discovering little gems in the urban sprawl of barnet. We divided into teams and set out on our tasks in the dark using head torches to make bins to store leaves and move loads of compost bags. Brian is always grateful for our help and is looking forward to our assistance with another big project in the spring. We made time for a HIT session on the grass in the dark to the latest dance tracks! Then back to base for a warm down. Thank you for taking part.

Paul

The impending Beast from the East and some subzero temperatures did not stop 14 runners tackling a (very nippy) outside task, and a tough workout that warmed us up.

We started the night off by saying a very well done to Jack who has now raced all the Royal Parks and has topped the leader boards for distance, to Rob who has smashed through the most good deeds this month, and to Damian who has got the most cheers. Way to go team. Good luck as well to Hazel and Damian who are both running the Big Half on Sunday!

Before our warm up we took a quick poll to find out what motivates us all to run. To see the city, to socialise, to feel good about ourselves, for our mental wellbeing and to do something perhaps others don't expect us to were all fabulous reasons to run. Feeling inspired we headed outside and straight into a warm up that got our hearts pumping.

It was only a short run up to Martin's Primary school last night, which was good news given just how chilly it was quickly getting. We arrived in no time at all, although we did manage to fit in a quick squat stop along the way. Tristan was waiting for us with a pile of spades and some wheelbarrows, along with a huge pile of bark which was destined for the pathways outside a rather fine tent the children use. We launched straight into it, piling shovelfuls of bark into empty vessels and transporting it across the field in what turned into a rather good upper body workout.

Within half an hour we had hit earth, the pathways were carpeted in bark, and the task was done. But we weren't - after a quick vote we decided we'd go ahead with the fitness session despite the frosty grass underfoot, and kicked it off with a set of intervals to get those legs turning over. This type of training helps to improve aerobic capacity, endurance and in turn, speed, so is a really effective part regular part of training. Next we moved on to our pyramid fitness session. We started off with one minute of plank, before tackling different exercises rising incrementally in reps. There was a focus on those glutes and quads, and everybody put in maximum effort which was great to see. Well done team!

After a short run back to the starting point and a very impressive sprint finish we saw the night off with a wall sit and a stretching session before heading back into the warm to defrost with a biscuit. It was great to see you lovely Barnet runners last night, thanks for having me! Next week Paul will be leading you to a lovely sounding task planting flowers. Happy running gang!

Ps we have Rob to thank for this week's cracking pun, and me to blame for the terrible photos!

This week 13 GoodGym-ers ran 3km to clean up litter around Strawberry Vale (again).

We filled about 10 bags of rubbish, including many empty tins of beer, a t-shirt, a flash light and at least three passes by said thank you.

We were joined by two GG newbies: Vicki and Fay - Give 'em a cheer! We were also joined by GG tourist from Haringey, Chi!

We started off with a quick intro and warm up as always around the side of the cinema. Paul brought along some gloves and litter pickers for the group to borrow –That's definitely worth some cheers!

Nicola was our trusty back-marker as we made our way down to Strawberry Vale. Once at the top of the road we split into two teams, with Nicola taking one team along the main road and Paul taking the other down the ally way towards the North Circular.

Both teams got straight to work filling their bags (10 bags total, remember) and found all sorts of weird wonderments. Blows my mind that people can throw so much rubbish on the floor; it's a real shame. Luckily the people of GoodGym are on hand to spruce things up a bit and get the place looking fresh.

This is a task we've done a few over the year(s) and it never ceases to amaze me how much litter we find every time.

We popped all our bags into the bins outside the GreenMan and got to work on a quick conditioning block. Everybody was shivering and panicking about losing their fingers to the cold, so I had just the thing to warm them up. Eight minutes of non-stop movement, including: high knees, planks, squats and burpees. Warmed the gang right up.

I prescribe the high-knee-burpee block as an antidote to cold air. Your fingers will thank you.

It was time to run back up the hill to base and before we knew it we were stretching outside the Phoenix, eating this week's Barnet Biscuit, courtesy of Hazel

This week 8 awesome GoodGym-ers ran 5 (or 6)km to help the Phoenix with our bi-monthly delivery task.

We were joined by Will, who hasn't run with us since 2016! Welcome back! Give him a cheer!

We filled our bags with the booklets: Paul and Rebecca helped with the carrying. And we headed outside for a quick warm up by the cinema.

We soon headed north along the high road. The rain meant the breaks didn't work on my scooter, so Graham sped up on the down hill segments to keep up with me.

The team split into two teams, with Paul taking the right side and Graham taking the left. The streets were like a maze, all leading back to the center. Once all the houses were done we started running back towards our base, leap frogging through a few more houses and finishing off the last few booklets. We covered a lot of ground in no time at all and soon had empty bags.

I took the team to the end of an empty street for our fitness sesh, focussing on knee drive and glute engagement. We've been working on running form and building in a spring. After a few rounds we finished with a quick circuit: squats, press ups, burpees and a final sprint. Then we ran back up to the Phoenix for stretches and biscuits.

This week's Barnet Biscuit: the chocolate chip cookie

18 GoodGym-ers ran 9km to set up Santa's grotto

This was the last GG Barnet run of 2016! It was also the 18th run ever! (Sorry, I told you it was the 17th... my bad!)

This was also the most amount of runners we've had on a run excluding the launch run – tying with our run to Newstead to paint the walls. It was nice to see so many of you – particularly the return of Aimee from the Phoenix, who arranged for some incredible mulled wine, mince pies and popcorn for us for after the run. She definitely deserves a cheer for that!

Also a massive welcome to GoodGym tourists Sarah and Frances who joined the Barnet crew this week.

This week we split into two groups, with Damian leading the speedy group with the help of Sarah as back-marker; and Heather leading the less speedy group with Hazel's help back-marking.

Sarah and Jody ended up taking a little detour after a quick costume change at the trafic lights. Luckily they had a map and were together!

When we reached Community Focus, we were greeted by Danusia and the team – and Buddy the dog. 30 very speedy minutes and a tonne of GoodGym magic later and a plain white room was turned into a grotto Santa will be proud of!

The team did a great job decorating the grotto, whilst having a little dance to some Christmas tunes.

We split into two groups again for the run back and celebrated the end of 2016 with a festive Barnet Biscuit: mince pies. Plus some mulled wine and popcorn – all courtesy of the Phoenix. So wonderful I thought it worth repeating =p

We also had some Lindt chocolate balls courtesy of Jody – which is probably my fave chocolate of all time.

We'll be back on 3 January 2017 with a run to Dell Fields care home to do some painting. Sign up here

Have a wonderful Christmas ( / winter holiday season) and I'll see you all soon! Lots of exciting things waiting for us in 2017. Well done for all your hard work so far.

Pennie