Pun _day Monday

Good evening from sunny Worthing and a very warm welcome to Ross who was a first timer tonight. We hope that this is the first of many sunny Monday visits for you and we also hope that we can assist you with achieving your fitness goal whilst doing good in the community.

It was one of top attendance evenings tonight with 15 GoodGymers turning out on a rather blustery and chilly August evening. It was especially nice to welcome back Tamsin and Emily from their holidays. As Tamsin later mentioned it felt like the first day of term!

In no particular order, kudos to all the following, Barbara, Daisy, Emily, Christina, Belinda, John, Ross, Tamsin, Paul, Lucy, Duncan, Gill, Paula and, steaming in at the last minute our very own super hero cake man ,Jay.

Thank you to you all and especially those who got to the leisure in advance of me and were so 'understanding' after I got stuck in ridiculous post work traffic on my way home from Brighton.

Walk, jalk, run- repeat

With the walking group setting off first, there then followed 3 running groups to accommodate all abilities with no one getting left behind. We were returning to one of our favourite places at May Close allotment to meet our 2 friends from Breathing Spaces, Lisa and Claire.

This evening’s tasks comprised 3 different jobs. Some high level pruning, some heavy digging over of a grassy bed and also digging in some long railway like sleepers to start making a path down the middle of the allotment . This will make it more accessible for visitors to enjoy the beauty of this hidden community garden hideaway.

No sleeping on the job

The team all picked their tasks and immediately got stuck in with energy and obvious talent. Tamsin and Emily optimistically started the quest for a good 'dig in' to get the sleepers 'dug in' Ross, Paul and Duncan did the same. We will revisit this scene later…

Over on the other side of the allotment Paula, Daisy and Christina were in charge of Steve and Jay who opted for some heavy weight digging. Jay famously mentioned that Worthing work harder than GG neighbours Brighton. Ha ha! Yes he really did say it but he forgot to add that we also feed him more cake:)

And in another universe alongside the privet hedge Harry Potter aka Lucy was in her cubby hole doing some pruning being ably ‘supported’ by John (that photo didn’t make the censoring) together with Gill, Barbara and Belinda who were all busily and highly effectively multi tasking with a bit of GG banter together with a lot of ‘fine pruning’

Let the sleeping dogs sleep

Back to the railway sleepers scenario……

Superhero Cakeman had to fly over to rescue Tamsin and Emily from an epic but endearing fail on the digging in of the aforesaid sleepers.

Cakeman didn’t have to be asked twice and, together with Superman Steve rescued two relieved damsels swiftly and efficiently relieving them of this burdensome task that threatened to swallow them up (we could make a comic strip of this!!)

However I digress with all this exaggeration….

Being on a timescale to get back to the Leisure Centre by 7:15pm the team finished up and headed back to the leisure centre in 3 groups. The 4 walkers followed by the girls set off with Paul, Duncan, Jay and Steve putting their finishing touches to the bedding down of the new path before the 5 of ran back to join the rest of the team for the final part of the evening.

Junior parkrun and GG – a perfect synergy

We had been enlisted to test run the exciting up and coming junior parkrun so after a 'clear as mud' briefing from Duncan we all set off to either run or marshal the proposed course.

2k later we declared the course a success and posed for a post task and run for a final photo with our new friends from the core team of JPR.

Congratulations to first timer Ross for this first good deed, run and surviving the run with us. Next step is the What’s app group :) :) :)

In other news

Congratulations to Barbara who has been asked to train to become a run leader for RAW. Belinda has an inspirational story which I’m encouraging her to share publicly. Next step GG run leader?!

Congratulations to Mr R for yet another parkrun PB. You are definitely smashing them out. Truly inspirational. Let’s keep focused on the next goal. You know you can do it!

Next week is bank holiday Monday. Its all about the social afterwards. Meet at Splashpoint LC for pole painting and possibly planting out the flower bed again followed by fun fitness and drinks and cake after.

Well done to Daisy and Christina who are keeping up with the new routine of Monday night . Its great to see you on the regular team.

If anyone isn’t in the What’s app group but would like to please do let me know. All welcome in this fun crazy thread.

Speaking of crazy …. Have a wonderful week full of energy and good vibes.

Julia xxx

Walking on sunshine

With the usual sunny Monday evening feeling that once again matched the weather, 11 of us made the final line up for tonight's walk, run and task.

It was really nice to welcome back Christina After a few months of honeymoon bliss she has come back to join us. We hope you enjoyed the session and will be back for more fun and fitness:)

Steve ,Barbara,Lucy ( fresh from planking) John, Belinda, Jay and Anne with Gill and Duncan catching us up a bit later, completed my team for the evening. Check out the headline photo today of our poster boys representing 'Dirty Gym' Thanks Tamsin for this strap line !

We set off on a 1 mile warm up run to one of our favourite tasks at May Close with Breathing Spaces. After a few worrying moments where I thought I had lost 8 of the team they all appeared sheepishly from different directions having gone on some unscheduled off piste variations on the recommended route.

When you consider that was in the course of 1 mile, anyone reading this run report may realise the challenge I have maintaining control of the this maverick ( but totally loveable) group !

Make compost not war

Arriving in dribs and drabs we were warmly welcomed by Lisa and Claire who must have been pleased that I reassured them that it wasn't just Gill ,Anne and me and that the rest of the team would (eventually) arrive. I did made a hasty phone call and stood on the corner looking worriedly for the red t shirts to appear around the corner before relief swept over me that they all finally rocked up.

The main feature of the evening was to make a new compost compound with some pallets. First the area had to be cleared which the team tucked into with gusto. Jay and Christina followed this with some raking and levelling whilst John, Belinda and Anne cut up the large pile of debris that was going to be returned into the newly sculpted area.

Meanwhile Gill had armed herself with her favourite tool together with Barbara and Steve who set about some fine pruning of the large ever green hedge that line the length of the allotment. In the meantime Lucy was 'quietly' getting on with her weeding and digging with some frequent heckling from John.

Toad you so

Duncan, who had tracked us down at the task, was busy gathering up the pruning debris came across a large, quite stunning toad who seemed happy to pose for a quick photo shoot before being released back to where it came from.

Steve and Jay used their manly muscle(!) to lever the pallets into place and secure them before the rest of the team piled all the content into the new compost compound.

With a finishing photo and fond farewell to Lisa and Claire the we made ourway back to the track at Worthing Leisure Centre for the weekly fitness session. Luckily there was no AWOL's on the return journey.

Pain my dues

The team were given the choice of 400 metre, 200 metre or 100 metre efforts around the track . This was an ideal session where everyone could work on running drills to work towards their own individual goals. I hope you like some of the photos I snapped. Lets see what John does with the photoshop app when he gets to work today :)

We finished with some core and yoga based stretches and a final team photo.

Congratulations to John on 2 x personal best time 5 k times in just 2 days ! Also well done to Lucy and Duncan on their 100 k training and to all of you who are working towards events and training goals . Watch this space for more updates.

Have a great week everyone.

Dates for your diary Monday 5th August post run / task summer social

Swim / drinks/ nibbles from 7:45pm onwards . All welcome.

Lots of GG love

Julia XX

Lapping it up on a beautiful evening in Sunny Worthing

We (nearly) all convened at Worthing Leisure Centre . Running late due to traffic problems, Belinda met us at the task and Jay who was simply just running round in circles also joined us at the task after a quick dash from Splashpoint.

It was great to welcome back Emily back from her hols together with [Sue] from her work commitments (https://www.goodgym.org/runners/sue-c2e8c2a1-bcc6-48f6-ac03-ab9b55ab6a66)

Sue returned on an epic night as she together with Jay jointly reached their 25th good deed. Massive thanks and kudos to you both for all your energy, time and fun that you give to our group.

It was also really nice to welcome 2nd timer Chris back. Sadly no champagne or cake tonight like Chris had on his debut experience at Belinda's 100th .

However, we don't have to wait long for another reason to celebrate. Next week we will raise a glass when Anne and Nick jointly reach their 50th milestone good deed. Come and join us for this bank holiday extravaganza!

Back to tonights task....

WIth John leading the walking group he and Paula set off whilst the runners ( Paul, Chris, Jill, Roxy, Lucy, Sue and Emily )set off (and arrived) at the task second. No change there ! New walk leader John seems to have mastered the magical apparating skills very nicely. All part of the GG Worthing experience!

Mulch ado about nothing

It was good to see our breathing spaces friend Lisa at the task and she quickly put our large group to work with an interesting variety of tasks.

There was another tonne of mulchy type soil / fertiliser to shift from the bag at the front to the raised bed number 1 and 2 at the back of the allotments.

This was combined with a challenging bed of grass to dig over which was then used to raise the level of the existing grassy path.

More tasks included weeding ,edge trimming and shifting branch debris . I hope that the photos this week will reflect the diversity of this wonderful community allotment and garden that is a hidden jewel of green space in Goring.

At the risk of repeating myself it never ceases to amaze me just how much a team of happy committed volunteers can achieve in just 30 minutes!

After a great group photo ( will we get photo of the week with this one?!) the walkers and runners headed back to the leisure centre

GoodGymers keep on track

With 2 x 400 metre efforts on the springy track this was an inspiring challenge for me to watch. As I mentioned a few weeks ago we are concentrating on runner a little bit quicker over 800 metres to help improve our endurance and speed.

I felt so very proud of the efforts that I saw this evening. It was also heart warming to hear the support and applause that the team gave each other. Some great photos too. Apologies if I didn't get one of you in action. I will ensure I capture you next time!

The central GG focus for May is focusing on mental health. With this in mind do any of you have any suggestions how we can expand on this locally? I would like to suggest that we all set a fresh fitness goal that we can support each other with.

Drop me a message with yours and update your GG profile too.

Have a great week and early spring bank holiday weekend too.

Julia X P.s Special mention to John for the headline pun tonight . You have the job!!

Care to party-cipate?

What an evening this proved to be. I was really excited to return to see our friends Claire and Lisa at Breathing Spaces but little did I know about the plans that were about to unfold.

The evening was always going to be celebratory one . GG Worthing's 2nd anniversary , our very own Snowflake's ( aka Jay's ) Birthday, Lucy's recent half marathon and my 100th good deed .The agenda for the evening was all clear in my head. An environmentally friendly task in support of the WWF earth hour, followed by a run and epic 100 fitness session then finishing with a social down at our favourite chippie.

Not even a record turn out of 17 people rang any alarm bells in my head. I just assumed that the lighter evening and beautiful weather had inspired nearly all my team of regulars to turn out on the same evening.

Tonights task was predominantly to shift a ton of manure from a bag to a raised bed in the allotment together with a some digging and weeding thrown in too.

Basking in glorious reflected oblivion

It was an earlier start tonight and everyone (amazingly) managed to arrive directly at the task and not at our regular meeting place at Splashpoint LC.

There were no last minute whats app messages about sitting in reception on their own or even any phone calls of 'I'm lost in Worthing' . The team were on their best behaviour .

Yet not even their 100% attention to detail rang any alarm bells, I just proudly basked in the defining moment that maybe just maybe after 2 years 2 weeks of being the Worthing GG leader that they had all had an epiphany moment or possibly even read my emails,messages or perhaps even, shock horror, found the GG website where the weeks instructions are carefully hidden!

Little did I realise that it was our task force member Belinda who had whipped them into this perfect state of union!

Task dung and dusted

Some of the the team set about shovelling the manure into wheelbarrows whilst others set about digging and weeding this secret garden of an allotment stashed away in the depths of Goring.

It was with some amusement that we observed the steaming warm manure. It drew my memory back to a line in one of my favourite films , Pretty Woman , where in a polo match the crowd are encouraged to help displaced turf but also advised ' Beware of the steaming divet' ( I digress!)

With tonights record attendance we achieved loads in a really short amount of time and still kept the light from the beautiful hue of a setting sunset. There was an electric buzz of energy and chatter too.

As the task was drawing to an end I asked the walkers to gather together and set off on stage 2 of the evening to the WLC track for our fitness session . 5 minutes later there was so much shuffling around but no sign of anyone taking any notice of my repeated requests .

'I'm waiting for Belinda who's by the car' says John. 'You have to walk past Belinda at the car John, there is no other way out so lets be on our way now ' I replied( twice)

Still no obvious move to leave .... and then a few moments later I looked around and suddenly I understood everything....

All You Needle Is Love

Oh my goodness! Coming at me were bags, balloons ,bottles of champagne and a cake too! Suddenly all the team gathered around with a plethora of good wishes and vibes for my 100th good deed .

The team had all pulled together to arrange this mega surprise with an assortment of goodies.

Rosin handed me red balloons with a 100 one flying high. Jay handed me an amazing red GoodGym wings cake that he had arranged to be made and Belinda handed me a bag with a red box in. Later on Duncan presented me with a large rectangular box with a framed canvas of our infamous sea photo from last years long hot summer and Paula a little bag with some stunning iridescent star earrings.Others handed me both written thoughtful cards and extensive good wishes.

Inside the red box John had worked his magic with a needle felt image of me in my red t shirt in a framed red wooden frame that he had also made and painted. This must have taken hours to make and I'm so touched and grateful for the time and love that went into making it.

Advanced In Cheers ( years)

Barbara had previously smuggled in champagne which I'm convinced had been carefully hidden in the manure due to its warmth! To think I thought I had control of this group and yet they managed to pull a stunt like this right under my nose lol.

Duncan and Jay popped the corks and we raised our glasses ( well actually some plastic cups that had miraculously appeared ) several times but encompassing so many celebrations . To GG Worthing being 2 years old , to Snowflakes 32nd Birthday , to all the personal and group achievements,half marathons, personal bests , good friends made and all the good deeds we have done and will continue to do and finally to my 100th which without all of you I would not have achieved. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Special mention to Claire and Lisa from Breathing spaces for facilitating this impromptu party in their allotment and for joining in the fun.

To put the lid on my complete lack of control tonight I was informed that the run and fitness were cancelled and that we were heading straight to continue the festivities at Chipwick.

Whilst most of the team disbanded before I changed their minds Jemmie announced her intention to lead a mini fitness session around the green and so for those willing (or unlucky ones that hung just a few minutes too long) we had a quick 10 minute HIIT session.

Bubbles of Love

We all reconvened for a pretty lively Birthday celebration ( massive apologies to the other diners at Chipwick ! )

Roxy arrived with the biggest cake ever that one of her talented house mates had made and that which she had decorated with wings , writing , snowflakes ( No you can't eat the snowflake Jay !) and candles . With a rousing happy Birthday and one off moment of me crushing Jays knee when we blew out the candles, we posed, chinked and cheered our way through the rest of the evening.

With an amusing cake cutting scenario (competition?!) between Jay and me, we somehow managed to give every willing taker a goodie box ( pilfered by Jay from the staff ) of cake to take home . Suddenly the evening was over but I was still buzzing with the surprise and warmth from this special evening.

Roll of honour

It honestly hadn't crossed my mind that any of this would happen. In fact I only noticed it was my 100th last week whilst scrollling through GG profiles whilst I was on holiday . I really could not of dreamed ,imagined or asked for a better surprise than this. I feel so humbled at the pure joy and love that you have all shown tonight.

Massive thank you to the following ( in no particular order ) who turned out tonight

• Barbara
• Jay
• Duncan
• Lucy
• Tamsin and Jemmie
• Roisin
• Anne
• Roxy
• Ros
• Emma
• Paula
• Belinda
• John R
• Gill
• Paul
• John
• Michelle
• Nick

With huge GG love and massive thanks to you all

Chasing the light

With another stunning sunset and clear skies the group convened directly at the task this evening to catch the last 30 minutes of daylight. It was great to welcome newbie Emma to the group together with Jay ,Barbara,Belinda,Anne ,Paul,, Nick together with a delightful Roxy return and finally Beth who gave us all a truly lovely surprise with a Monday night visit back to her home town. Seriously happy vibes tonight!

Hap -B-ee Birthday

Extra special mention and many happy returns to Birthday Girl Belinda. Massive kudos to her for giving her time and energy to GG tonight. What better place to be spend your Birthday than with your GG buddies ?! We look forward to raising a glass with you next week in celebration of your special day.

Great friend -chips with the GG task force

This evening it was great to return to May Close to assist our friends Lisa and Claire at Breathing Spaces. The task was a continuation of our visit from last time where we transferred wood chip from Keith's truck to flowerbeds in the secret garden aka May close allotment! There was also a large bed that needed some heavy digging over.

We were warmly met by Lisa, Claire and Keith who dispensed tools and instructions. Roxy, Barbara and Emma wasted no time in laying cardboard onto the beds to act as a lining that mulches down as an ideal foundation for the wood chip top layer.

Belinda throughly enjoyed shovelling the wood chip from the lorry into barrows followed by Anne , Nick and Beth doing shuttle runs between the beds and the lorry.

Dig and Dug

Paul and Jay put their backs into some energetic digging over of a grassy bed which resulted in a slightly muddy quagmire but a great job done. I didn't envy the amount of mud clinging to their trainers when we started running!

Falling temperatures and failing light made the task all the more fun

With the light fading fast there was plenty of GG chat and banter and it was really interesting to get to know Emma and learn about how her life journey brought her to Worthing Good Gym.

Tasks completed and tools stashed the group energetically ( not) posed for photos with Beth in the obligatory wheelbarrow photo before some cheery farewells and 'see you next year' to Lisa and Claire before heading off on our run and fitness session. Oh and lets not forget the sounds of Happy Birthday Belinda ringing out in the cold night air of the allotment!

Sprints of darkness

All 10 of us headed down in formation style to the seafront where we hugged the streetlights for some sprint , burpee and strength action. A sandwich of exercises saw some elevated heart rates and a few aching muscles with Emma setting the standard with her deadman burpees. What great training for the November burpee challenge which is approaching fast.

The group split into 2 for the run back to the start point at May Close. We finished with some frank group discussion about the concept and practicalities of GoodGym walking options being supported by task force members of the group. Perhaps this is one to ponder on for further discussion at the pub next Monday?

Social and parkrun news

Don't forget next Monday we will do Birthday drinks at the Cow and Elm after the task but before that this Saturday its the GoodGym takeover of parkrun! See you all there bright and early at 8:30am

Wishing an energetic and happy week

Julia :)

While Julia and Nick were off on their holidays in sunny Spain I had the pleasure of leading 10 fantastic GoodGym-ers on a beautiful Monday evening down in Costa del Worthing. It was lovely to welcome along new runner Ed to his first GoodGym group run, and great to see some new and old faces waiting for me at Splashpoint (although they were waiting, shock horror I wasn’t that late!).

Before we headed outside there was the normal friendly chatter and catch-ups and I reminded everyone about the GoodGym Worthing parkrun takeover on Saturday 27th October – speak to Belinda if you haven’t yet been allocated a role (if you’d like one), what an awesome sea of red Worthing parkrun will be on this day! Following a quick warm-up around me and a name and number count which seemed to perplex a few, as Tamsin exclaimed later in the session “she’s gone all London!” we headed off on our extended 3km run to the Sydney Walter Centre with Belinda assigned the role as my trusty back-marker. Since it was such a beautiful evening with the sun setting as we ran, I couldn’t resist the out and around the pier warm-up, plus it looks great on Strava!

The speedier ones of the group were delighted when I suggested some wall sits while we waited for the group to come together again and even more delighted when I then mentioned squats while we were waiting at a road junction further on. Disclaimer 1: Julia did not have a camera attached to me!.

When we arrived at the Sidney Walter Centre we were greeted by the lovely Claire and Lisa of Breathing Spaces and by the super smiley Barbara. Claire and Lisa explained to the group how Breathing Spaces provide year-round assisted gardening for people living with dementia and other support needs and within Worthing have a couple of community gardens and an allotment for which they run their clubs – many of which GoodGym have helped on in the past!

Memories made in the dementia garden…

Tonight we were going to be working in the dementia-friendly ‘mind and memory garden’ and the tasks that they needed our help with were:

1. Clearing the wood from their shed
2. Unscrew the wooden desks inside the shed and move them outside
3. Some weeding and watering around the garden

A reliable chain line…with no complaints of upper back chain!

The group quickly piled into the shed and began moving the wood from inside to out. However, due to the tight space this involved a lot of weaving and a few bumps into each other until the words “human chain” were heard. Like clockwork the group moved into position and formed a wonderful human chain that efficiently moved all the wood in double quick time – even the microscopic pieces of wood (not an exaggeration!) were seen moving up the chain until Duncan declared it “ridiculous” and deemed it ground not pile-worthy.

Couldn’t have shed it better!

With all the wood moved outside, Ed, Jay and Duncan began their battle with the screwed-in wooden desks inside the shed. Amongst lots of talk about tight screws, screw plugs and with the odd tugs on the desks to ‘gently loosen them’ the boys soon made in-roads and won their battle to get the desks unscrewed from the wall and removed from the shed.

Some weedy good work

With the boys occupied inside the shed, the girls split off into two groups: Gill and Marian picked up the watering cans and began watering all the plants, which included some rather healthy looking tomato plants and the dream weeding team of Belinda, Sue, Tamsin, Barbara and Anne tended to the flowerbeds, unwanted weeds and moss on the pavement outside.

The bench mark of a job well done

As always time flew by, and with all but one of the wooden benches unscrewed from the wall and moved out of the shed, and all the plants watered we called it a day. The group, minus Jay who had to leave for rehydration reasons (aka the pub) posed on the bench under the mind and memory garden plaque and humoured my selfie attempts.

We said our thankyous and goodbyes to Claire and Lisa before heading off on our run back to Splashpoint via the long route through Homefield Park and Beach House Park.

Pulling out all the shots

For the fitness session tonight there were two shot based games. Disclaimer 2: no alcohol was involved, despite the suspicious number of times Ed fell! First up was a sprint technique based shot game, 2 teams, 1 pile of shot glasses all numbered 1-7 a 20 metre sprint away. The aim was to sprint to the pile focusing on your ALPS and 'pockets to sockets' and collect all the numbers 1-7 (not 1, 2 and 7!) from the shot glass pile. When a shot glass was collected the team had do an exercise of the sprinters choosing before the next person could sprint to the pile. It was a very close competition, with Ed not learning after his first sprint that “the grass is slightly damp, you need to watch your footing” and consequently displaying a few well-styled out slides. For Team Two it was ‘shot to be’ and the winners by a small shot were Team One!

Squatshots

Next up was a two minute game of ‘squatshot’. Team One (Team Down) v Team Two (Team Up). 29 red plastic shot glasses. Some interesting tactics and battles occurred with shot glasses quickly being up then down or vice versa (and the odd slip and slide thrown in). All round it was a highly competitive game which ended up with many on their backsides, but ultimately was another Team One (Team Down) victory. Awesome shot work all!

Forget me shot!

With the fitness games completed we had a quick cool down and stretch, with Tamsin completing some additional burpees to ensure she got her burpee fix for the night, weirdly no-one joined her with these?! Stretching complete and with the sun almost set, it was time to say our goodbyes for another week. Thank you for company and all your hard work today guys, I really miss my Monday evenings down in Worthing with you all! Another fun evening! Best of luck to Barbara who is running for the wonderful charity Cancer United at the Great North Run on Sunday and to Marian in the Manchester 10K next month.

Well done to Duncan and Lucy for conquering Mt. Kilimanjaro last month, AND, fabulous to see that Tamsin has committed to the red GG tee, I may have jokingly asked once about whether she had committed yet, in a non-questioning/judging way…in all seriousness, it’s absolutely lovely to have you as part of the group, Tamsin, always smiling and wonderfully kind and friendly, with one very cute mini-me who we hope recovers quickly from her broken arm!

Julia is back next week and the task is “Bugcycle Garden” in Beach House Park – one of my favourite tasks! Sign-up here. Have a good run and see you all soon!