A lucky 13 ladies, hauled ass and grass and tons of mass, for the Willesden Town Team's tube Station Garden project!! HURRAAHHHHH

What can I say but WOOOWWWW WOW WOW WOW WOW The Brent team did not let me down this week after I sent out a call for help and requested many hands on deck for this show-stopping task!

Showing up to tackle the big project on hand was a fierce team of females, demonstrating all the girl power under the sun! Although we were missing our lovely regular lads; Dan, Enrique and Samuel, we had no doubt our girly grit would be enough to do the business!

After warm welcomes to newbies; Nic and Alba, the team prepared themselves for the epic journey..... ermmmm okay, it was literally across the street, however, that short stint did not phase me, as I knew what was in store!!

So the amazing community group - Willesden Town team are a collection of local residents who aim to give back and make Willesden a more pleasant place to live, much like us at Goodgym Brent. What a power-house team we make then! So when they requested our help with some heavy lifting and shifting, how could we turn them down?

The task Willesden Green tube station has 4 platforms, 2 for the Jubilee line, and 2 for the Metropolitan. The Metropolitan trains do not stop at Willesden any more. Consequently there are two platforms where the travelling public do not have access to. These platforms have brick planters on, where the town team garden. Last year, for the first time ever Willesden Green entered the TFL underground garden competition TFL in Bloom, and lo and behold, won the first prize, in the "cultivated garden" section. So with the competition coming up again this summer, they want to retain their position at the top of the league.

In order to do this they must develop the gardens and they currently don't have sufficient organic materials to keep planting. Therefore, Willesden Town Team had two dumpy bags weighing a ton each, one of compost/topsoil, and one of wood bark/mulch delivered at the top of the stairs of the tube!! Here's where we stepped in to help Our task for the night was to help them shovel, bag, lift and shift the compost from street level down the stairs to the platforms, ready for the green-fingered workers to set to planting over the next few weeks.

Now when I tell you these bags were big that is no serious understatement, in fact, they were enormous with a combined weight of 2000kg!!! So with the timer set and the girls ready to begin, we set to work and said Soil long to the streets and down to the depths we did run!

The girls worked tirelessly for a solid hour, shovelling, lifting and then running up and down the stairs to make sure we completed the task on time, with a cleared street at the end! And oh my goodness, did they put in some blood, sweat and tears..... okay tears were of laughter, but still!!!

On average each girl ran 10 trips, carrying 20kg a time down the 34 steps from ground level to the platforms!! All done in a perfectly timed hour. WOW!!!! Now that is some serious strength work right there!!!!

We watched as the bags got smaller and smaller and eventually the compost up top, was down below and the clean-up and sweep was the last thing to go! we were even treated to ice cold waters from Nest cafe next to the station, gifted to us by the wonderful owner Omar! Thank you!!!!

Now despite the incredible efforts, we still had some time to kill at the end of the session...... So, what better way to play out the rest of the day than Racing the train of course I'm not kidding!!! The girls steamed their way up and down the platform racing the jubilee line on the opposite side.... and yes.... of course they won!!! A train is no match for these wonder-women, who even had enough puff left to knock out some tempo runs street level to cap off the night!!!

With stretch and rest time upon us, we marvelled at the epic efforts and anticipation of sore quads in the morning because of all those stair runs!!! But hey hoe urban gardening ain't for the faint of heart, it takes real girl power to show this mulch gumption!

Until next time fitness familia!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

On the last Monday of the month, GG Brent tackled timber, banished branches, cropped & chopped, then hopped their way to a tasty 6k. All in a days work for the West London tribe. That's definitely what I'd call a Grandville day out POW POW

What a happy GG leader I was to be greeted by the always smiling faces of my delicious gang of Brent beauties this Monday night and can you Adam and Eve it, this week we had not one, not two but three brilliant boys YAYYYYYYY.

Even, the threat of an impending down-pour, was still no deterrent for my fierce force of favourites as we laced up and braced ourselves for the wet and wild whisk over to Carlton Vale for our goodgym antics for the night.

However, to our delight, as we stepped outside base camp, the skies had cleared and a lovely sunset was all that guided us the 2 mile jaunt over to south Kilburn for our terrific task for the night - The chop and pop operation of the Granville Community sites gardens!

So what was it all about then, I hear you cry???? Well, Grandville is this amazing centre, that serves the local community in so many ways. Believing that everyone no matter circumstance has the right to fresh, good quality, nutritious food, they serve their patrons via their community allotments, community cooking nights, classes and feasts and school education programmes. Food for though wouldn't you say

Upon arrival our fantastic host Leslie explained the deeds we had in store for our 45min blast and let me tell you, there were plenty!! The strenuous task of yanking out dead tree roots, the sawing and chopping out of control bushes and the ever so yucky stamping down of the compost Debs and I got our hands dirty with this one. *NICE***

Without further-a-do, the team set to work with magical momentum, wasting no time at all and grabbing all the tools that Leslie could throw at us. Special credit must go to Sam, who with his own bear hands yanked out not one but two massive tree roots, which was no easy Roots Manoeuvre I can tell you!

As the time etched away the team cracked on, with Sean and Dan sawing their way through the devilish nasties of the blackberry spikes. Laura, Sam and Amy the dream Yank and Pull team and Enrique, Debs and Myself busying ourselves with the clear up and stack jobs leftover, but of course not leaving out time for tom-foolery in the bushes!!! Standard antics And after a genuine back-breaking 40mins, the clear up and clear out was upon us and out the gates we did boost, wishing our hosts a fond farewell, with our echoes of See you sooonnnn singing in the air.

I think it's safe to say we we came, we tasked and we conquered that garden (for this week anyway) but there is plenty more work to be done, so we will most definitely be back. Not only to get our revenge on the Blackberry branches, who managed to give me personally one final leg jab on the way out!! OUCH

So with 2 miles left to dash, the team set to running and funning all the way home and with more boys in the mix this week, the boisterousness banter was upped a level, with Enrique and Sam chasing and racing each other all the way home!!

Not wet Hurrah but most definitely wild, thank you team for yet another wonderfully, weird and fun filled week in Brent!

See you next time!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

On an evening which was bright, dry and beautiful.... yes that's right.... BRIGHT DRY AND BEAUTIFUL HURRAAAHHHHHHHH spring had definitely sprung when twelve GG bunnys hopped and leaflet dropped their way to 11k. Yay!!

With the task at hand being the bi-monthly all community leaflet drop, usually the fitness vibes that accompanies comes from track attack. However to bring in the new season I decided to spice things up with a newness here too. So, instead of going round and round, we went up and up - hills that is.... but the best hills near by meant we had to bandit our way through to our neighbouring borough of Camden, running 5 jubilee stations on route to boot. All the way to Swiss Cottage and the hill that leads to Hampstead! Pow Pow.

So the 2 mile warm Up turned into a delightful cruise, basking in the last of the sunshine, we whizzed through Kilburn, West Hampstead, up to Finchley Road and beyond to good old cottage of the Swiss. It's safe to say we were working as a team, as no body was left on their..... Toblerone OMG I can't even take Credit for that terrible pun - step forward please Mouse and take a bow!! LOL

On route, as the team paper chased their way along, handing out all the leaflets on route, I on the other hand could not take enough pics. The beautiful blossoms and natural spring colours coming through, beaming out like they were screaming at us "spring has sprung" and it certainly did give us more Spong in our own steps. Glorious!!

Before long we had arrived at check point one - the base of the hill, just behind Swiss Cottage station and with a neat little one mile distance to the station at the top (Hampstead) the team buckled down for a fast paced grind on that oh so steep and taxing incline.

Taxing maybe, but no one paid the price of surrender, as one by one the pack flew into the home straight, just as the last of the light was etching away and the glow of Hampstead tube took over to light our way in(ham)stead.

Back slapping and congratulations of our epic hill dash over, with a swift turn on our heels we were back to it, pacing back down, with gravity on our side this time! Thank good(gym)ness !!

With a speed split emerging and rapid front pack, the team eventually split in two and with Debs and Enrique taking the lead, group one sped off into the night with epic pace. Group two led by me was a Girl Power affair, but with crew love cheering us on, we recharged the old batteries for one final push the last 2miles back to base.... Of course with lots of stops for photo-calls all the way home. Click click flash, the final hurdles we did smash.

And before we knew it the burning lights of walk lane were upon us once more and one final corner turn led us back to the twinkle of The Queensbury and our home once again. Full team recoup, regroup and stretchy stretch, we finished for the night exactly how we'd begun, smiles and good vibes.

A Beautiful night, filled with beautiful people, doing beautiful things. It can only be GG Brent of course!!

See you next week!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE