RAIN

Rain doesn't stop play at GoodGym, and 21 of us were brave enough to face the elements this evening, including first timers, Adam, Matt, Rebecca, Edith, Ellie, Pam and Parveen.

LOST

For our journey up to Barnsbury Square Gardens Simon led a group on a direct route, while Graham took a bunch on a very very very scenic route. BUT, we all got there in the end and Lucy, Carmela and our canine chum Wesley were top hosts.

WORK

As usual, there was plenty to get involved with. As it drizzled and our hands got colder and colder we turned soil underneath trees to allow rain to reach the roots more easily, removed some horrible weeds and engaged in some "edging" (using spades to cut a nice straight line along edges around the garden).

FUEL

Following last week's bourbon adventures, we decided another hydrogenated fat filled biscuit would be the ticket and munched on custard creams to keep ourselves going.

SPEED

Post-task it was back into two groups. Graham promised his run back would be no more than 4k, while Simon took a group for a few sprinty sections and finished off with running relay and finally a skipping relay (which was more fun than the running relay, as promised!)

DEBATE

Following a bit of twitter banter between GG Islington and GG Camden, we decided to debate "What's the best way to get fit in North London?"

Answers:

• Cycling to work
• Skipping (this lot had just done a load of skipping)
• GoodGym! (no particular area specified)

So, there you have it. We're all one big happy family.

THE END

Have a wonderful week all and see you next Monday,
Simon

RUN REPORT BY THE ONE AND ONLY LAURA SHARPLES x x x x

Tonight the Brent Goodgymmers were showing that it is indeed 'Girls, Girls' who run the world...! As Ellie, Laura, Claire, Lizzie and Clare were the fab five that made up tonight's Brent Crew.

Tonight was track night! But before we could get down to business, we had work to do and off to St Andrew's Church we went.... Heavens Above! Our task was to clear up all the rubbish from the front of the church ready for the community gardening day on Sunday.

As we rushed at high speed through the busy streets of Willesden we arrived to a photo finish from our good friend Yay-braham!

Gloves on and pickers in the mix, we set to work and powered through the flower beds in 30 minutes. It's safe to say Abraham was in seventh heaven with our pile of bulging bin bags, hallelujah!

With songs of praise ringing in our ears, we tore off in the direction of Willesden sports centre, ready for track.

After a bit of limbering up we were ready for action. Team work was the name of the game tonight and we worked as a well oiled machine to ramp up the pace and run 3 increasingly fast 400 meter laps.

As gravity pulled us back to The Queensberry, it was time for a bit more female bonding and we really showed how nuts we are about goodgym by chomping down on cashews with a side helping of female empowerment.

And with that concluded another great week from the goodgym Brent crew.

Cash-who (cashew- geddit) will join us next week...?

The bunny did.

Caroline - having just watched the apparently dreadful film "Hop" - decided a good Easter-themed debate would be "Bunny vs chick: Which is better for a symbol of Easter?" The poor chick only managed a few sympathy votes. And one vote for "I don't care" from Steve.

Sixteen of us ( a record for bank holiday) delighted in it being light and took a trip to Thornhill Square Garden. Among us were first timers Laura, Alex and Stefanie. Welcome! We were also joined by Tower Hamlets 100 Hero Bryon who was desperate for a task.

Two groups travelled to the park. Patrick and Aidan led some on a longer journey while Simon and Ama took a more direct route.

Arriving a little early we decided to do a few stride outs while practising visualisations: first we pretended we were running on [Ostrich] egg shells, then hot plates and finally we pretended we were teenagers and had to run across a set of creaky floorboard to stop our mate lighting a fag at the window without waking up sleeping parents downstairs (a favourite of Farah's, I believe)

The task for the evening was to rid the park of elder roots. We tooled up with secateurs, loppers, saws, a spade, a fork and even an axe and set to work digging them up and then chopping them into little bits. We made great progress and Steve earned the new title of "Axe Man".

Speaking of Steve, he was back from California and once all our tools were gathered up he treated us all to mini Hershey bars. Much appreciated.

Darkness had descended and following on from Simon's "running on egg shell" drills and Steve's American treats what better a time for Patrick to keep the team busy with a grown-up version of US children's game Duck, Duck, Goose?

What's in the grown-up version? No sitting ducks! In a nutshell (or eggshell?), a circle of GoodGymmers jog on the spot while the one nominated as "fox" hunts for a goose egg as a tasty treat. The fox stalks round the circle, calling people "duck" along the way (the ducks do a squat) until picking a "goose" who bolts round the circle in the opposite direction.

The race is then on to get back to the goose's nest; if the goose is beaten home then the goose becomes the new fox. Then repeat!

In the meantime Simon had been laying out fifty cones all around the square. Under five of these cones were Creme Eggs so the race was on. All were found within a few minutes, although there were a few sceptical seekers who suspected the whole thing might have been a big wind up. Never!

A trot back in two groups. With it being Easter, we broke our tradition of having biscuits and opted instead for hot cross buns. Well, some hot cross buns from the shop and a slightly burnt homemade hot cross loaf from Simon.

Get fat and do good!

See you next week when we're off to Sunnyside Community Garden

Simon & Patrick