Tonight it was round 2 as we once again met Nicola from A Mile In Her Shoes to help sort kit donations. We had 12 lovely runners including one newcomer Emily, big welcome!

We mixed things up tonight and did a hill session before the task by running over the the infamous West Walk to complete a few reps. To encourage/bribe the runners I promised prizes for the first person up the hill each sprint rep. Michael K and was first over the line on attempt number one and looked like he'd really worked hard for his haribo reward and second time round Tim bounded to victory to claim the treasured red GoodGym laces. Good work from everyone all round!

We then jogged down to The Kings Arms (a massive thank you to them for hosting us for the past two weeks) to start on the new batch of donations to sort. We had a few different things crop up this evening including an array of running knickers with delightful motifs printed on the bum, unfortunately not very useful for the charity but a good source of entertainment for the group!

Again even though there was a mountain to sort through this evening we got it all done and everything is now ready to be given out women who are finding their feet through running with this great charity. We will continue to work with A Mile In Her Shoes in the future but if you'd like to be involved more in the meantime head over to their facebook page and think about popping along to their free fun running fitness session on 16th December.

Last but not least a little shout out for Michael C who looked after Hannah on the run tonight as she is a little injured, it's lovely to see everyone working together and looking out for each other.

Great job tonight everyone, happy running!

Ten tremendous GoodGymmers ran 6 kilometers to deliver flyers for the Phoenix Cinema.

(that pun? Yeah, I went there https://open.spotify.com/track/4IYKjN1DrYzxKXt0umJqsG)

For world mental health day, GoodGym has partnered with Thrive LDN, a new charity that is promoting health and well being for Londoners. Being GoodGym, we know all about getting fit and doing good. Here in Barnet, we don't normally need any encouragement for a good chat, but we decided that we'd be extra chatty tonight - it's good to talk guys - while doing lots of running and delivering our flyers.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Fati and Ina, both joining us for their first ever GoodGym run. Go give them a cheer!

Every two months or so we deliver flyers for the Phoenix (themselves a charity doing brilliant things in the local area) so tonight we gathered up bundles of leaflets for the cinema's October - November season. Graham and I stuffed our bags full, while everyone else gamely took bundles in their hands.

After a quick warm up, we set off. As we were flyering the local area, we decided to do a 2k loop to get those legs moving. Jack and Graham were joining us from their exploits at the Oxford Half Marathon (it looked so great, give them a cheer) while Jacqui had run a casual 10k on Sunday in the Adidas City Run, after I saw her in the pub on Saturday night: love it.

Once we reached our targeted roads, we split into teams. Paul took the right side of the road with his team, while Nicola led on the left. (Nicola and Paul are our two new recruits for the Barnet task force: welcome!)

Guys, we posted so many leaflets.

Using the tried and tested relay method, we quickly covered 4 big residential roads and delivered all of the leaflets, with hills and some absolutely giant driveways not putting anyone off.

From there, we headed back to base, but not before a couple of running drills. Firstly, we used the end of Southern Road, closed to the traffic, to run in pairs at a nice fast pace to pick up our heels a bit. After that, we attacked Indigo Walk, a tricky alleyway that seems to go on forever, getting steeper as you go. The team did brilliantly and we celebrated with an easy run to base from there.

After a stretch and some high fives, we ate biscuits. Tradition.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was Jammy Dodgers.

See you soon!!

D

This week 13 GoodGym-ers ran 5.7km to help Muswell Hill Food Bank weed, vacuum, mop and wipe.

We started with a few warm up drills along the side of the Phoenix that I learnt from the NBMCR middle- and long- distance coach Steve Vernon at the New Balance HQ last week. Nicola was a pro at these straight off the bat!

With our legs all warm and our numbers all counted, it was time to head off towards Muswell Hill. Hazel kept me company leading the pack, while Chris was our trusty back-marker.

On arrival we were greeted by Aimee and Deborah, who dished out the tasks before everyone got to work. We had an outside team weeding the patio, an inside team vacuuming and mopping the floors, a window team wiping the windows and Sarah was a team all on her own cleaning doors.

While all this was going on, a couple practiced their wedding dance inside. Deborah treated us to some bananas.

Once all the working was out of the way, it was time for a few strength drills. Walking pause lunges to improve balance, core stability and single-leg strength, bear and crab crawls to improve core, quad, glute and shoulder strength, and kicking squats - again to build that single-leg strength. Running is a series of single-leg jumps, so you really ought to make sure both legs are holding their own if you want to avoid injury, run faster or ran further.

We then ran back to base, with Nicola helping me lead the way and Freya our trusty back-marker. With Chris and Shawn hot on our tails we ended up running up the hills faster than we ran down them on the way home, which made no sense but was fantastic for everyone's legs and lungs and general levels of awesomeness - so good job!

This week's Barnet Biscuit: Chocolate fingers, courtesy of Freya

This week's pun, courtesy of Damian.

It's Freya's birthday next week, so there will be cakes and merriment to celebrate on Saturday. You can sign up here

We need a couple more volunteers for gardening at the Westminster Drug Project on Saturday. Sign up here

There's also a mission to help Mrs F on Saturday and a mission to help Grange Big Local set up their community festival on Sunday.

This week 16 GG-ers ran 6km to deliver flyers for Grange Big Local's community fair on 8 October.

We were joined by a couple of GG newbies: Samantha and Ben. Also recent newbies who started while I was in Spain: Kani and Alice – give 'em all a cheer!

We were also treated to a visit by Gary from Bristol who is starting a 3,000km cycle adventure on Sunday!!

We headed to Cherry Tree Wood for a quick warm up (there'll be a boomerang up on Twitter!) before heading off on our run. Paul helped me lead while Damian was our trusty back-marker, giving his legs a rest after his epic Sunday run.

We soon reached a deadend, which seemed the perfect time to split into our flyering leap frog formation. One team with me, one with Damian. We covered roads we've not often run down, which is always a treat, and took on some mighty hills.

After a quick circuit in a car park hitting the glutes, hammies, core, pecs and shoulders, it was time to head home. We just had to get up the steep car park exit first. Nicola helped me navigate back to the Phoenix at lightning speed.

This week's Barnet Biscuit: The MIGHTY Oreo

Next week we'll be running to help Muswell Hill Food Bank. Sign up here If you have gardening gloves, bring them. And probably a head torch.

On SUNDAY, Jody is organising an ultimate frisbee game and everyone is invited. Sunday 1st October, meeting 11am at the Regents Bar and Kitchen in Regent's Park. The more the merrier!

Apologies for the lack of photos - all the ones I took on the task were rubbish and I forgot to take a group photo! iPhones weren't built for nighttime photography!

Be sure to sign up for the Halloween Run on 24 Sept. We'll be setting up a haunted house. It's all hands on deck with this one, as it's quite far and will need all the help we can get to make sure we finish. 4km each way. Tell your friends.

A small army of red tee shirts met at the Phoenix for Barnet's first birthday. There was glitter. There were red and white balloons. There were smiles and laughs.

So many wonderful runners showed up to celebrate our birthday, including GG newbie Maz – give her a cheer! Shout out to all the GG tourists who came to visit for the special day and to all the GG Barnet oldies, who we've missed in the weeks (months?!) gone by – thanks for coming back!

After a brief introduction from Pennie, 28 GoodGymers headed to Cherry Tree Woods for an animal inspired warm-up. It's safe to say we were already pretty toasted in the evening sun, but high-five fitness sessions don't complete themselves!

Picking up the pace, we headed 2km to our task – supporting volunteers at Long Lane Pasture. The pasture is an incredible green space run by a group of volunteers, and they needed some hands building their compost piles. This was actually the task we did on our very first GG Barnet run last year, which made it even more special. No councillors in suits this time – but we still beat our numbers with the largest ever Barnet turn out in history! Big cheers all round, really

Splitting in half, the Barnet runners worked in teams to rake and hoe the long grass; piling it all on to the compost heaps. One beautiful sunset and 25 minutes later, we regrouped and were honored with a 1st birthday chocolate cake(s), gratefully given to us by the volunteers at Long Lane Pasture. What babes they are!

Next up was circuits and frisbee matches. While half the runners star-jumped and lunged, the other half took part in fiercely competitive frisbee games designed to get us all running fitter and faster.

Chocolate cakes (sort of) burned off, we returned to base – the Phoenix cinema. Damian lead the speedy group back, whilst Pennie took the leisurely group. We then took over the cinema cafe balcony and toasted a year of great group runs. Muchos grassias (gracias) Pennie – we are as excited about the next 50 weeks as the first 50.

Happy birthday Barnetians - cheers to your efforts in 2016/2017 and here's hoping we can reach out and help even more people in our community in this next year, particularly isolated older people.

Don't forget to sign up for next week's run here. We'll be doing some silent gardening for the Westminster Drugs Project.

TFF (Task Force Freya)

Ps. This week's Barnet berry was blackberries! Some blackberries picked from the pasture were used to make Barnet's oat & cinnamon biscuit of the week. I thought they were bloody brilliant (but I made them so I may be biased...)

Thanks to everyone who brought cakes and snacks for the after party at the Phoenix. And thanks to the Phoenix for being such wonderful hosts!

We've got 10 free tickets for regular runners to go and see something. Louis is our desingated movie organiser. There's 6 spots left, so if you want in, email Pennie asap!