Five wonderful GoodGym-ers braved the weather and came out for a run despite no task!

With no task we were left with two options

• Hill Sprints

or

• a risky Track Session

Being GG Brent we went for the risky option and made our way back to our former home: Willesden Sports Centre. With Dinesh taking the lead we explained our situation and the fact that we had used the track and the centre before and after a while we were allowed in!

Once on the track we went through a thorough warm up and then we were faced with a couple of choices. A more repetitive session or a session with decreasing distances but increasing effort. We went for the latter.

With everyone lined up we did the following:

• 1200m at 50%
• 800m at 60%
• 400m at 80%

Each bout was followed by a 2 min rest and everyone really pulled out the stops for the last 400m with everyone coming in under two minutes.

After everyone had got their breath back we we went for a cool down jog and then we were done.

Well done all!

Eleven amazing runners joined me in Brent, fought the urge to go and see some fireworks, ran 4km, litterpicked, acted as public service announcers and built 75 new homes for the London bat population!

On a weirdly mild night for November a wonderful group gather in Willesden Green ready to give up their evening for the good of others. We said “hello again” to Fi back after a looooong injury break and “welcome” to Jenni and Larissa who were visiting from our neighbours GG Ealing!

Welcome to Brent

With a quick intro and delivering the big news of the week that it’s the LAST social of the year this Thursday we counted ourselves off and then headed on for a short run towards Roundwood Park.

We met Jack just outside the park, which was going to be our base for the evening as we prepared five bat boxes for Jack. We split into groups working on the boxes and Jack showed everyone the template he had made up and off we went.

Bat-boxers

With a larger group than expected a few of us split off from the bat-boxers to litter pick in the surrounding area. During the time we were working we lost count of the number of people who asked us whether were going to be doing fireworks tonight. With Brent usually hosting their fireworks at Roundwood park, it fell to us to let everyone know that sadly the fireworks had moved to Wembley and been the night before - sorry everyone!

We spent a good hour working hard to get the boxes done and the end result was great. Five perfectly formed homes that could house up to 15 bats each!

Bat-tastic!

With all done we posed for a group photo and said our good-byes to Jack. With that it was time for the run back, everyone kept up a good pace and we were back at the Queensbury and all stretched off by 8.30pm! A great night – thanks for coming!

Sign up here for next week, task to be confirmed and don’t forget the social on Thursday!

Cheers, Pritesh

With huge thanks to Tabitha and Justin for this wonderful literary masterpiece... to the report:

Seven runners launch bangin’ fireworks news. For Fawkes’ sake.

Wondering if we might have seen, the last of British Summer Time, A magnificent seven runners Stood by Queensbury loos in orderly line.

Pritesh swiftly moved us outside for the warm up and a welcome to Brent, along with the regulars we had Justin a goodgym tourist- an exciting and rare event

Just after the stroke of seven Dinesh took the lead, the locals knew the way far better we all agreed.

The seven of us ran swiftly to meet Emma and Lyndsey, from Queens Park Community Council with leaflets to keep us busy

They told of bonfire and fireworks to come, a community event with sparklers and fun.

The up and down staircases to carry out our delivery , meant those doing the task were warm and not shivery.

Sad Pritesh, meanwhile, coordinating the crew, was now freezing and slowly turning blue

But when time was up instead of heading back to base, we agreed to stay longer to put more deliveries in place.

So after we finished our designated streets, we hot footed it home like true athletes.

And like true athletes, we went via the pub, where they served us some drinks at this community hub.

Good job well done, next week will see fireworks- whoever said that GoodGym doesnt have perks?

Thanks to everyone for a super fun night, enjoy the fireworks and I'll see if we can't have a bonfire night themed task next week - sign up here!

Cheers, Pritesh

Four fantastic runners joined me in Willesden Green for another great GoodGym Brent session.

Was it the cold, maybe the dark or maybe the fact that summer just doesn’t want to go meant that we had a bit of a low turn out last night but it was still a fab five that ran 5km to nip over into Camden to help Diana at Kingsgate Place.

Famous five do socials

As there were such a small number we had the intro inside and mainly socials! We had the Brent social last week (thanks to all that came), we have the final GoodGym monthly social on November 8th, the GoodGym Christmas Party on 1st December and the Brent Christmas social after the run on the 17th. We also talked about the new Walk Leader role that looks to open up goodgym to those less confident about their running abilities. We’re not blessed with nearby tasks so it might be a while before this features but keep in touch with me to see how we can implement it.

After the intro we headed off, we took a route to avoid the Kilburn High Road and in twenty minutes arrived at our destination. Diana showed us where we were planting and left us with tools and bulbs! We first cleared the area of leaves, and then start digging! It was quite difficult as we were on a slope but we managed it and planted about 25 bulbs. Dinesh seemed quite the master at this – kudos to him!

Famous Five go for a run

We then had a remaining ten or so bulbs to plant in some roadside planters and then we were done! The perfect task for our group. Diana then kindly provided some refreshments and we talked about how we might be able to help some more around the estate and about the variety of tasks that GoodGym helps with. We then set off for our run back to base.

Famous Five stretch and go home

Once back to base we made sure we stretched properly and talked about next week’s task helping Queens Park Community Council. We have lots of magazines to deliver so hope to see many of you there!

Cheers, Pritesh

Last night nine noble GoodGymmers ran 6k for Abbey Community Centre to promote their new coffee morning.

Meeting at the Queensbury, we were paid tribute to Pritesh and the rest of Sunday's marathoners while thinking how lucky we were to have avoided the heavy rain.

After a quick warm up we set off following me with Danny kindly backmarking. We made quick progress, noting the tasty looking pubs on route, before arriving at Abbey to meet our contact Sabine. She handed over loads of leaflets are asked us to focus on the housing closest to the centre. As it's surround by flats, that wasn't a problem.

We divided into teams: Danny's team heading north, mine headed south with stacks of leaflets in hand. We dashed up and down stairs, down alleyways and around the blocks to find the right access doors. 25 minutes later we had posted a LOAD of flyers and met back at the community centre.

We set off back, but not before a wistful look at the table tennis players at Abbey: maybe we could join them one day?! The run back was nice and quick with Tom and Samina setting the pace.

We got back and celebrated with stretches and high fives. Well done team! I'll see you all soon.

Remember the GG Brent social quizzing at the Queensbury on Wednesday!

Eleven excellent GoodGymmers ran to Gladstone Park to pick up litter and help keep this brilliant local space tidy.

We were unfortunately taskless going into tonight, but that doesn't stop GG Brent. After a quick stop to grab some bin bags we headed to Gladstone Park in double quick time to get to work picking litter.

We were joined today by Rosie for her first ever GG run: WELCOME. Everyone give her a cheer. We were also joined by Nicky who was visiting us from Lambeth. Love a bit of tourism.

We divided into twos and threes in the park and started picking litter. The team worked hard for half an hour grabbing loads of rubbish as the sun went down behind us over the hill. One might even say that it was lit(ter picking 👀). Can you tell I found it hard to choose which pun to use. Thanks for James, Rachael, Liz and Rosie for the brain storm in the pub after.

That done, we dumped the rubbish in the bin and met for some drills. I marked out a 50 metre run and set the team to work on strides: 50% effort out then 70% back x 2, before squats, then the same again, calf raises, then a hard run out and a recovery run back to recover. It was a brilliant effort by everyone!

From there, it was a light run back to base for a stretch and drinks in the pub 🍻

Thanks for having me Brent

D

Seven super runners joined me in Brent as we did a voluntary litter pick at Roundwood Park!

We were back at the newly renovated Queensbury this week and it was great to see everyone! Shout out to Marcos who joined us for the first time - welcome.

We were due to do a litter pick in Roundwood Park but officially the task was cancelled but I thought we could do better than that and so I grabbed some bin bags and latex gloves and thought we could still do the task!

With a quick intro and with Claire back-marking we set off for the 2km run down to Roundwood. Once there we split the park into three areas and split into groups and off we went. It was pleasing to see that the park was fairly clean but we still managed to find litter all over the place. Surprisingly, perhaps, a lot of the litter was around the bins - amost as if people couldn't quite make it to the bin!

We worked for around 25 minutes and covered most of the park - we filled around 4 bin bags full!

With some time remaining it was time for the... Roundwood Park 1.07km time trial!

Claire led a short warm up and then it was time trial time. Everyone did fantastically; the times are below (previous times in brackets):

• Claire - 4.45 (4.56)
• Dinesh - 5.12
• Liz - 4.57 (4.48)
• Marcos - 4.40
• Pete - 5.02
• Samina - 4.59
• Uthman - 4.25 (4.25)

We got our breath back and then ran back to base. A great night and top effort on the time trial everyone.

Next week Barnet trainer Damian is in charge, you can sign up here, task will be confirmed this week.

Cheers, Pritesh