This week we were joined by a very special guest, new Norwhich trainer Steven. We were also joined by GG Barnet newbies Jennie, Jack, Prima and Madeleine – give 'em all a cheer!

After a quick intro we headed down to Cherry Tree Woods to warm up on the grass. Steven took the gang through some new moves and got them all limber and ready to go.

Damian helped Steven lead us to Martin Primary, with Freya our trusty backmarker. We then headed 1.2km down the road (the park is 500m away from the cinema) to meet Tristan and Roger at the school and get to work. They had lots of trees in the orchard they wanted us to help. The team quickly got to work in pairs pulling out the weeds around the trunk and digging a neat little ring around the trees ready for bark.

The school has a wonderful pond, that's currently a little low on water thanks to the sunshine. This did mean we had to navigate our way around many frogs, who were hanging out in our digging zones. Great job to Eleanor and Madeleine who helped me relocated some frogs to the safety of the pond.

The school also has a really cool forest bit, which they use as a forest school. Kids can come and hang out there and learn lots of things in six week blocks. It was incredible. They had a huge tent (parachute) and a fire pit and a clay oven.

The gang very quickly finished with the trees and tidied up, ready for a fitness session from our special guest. Graham joined me on the sidelines, while Steven put the rest of the gang through their paces.

We then ran back to base for stretching and biscuits, courtesty of Hazel.

Next week we'll be running to Long Lane Pasture to shift soil. There's loads to do! Sign up here. Joanna has offered to make something delicious.

And there's a mission on Saturday in Edmonton putting up a fence. Sign up here if you can help.

See you next week!

Barnet’s do-gooding, get-fitting biscuiteers were in fine fettle last night after smashing a brilliant task in record time.

After a slightly delayed start (sorry team!), we said congratulations to those that had done Park Runs that week, and to our Barnet heroes. Well done to Hazel, Damian, and Madeleine for topping the distance, good deeds and cheers league tables. Give ‘em a high five, Barnet!

Before we set off for the run, we did a headcount, and discussed one of the capital’s most pressing issues. Apparently there are some definitive rankings of Londoners’ favourite tube lines. According to the statisticians, the most popular line is the DLR, followed by Jubilee, then Victoria. But Barnet disagrees, and had some good reasons to back up their faves. The winning tube line, by a long way was….drum roll please…the oldest of the deep-level lines, the incomparable Northern line! Of course it was. Reasons included, ‘because I’m Northern’, and ‘because we can see it from here’. Fair enough.

With that decided, we set off for Northway Gardens. It was a lovely run there, covering part of the Bishop’s Avenue and having a good snoop at the giant (empty) houses as we went. Damian knew the route like the back of his hand, and after no time at all, we arrived to see Brian the gardener waving at us from his car. Which, when we got closer, we could see was filled to the brim with bags of compost (and a couple of bits of wood). The GoodGym fates were smiling upon us last night, because would you believe there were exactly as many bags as there were runners? Crazy stuff. Taking one bag each (and a wheelbarrow), we emptied the car and set off for the gardens a few minutes away. Compost unloaded, there were a few other jobs to do, such as de-bulbing daffodils, emptying compost bins, filling pens with leaves and shifting pots. All of which was done quickly, much to Brian’s approval – and we even got a few gardening tips and a bit of history on the garden itself, which is run entirely by volunteers and is beautiful.

We took advantage of the lovely surroundings to do our fitness session next to the garden. After a quick core blast and sprint session, we finished off with a game of British Bulldog. Apparently this was banned in some schools, but in Barnet we laugh in the face of rules, and launched into a very speedy game that saw some super-fast sprinting and tricksy footwork. On the run back, we took advantage of the red lights to have a squat challenge, seeing who could hold it the longest. The team obviously has glutes of steel, and outlasted the traffic lights, before finishing off the run with some stretches. Baking Queen Hazel treated the group with some delicious cookies and brownies wrapped in their very own little sweetshop bags – so cute! Next week trainer Pennie is back to lead you through the streets of Barnet to do even more good for the community. Be there or be square:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-barnet-helps-archer-academy-create-a-cool-space

This week saw the return of Team GG Barnet to the BFC to help Jade sand and paint more furniture. We were joined by GG newbie Freya, who has been meaning to join us for AGES and finally managed to come along. Be sure to give her a cheer!

This was our speediest week yet, with the speedy and less speedy groups both breaking records on our return to the Barnet Furniture Centre! Damian lead the speedy lot the 3.7km to the BFC, while (TF) Freya lead the less speedy group. I was our trusty back-marker this week. Hazel treated us to a soundtrack with her brand new portable speaker, playing TONNES of great tunes.

The speedy group beat their very impressive time last week by about a minute or two, while the less speedy group managed to run the 3.7km in just 22.51 minutes – only a minute slower than the speedy group's record last week. I think this means we are getting faster!

Jade and her project managed had a tonne of furniture ready and waiting for us to sand and paint, with the main rule being: leave no drips. Damian, Paul, Joanna and Jody did a fab job sanding outside, making the most of the longer days. Everyone else got to work painting drawers inside. (New) Freya and I bonded over a love for burpees, which I'm sure everyone can relate to.

Once everything was done, it was time to say our goodbyes. With such a speedy time under our belts, and in honour of our new runner, we did some burpees before the run back.

Damian, TF Freya, Paul and Nicola made up the speedy group, while I lead the rest of the team back to base. Chris was my trusty back-marker.

Very impressive 7.4km this week, combined with beautiful upcycling and improved burpees. Good job, team!

Barnet Biscuit of the Week: Chocolate muffins and chocolate crunchy balls courtesy of Hazel!

There's a big mission on Saturday that needs ALL HANDS ON DECK. We're joining forces with GG Haringey to help Grow The World In London and Go Grow get there site near the A10 up and running. Sign up here

Jobs that need doing: Strim and dig for planting plot 1&3; Plant potatoes, onions, broad beans; Build raised beds; Dig and fill 6 exciting raised beds with manure; Clear the greenhouse and re hang the door

Mission starts at 11am.

Next week I'll be in Cyprus with my gran learning how to make halloumi from scratch; but you'll all be running back to Archer Academy to continue work on the pond. Be sure to sign up! It's 500m each way. Great space to play (do fitness) before running back. Anastasia will be leading you in my place.

See you all when I get back!

PS Don't forget about the social this Thursday. Details here

As always the team gathered at the Phoenix on our first day-lit run of the year! (The first half at least!) We were joined by GG newbie Alexandra and GG tourist Ollie. Give them a cheer!

After a quick warm up by the Phoenix, we split in into two splinter groups and made our way to the Barnet Furniture Centre for some upcycling. Damian lead the speedy group while I took the less speedy group, with Bristol Chris my trusty backmarker.

The others were already hard at work when we arrived on site. Jade, the task host, was very excited to have us all there helping and had plenty for us to do. Chris and Beattie managed to not eat the Lindt chocolate bar casually left behind them, earning them the 'Good' moniker, whilst almost getting their table looking ship-shape. Their smug faces say it all, really.

After 25 mins hard graft, and some dancing, it was time to say our goodbyes. We gathered outside for a quick photo, while I tried to avoid being run over, before splintering off once more for our run back to base.

The speedy team broke GG Barnet records, running the 3.8km back to base in just 21:08mins!

The Barnet Biscuit of the Week: HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES courtesy of Hazel

Next week we will be running back to BFC to carry on upcycling furniture. Tonight we did a week's worth of work in half an hour. Sign up here to help.

See you next week! Pennie

Amazing! 9 runners ran 6.5km, cleaned the heck out of some garden furniture AND did burpee/mountain climber TABATA! And now an awesome run report from the awesome Kerry!

Last night's run started at Bodyline Fitness Studios, with a great crew of 9. We gently jogged to Haven Green across the road for some bright and cheery warm ups to get us ready for the 3km run to Impact Theatre in Perivale.

We ran over what felt like many hills, but of course what goes up must come down! The classic running mantra! And the steady pace saw us all there in one piece so we got straight into cleaning some furniture in the back garden of the theatre. Mel was on it with the hose and everyone else scrubbed and tidied and it was looking shiny and nice. The theatre is a lovely facility for adults with disability to learn through theatre performance and creation.

Many hands make light work and we were finished quickly. Onto a quick HIIT session of burpees and mountain climbers before heading back to base in Ealing. TABATA training is a great way to do high intensity exercise in a short period of time and exercises like burpees and mountain climbers with strengthen your whole body and help your running too!

After a tough but satisfying journey back, we did some lovely stretches.

Great run team, looking forward to next week!

36 brilliant runners moved loads of garden waste for gardening social enterprise Streetscape before saying a sad goodbye to Vicki

It was finally a mild enough evening to meet outside at Papa's and this was good news as our numbers were big this evening. Katie would like to think it was due to her superior run leading skillz but in actual fact it was due to many folk wanting to say goodbye to Vicki. Our favourite New Zealander is heading back to live Down Under and, after three years of pounding the pavements across many London boroughs, we are all sad to say So Long.

Vicki managed the great task of earning her 100 wings last week and whipped off her top as soon as her t-shirt was given to her. Thankfully / sadly (delete as appropriate) she had another top on underneath. With wings newly donned, we were off to the basketball court with Beth for a lovely warm up.

We split into two groups, Tom Benson's group ran down the right side of the road and George and Elise's group ran down the left, so that we didn't mow down all of Lambeth as we sped the 1-mile towards Myatt's Field. We have been visiting Streetscape for over three years now and it is always a physical task. There was loads of garden waste that needed moving onto a bigger pile of garden waste at the back, to make space for more garden waste.

Move this garden waste onto that garden waste, said Alex

We also learnt from Alex that 75% of the unemployed young people who enter the Streetscape programme find employment upon graduation, which is a pretty awesome figure. Of course this is something that GoodGym wants to help, so we kept in our two groups and Tom's group went into the park to do some strength work with Katie and George and Elise's group got stuck in moving some gaden waste on top of other garden waste.

After about 12 minutes, the groups swapped over so that everyone got stronger bits (ankles and core to be exact) by the end of it and we had cleared a massive space ready for MORE garden waste!

I can't wait to receive more garden waste! Said Alex

And with our good deed done, we whizzed off into the night and George took us through some lovely stretches. We then presented Vicki with her leaving gift, which was a school-style tea towel with our faces drawn on it. A brainchild of the Lambeth crew, Tom Benson had set about getting input from all the Boroughs that Vicki runs with. Polly had made the lovely GG border and Emma had been kind enough to make all of the backgrounds the same shade of white. A true team effort and also an interesting psychological insight into the minds of each GoodGym artist.

Wow guys I love my tea towel! Said Vicki 'Now let's hit the pub!

We all know Vicki loves a drink and so how could we say no? Off we went and some people even had some food! Great work Lambeth and we shall miss you Vicki. We look forward to shots of you wearing your GG wings on the other side of the world.