A dozen GGers got down to some shifty business at Willesden's Old Cop Shop and did some hard time, smashing out a serious plyometics session to boot. Pow Pow!! All in a days work for Brent.

Beautiful scenes down in Brent this week where twelve familiar faces came to pay their dues at our on going mission to regenerate the Old Police Station, into a fabulous community base and artistic Hub. Hurrah!!

With housekeeping done and dusted, it took this swift crew of bandits no time at all to jog the short distance of Walm Lane to the task for the eve, of course with much merriment and catch ups chats along the way. YAY!

Greeting us as always with his usual flair was our fav host colin and all of his magical energy and crazy antics, this week included stopping traffic to achieve the ultimate team pic outside our task base!!

After the matrix style vehicle vanquish, the usual catch up tour got underway and the group were led around the site to be shown the already incredible achievements that had been continuing and ones that we of course had contributed to.

To our delight, the many rooms of the building were now clearing of of debris and rubbish and starting to resemble spaces fit for artists studios and community art education spaces! We were also informed by one of Colin's delightful helpers that there would be a screen printing press available for use in only 2 weeks, so fashion bods in the area too could come and get creative for affordable printer rental prices. Amazing!!!!

After the catch up it was quickly down to the tasks at hand which this week consisted of painting walls and floors which Sabina, Debs, Sean and Tabitha tackled with relish. While the rest of the gang took on a massive shifting operation of the last random bits of debris up in the top rooms.

Just to clarify, when I say random I really am not kidding!!!! There were chairs, boxes, tools, sofas.... Of course there was the odd moment of reflection, where Dinesh and I managed to maximise the fun to be had with a mirror. But for the most part it was game faces on and this motley crew got down to some serious shifty business up and down stairs for 30mins of hard-core graft!!

Holding my breath at one point as I witnessed strongman Simon, although as cool as an icebox, shuffling past me, down 2 flights of stairs with a FRIDGE!!! Forget the gym, that's what I call power-lifting!

After a back breaking 45mins the group reconvened together in the courtyard for some final fitness fun to finish the night.

• Crab Walks
• Tuck Jumps
• Comandos
• Burpees
• Partner pistol squats

Workout complete and were even rewarded with some delicious Colin Specials - His homemade banana shakes, sweetened with the honey made by bees on the roof!!! We were buzzing!! You can't get more organic than that!!

Final farewells wished we turned on our heels and flew back the mile run to base, fuelled by our fruity tooty tastes (but Tabitha trying her hardest to forget the dubious equipment it was made with)

Back home and it was stretch and reflect.... No we didn't steal the mirror! But look back and think of how much we'd really achieved in the Police station. It will be so awesome to see the finished base and delight in seeing our contributing names etched into the memory wall as well!!

See you next time fitness familia!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

OMG, is it true? Your damn right it is..... We hit 22! Not just that.... Now hold onto your hat Four Boys did come for some Goodgym fun!!

On a beautifully sunny Monday, we hosted Brent's largest ever familia affair, with a whopping 22 runners, rolling deep to represent the west wing of Goodgym! YIPPEEE And yes you did read that correctly we had not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR marvellous males, holding down the fort for the Brent Brigade. This is a big dealio y'all, because up until now, we've been a largely female populated crew, so to welcome these guys, filled us with delight!

Also in the mix this eve were four fabulous newbie faces: Dinesh, Zara, Simon and Audrey who to their credit threw themselves straight into the old familia faces of the beloved Brent crew, with all the smiles and enthusiasm under the setting the sun!

So after welcomes and housekeeping, we set to stepping the 2 mile dash down to the task for the eve, a Granville day out gardening jobey for our great friends - The Granville Community Kitchens in south kilburn. As we set off it was clear to see, with such great numbers there would be some diversity. Some were fast, some were slightly slower, but everyone running hard to get to the lawnmower!

With Debs and Joe taking on leader of the fast pack roles, there was no stopping the speedy twosome, as they pushed pace and got the front pack to the task in swift time. I led from the back and enjoyed every last chat with my gang of girlies; Mouse, Amy and the fabulous familia clique the Anandas, who as well, to my delight, had brought mum back!! Hurrah!!! Ready to rock the roads and give back for Goodgym looking fresh to death in her floral enemble. Go on Mum!!!

So with crew 2 arriving with me in 30mins flat, we were delighted to enter into an already busy scene. The weeds were being wacked, the plants watered, the holes for compost being dug and the awesome foursome of guys on deck, putting themselves to good use by shifting some Shhhhhhhhhhhshould we move on..... It definitely needed some expert MANoeuvring that MANure!!

While the gang worked their magic, Leslie our host served up some delicious treats! Fresh watermelon and some lovely cold H20 Water way to be treated hey!!!

With 30minutes of hard graft under our belts, the gang didn't stop there. Next up they got to stepping with some fitness drills to finish off the session. Three rounds of plank holds, with various arrangements: Low holds, high holds, hip dips, high to low changes and press up practice thrown in for good measure! Core blimey they were working hard and putting in the real-deal efforts..... I expect nothing less from this team of legends

Last whistle blow and it was sadly time to go. One last pose, because as we all know, I do love a snap of my Goodgym pack.

Last shutterbug of the night achieved and we were off once more, into the eve which was still gloriously light. The speed demons head off like bullets and leading the back-packers once more, we cruised it home with all the good vibes in the west! Snapping selfie pics with pink elephants all the way home.

Back at base and it was stretch and last banter, with The Ananda's mamma telling us of her secrets to youthful looks..... wait for it...... A full bowl of spicy curry before every run!!! Yikes But you should see this woman, like Benjamin Button, getting younger every step she took!! Think I may try that one out, but perhaps a Korma, no warmer?!?!?

BOY OH BOY, What a night, to welcome our blokes in with the female folks. We focussed our run, towards a wonderful cause in Kilburn. Ran four hefty miles all with big smiles. The weather couldn't have been hotter, but no group could be better, than GG Brent, from Goodgym, heaven sent.

See you next time fitness familia!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Amazing GG Brent tonight!! 2 tasks, 2 teams and 2 run reports!! POW POW

Part one - Elle Energy talks shaking asses with the masses and chopping the grasses

OMG Could it be... A number sixteen, who came out to clean, chop and shift and pick up sticks across the borough, it could be none other.... Than the Brent GG, hurrah and Yippppeee!!

So there I was on this sunshine filled glorious evening with tasks coming out of my.... heavily branded Elle Energy leggings clad bottom!! Not one but two of our community friends requested support tonight and so as not to let anyone down, my glorious crew showed up in masses, to shake their asses down to Harlesden Community gardens... and.... our old pal Col, at the Police Station for a last min help request to make the building a safer environment by clearing some crazy debris!

So with a 9/7 split we head down Walm Lane in our two teams, red tees glistening in the sun and making people stop and stare at all the laughter and good vibeing fun.

At the turning up to St Peters Av, we said our goodbyes and departed, with me leading the 4mile gang to the gardens and Mouse and Sadhana leading on to the Police station. And can I just say it was absolutely wonderful to welcome back so many beloved old faces - Nisha, Dimple, Roshni and Isabelle and...... the incredible Karen back from her half marathon charity run in Kenya!! But as Karen was used to running next to Giraffes in her last big jaunt, she may have been disappointed by the lesser impressive wildlife on offer in Harlesden so chose instead to hit up the Police station for some much needed grounding. With our jungle runner specialist lost to the coppers, it was left to me and crew 2, to Get down, get down and jungle boogie with Gabriel at the gardens and tackle the massive branches for some serious tree surgery!

Along with the jungle bashing affair with our resident dare devil and head for heights honey Liz leading the way, the gardens played host to all manner of other nature filled fun - Watering the plants although Debs mistook my ass for grass at one point, soaking me entirely!! Thank you cheeky monkey!!, clearing litter from the grass with help from some extremely cute local kids, stomping down compost and breaking up branches and with only 30mins to do our best, we wasted no time and threw ourselves in to the tasks with motivation and grit!!

In no time at all, it seemed, the time was up and wishing farewell we turned on our heels once more! Fast pace and gunning for a race, there were a few points where the gang were smashing pace below 7min miles AMAZING aghhh but wait.... was it because they heard from team one that if we swung by the cop shop on route back, we could enjoy some of Colin's home made banana and date smoothies..?!???!!! No monkeying around, because these chasing chimps couldn't be stopped from getting to those bananas!!

After the jungle-juice pit stop we had less than a mile to trot back to base and rejoin our lovely gang once more! So as we reconvened, we shared our stories of the wet and wild adventures on both sides and how maybe one day if we were lucky, we could be selected to join Colin's special boat party VIP's!! Dunno how my land loving jungle Janes and Joe our resident (not so good with heights) Tarzan would do on water..... guess we'll have to see when the invitations arrive!!

Ok here goes - Part 2. Second half of the run report, from the marvellous Mouse

Colin’s milkshake brings all the girls to the yard…

Seven super strong GG Brent ladies (Dimple, Roshni, Nisha, Isabelle, Karen, Sadhana and Mouse) smashed the short distance down to Willesden Green's old police station to assist Colin in his cop shop clearout.

And imagine our delight to be welcomed with by a lovely pear….of juices (clear and cloudy) and homemade banana and date milkshake. Fruity!

After a quick refreshment break we set to work in clearing a variety of items (tents, musical instruments, boxes of ladies shoes that Colin offered to us but alas - despite lots of interest from Karen, Roshni and Nisha - no-one was Cinderella and the shoes did not fit) out and up into the gallows. We didn't hang around… and before Colin knew it we'd lifted and shifted everything bar a bit of tinsel that made a bid for freedom. He was almost lost for words… almost.

And so we moved on to our second task of the evening… clearing out Claudia’s closet! Thankfully there were no skeletons to be found, just a huge variety of theatre costumes and props, which Sadhana created a one-woman show with... whilst pocket rocket Dimple scaled a ladder to heave everything up into the loft.

Jobs all done there was just time to check out the “medicinal herb” garden and the hives on the roof...the bees knees! before we bid farewell to Colin and his trusty sidekick Rob and ran back to base to regroup with the rest of the GG Brent team and swap stories.

And there you have it Fitness Familia. A lot of LOLs and always Good Vibes, I am in love with this fierless, happy and wonderfully weird Goodgym tribe

See you next time!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Leafleting for affordable and free counselling services in Brent to support the people of the borough to achieve positive and healthy mental health! POW POW Random and raucous run report written by a boisterous, banter filled GG Brent, in a game of Run Report Consequences at our summer drinks ting! Enjoy the madness!!!

The beautiful crew, knew what to do when they met in The Queensbury, for a run and some leafleting. Good gym a'hoy, let's spread lots of joy, said the leader named Ellie to the merry and many.

The rain was pissing down and the group looked like rats who were drowned and that's before we had even set off for the task!! Oh Well... Hoods up and off we went to show Brent what's up!

Handing out the leaflets was wayyyyyyy to easy for us pros, so we went for a sprint down to Cricklewood as well! Yay.

As we scattered, the group were dumbfounded......where could she be? Despite excruciatingly aching muscles each took a road and ran, yelling out Ellie's name..!!! Oh there she is.

Next the runners were told that "Glutes" are evil and must be destroyed..... (Side note from actual Ellie talking now..... this is a fiction.... I love GLUTES!!!) and 24 glutes were P-lunged from existence.

The sadistic leader then tortured the athletes until half of us had broken down, however, she was relegated back to base and made a visit to the police station for her comeuppance (oh wait that was last week)

We finished the keep-fit part of the evening with some lunging and stretching. Elisa said "Hi" to a guy.... The group said "Who's that?"....... She didn't know but he was very very handsome! Perhaps he'll come to Goodgym next week..??!?! Let's hope so!!

All stretched out and ready to roll (and drink), there was just enough time for a quick photo op (Ellie never misses a trick) Ellie pulled one of her poses for the photo, giving up the totality of any semblance of normality. Ellie also had a moment when she talked about the mystical side of sports training.

Two late arrivals showed up with medals from the 10mile race yesterday.... Sadhana and Mouse Yipppeeee. More practice to be done at Goodgym, as there are many more races to be run with fellow goodgymers!!

The end......The chips..... The drinks..... The Italiano sisters told me to write this! Hummmmm thanks for that stunning finisher Samuel!!!!

See you next week!!!!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Well, maybe not the town but an inside shop wall to help Greenwich & Bexley Hospice get there shop refurbishment a step forward. This week I was so pleased to have three new faces on our run and task. Welcome Mavis, Jane and Caz, I really hope you enjoyed yourselves. We certainly enjoyed having you. After signing in we went into our mandatory pre-run chat and warmup. Well done Fidellis for winning the prize of 10 star jumps In our favourite car competition. Serves you right for having expensive tastes 😂. On warming up (remember we warm up to run, not run to warm up) we headed out of base camp Crooklog and straight up towards Welling. There's something quite satisfying about running and dodging commuters as they head home and we head to do our good deed. On arrival we were greeted with smiling faces and refreshing water, thanks Mandy. It's at this point we go from runners to good deeders and got stuck straight in to the task. With a team cutting in and a team rolling , the hardest part for me was stopping the guys painting my beard whiter then what it all ready is. Little did they know pay back would be on our run home. <Little did they know pay back would be on the run home
With the gang doing a brilliant job it was left to our tallest member Fidellis to finish off all the areas at the top. After admiring our professional workman ship and posing for photo's (think we're getting pretty good at that) it was time to say our good byes and head back to base camp Crooklog. With this weeks runners being of all abilities we set a meet up point at Welling Football Club for our first fitness drill. Thanks Eilleen and Janine for looking after the front group, you guys were brilliant as always. As we arrived at Welling FC, pay back for the attempted beard painting was due and it started in the form of wall squats, ouch!! <As we arrived at Welling FC, pay back for the attempted beard painting was due. After a competitive sit off ** we were off again and to **my delight soon came across perfect walls for my wall press ups and tricep dip drills. Payment was due, and the debt was going to be paid in full 😂 After doing our bingo wing destroying exercises it was just a short run back to Crooklog for our cool down and natter on how it all went. Bexley Goodgymers you were brilliant as always. I really enjoyed your company and can't wait to do it all again next week.............. Last but not least Happy Birthday Tanya hope you had an awesome day 🎉