Monday-Funday was excitement city, when 9 Brent beauties, set out to run 5miles, do some good and throw out a massive dollop of crew-love all over West London. BOOM

As always, my beaming Brent bevy of beauties awaited me this Monday eve, ready to rock some community love all the way to Stonebridge Park.

New to the mix was - Sabina who my joined ravishing regulars: Sadhana, mouse, Steph, Liz, Amy, Elisa and Debs and after mega announcements, race updates and a sprinkling of Italian lessons from Debs and Elisa, the team wasted no time hot-footing it out the door, to set to work on the first leg of the tour.

With the 2.5miles distance in our sites, I led pace from the front with mouse scooping up the rear. In no time at all we had steamed all the way over from base camp to Dollis Hill, our first marker along the way. Next up, along the north circ, 2nd marker, 3rd and 4th all melting away as we flew past - Sadhana's bridge, Ikea and the Wembley Arch with Debs shouting proudly omg i've run all the way to IKEA YIPPPEEEE

Finally arriving on Pitfield Lane, the whole distance was dashed in 30mins flat, even though the crossings seemed to take a hundred years to go green! This epic time of course also included one brave effort from she-warrior Steph hurting her ankle on route. But like the badass she is, she moaned not one jot and with the help of the magnificent mouse supporting her sister in arms, we all reached our destination for the night - Sufra community food bank, with bags of time to get stuck in and help with the task for the night.

Sufra Community Food Bank, had one request of us this week, shift the massive mountains of soil from A to B, to pack the massive, empty tanks due to be stuffed with veg that would grow, ready for summer plucking. So with shovels and wheelbarrows a plenty we got to work. Confession time........Of course I say 'we' when really the gallant girls did all the back breaking work, while I photographed the epic efforts. Standard!

In 30mins the girls had shovelled, shifted and wheeled 50% of this mountain and managed to pack 4 troffs to the brim AMAZING WORK. Sadhana even had time to complete her planking challenge and pose for some seriously sexy snaps!!

After the work it was full steam ahead, back to base and at full pace. Thank goodness for Mouse who volunteered to lead the last leg, as poor Steph really couldn't run on hers and for the first time in Brent GG history there was an order for an Uber!! But a necessity measure when one of the troops needed a helping hand, or should I say Leg back.

Back at base we regrouped and stretched and hugged out the last of the love for what was an unbelievable team effort, proving goodgym isn't just about spreading love to the community, it's also about supporting and caring for each other and working as a team to help each other along the way too.

See you next time for an even bigger dose of crew love!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE.

It was all hands on deck, when 18 Brent Goodgymers rolled deep for 5k, in 0 degrees to shovel and roll 15 wheelbarrows of soil, rocks and compost for a Harlesden Town Community Gardens' allotment site. BOOM

Was it cold? - Yes. Was *The Queensbury** and it's open fire inviting us to stick around and chill with a beer or two? UMMMMM Maybe..... *But did that stop us from getting out into our fair old borough of Brent to sprinkle some goodgym charm all over the joint? - Hell No!

Thrown into the mix this Monday eve was a merry band of newcomers - Samuel, Fiona and Vojtech (our new resident chef!!) and of course joining them was my regular squad of lovelies - The Familia Ananda. "Spice up your life" Samina. Sister Sledge Tabitha and Debs. Amy (Pole Fit Goddess) Crawford. Take no prisoners man like Neil. Clairey (Veteran) birthday Bell. All the sass and bringing some Class Liz James. The one and only mouse in the House Clare. Never not smiling Karen and always Awesome speedy Queen Andrea.

Also joining the masses on Monday was one in particular, so happy we were to see for the first time this year was Lucky Enrique back and recovered from a poorly Jan. Also one big fat massive delight for night came in the shape of Sparky Sparkes Irwin a vintage GG Brent original bringing some nostalgic vibes.

So with housekeeping done and welcomes wrapped, we set off into the darkness for our last GG Brent of January. Full speed into the night we dashed along to our how for the night Harlesden Town GardensA green space in the heart of Harlesden where people can grow things, play and learn together while meeting and making friends. Helping the community to grow together this is an amazing community project supported by the Brent arm of the charity Crisis. https://m.facebook.com/harlesdentowngardens

Setting an inspiring pace up front, Irwin proved he'd been keeping up the fitness in honour of his big 2017 return. keeping us all well and truly on our toes for a 7.30min mile pace to base. Wowzer!!

After our very swift cavort we arrived on site and even though we may have been out of puff, we certainly weren't out of energy or enthusiasm for that matter, as we set to mission on the tasks ahead. Waiting for us at the gardens, with his usual good cheer and positive vibe was Gabriel from Crisis who manages the site, dishing out the evening tasks. Before long the team were split into groups and got to work, shifting and wheeling the various piles of soil and rocks to their new homes for use elsewhere in the fantastic community arena.

But while the team were busting it out, I of course (never not one to miss a chance to act the kid) had my eyes on some fitness fun in the playground YAY. So over to the apparatus I did go and breaking off in teams of 4 the crew took turns to join me on the bars for a good old monkey around, practicing all manner of body-weight challenges, in particular testing upper body strength.

We hung, swung and knee tucked our way to a fitness session jungle style, with plenty of Pow Pow along the way!!

With all the excitement and glee, What felt like 5mins of fun was in fact 40mins of graft and even though we wanted to stay (and play) much longer we sadly said our goodbyes and off into the night we flew again.

Staying as a pack we jogged a light foot comfy pace towards Roundwood Park to partake in one last fast fit challenge in the moonlight. Partners squat hold and punch arm challenge, 1 min on and 10squats to rest. Great for muscle condition. Rinse, repeat and don't step on the Shame(dog)poo!!

After the exertions we weren't finished there and after we walking lunged our way towards the gate, there was only one more mile that stood in between us and home. This point in, Enrique took to the helm driving the squad for one last challenge up the infamous "Out of Puffington Hill" Wham bam thank you mam. Eat my dust, now onwards home was a must.

Speedy and agile the team dashed off the last mile with glorious Good(gym) cheer and ample crew love. Even with pace group splits and back markers bringing in the final few, it was a team effort and everyone finished off the night with 5k under their belt, biceps bulging and big fat smiles to boot! HURRAAHHH

Epic night, awesome task and stupendous squad. Just your average Monday night for GG Brent.

Do good. Feel good. Inspire.

18 hardy souls ran 7 km to tidy up the Northern Slopes

What better way to start the weekend! Another really good Saturday morning turnout with many choosing to incorporate a GoodGym session into their weekend long run, whereas for others it was just a great excuse to get out and do some more good with some friendly faces.

Hot footing it from our base at Roll For The Soul with the sun on our faces we enjoyed a steady run along the Malago Greenway to the Northern Slopes on Novers Hill, ending with a dash up the Novers Hill steps like a scene from Rocky (even humming the tune as we went) like true champions!

With much punching of the air, we were greeted by our wonderful host, Julia, who explained today's task whilst arming us with a treasure trove of equipment from loppers, shears, saws, slashers, scythes, pitchforks to litter pickers.

Splitting into two groups, one group set about clearing a huge amount of litter of all shapes and sizes - beer cans were the standard fare, with the odd wheel, exhaust pipe and general detritus thrown (quite litter-ally) in for bad measure.

The other group armed themselves with bush and bramble clearing equipment and got stuck in to cutting back some of the more destructive foliage which has threatened to over-run the hillside. Getting "stuck in" particularly were Alice, who became rather attached to a piece of bramble and Rich who decided to go three rounds with a brute of a bramble and lost by a bloody nose!

After a hard hour's graft and a ten minute cold rain shower, we were rewarded with well earned hot drinks, cakes and biscuits before lugging our haul of bags of litter and equipment down the hill and set off on our way back to base.

Big thanks to Chris for backmarking today and to Matt for leading the warm down and stretches, whilst I headed off to the afternoon mission.

You guys totally smashed it today! Big love to you all!

Dave