This week 16 GoodGym-ers ran 5.5km to help the Barnet Furniture Centre with a flyer drop around Muswell Hill.

We were treated to a guest appearance from GG Barnet oldie Mark this week – give him a cheer!

Lots of hills for us to run up – with even more stairs for us to climb. Damian lead us to a residential part of Muswell Hill while Heather was our trusty back-marker. We split into teams to cover as much ground as possible.

We regrouped under the bridge, where Freya lead us up the stairs to a secret pathway up above London with the most beautiful view. Danica donned her badger face for the photo op before we ran back down to continue the flyering.

My team ran up a giant hill to flyer houses all a million steps away. GG Barnet is building legs of steel. Prima said flyering with the GG crew made running up hills a whole lot better – which everyone agreed with. Running up is always better with company.

The two teams then came together to split up for a final flyer push, before putting the remaining stacks back into our bags and heading towards Cherry Tree Woods for some games and burpees.

After all the running, I figured I'd be nice and let everyone sit down. So we played Duck, duck, goose. After several rounds, we played a game of Bulldog before finishing with the Barnet Burpees. Shawn and Paul were pretty speedy with the burpees and Heather requested we do the worm instead. Turns out none of us can do the worm. Something to work on.

We then ran back to base for this week's Barnet Biscuit: Flapjacks, courtesy of Damian

Well done, team!

Anyone looking to do a Parkrun with Freya this Saturday, sign up to Ally Pally here. More hills, beautiful views at the top.

This week 9 marvellous GoodGym-ers ran 6km to paint garden furniture at a local care home.

First on the see was Danica, who arrived as I was picking up this week's Barnet Biscuit. She took on the tall task as Biscuit Garder, placing the biscuits in her bag so I didn't have to risk crushing them on the run.

After a quick warm up in front of the cinema to get our joints and muscles ready for the task ahead, we made our way to the care home. Damian was my trusty leader, while I was tail running. Jennie and Eleanor kept me company on the way there.

3km of hilly Finchley later and we were at Dell Fields ready for the task ahead. We hadn't been left any sandpaper, so we did a coat of finishing oil on the chairs we did last time to protect against the weather. Hopefully we'll be back soon to finish off the other chairs!

We then gently jogged to the nearby park for some burpees and sprints. Doing burpees on a regular basis will improve your running drastically - it's been proven to shave minutes off your PBs. So we're testing it out. Jody suggested today be Day One – so we're introducing the GG 15-Day Burpee Challenge. You have to do 30 burpees a day for 15 days. If you haven't already done then, quickly do them now!

We then ran back to base for stretching and biscuits.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was Hobnobs

We finished up with some Ice Tea at the Phoenix before saying our goodbyes. Next week we're heading to BFC for more furniture painting. Sign up here

This week 16 marvellous GoodGym-ers ran 2.5km to move logs for Martin Primary.

We were joined by three GG newbies: Vicky, Gemma and Alice – give them a cheer!

This week's run comes hot on the heels of Race the Neighboours, where N2 took on N10 – but more importantly, where GG Barnet took on GG Haringey. Massive congrats to the team who WON, with Damian managing a ridiculously impressive time of 48 minutes something. Check out the race report here.

We started off this evening's run with a gentle jog down to Cherry Tree Wood for a quick warm up full of skipping, running and dynamic stretching to get the joints and muscles ready for the task ahead. Task Force Freya was my trusty back-marker. Once everyone was warm we headed to Martin Primary.

Once on site, we were met by Tristan and assigned our task: move all the logs from one pile to a new pile inside the forest so he can use them to build some things. It was a pretty hefty pile, but as always, we sprinkled that GG magic and had it all shifted in under 30 minutes – leaving plenty of time for our fitness session. Louis requested we have a go on the mini obstacle course, so we combined it with some sprints and abs work. Tristan's kids even joined us for the last part.

It was soon time to head back. Graham was our trusty back-marker, while Paul kept me company at the front.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was the viennese swirl

Shout out to Damian for this week's pun!

Next week we will be running to Meadway to plant some bulbs in a community green space. Sign up here. We'll then be having some drinks in the pub afterwards. (Feel free to drink water if you don't want beer.)

If you are free on Saturday, we have a mission for you in Kentish Town. Sign up here You'll be helping the Rainbow Trust at a concert!

There's also a mission in Haringey tomorrow, still needs two people. Sign up here

5, 6, 7, …14 steps (That's what it took to build a table tennis table).

Wake me up*

After a warm-up we set off on a riverside route to Transforming Lives for Good (TLG for short). Our run to the river was almost as long as the queue to see Evanescence* at Hammersmith Apollo.

Deborah and James greeted us once we arrived and gave us a rundown of what TLG do. They provide support, care and education to children in need. The TLG school we had come to help out at offers holistic 12 week programmes to help excluded teenagers aged 11-16. These centres are a lifeline, giving them the chance to catch up on missed qualifications, raise their aspirations and provide building blocks for a better life.

Divide and conquer

Our tasks for the night were to put together a new ping pong table and clear a store room of old furniture. A team of four took on the table and the rest quickly demolished the other.

Keeping out of mischief

Both Deborah and James were blown away by the speed the store room was sorted in. James then set about finding other things for the team to help with. This included fixing a shelf to a coffee table and starting to organise another cupboard.

I had planned to take this group off for a fitness session, but suddenly the table tennis team needed extra eyes and hands to find stray screws, washers and attach the table top securely.

Finishing later that usual, but with a brand new ping pong table finally complete we dashed back the short way to home and had a warm down.

Thanks to Debs and Jo for your GG touristing, it was lovely to have you along!

Happy running,
PSB out.

22 brilliant runnners brave the storms to complete TWO tasks in Lambeth

It was a typical June Tuesday - gale force winds and torrential rain. This can only mean one thing: there's work to be done of the gardening varierty.

After a lovely warm up involving drama-based games from John the ACTOR, we headed off in two groups.

Team 1 went to a nearby estate that Loughborough Junction Farm have an outreach programme at. We wiggled our way in to a fantastic allotment space. They needed a path digging from the back to the gates and loads of woodchip spreading over the path. We got to work and managed to finish the whole pile of woodchip and spread it across the whole path. It looked great!

Team 2 headed over to Clapham Common and the friendly Bandstand Beds. We have been clearing an area between the fence and a shipping container over the last few visits. This time the end was reached and a new storage container got put down by a smiling Rich and George - apparently this container used to carry art to the Tate Modern - ONLY THE BEST FOR CLAPHAM COMMON!

With a return to base and some stretches, we all went home to dry off, happy with an excellent and productive evening.

We returned to the place it all began this week, running the 2km to Long Lane Pasture to shovel some compost. We were actually shifting the piles of compost that we created last summer, when we piled up all that cut grass and hay. I did not realise how long it takes for compost to become compost!

We started with a quick intro at the cinema where we all met Luke – give him a cheer for his very first run with us!

With many GG Barnet runners still in Riga, it was great to see we still had such a wonderful turnout for the task at hand. We started off with a gentle jog down to Cherry Tree Wood to warm up on the grass before Heather lead the team towards Long Lane Pasture. Amanda missed Hazel and her portable speaker, telling me running without the GG Barnet playlist just wasn't the same! You can add tracks to the GG Barnet Tunes playlist here.

We arrived at Long Lane Pasture in about 20 minutes – our longest run in weeks! The Pasture team greeted us and showed us our task. Nicola did a wonderful job raking the pathways of catepillars (not real catepillars), which fall from the trees and kill the grass. Luke and Lilian both took a few scratches from the brambles and I was very impressed (and also a little worried) with Amanda's commitment to getting a good team photo at the end. We do have the best photos in Barnet.

We finished up with a running game around a big ring path, before heading back to base.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was homemade cloud cookies and ginger & cinnamon biscuits courtesy of Joanna

I don't know if 'cloud cookie' is the actual name, but Louis and I both agreed that's what it was like eating.

Join us next week for our VERY LAST EVER run to Hammerson Nightingale care home on the Bishops Ave. We will be packing up the library. The home is being knocked down, so this will be our goodbye GoodGym good deed. It's 1km each way.

These are the missions I mentioned today:

Saturday

Allotments in Harringey

Night of 1000 PBs NW5

Sunday

Animal Home NW10

Creos N10

Clear Ms P's Patio N4