Like spring flowers, eighteen runners emerged to the relatively balmy 14 degree temperatures of a fine Monday evening in their home patch of Brent, to run 4 miles to the Harlesden Community Gardens and back, bagging up an impressive collection of litter on their way.

It was lovely to see so many people out - we welcomed first time GG runner Sam whose sister had recommended GoodGym to her, keeping the family vibe strong were the Awesome Ananda's times three, Sisters Sledge Tabitha & Deborah, and yet another family affair - Eliza and Tania...

Not to mention the backstreet boys, Enrique, Vojtech and Sam, the girls next door Sadhana (radiant as ever in high-viz), Liz, Samina, Amy, Beth, Steph and Great Aunt Claireybell making sure the family stayed together and no feuds broke out...!

We set off on the two mile run to the Harlesden Community Gardens on a mission for litter, we got gloved up, grabbed some bags and swept the area like a swat team. With so many pairs of hands on the case, we had the place cleared in no time, which meant that there was some spare time for some fun circuits in the playground!

Four groups were formed and each group spent 60 seconds each on:

tricep dips using the benches

jumping jacks

jumping lunges

monkeying around on the climbing frame (not really - working hard on their biceps as they slowly lowered their body weight or swung across to the other side!)

Then it was time to head back towards base, but as we had some speedier runners, they went off ahead to blitz the area around the old Willesden Green police station, whilst the others made their way back at a steady pace, bagging an impressive haul of cans, bottles and other miscellany...

With the streets looking a bit more respectable, we jogged back to the Queensbury for a quick stretch out, and a chat about upcoming events:

A few of us in GG Brent have already signed up for the Richmond 10 mile run on Sunday 4th June, it's not too late to join, and with all this extra daylight for training, what more excuse do you need...?

Also Tough Mudder in May, and for those of you who just wanna have fun of the non-running variety, we will be arranging a post run drink shortly.

Thanks so much for your Bags of Enthusiasm and positivity which helped to make really rubbish night actually really great :)

Lots a love xxx

13 Strong, tackled 4.5miles and dropped a whopping 200 leaflets for mental health charity Mind. That's one successful Monday and one massive sprinkling of Good(Gym) cheer all over our beloved Brent. POW POW!

At yet another awesome session, GG Brent continued to jubilantly jump into Jan with the third one of the year. The task this week was to hit up the Brent base for mental health charity Mind, collect a batch of leaflets and advertise their upcoming community run which takes place on Thursday the 2nd of Feb at 6.30pm. Easy peasey lemon squeezie..... or so they thought.

The warm up run was cruised in style, 1.7miles through the windy streets of Willesden, past Roundwood Park and up to Harlesden, our home for the night. But soon enough it was revealed that the location of Mind wasn't just the point of pick up, oh no, it just happens to be on the corner of the most perfect grid/block system of roads..... This basically meant that what could have been perceived as just a row of ordinary streets, was in fact the absolute perfect arena for Block Sprints & our outdoor track for the night. Where jog/sprint combos could be carried out, every time a corner of a road was encountered. Tempo training with a twist!! Oh yeah

Wth a successful collect and then total completion of ALL Leaflets delivered, the team continued the paper-chase. Bobbing and weaving through the block tempo track with the added challenge of real deal hurdles via the hopping over of cracked curbs and pavements!

Not once but twice the team annihilated the block sprints challenge, with only motivation and good vibes in the air. With the fitness and tasking nailed,it was heads down for the final Push (and one last stop for a photo pose of course) Straight back to it, the cool down run back to base. Chatting and laughter filled the air as the last of our efforts pounded pavements and our tired legs carried us home.

With The Queensbury at last in sight we finished up, stopped, stretched and said our farewells. Hammy only after as I travelled on the tube home did I realise I'd forgotten to carry out the 100 squat challenge I'd so gleefully promised!! Dammmmm!!! and no one reminded me hummmm I wonder why!??

See you next week for sore bums galore!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE.