What an awesome bunch you are - the coldest night of the year so far and we get the most runners we've had (with me as trainer) this year! Amazing.

Record turnout!

We did our intro inside, for obvious reasons, and welcomed Lloyd and Asha to their first group runs. We also took the opportunity to congratulate Liz who was doing her 50th good deed tonight! We're looking forward to seeing her rocking her black tshirt - well done Liz - go give her a cheer everyone!

With the weather being so cold we decided that we'd try to spend as little time as possible outside and so we got ourselves ready and then headed off to Brent Mencap.

On our arrival Ann, the director, took us up to the room we'd be clearing and told us about what Mencap does, a little history about the building and what the other residents do in the building. We were clearing up a bunch of old things that had been left behind when Brent Mind moved out of the building, there was a fair amount to do and we had to get it down two flights of narrow stairs but we're GoodGym Brent we were up to the task.

Everyone got to work right away and Ann had barely showed me where we were moving all the stuff to when we had some boxes packed up and ready to be stowed. We got the whole room packed and cleared, cleared some outside shelving and with the help of Ann's tool box even got a big table down the stairs too. With everything done Ann had very kindly prepared some Mencap bags for us with some info and a free tshirt! The biggest winner of the night, however, was Danny who found an old camera that he was able to rescue!

Gifts!

With group photos done we headed back into the cold with Ann's 'thank you's' ringing in our ears and made the short journey back to base. Apart from a few prison squats for some of the group and the trainer losing himself from everyone (oops, sorry!) we had a largely uneventful trip back.

Such a great effort by all in the cold, thank you, and lovely to have a few of you stay behind for a drink too.

See you all next week when we should be helping the Canal and River Trust - sign up here!

Cheers, Pritesh

A Sensational Six, met this very cold Saturday morning to bring in the year with style.

Change of address Kilburn station was the chosen meet point today on this first for January starter session. Showing up was an impressive seven soldiers who were pumped and prepped to learn more about our Brent brigade.

After a welcome, which did a decent job of warming up our cockles, we set off on the mini jaunt of 0.4 miles down the high road to Kilburn Grange Park, where our hosts from Kingsgate Garden Club awaited us.

King of Kings AJ our excellent lead for the task was ready and waiting upon our arrival, is the manager of the Kingsgate Garden Association. A super organisation of community volunteers who work hard to preserve little plots of land across the park. They are hoping to enter one particular plot into the Chelsea flower show next year, so it needs some serious all year round tending to.

Straight to work Without wasting any time at all, the team had rakes and hoes thrust into their hands and got straight down to work with the first fifteen minutes blast of super speed raking, filling 2 giant bags in no time at all!

Fitness Fun Break out time, for some fitness fun to be had. Starting with 2 laps round the 400m track, with a lovely little speed progression at the half way point. Next up - Walking lunges, squats and partner held squat punches for 1 minutes intervals. Which by the way the team absolutely smashed to pieces like champs!!

Finished there? Leaf it out!! After the break out fitness fun it was back to work and for the final blast of leaf raking and soil hoeing which the team carried out in speedy time, like a set of Goodgym Pros. One last challenge was drag the 4, yes 4 full bags of leaves over the fence and into the compost. Just goes to show many hands make light work and what could have been a laborious task, was done and dusted in 25mins flat.

Joining the squad After the session it was back to Kilburn for a cool down jog and stretch. Thanking the team for showing up and showing out on such a cold first weekend in Jan, I couldn't have been happier with the excellent group. So hoping we've secured a few new members of our team, I saluted the troops and invited them to the next Monday meet! Hope to see you all there as well!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE