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

26 excellent runners face INCLEMENT WEATHER on way to Vauxhall Foodbank, before completing the stock take in record time and running (swimming) back again

Another Tuesday in July where the weather was against us. The train station warned of inclement weather and they weren't wrong. There was work to do in Lambeth, however, and luckily 26 runners pulled on their running macs and got on board. One of those runners was Victoria, who hit her 50 good deeds - NICE!

We ran the 2.5km down to Vauxhall Foodbank where we were quickly organised into 4 teams. Two teams went with John and Katie to do some core exercises and the other two got to work taking crates off the shelves and getting them weighed, before taking them back to the store room. There was a lot of stock to weigh and we got it done in record time!

On the run home, there were some lovely comedy moments where coaches drove past us and splashed water up to our heads!

It's like being on the log flume! Said Katie

On return, we gathered up our belongings and squelched off into the night, happy with another great week of running.

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

29 hot Hackney GoodGymers ran over 8k to a new project for the group a Well Being garden to help service users dealing with diabetes.

A steamy Hackney evening brought out a great turnout to set our PB total distance for a group run.

Leaving the Bakehouse at super speed with Peter leading strong a recce crew up to Stamford Hill. While the rest of the squad kept a strong a consistent tempo over the 4 and a bit Kilometres.

We met Rose who who manages the house to support her service users who are battling with diabetes. We got stuck straight into the overgrown garden cutting, hacking, weeding, digging to great effect!!

Making amazing progress with limited tools, everyone put in a top shift in 40 minutes of non stop action! We had a couple of slight pauses to rehydrate and refuel on some lovely water melon 🍉!

We made great progress and Rose will sort out some more gloves and tools for our next visit in 2 weeks!

This looks like being an amazing project where we can make a huge difference taking an overgrown waste land into a productive space to grown herbs and plants as well as providing garden therapy for the service users.

Leaving in phases so we could tidy and maximise our working and running time.

While Rich and Phil chased us down with some impressive running the Sexy crew kept a solid tempo to finish off a great run. We were soon met by the rest of the speedy runners after a top all round session!!

Be great to have you all along next week when we continue our summer season helping Bruce the Hackney Park Ranger!

Don't forget about the last couple of Fitness 4 All sessions meeting at Bethnal Green tube at 6:45 on Thursday's June.

We (Phil) have started a Hackney WhatsApp group if you would like join it to hear about socials, group run info, races, parkrun get togethers or anything send me your number and I will add you to the group or see Phil next week!!

Talking of next week we are heading out after the group run for a drink!! Be great to have you along!!

Smooth Running

Joel

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.

If group runs were meals - stay with me here - then last night's in Barnet would have been a picnic. We had a lovely summer evening, we had the famous Barnet biscuit, and we had a task sandwich...

It all began at the beautiful Pheonix Cinema where we said hello to some ace new faces. Give a cheer to Tim, Laura, and Bethany, runners of Barnet! While you're there, why don't you also give a virtual pat on the back to Heather who, perhaps unsurprisingly, is topping the distance leader boards after running the Paris marathon last weekend. What a star! Hat tip to Hazel who is leading the cheers and the good deeds - way to go Hazel.

With Penny away on her hols, we did a head count and at the same time named our favourite biscuit in honour of the erstwhile biscuity trainer - chocolate definitely came out at the top of the rankings. Our task was only a very short run away, so off we set, looking forward to getting stuck in with the lovely Paul and Kim back marking for us. Ah, such hope, such optimism. It was only when we arrived at the Archer Academy ready to start digging a lovely big pond, did we find the building was locked. Tumbleweed skittered across the tarmac. It didn't look good. A quick call confirmed that the Easter hols meant that the school was closed. What were we to do? Luckily Barnet has a crack team of a task force, and after a moment of Damian and Hazel putting their heads together we came up with a plan. Paul still had some leaflets at home from a charity GoodGym had worked for previously - a brilliant sounding organisation called Barnet Furniture Centre that helps low-income families by providing them with affordable furniture. Phew!

We didn't want to waste the lovely quiet spot we found ourselves in and decided to do our fitness session first. It was circuits night, with five stations featuring burpees, sprints, squat holds, planks and press ups. 45 seconds of work, and 15 seconds rest between each circuit was a tough work out but Barnet meant business. There were some high energy burpees, some lovely straight-backed planks, and, well, there was some lying facedown on the tarmac too, but that was proof of a good work out. After a couple of games (Fish! Chips! Chicken??) we set off to deliver those flyers, dividing up into teams to get the job done quick smart. Which we did - in record time. Which meant that we had time for the last part of our fitness sandwich. Off we jogged with Damien leading us to a newly-mowed patch of lawn to bust out some core exercises. They were toughies, and ten minutes later our abs were well and truly worked. With that our fitness/task/fitness sandwich was done, and we had an easy run back to our start location. While we were stretching Paul and Kim told us about the chicken connoisseur - he searches for the pengest munch in London. We had some pretty peng munches with the dark chocolate post-run Barnet biscuits - thank you so much. You guys are some peng runners, Barnet! Thanks for a great night. Next week you'll be helping to spread the word about your lovely start location, you can sign up here:

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-out-the-phoenix

ps did you enjoy running along the streets of East Finchley with a soundtrack of your favourite tunes? I bet you did. Barnet cleverly has a spotify list YOU can add to. Just whack your choices on the list and Hazel will upload them to make a playlist for your next run:

https://open.spotify.com/user/hayzec/playlist/103nlP4rUGeecGerbkW51y

This week saw the return of Team GG Barnet to the BFC to help Jade sand and paint more furniture. We were joined by GG newbie Freya, who has been meaning to join us for AGES and finally managed to come along. Be sure to give her a cheer!

This was our speediest week yet, with the speedy and less speedy groups both breaking records on our return to the Barnet Furniture Centre! Damian lead the speedy lot the 3.7km to the BFC, while (TF) Freya lead the less speedy group. I was our trusty back-marker this week. Hazel treated us to a soundtrack with her brand new portable speaker, playing TONNES of great tunes.

The speedy group beat their very impressive time last week by about a minute or two, while the less speedy group managed to run the 3.7km in just 22.51 minutes – only a minute slower than the speedy group's record last week. I think this means we are getting faster!

Jade and her project managed had a tonne of furniture ready and waiting for us to sand and paint, with the main rule being: leave no drips. Damian, Paul, Joanna and Jody did a fab job sanding outside, making the most of the longer days. Everyone else got to work painting drawers inside. (New) Freya and I bonded over a love for burpees, which I'm sure everyone can relate to.

Once everything was done, it was time to say our goodbyes. With such a speedy time under our belts, and in honour of our new runner, we did some burpees before the run back.

Damian, TF Freya, Paul and Nicola made up the speedy group, while I lead the rest of the team back to base. Chris was my trusty back-marker.

Very impressive 7.4km this week, combined with beautiful upcycling and improved burpees. Good job, team!

Barnet Biscuit of the Week: Chocolate muffins and chocolate crunchy balls courtesy of Hazel!

There's a big mission on Saturday that needs ALL HANDS ON DECK. We're joining forces with GG Haringey to help Grow The World In London and Go Grow get there site near the A10 up and running. Sign up here

Jobs that need doing: Strim and dig for planting plot 1&3; Plant potatoes, onions, broad beans; Build raised beds; Dig and fill 6 exciting raised beds with manure; Clear the greenhouse and re hang the door

Mission starts at 11am.

Next week I'll be in Cyprus with my gran learning how to make halloumi from scratch; but you'll all be running back to Archer Academy to continue work on the pond. Be sure to sign up! It's 500m each way. Great space to play (do fitness) before running back. Anastasia will be leading you in my place.

See you all when I get back!

PS Don't forget about the social this Thursday. Details here