This evening we ran around 5km to move coffee grounds from a mushroom farm to a community garden

25 runners tonight!!! Fantastic to see some of the new runners from last week back as well six new runners so a big GoodGym Croydon welcome to Helen, Sarah, Tim, Claire, Iljeet and Kerry - look forward to seeing you all again soon.

We started with our customary group photo – needing to huddle together nowadays as my camera doesn’t have a wide enough lens to take in the whole group. Then off we headed for a warm-up in the nearby car park where we had to dodge a surprising number of workers heading home just as we got started – no collisions luckily. We headed in one large group, ably led by Ellie, Amatare and Andy and back marked by Sally and Rob down towards Reeves Corner to the Reuse Centre where mushrooms are grown and furniture made from pallets. Andrew met us at the corner and explained a little bit about what goes on in this well-hidden plot and then got us to work loading up the van with many many bags of coffee grounds which were heading to Wandle Park Community Garden to help fertilise the earth there. So with 25 runners in a chain(gang) formation we made very light work of moving the coffee and as soon as we’d finished we headed down to the park to help unload. Slight glitch with the key to the park gate not working and with discretion being the better part of valour we decided not to try and climb the fence so carefully threw the bags over for Andrew to sort in the morning.

Lots of time for a fun fitness session in the relative dry of the underpass. Amarate kept the group warm and moving while a few of us laid out the circuit – hopscotch, squats, hill sprints, lunges, chest presses and many more “fun” activities were done for 2 minutes each. We worked on strength, balance, speed, coordination and having fun which they were all very good at.

With burning muscles we finally headed back to Solutions gym for our stretches and a chat about next week’s task and also the GoodGym January Challenge – hope we are still leading at the end of this week. Don’t forget to log your runs during the week so we can stay at the top as all your runs count towards our total.

I just had a quick flick back through some old run reports and apart from our very first run tonight was the largest run ever – Well done everybody.

Our next run is on Tuesday 16th of January - an indoor task!

Third time's a charm.

After our last two planned tasks for the night had got scuppered, we finally had a task no one could cancel. We had a bulk of leaflets left over from a previous week that still needed delivering. These flyers were helping promote Wand's Project that provides support for people affected by the Grenfell Disaster. Gladys at Wand was quick to think on her feet just hours before we were due to meet and asked us to visit the Charecroft and Edward Wood Estates.

Let the festivities commence

There was a festive fancy dress theme for the evening. Ellie worn some fairy lights around her head and Jason had a very striking outfit (see the photos). After getting a group photo in front of the Christmas tree we set off towards Charecroft estate.

We almost couldn’t get into the buildings at first because the don’t allow people in to drop flyers. However once the security guard had heard about the project he was very impressed and allowed us in.

Then with flyers the spare we headed over the Edward Wood Estate, where we managed to deliver throughout Stebbing house .

After that it was once round Shepherd's Bush park before heading back to base. There Jason was crowned best ‘fancy' dressed and was rewarded with a edible Santa trophy. We had a big Secret Santa swap and Justine got the perfect present... a head torch (that will help make the pavements be a bit less treacherous for her knees..).

Festive fun and farewells

There was more festive fun afterwards when we went on to Bill's for a lovely Christmas dinner// December Social. There were crackers, bad jokes and tasty food. Plus, and farewell speech for Will who was moving back up North. Will has been coming regularly to Goodgym Hammersmith and Fulham since he moved to London in April. He’s been a fantastic addition to the gang and will be greatly missed. Make sure you give him a cheer when he comes back for the London Marathon.

This week 13 GG-ers ran 5.6km to help a dementia day care centre tidy up the garden.

We started, as always, at the Phoenix - where two newbies showed up for doc checks, but then ran away (and not with us). Next time!

We then did some quick house keeping, before warming up by the Phoenix. This included many lunges, wingles and hip thrusts. The sort of this Boomerang was made for, really.

It's always a slow burner warming up in winter, but those hills to Hornsey made sure we were at least warm in parts!

Damian lead the way, while Freya was our trusty back-marker. Tonight was Damian's 99th good deed! If you'd like to help him celebrate the big 1-0-0, he'll be doing a mission at Long Lane Pasture on Saturday. You can sign up here

Once we made it to the centre there was a little confusion at first about where the door actually was - the perfect opportunity for the gang to get their squats in while I figured it out.

Poppy welcomed up into the centre, offered the team some juice and water and explained what we'd be doing. Tonight's tools were kindly lent by the folks at Friends of Tottenham Green, as the centre doesn't have any of their own. We split into four teams to turn the soil in the raised beds, chop up a dead bush, pull the weeds from the bricks and collect the fallen leaves.

We'll be helping a few more times over winter to get the garden ready for spring time. This will mean the people using the dementia service will have the opportunity to use the wonderful garden and come outside. Unfortunately the garden becomes a bit too dangerous when it gets overgrown for people with varying mobility - so our help was very much appreciated!

We then gathered for a quick group photo, which Poppy kindly offered to take which means I get to be in it!

It was then time to run home - back up the massive hill!

Nothing like running uphill for over a kilometer to get those legs burning! We all had a little breather at the top before continuing to our next checkpoint, where we stopped and had a mini fitness sesh focusing on glute activation.

We then split into two teams: the speedy team zoomed off with Damian for the final 0.4 miles back to base while the less speedy group stayed with me. My group was doing 9min/miles, but I forgot to ask Damian what his group did. So I'm going to guess 7, because they vanished into the night so fast.

It was then time to stretch it out and loosen the muscles we worked so hard tonight. Followed by Chocolate Bourbons + Some fancy sweets from Moldova courtesy of Eleanor

9 GoodGymers ran 6-7km, delivered 150 leaflets for Syrian Refugee & smashed a fitness session!

Lovely to be leading GG Barnet again, you guys are great! The weather was getting wetter all day, thank you for coming along and doing good - means a lot.

Of course a massive well done to Pennie who conquered New York Marathon last Sunday, absolutely amazing work! Give her a cheer when you see her next Tuesday. In other news:

1. It's the last GG Monthly Drinks of the year tomorrow (Thursday 9th) in Stratford - come along!
2. There is gonna be a GG 2018 Calendar, check it out here on the facebook group.
3. GG Raceteam are taking part in Cross-Country this weekend, three more fixtures in the season if you want to join #RedThunder

Right onto to last night, after our intro and chat about upcoming Barnet missions, like this one, we headed off into the night - taking to the back streets to Muswell Hill and into the residential area close to Ally Pally. Splitting into pairs we covered roads in the area to spread the word about a new Syrian Refuge Charity in Finchley.

The event we were promoting was a Syrian Kitchen fundraiser on 30th November, a lovely local event to help a brilliant cause. With all the leaflets distributed we took a group pic before heading back into the night.

Ally Pally fun!

Running over to Ally Pally the rain was getting a little harder but of course that doesn't put off these hardcore Barnetites. Fitness session included:

• Two sets of shuttle runs using lamposts as a marker
• Squats & balancing exercises
• Distance shuttles, for 10 seconds & then 5 seconds

Always brilliant to do speed sessions in groups! After our 2km run home we stretched out and said our goodbyes. Well done all, lovely wet evenings running & good-doing.

Sign up for Barnet next week here, Pennie is back!

PB out.