A group of Barnet goodgymmers got together near Henlys Corner in North London, at the site of a proposed Tiny Forest, to be planted by the council and environmental charity Earthwatch.

A Tiny Forest is a dense and rapidly growing native woodland in a small area. It will provide a protected habitat for wildlife, capture carbon, filter the air of harmful particulates and reduce flooding and soil loss. You can find out more about the benefits of a Tiny Forest on the Earthwatch website.

This Barnet tiny forest is scheduled to be planted this winter. GoodGym is going to play a big part in this project by engaging the local community to help with planting, fencing, weeding and generally looking after this Tiny Forest over the coming years.

Our first support mission was a straightforward litter pick. We fanned out across the site and got to work, uncovering a treasure trove of trash!

It was a lovely, sunny summer evening and after the litter pick we did some exercise in the fading sun. The group got very excited about the Tiny Forest project. We are all looking forward to taking part in this exciting environmental initiative.

Eleven excellent goodgymmers ran 5k to pick up litter and keep our open spaces looking tidy.

meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Anna who was touristing from Camden and Joanna for her second good deed. welcome!!

it was also our Halloween run aka BadGym which means: spooky fancy dress. we had glowing pumpkins, pumpkin headwear, a zombie, a chainsaw, a shark, and a witch. thanks to Sally in particular for all the dress up supplies and to Vicky in the zombie costume for 100% the most terrifying costume we've seen in GGB.

We are grateful for some funding from NEIGHBOURLY which has enabled us to purchase litter pickers, torches and gloves to help keep Barnet tidy. For our first use of them, we ran to Glebelands, a mixed use open space in North Finchley.

Once there, we divided into teams and got picking. There was loads of litter, particularly in the bushes, and the team did a great job grabbing loads of it. Abi and Sally took particular care of the snails they found grabbing onto some larger bits of litter 🐌

After that we posed for photos: instruction one "look wholesome" (mixed results imo), instruction two "halloween" (judge for yourself).

For our fitness session, we made use of the guided fitness path recently installed by the council in Glebelands. Signs at 50m intervals instructed us to: do star jumps, fast feet, body turns, and single leg balances, with running between. The balancing was fun and a good reminder to work on single leg strength which is very important for runners.

after that we had an easy run back to the phoenix for high fives and stretches. well done team.

next week we're going to st Mary's Church to help tidy the outside space.

D

🎶 https://youtu.be/SOFCQ2bfm 🦇

Seventeen super Goodgymmers ran 5k to post flyers to help promote the Syrian Kitchen 🇸🇾

Meeting at the Phoenix we were joined by Clara for her first ever group run - welcome! Also by tourists from Haringey and Brent respectively Kapil and Beth - thanks for coming!

It was a massive weekend of running for GoodGym so there were cheers for Rob, who completed the Amsterdam Marathon, Abi and Beth who ran the half, Jodie who ran the Hertfordshire Riverside Half, and Katie who ran the Great South Run down in Portsmouth. Give them all a cheer!

Tonight we were helping promote the Syrian Kitchen. they are a brilliant charity that raises money for refugees by putting on supper clubs up here in Barnet with traditional Syrian food cooked by the refugees themselves.

after a quick chat and warm up we headed off to start flyering. dividing into two teams, Katie's team taking one side of the road and Shaun's the other.

we posted loads of flyers throughout East Finchley and stretching over into Muswell Hill. we kept moving at a good pace to stay warm and got through all the flyers in no time.

as we found ourselves in Muswell Hill, it seemed appropriate to have a hill session. Using St James Lane in Muswell Hill, we practiced some running technique using our arms and driving knees before some hill repeats. the hardiest bunch did three goes running hard up the hill, with a slow jog back down each time for recovery. there's no avoiding hills in Barnet and it's a brilliant way to work on becoming a stronger runner.

After that brilliant effort we had an easy run back to the Phoenix for high fives and stretches. well done team.

Next week is litter picking! see you then

D

Fifteen keen goodgym runners ran to Stephens House and gardens to help the gardener Peter. We gathered outside the Phoenix to warm up a chat about our favourite tv programme. We said hello to new runner Anoosheh and congratulated Agnes on her recent half marathon. (Also announced lots of community missions if you can spare an hour or two.) community missions It was a lovely mild evening for a dark run to the task. Taking the back alleys through east Finchley we stopped to do paired exercises, a short sprint up a hill and a sit hold at a convenient brick wall. We also managed to deliver a few leaflets to promote the task venue before eventually arriving at the park. Peter then set us up into groups for litter picking and raking up leaves, in and around the playground, these were then transported for composting. We then had a little time to run down to the house to do some warm up exercises and a hill sprint. Before we left we did the now traditional yogic breathing to re-energise for the 2km run back to the Phoenix. Thanks for coming and doing good it is appreciated! Peter sent the following text ‘Thanks for last night. Great guys doing a wonderful job’

Ed & Andras are now on ten good deeds and Kat has don her first community mission. Give them a shout out!

Fifteen fabulous Goodgymmers ran to Northway Gardens to help the volunteers.

Meeting at the Phoenix Cinema we were joined by our marathon hero Marie who completed the Lyon Marathon on Sunday!! give her a cheer!

As we got ready to leave we discussed our favourite hot drinks (important given the weather): the most popular answer seemed to be Flat Whites (#NorthLondon) but honourable mentions to hot ribena, bovril and chai tea!

it was a nice short run down to Northway Gardens and Brian was on hand to explain our tasks. We would be clearing branches and sticks from the beds and grass and piling it up for collection as well as carrying 27 bags of compost and sand through to the gardens from the road.

it was a lot of hard work, including some very spiky branches, but the team did great shifting all the branches and the bags in super quick time.

after a quick team photo we said our goodbyes and ran back to our 'outdoor track' (a residential road) for a fitness session.

Tonight's was a running session: we ran 1,2,3 laps of hard effort with an easy effort lap in between. everyone did brilliantly and the tired faces at the end suggested some very hard work.

from there it was an easy run to the phoenix for stretches and high fives. thanks for coming team see you next week!

D

twenty two ✌️ terrific GoodGymmers gathered at the Phoenix to run to Northway Gardens to help in this brilliant local space.

In what was quite the busy evening, we were joined by: Joanna and Julian for their first good deeds. Welcome! We welcomed Danny who is on the injury comeback trail, and we were joined by our marathon hero Rob who made it through the Norfolk Coastal Marathon at the weekend despite some particular difficulties along the way. Give him a massive cheer!! It was a particularly blustery, rainy, stormy day so kudos to everyone for making it along.

We quickly posed for a group photo with our flag while we had the light, before setting off to Northway Gardens. I led us down there with the dream team of Sally, Fiona and Danny back marking.

It's a 2k run so we dashed along to meet up with Brian. Northway Gardens are a lovely open space completely managed by volunteers so Brian really appreciates our help in doing some of the heavy lifting so the gardens can stay in great shape.

Today's task was: soil. A car full of soil to be precise. Brian had managed to cram 25 bags of Soil Improver into his car so our task was to: transport the soil to the flower beds, open the bags up and spread the soil around the beds. It's pitch dark in the gardens themselves, so we were pleased to have our giant torches with us which we hung from trees to illuminate our work space and we got going. We used wheelbarrows to shift the bags before opening them up and spreading the soil.

We moved so many bags! But as ever, we showed that many hands makes light work as we got through all the bags and spread all the soil with 20 minutes effort. Brian said the same job took him all day on his own the week before. The power of teamwork in action.

After clearing up and saying our goodbyes, we made our way to the tennis courts for our fitness session. With Danny and Rob doing their best floodlight impression (see photo for evidence) we set about running laps. The workout was: two laps easy, two laps medium, two laps easy, two laps hard, two laps easy, two laps hard, followed by squats and calf raises. There was some hard work and some tired faces at the end. Great work team.

From there is was a simple easy run back to cinema for stretches and high fives. Thanks for coming guys. See you next week.

D