We ran just under 3km to collect donations for this Saturday's Bring and Take event in Surrey Street Market

Last week we delivered around 50 leaflets to local houses asking them for donations to the Bring and Take event in Surrey Street this Saturday - the leaflets explained what the event was and asked residents to have a bit of a spring clean and leave their donations by the front door for us to collect tonight.

After a quick warm-up we headed to the Park Hill area to meet Andrew who is organising the event and he brought his car to transport what we hoped would be an enormous pile of donations. So up and down the streets the runners went but sadly only got two bags of donations although I did get a call from a nearby friend who said her bag had been missed so that brings our grand total up to 3. Hopefully some of the leafleting promoting the event we did a couple of weeks ago will prompt people to bring their goods down on the day.

This did of course leave us with quite a lot of time to either do more running or go home.... so obviously we chose more running! The first exercise was a timed lap of the school which is approximately 750m. The idea was to maintain a hard but steady pace and to remember it's NOT a race. With the ground being a bit slippery I made sure the finishing straight was on the flat and not down hill because inevitably it does get a bit competitive. Most of the runners who have done this before ended up with PBs and there were some impressive times. I'll be sending your times through later in an email. That still left us with quite a lots of time so hill sprints followed by squats, press-ups and tricep dips were enjoyed by all!

Welcome to Freddie and Cleo who came out for their first ever GoodGym run and also to two GoodGym tourists - Paul from Wandsworth and Harriet from Bromley. Lovely to meet you all and hope to see you again.

Next Tuesday evening’s run will by led by Ellie and will be in Thornton Heath Rec - have fun!

This evening we ran around 5km to deliver charity collection bags for the British Heart Foundation

Chilly, chilly, chilly is the only way to describe tonight but yet 10 intrepid and well-wrapped up Croydon runners still braved the temperatures and met up at Solution Health and Fitness for tonight’s task. It was difficult to leave the building and head off into the night but we off we went for a short jog and warm-up before splitting into five groups to deliver the charity collection bags. Taking care to avoid dogs, “No Junk Mail” households and well sprung letter boxes we delivered around 500 bags in super quick time and all met back up again.

As we hadn’t run very far we went for a run and then headed to the subway where we used the stairs for some training. The first couple of rounds were easy - jog up the stairs, sprint along the pavement and then a gentle run down the ramp to the stairs again. It got harder after that though…… squatting jumps, two steps at a time and the version that tested coordination and concentration – a combination of squats and two steps at a time. Good for the legs and gluts and keeping warm too!

Next Tuesday evening’s run will see us heading for a longer run of 6 to 7km to a community allotment where we will be helping build a raised bed. to Birdhurst Community Gardens.

This week 16 wonderful GG-ers ran 4.5km (ish) delivering booklets for our fabulous hosts, The Phoenix. Most were kitted in their Santa hats / outfits, with Graham even riding a reindeer. Paul came armed with extra outfits, including a Santa dress – which Hazel wore with pride.

We were joined by GG newbie tonight, Heather – who moved to London to marry Shawn! Give them both a cheer!

After a quick warm up by the side, we ran off up the hill. After about 1.5km of running, we split into teams and began the leap frog flyering. Damian took one team, while I took the other. We had four bags full of the booklets – and as ever, made quick work of the lot!

Then it was time for a quick fitness session, starting with squats, burpees and lunges; and finishing with a race to 100 step ups on the curb. Graham was the speediest, very quickly followed by Sarah.

Damian then lead us back to base, while Freya and Rupesh took charge of the back-marking.

We then did all the stretches before heading upstairs at the Phoenix for our Christmas celebrations. There were many snacks, some even homemade, and a surprise appearance from Eleanor.

Tonight was Danica's last GG Barnet run before she leaves the country forever (or for ages) to go traveling. Give her all of the cheers and the virtual hugs

Thank you all for a wonderful year of GG Barnet-ing. Next week will be our final run - but I won't be able to make it. You'll be guest lead by the wonderful Camden Paul. See you all in the NEW YEAR!

This week 13 GoodGym-ers ran 5.7km to help Muswell Hill Food Bank weed, vacuum, mop and wipe.

We started with a few warm up drills along the side of the Phoenix that I learnt from the NBMCR middle- and long- distance coach Steve Vernon at the New Balance HQ last week. Nicola was a pro at these straight off the bat!

With our legs all warm and our numbers all counted, it was time to head off towards Muswell Hill. Hazel kept me company leading the pack, while Chris was our trusty back-marker.

On arrival we were greeted by Aimee and Deborah, who dished out the tasks before everyone got to work. We had an outside team weeding the patio, an inside team vacuuming and mopping the floors, a window team wiping the windows and Sarah was a team all on her own cleaning doors.

While all this was going on, a couple practiced their wedding dance inside. Deborah treated us to some bananas.

Once all the working was out of the way, it was time for a few strength drills. Walking pause lunges to improve balance, core stability and single-leg strength, bear and crab crawls to improve core, quad, glute and shoulder strength, and kicking squats - again to build that single-leg strength. Running is a series of single-leg jumps, so you really ought to make sure both legs are holding their own if you want to avoid injury, run faster or ran further.

We then ran back to base, with Nicola helping me lead the way and Freya our trusty back-marker. With Chris and Shawn hot on our tails we ended up running up the hills faster than we ran down them on the way home, which made no sense but was fantastic for everyone's legs and lungs and general levels of awesomeness - so good job!

This week's Barnet Biscuit: Chocolate fingers, courtesy of Freya

This week's pun, courtesy of Damian.

It's Freya's birthday next week, so there will be cakes and merriment to celebrate on Saturday. You can sign up here

We need a couple more volunteers for gardening at the Westminster Drug Project on Saturday. Sign up here

There's also a mission to help Mrs F on Saturday and a mission to help Grange Big Local set up their community festival on Sunday.

Headtorches were donned and black cats were met as Lambeth carried out two tasks and loads of work at the Portico Gallery and Hillyard extra care home! Plus BREAD WEEK in Bake Off

We had a new task this evening, supporting Hillyard House extra care home. They support older residents who may have mental health or physical difficulties to live out their old age in a fulfilled way. The site has a lovely garden and GoodGym was tasked with creating a SECRET GARDEN towards the back of the site. We had to sneak around behind some shrubs and then clear an area that would be hidden from view by hedges. Residents will be able to explore this new garden and hopefully enjoy the peace and quiet. Armed with saws, secateurs and all manner of other garden implements, we set about this fun task. Soon, huge branches were appearing from the undergrowth and the compost pile became a mountain of old shrubbery. Rebecca Nellis got seriously busy sawing down an old tree and in 40 minutes we had cleared a massive area and swept up for good measure. The task leader Jenny was just delighted, as were some of the residents who came out to watch our work. We ran the 1km back to base and did some strength work before stretches.

The second group took the 8km round trip to the Portico Gallery. John Hunter tells all:

14 of us went up to the Portico where another member of John’s family empire, Sholto, was deputised to instruct us on moving piles of florist’s tables from one bit of the yard to another. After we nailed the table task, it was onto a Portico stalwart - the soggy tarpaulin. We made a human chain to do this. Passing this down the human chain made everyone sad, but then Methusulah the cat came along to visit each person in the chain like at a wedding or funeral, except it was definitely more like a wedding by the end of Methusulah’s visit because everyone was so happy.

Sholto said “I am happy because that would have taken me all afternoon to do that”. And he was happy too.

Sadly John H's camera went into meltdown so the lovely snaps got lost, but here they are described in words:

1: A variety of people looking sad because they got dripped on by the tarpaulin

2: Elise werking the “I’m not currently doing anything” look

3: Elise carrying a bit of fence

4: Sholto standing proudly by his work lamps

The brilliant Jack and Beth also completed a mission with the run time - clearing a garden so an older person can enjoy it. Brill!

On return to base, everyone enjoyed Katie's Bread Week offering after Flo really screwed up her Captain's Treasure Trove last week. OH FLO! We tucked into some delicious cinnamon buns and headed off into the night. TOP WORK.