A lucky 13 ladies, hauled ass and grass and tons of mass, for the Willesden Town Team's tube Station Garden project!! HURRAAHHHHH

What can I say but WOOOWWWW WOW WOW WOW WOW The Brent team did not let me down this week after I sent out a call for help and requested many hands on deck for this show-stopping task!

Showing up to tackle the big project on hand was a fierce team of females, demonstrating all the girl power under the sun! Although we were missing our lovely regular lads; Dan, Enrique and Samuel, we had no doubt our girly grit would be enough to do the business!

After warm welcomes to newbies; Nic and Alba, the team prepared themselves for the epic journey..... ermmmm okay, it was literally across the street, however, that short stint did not phase me, as I knew what was in store!!

So the amazing community group - Willesden Town team are a collection of local residents who aim to give back and make Willesden a more pleasant place to live, much like us at Goodgym Brent. What a power-house team we make then! So when they requested our help with some heavy lifting and shifting, how could we turn them down?

The task Willesden Green tube station has 4 platforms, 2 for the Jubilee line, and 2 for the Metropolitan. The Metropolitan trains do not stop at Willesden any more. Consequently there are two platforms where the travelling public do not have access to. These platforms have brick planters on, where the town team garden. Last year, for the first time ever Willesden Green entered the TFL underground garden competition TFL in Bloom, and lo and behold, won the first prize, in the "cultivated garden" section. So with the competition coming up again this summer, they want to retain their position at the top of the league.

In order to do this they must develop the gardens and they currently don't have sufficient organic materials to keep planting. Therefore, Willesden Town Team had two dumpy bags weighing a ton each, one of compost/topsoil, and one of wood bark/mulch delivered at the top of the stairs of the tube!! Here's where we stepped in to help Our task for the night was to help them shovel, bag, lift and shift the compost from street level down the stairs to the platforms, ready for the green-fingered workers to set to planting over the next few weeks.

Now when I tell you these bags were big that is no serious understatement, in fact, they were enormous with a combined weight of 2000kg!!! So with the timer set and the girls ready to begin, we set to work and said Soil long to the streets and down to the depths we did run!

The girls worked tirelessly for a solid hour, shovelling, lifting and then running up and down the stairs to make sure we completed the task on time, with a cleared street at the end! And oh my goodness, did they put in some blood, sweat and tears..... okay tears were of laughter, but still!!!

On average each girl ran 10 trips, carrying 20kg a time down the 34 steps from ground level to the platforms!! All done in a perfectly timed hour. WOW!!!! Now that is some serious strength work right there!!!!

We watched as the bags got smaller and smaller and eventually the compost up top, was down below and the clean-up and sweep was the last thing to go! we were even treated to ice cold waters from Nest cafe next to the station, gifted to us by the wonderful owner Omar! Thank you!!!!

Now despite the incredible efforts, we still had some time to kill at the end of the session...... So, what better way to play out the rest of the day than Racing the train of course I'm not kidding!!! The girls steamed their way up and down the platform racing the jubilee line on the opposite side.... and yes.... of course they won!!! A train is no match for these wonder-women, who even had enough puff left to knock out some tempo runs street level to cap off the night!!!

With stretch and rest time upon us, we marvelled at the epic efforts and anticipation of sore quads in the morning because of all those stair runs!!! But hey hoe urban gardening ain't for the faint of heart, it takes real girl power to show this mulch gumption!

Until next time fitness familia!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

On an evening which was bright, dry and beautiful.... yes that's right.... BRIGHT DRY AND BEAUTIFUL HURRAAAHHHHHHHH spring had definitely sprung when twelve GG bunnys hopped and leaflet dropped their way to 11k. Yay!!

With the task at hand being the bi-monthly all community leaflet drop, usually the fitness vibes that accompanies comes from track attack. However to bring in the new season I decided to spice things up with a newness here too. So, instead of going round and round, we went up and up - hills that is.... but the best hills near by meant we had to bandit our way through to our neighbouring borough of Camden, running 5 jubilee stations on route to boot. All the way to Swiss Cottage and the hill that leads to Hampstead! Pow Pow.

So the 2 mile warm Up turned into a delightful cruise, basking in the last of the sunshine, we whizzed through Kilburn, West Hampstead, up to Finchley Road and beyond to good old cottage of the Swiss. It's safe to say we were working as a team, as no body was left on their..... Toblerone OMG I can't even take Credit for that terrible pun - step forward please Mouse and take a bow!! LOL

On route, as the team paper chased their way along, handing out all the leaflets on route, I on the other hand could not take enough pics. The beautiful blossoms and natural spring colours coming through, beaming out like they were screaming at us "spring has sprung" and it certainly did give us more Spong in our own steps. Glorious!!

Before long we had arrived at check point one - the base of the hill, just behind Swiss Cottage station and with a neat little one mile distance to the station at the top (Hampstead) the team buckled down for a fast paced grind on that oh so steep and taxing incline.

Taxing maybe, but no one paid the price of surrender, as one by one the pack flew into the home straight, just as the last of the light was etching away and the glow of Hampstead tube took over to light our way in(ham)stead.

Back slapping and congratulations of our epic hill dash over, with a swift turn on our heels we were back to it, pacing back down, with gravity on our side this time! Thank good(gym)ness !!

With a speed split emerging and rapid front pack, the team eventually split in two and with Debs and Enrique taking the lead, group one sped off into the night with epic pace. Group two led by me was a Girl Power affair, but with crew love cheering us on, we recharged the old batteries for one final push the last 2miles back to base.... Of course with lots of stops for photo-calls all the way home. Click click flash, the final hurdles we did smash.

And before we knew it the burning lights of walk lane were upon us once more and one final corner turn led us back to the twinkle of The Queensbury and our home once again. Full team recoup, regroup and stretchy stretch, we finished for the night exactly how we'd begun, smiles and good vibes.

A Beautiful night, filled with beautiful people, doing beautiful things. It can only be GG Brent of course!!

See you next week!!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

10 lovely ladies and 1 lucky lad, repped the red tee massive, ran 8k and tasked all the way to Stonebridge Park!! POW POW

Run Report by Samina!!! Today we ran the full and frantic 5 miles, through the streets of Neasden, over the bridge and down the North Circular to our beloved Sufra, community food bank to help with their allotment and community gardens development.

Clare AKA "Mouse in the house:", took the lead on the front pack and guided the group through Neasden with Enrique also near the front pointing out Neasden landmarks in the “Curious Incident of the dog at nighttime” (Oh yes we have all the famous playwrights in Brent DON'T CHA KNOW). Also in Monday's team was newcomer Sabina, back for a second week in a row, regular raucous ravers - sister sledge Tabitha and Deborah, 'lets get a move on Speedy legs' Liz and fresh from her North London half marathon, queen of the medal hoard Sadhana.

Bringing up the rear was Ellie, supporting Ozlen and Thais on there first ever 8k, which they smashed to smithereens!!! Oh yes that's just how we roll in Brent! Badass!

After running down the busy North Circular route leaving the dazzling light and sights of...... ah hemmmmm: Tesco and Ikea behind us, we finally saw the arch of Wembley and turned our last corner to arrive in under 30mins at Sufra food bank where we thirsty bunch were greeted with glasses of water in the kitchen and Liz rightly reminding me that the food including biscuits and bananas wasn’t for us!!!

Within 5 minutes we were guided outside by the always smiling lead of this amazing project - Mohammed. YAY to St Raphael’s garden to collect 50 tyres from around the yard. The team Rolled up our sleeves as well as the tyres and kept rolling, rolling, rolling, in fact, to get those tyres energetically from around the yard, after which they were neatly piled high whilst Enrique and Tabitha tried to video us in action.

Joining us on the task was the resident feline visitor to the site and when the task was done, Ellie stroked its shiny black fur. As for Me-Owwwwwww I just cracked on with the next part of the task - Loading rocks into the wheelbarrows to create drainage for the site. It was a not-so-glamorous job, but someone had to rock it.

and as the other task of collecting the stones was in full swing, Ellie could been seen through the gates lunging desperately trying to exercise her spare tyre away.

We then joined forces outside the gate with Tabitha joking ‘we’re so tyred’ and ah haaaaaa the pun of all puns was born!!! YES!!! So as the team left those tyres behind, we began the last leg of running back down towards the North Circular before parting company with Sadhana and her jazzy new leggings, under the glowing arches of the Macdonalds M. So the rest of us began running all the way back to the Queensbury, where it was laughs, chats, fast-feet and a jolly good(gym) time, all the way home.

Last thing on the menu was one final stretch and wave farewell, ending yet another Magical Monday in wonderful Willesden.

See you next time!!

We had GoodGymmers from all over the place last night.

Bex and Rachel were joining us for the very first time. Lucie was checking us out after completing a Thursday fitness session and Ewa was back at GoodGym after last getting involved in 2015!

Then we had Matt and Chris from Bristol, Heather and Damian from Barnet (who both did wonderfullly at Brighton Half at the weekend), Jacqui also from Barnet, Lewisham and Greenwich regular Tom (shhh, we think he is meant to be with Adele this evening), Ewa from Tower Hamlets, Steve Lee from Camden and wannabe-Islingtoner-but-feels-sorry-for-Camden Frances.

Big news. Last night was Damian's 50th run Go and give him a big cheer.

Aidan took a strong group over to St. Luke's for more planter filling. That is pretty much done now so well done to everybody that has shovelled, wheelbarrowed, shifted and turned over the last few months.

Simon, Graham and Kike took care of the Caxton contingent, whose job it was to yank up all manner of unwanted foliage from the community centre's front garden, especially thistles, which we managed to rid the area of completely.

Yes, we all got wet, but so what? It's almost as though doing good is some sort of water repellent.

Treats for the evening were provided by Simon. Homemade flapjacks. BIGGGGG apologies to those who were off doing a lap of Highbury Fields and missed out. By way of apology I will be baking again next week and this time everybody will get some.

With Pancake Day looming there was only one thing to debate: should we stick to the traditional lemon and sugar filling, go for more exotic stuff like Nutella and banana, or go completely crazy and choose a savoury option? Most did go for modern, fancy fillings but there were a few traditionalists among us. Aidan insisted that it was unacceptable to have only one pancake anyway so you may as well have all the fillings. Go for it!

Next week we have a whopping three tasks and they're all great. Freightliners Farm, Thornhill Square and a brand new adventure at Urban Wild Gardens. Plus of course there'll be more flapjacks Sign up now

Be flippy,
Simon

Like spring flowers, eighteen runners emerged to the relatively balmy 14 degree temperatures of a fine Monday evening in their home patch of Brent, to run 4 miles to the Harlesden Community Gardens and back, bagging up an impressive collection of litter on their way.

It was lovely to see so many people out - we welcomed first time GG runner Sam whose sister had recommended GoodGym to her, keeping the family vibe strong were the Awesome Ananda's times three, Sisters Sledge Tabitha & Deborah, and yet another family affair - Eliza and Tania...

Not to mention the backstreet boys, Enrique, Vojtech and Sam, the girls next door Sadhana (radiant as ever in high-viz), Liz, Samina, Amy, Beth, Steph and Great Aunt Claireybell making sure the family stayed together and no feuds broke out...!

We set off on the two mile run to the Harlesden Community Gardens on a mission for litter, we got gloved up, grabbed some bags and swept the area like a swat team. With so many pairs of hands on the case, we had the place cleared in no time, which meant that there was some spare time for some fun circuits in the playground!

Four groups were formed and each group spent 60 seconds each on:

tricep dips using the benches

jumping jacks

jumping lunges

monkeying around on the climbing frame (not really - working hard on their biceps as they slowly lowered their body weight or swung across to the other side!)

Then it was time to head back towards base, but as we had some speedier runners, they went off ahead to blitz the area around the old Willesden Green police station, whilst the others made their way back at a steady pace, bagging an impressive haul of cans, bottles and other miscellany...

With the streets looking a bit more respectable, we jogged back to the Queensbury for a quick stretch out, and a chat about upcoming events:

A few of us in GG Brent have already signed up for the Richmond 10 mile run on Sunday 4th June, it's not too late to join, and with all this extra daylight for training, what more excuse do you need...?

Also Tough Mudder in May, and for those of you who just wanna have fun of the non-running variety, we will be arranging a post run drink shortly.

Thanks so much for your Bags of Enthusiasm and positivity which helped to make really rubbish night actually really great :)

Lots a love xxx

Three of us arrived at Ms J's house in Avonmouth a touch later than planned having had to navigate around the Trump protest demonstration in central Bristol. Our host and her gorgeous little dog, Molly were waiting for us with some Christmas decorations and clothes to be packed away.

Ms J has mobility issues and keeping on top of things must be a challenge at the best of times, but adding in the Christmas paraphernalia and some well-meaning but unwanted cast-offs from friends had resulted in an extensive array of items to sort through.

Mel (on her first mission - well done Mel!) and Deb quickly took the lead; the decorations were tidied up ready for the loft and the clothes were folded and packed away. Both then gently encouraged Ms J in her efforts to pick out some of the unwanted items for charity and recycling so she had a bit more space to work with in future.

Ms J chatted away throughout our time with her, keeping us entertained with stories of her family and a rather touching poem entitled "The Golden Years have come at last" - google it (warning: explicit lyrics).

Having packed away the recycling and rubbish - and vacuumed up after ourselves - we went on our way reassured that Ms J and Molly will now have a bit more space.

It was all hands on deck, when 18 Brent Goodgymers rolled deep for 5k, in 0 degrees to shovel and roll 15 wheelbarrows of soil, rocks and compost for a Harlesden Town Community Gardens' allotment site. BOOM

Was it cold? - Yes. Was *The Queensbury** and it's open fire inviting us to stick around and chill with a beer or two? UMMMMM Maybe..... *But did that stop us from getting out into our fair old borough of Brent to sprinkle some goodgym charm all over the joint? - Hell No!

Thrown into the mix this Monday eve was a merry band of newcomers - Samuel, Fiona and Vojtech (our new resident chef!!) and of course joining them was my regular squad of lovelies - The Familia Ananda. "Spice up your life" Samina. Sister Sledge Tabitha and Debs. Amy (Pole Fit Goddess) Crawford. Take no prisoners man like Neil. Clairey (Veteran) birthday Bell. All the sass and bringing some Class Liz James. The one and only mouse in the House Clare. Never not smiling Karen and always Awesome speedy Queen Andrea.

Also joining the masses on Monday was one in particular, so happy we were to see for the first time this year was Lucky Enrique back and recovered from a poorly Jan. Also one big fat massive delight for night came in the shape of Sparky Sparkes Irwin a vintage GG Brent original bringing some nostalgic vibes.

So with housekeeping done and welcomes wrapped, we set off into the darkness for our last GG Brent of January. Full speed into the night we dashed along to our how for the night Harlesden Town GardensA green space in the heart of Harlesden where people can grow things, play and learn together while meeting and making friends. Helping the community to grow together this is an amazing community project supported by the Brent arm of the charity Crisis. https://m.facebook.com/harlesdentowngardens

Setting an inspiring pace up front, Irwin proved he'd been keeping up the fitness in honour of his big 2017 return. keeping us all well and truly on our toes for a 7.30min mile pace to base. Wowzer!!

After our very swift cavort we arrived on site and even though we may have been out of puff, we certainly weren't out of energy or enthusiasm for that matter, as we set to mission on the tasks ahead. Waiting for us at the gardens, with his usual good cheer and positive vibe was Gabriel from Crisis who manages the site, dishing out the evening tasks. Before long the team were split into groups and got to work, shifting and wheeling the various piles of soil and rocks to their new homes for use elsewhere in the fantastic community arena.

But while the team were busting it out, I of course (never not one to miss a chance to act the kid) had my eyes on some fitness fun in the playground YAY. So over to the apparatus I did go and breaking off in teams of 4 the crew took turns to join me on the bars for a good old monkey around, practicing all manner of body-weight challenges, in particular testing upper body strength.

We hung, swung and knee tucked our way to a fitness session jungle style, with plenty of Pow Pow along the way!!

With all the excitement and glee, What felt like 5mins of fun was in fact 40mins of graft and even though we wanted to stay (and play) much longer we sadly said our goodbyes and off into the night we flew again.

Staying as a pack we jogged a light foot comfy pace towards Roundwood Park to partake in one last fast fit challenge in the moonlight. Partners squat hold and punch arm challenge, 1 min on and 10squats to rest. Great for muscle condition. Rinse, repeat and don't step on the Shame(dog)poo!!

After the exertions we weren't finished there and after we walking lunged our way towards the gate, there was only one more mile that stood in between us and home. This point in, Enrique took to the helm driving the squad for one last challenge up the infamous "Out of Puffington Hill" Wham bam thank you mam. Eat my dust, now onwards home was a must.

Speedy and agile the team dashed off the last mile with glorious Good(gym) cheer and ample crew love. Even with pace group splits and back markers bringing in the final few, it was a team effort and everyone finished off the night with 5k under their belt, biceps bulging and big fat smiles to boot! HURRAAHHH

Epic night, awesome task and stupendous squad. Just your average Monday night for GG Brent.

Do good. Feel good. Inspire.