HAPPY MONDAYS All round when a dozen Goodgymers ran 5k, to Kilburn Grange Park for a dose of gardening and an even bigger dose of upper body strength work.

(and yes this is a musical, Happy Mondays band themed run report, in case you get confused LOL)

Despite feeling a little under the weather myself, there were no PILL SPILLS AND BELLY ACHES that could keep me away from my beautiful GG Brent. To kick off the night, I was delighted to see, as well as the familiars, lots of new faces at base camp too! Tanya, Jarshee, Dharmistha and Shanta four lovely ladies ready to push down pavements and give back some goodness to their local community.

Back with our new friends - Kilburn Grange Park, to finish the gardening we started last week, after a warm and fun fuelled housekeeping we set off into the night. With Dan at the helm and me leading from the back, we set off on the first leg of the journey down to the high road, minding not to STEP ON the many cracked pavements and tree roots springing up attempting to hinder our fast pace.

In no time at all we had arrived and BOBS YOUR UNCLE were greeted by the gorgeous AJ with all the tools needed to get cracking straight away YAY

With the last of the SUNSHINE and plenty of LOVE we got to work digging, pulling weeds and raking up the dead leaves to reveal beautiful new soil ready for new planting.

About half way through, there was a HALLELUJA Moment, when AJ brought out 2 trays of deliciously prepared watermelon for the team!!! Amazing!! Stepping away from our Manchester themed music night for one moment of madness it was WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAM When I accompanied the moment with a dose of Club Tropicana on the spotify mix.... (Clairey-Bells request!!)

So joyful our volunteering must have seemed from the outside, that we were suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of local kids questioning and quizzing what we were up to and then.... oh wait - No they were just here for the melon!!!! Of course.

With tummys full and the final countdown upon us we rushed to fill the last of the refuse sacks before said our goodbyes and hot footing it over to the playground for some more fitness fun!! No monkeying around as I guided the team into a series of hanging body holds and pull-ups on the bars and a team challenge of perfect technique press-ups on the grass.

Can we accept the Elle Energy challenge for this week I proclaimed.... 7 press ups every single day until next Monday??? YES WE CAN!!

After the upper-body annihilation, the lower body was back in business, as our legs did the work carrying us back the last 1.5miles back to base camp - The Queensbury. Hills were the last challenge of the night and with hips high and knees driving upwards, the team demo'd perfect skills to battle the last tree roots home and make it back in time for stretches bang on 8.30pm!! WOOP WOOP.

A night of fun fuelled, fruity goodness and fitness fury in the second week of the summer, that's another week rocked in Brent.

Until next time 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Two tasks on this lovely summer evening in Islington.

One group popped up to Whittington Park. Aidan describes:

We arrived at Whittington Park after our longer run down Holloway Road. Our fortnightly task awaited us with Martin ready with bin bags and gloves.

The majority of us tackled the 1 o'clock club's garden as we need to keep up our good work of maintaining a weed and nettle free garden for the kids who use the club.

There was also the task of de-weeding the entrance of the main building, keeping it looking great for everyone!

After working hard for twenty minutes what better way to treat ourselves than with some circuits. Everyone got a chance to pick an exercise for everyone else to do whilst they went on a short lap of the field. Although some of the ladies did get a bit lost along the way! We had all the classics; press ups, sit-ups, planking and two types of squatting for good measure. All before rejoining Holloway Road for our run back.

Aidan

The other group travelled to Barnsbury Community Centre. We've spent a lot of time over the last year helping create a wonderful garden in the disused space behind the centre and we're now just putting the finishing touches to the project for their grand launch on 25th August.

First job was to get gloves out the storage cabinet. Simple, right? Nope. A combination of stupid rain and then stupid heat meant the combination lock for the cabinet had seized up completely. Despite the best efforts of Caroline, Patrick and a pair of pliers it remained stuck. Not to worry: we'd just have to be extra careful.

We spent 25 minutes carrying old pallets and broken bits of wood round to the estate's waste disposal site, having a thoroughly good weed and watering plants. Nice work.

Following the task we played "Dice of Doom" with Simon's new giant foam dice: everybody had a chance to throw the dice and determine the activity that had to be performed for 15 seconds. There were alternate squat thrusts, running high knees, start jumps (LOTS of start jumps), sprints, dreaded burpees (boo) and the elusive jogging on the spot. We then played a game that Caroline made up. Nobody was quite sure what it was.

Back at the pool we had a free stretch, a biscuit and voted on the proper way to eat scones: jam then cream, cream then jam, or Claire's suggestion, butter, jam then cream (which is apparently the traditional Cornish way of doing things)? Jam then cream won by quite a large margin. Some people were disgusted at this - especially Steve - but the people have spoken.

If anybody wants to make scones for next week maybe we could put it to the test.

xxx,
Simon

On a balmy summer evening when most would be forgiven for heading to the nearest pub garden, 13 GoodGym runners ran 7km to help battle the bind weed threatening to strangle an allotment in Stepney.

In a change from the scheduled programming, the evening’s actives were led by James (of soon to be launching Redbridge fame) and Ken (of recently launched Chelmsford). It could have all gone horribly wrong (not really) had it not been for Anna, Patrick and Bryon who, with way over 100 tasks each, are some of the most experienced GoodGym-ers out there.

After a short run down to Stepney and some hunting for the secret allotment, the team set to work. The sun was out and the guns were out as the bind weed was ripped from the fencing around the allotment and vegetable beds. In 30 minutes the plot went from wild jungle to plantable garden and Andy, owner of the allotment, commented that he had never seen such an amazing turn around in such a short time. Boom!

With the hard work done it was time to have some fun. After a short run to Stepney Green Park the team split in to two groups for a bit of relay madness. A 500m tarmac path runs around the outside of the path and the race was to see which team could complete 6 laps in the fastest time. With the sun out the park was busy and runners had to negotiate dogs, slightly inebriated locals and the small hill. Somewhere along the way we lost count of who was winning, so with everyone feeling the burn we decided to make the whole group a winner and head back to base for some light stretching and some water.

Great work everyone. Here’s the night in numbers. 13 GoodGym members, 7kms run, 6m of fence cleared, 5 bags of mulch spread, 2 teams racing each other and 1 brilliant evening. Normal service resumes next week with the lovely Tom back at the helm and the monthly trip to Stepney City Farm.

Miss it, miss out!

Big cheers and welcome hugs for our first timers: Mira, Louise, Lizzy and Alex.

Hot news this evening: we have our very own set of gloves. This means we don't have to always rely on tasks to provide finger protection and can run around doing even more good. Glovely!

There was sooo much good to do this evening spread across three tasks and three locations: Freightliners Farm, Whittington Park Community Association and Barnsbury Community Centre.

FREIGHTLINERS

Steve led the group over to Freightliners Farm. Here's his account:

10 goodgym runners set off the 1K to Freightliners Farm, smack in the middle of Islington, to perform our usual function. This week it was all about clearing and recycling. We started by filling a skip with discarded soil and extra large and heavy lumps of concrete. Dangerous work but we soon polished it off. After that we recycled masses of pre-used timber into either 110 or 120 centimeter lengths using measuring tools, marker pens and handsaws, whilst another group got to grips with an unruly hedge and whipped it into shape. As ever, competition reared its ugly head and we were soon having timed saw-cut races. Sawing technique improved massively over the hour and upper body strength was increased. We finished by feeding the goats and going ahhh quite a lot! Just another Monday down on the farm.

Steve

WHITTINGTON

Navigator-extraordinaire Graham was leader of the WPCA bunch who were lucky enough to take the brand new gloves. Here's his description of the evening:

On a muggy Monday night, nine GoodGymers went for a 7k run to weed and tidy the garden at Whittington park.

Following a route there almost entirely straight along Holloway road, there was no way we could lost, right? Well, sort of. After taking a 'creative' route down Hornsey road, we added on an extra 0.5k or so - always an adventure!

Still managing to arrive at the task just about on time, we then met Adrian who let us in to tidy up pesky weeds at the park's 1 o'clock club.

Weeds were removed, chats were had, and our brand new gloves were thoroughly tested out. We also discussed possibly the most contentious question at GoodGym - what counts as a weed? Following 25 minutes of solid work, we managed to fill several bags full of weeds - good work team!

Successfully managing to run back the way we should have run initially, we threw in a good intervals session round Emirates and a couple of hill sprints to finish the evening off in style. More good, more running - standard Monday night!

Graham

BARNSBURY

Simon explains what went down at Barnsbury:

Nine of us bobbled over to Barnsbury Community Centre. There's never a shortage of soil at the centre and tonight was no exception.

Gloves donnned, of course, we spent a good 25 minutes or so shovelling and wheelbarrowing (and even dragging) tons of the stuff. Great upper body workout. We worked so hard that a couple of the wheelbarrows gave up before we did. Rock 'n' Roll!

The ring around the famous centre-piece (where all the soil came from) was looking a little patchy and bare, so we each grabbed a couple of handfuls of grass seed and scattered the goodness around. We possibly over did it, so it'll be very interesting to come back and see the jungle we created in a few weeks or so.

Goodness all done it was time to do some fitness. We had a cone relay race, then we had a handicap cone relay race (my team lost so results are irrelevant) and on the way back to the pool we played the only game that is fit for a journey back from Barnsbury Community Centre: secret surges! Then a little work on our technique (run tall! run ninja!) before destroying ourselves with a high-knee/lunges combination. Phew.

Simon

DEBATE

On such a glovely evening it only seemed right to debate something glove related. Are fingerless gloves stupid? Some people thought so, but reckoned that the padded variety for cycling were fair game. Quite a few agreed that those gloves that are fingerless but have a detachable mitten bit were brilliant. Put to the vote, the large majority said that they were fine. So, there you have it. May your palms stay toasty and your fingers frosty.

BISCUITS

What goes in gloves? Biscuits. I mean Fingers, so we had a special treat with some chocolate fingers. Yum. Even better than this Graham - fresh from WINNING Man vs. Horse as part of the fastest mixed relay team - had brought along a few mini-buckets of posh biscuity treats. And Beth is going to MAKE biscuits next week. Biscuits!

Remember that glove is all need. See you next week,
Simon

Brand new task this evening at Freightliners Farm!

We welcomed first timers Ben, Pippa and Christina, read the news and then did a backwards head count. Steve's idea. What's more amazing than Steve having a good idea is it actually worked, counting all the way down from 37 to 1.

With all that stuff done we scurried off to the farm as one gigantic group on possibly our shortest run to a task ever.

The enthusiastic Liz of Freightliners met us there and since there were a whopping 37 of us divided us into various smaller groups.

We set about various jobs for 20 minutes or so. One group shovelled ____ *, another did some weeding and sweeping, others carried and shifted packs and stacks of hay and a small group painted a wall. As usual we got loads done in a short amount of time. As we put the call out for people to start wrapping up there were come confused looks and questions. "Isn't it a bit early?" Yes, it was early, but that's cos the best bit was about to begin: putting the animals away :-D

There were sheep, goats and a couple of cows to move from fields to pens. The problem with animals is they can be a bit cheeky and try to go where they're not supposed to. For this reason you need a HUMAN WALL! Most of us blocked off various gates, exits and openings while a few other fearless folk got hands on and helped direct the animals from A to B. Tip o' the GoodGym bravery cap to Rebecca who doesn't let goats get the better of her.

The cows were very well behaved. The goats were cheeky little buggers, running this way and that, trying to chew on the cherry tree and climbing up things. The sheep were a bit confused at first, but when Caroline started bleating they all followed like sheep.

Animals all put away, hands washed and group photo taken, we zoomed off to Emirates Stadium for the first "monthly" time trial for 5 months. There were so many of us we did it in two waves. Fastest lady over the line was first timer Pippa in a joint women's record of 2:40. Can she beat it next month? Fastest geezer was Hugh with 2:15.

Nice work everybody. We'll be back next month, or maybe in five.

Just enough time for a animal-shaped biscuit before jogging (apart from that hard run up the hill) back to the pool.

Something must have been in the air because on our cool down back down the other side of the hill Steve and Meredith started racing each other, then John and Jackie joined in, then loads more. Maybe this sprint down the hill should be a thing. It seems more fun than running up them.

So, the debate. Last week we all voted and decided on this week's debate. The big question: should headphones be allowed in races? Answers:

• It's dangerous and distracts
• I always train with music and it'd make races boring if I couldn't
• During a race you don't want to be distracted by music. Better to focus on the race

We put it to the vote and it looked like "no headphones" won, but then we shouted louder and loads of people that were distracted for some reason joined in with the vote and the winner was a yes for headphones.

We have three tasks next week. See you there,
Simon

• Sorry, had to censor this out, cos you're not allowed to say "shit" in a run report.

The good weather clearly brings high spirits as an impressive 32 of us met up at the usual spot. The reguIar runners were delighted to see some new faces, both to Good Gym and to the Tower Hamlets group. To warm up, we set off on a gentle 2.5k jog down to Stepney City Farm where we were greeted by Simon who had plenty of tasks to divvy out. One group set off to shift some hay across the farm, merrilly jogging their wheelbarrows along. Another picked up some pitchforks to aerate a field, while the remaining few turned compost and shifted rubble.

On the way back, we split into three groups. Alison led the first down the canal at a more leisurely pace, Tom took the medium group through Mile End Park for some hilly intervals and Andy steered the final group at a dust lifting speed. We all met up again at base for a final cool-down stretch.

Isabel