Fifteen fabulous GoodGymmers ran 3km to the cafe in Highgate Woods to pick up litter.

Meeting at the Phoenix, we were joined by Charlotte for her first ever GG run - go give her a cheer! Welcome. We were also joined by GG tourist Alex who has also been in the lake district with team GG over the weekend. My legs are still a bit sore.

After a quick chat we slowly made our way to the park for a warm up. It was gloriously sunny we want to take advantage of it as much as we can! From there, it's a short run over to Highgate Woods and the cafe by the park.

We met the keeper, Cindy, who equipped us with grabbers and bin bags and pointed out the areas that needed attention. Dividing in to teams of two, the team set off around the park collecting litter. Cindy explained that the park area in particular is very popular with dogwalkers, sunbathers and kids parties so there is plenty of potential for litter.

Half an hour later, we had loads of litter and piled it all up ready for the compactor. Cindy explained a bit of the woods history - mentioned in the Doomsday Book, it's an ancient area of woodland owned and managed by the City of London Corporation since 1886 for the benefit of Londoners. Worth a visit we think.

After that we had a quick fitness session: tempo runs, core exercises, a sprint and a lap of the field. Suitably tired, we headed back to base for biscuits and stretching.

Thanks for coming everyone - I'll see you next week for our gardening task at Northway Gardens.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was: Double Chocolate Digestives.

Thirteen keen goodgym runners braved the recent storms to meet at the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley. The heavy rain meant that our scheduled task had been cancelled and a new plan hatched to flyier for Stephens House and Garden Trust. Last time we did this the gardens manager had commented how effective it had been for bookings and income. The storms had finished so it proved a pleasant evening for a 6km run. We warmed up in Cherry Tree woods and discussed our favourite home cooked food. We stormed off at quite a pace to start our delivery’s in Hampstead garden suburb. We stopped every so often to catch our breath with some paired exercises. At one of these stops we noticed that a kindly house holder had dedicated his hedge to Barnet 50 good deeds. (See photo of one of our most decorated runners Damian under said hedge) We finished our deliveries and ran back through the woods to the Phoenix. Thanks to Rupesh and Hazel for back marking and thanks again to Hazel for the homemade biscuits! A great way to finish our run and good deed.

Thirteen lean goodgym runners ran to Stephens House and Gardens to help the gardener. We gathered as usual at the Phoenix cinema for a little warm up and a brief mention of our favourite uk holiday spots. Two new runners joined us so give them a shout. Lisa & Sarah We set off with Jody as the back marker for the 3km run to the park. On route we stopped off for me to give a little historical background of the local area.(thank you for indulging me)With a decent pace we arrived at the park in 20 minutes. We met the gardener Peter at the top of the park (near the extensive children’s playground.)and he outlined our work. We split into groups pulling weeds, loading the trailer and litter picking. The sun was glistening through the trees as we completed our work and moved on to do a short circuit of the park using some of the trim trail. We ran back in 15 minutes finishing with a short sprint and warm down. Home made biscuits finished off a satisfying evening of good deeds, improved fitness, local knowledge (maybe) and ideas for the next uk holiday! Later that evening I received the following text from Peter the gardener who would like us to visit again …. As you know volunteers are a vital part of keeping the garden looking beautiful. I will make sure we have a new box of gardening gloves by then LOL. I appreciate yours and their hard work.