Sixteen sweaty goodgym runners ran to help Long Lane pastures a 1.1 hectare nature reserve in Finchley. It is managed by a trust with the aim of protecting wildlife and enhance its biodiversity. We gathered as usual outside the Phoenix to number up and we also nominated our favourite children’s tv program just for fun. Blue Peter and Tom and Jerry gained equal first place in an eclectic grouping. We started off with a gentle warm up jog towards the pastures (not that we needed it at 27 degrees!) . We stopped to do paired exercises and finished just before the Pastures with a gradient sprint. Feeling nicely ‘warmed’ we met up with Wayne who asked us to rake the grass for composting. In the area that we had cleared we then played a game of crab football with two rolled up gardening gloves.( Good for core and arm strength as well as a bit of a laugh!) The scene was idyllic, with the sun just starting to set, so we finished facing the setting sun with some gentle yoga breathing. It was a straight run back for some stretches.

Well done to Sarah and Rob with 9 completed missions already this month. Thanks also to everyone who came tonight it was a lovely evening to do some good.

Next week is a short run to a school why not bring a friend.

Twenty three tree-mendous GoodGymmers ran 5km to Stephen's House to help in the gardens 🌿

Meeting at the Phoenix, we welcomed first timers Vaggelis and Jess to GGB - nice to see you! ✈

We also welcomed back our runners from a stellar weekend of missions and also the Race The Neighbours 10k here in Barnet: well done all 🏅🏅🏅

We set off to Stephen's House with Abi and Laura backmarking. It's about 2.5km so we took it at an easy pace to start with and we scooped up Claire, Jenny and Vicky on arrival.

We met the gardener Peter who showed us our tasks for the evening: Team one litter picking, team 2 sawing through logs and stacking them, team 3 chopping up and condensing branches, team 4 tidying and condensing wood in the yard, and team 5 chopping up a fallen tree. Good thing there were so many of us today!

Using gloves, saws, sequiters and grabbers the teams got to work chopping, grabbing and squashing into bags 💪 You can see the before and after in the some of the pictures above.

After half an hour we had made huge progress and tidied everything up. A massive effort that delighted Peter and will save him loads of time. The gardens do look particularly gorgeous in this weather so it's great to help keep them that way.

After a quick group pic we found some open space and worked on everyone's favourite: sprint drills! We did them with a twist: chests to the floor, the team popped up, sprinted 50m then spun round put chests to the floor and got ready to do it again. With 6 repeats this was tough work in the heat 🔥 Well done everyone, especially after such a physical task as well!

From there it was a nice run back to the Phoenix, then stretches.

Stephen's House have their annual fete on Sunday. They would love some help setting up if you're free - check the missions listings!

Great work everyone! See you next week for more gardening at Long Lane Pasture.