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!

T'was the last Tuesday in November, which meant it was Shit Prize of the Month (SPOTM) time...who was to bag the goodies such as a notebook in the name of Steve Jenkins, some trolley pound things, a pen, an oven timer and a compass? Why, it was none other than task force member and good deeder extraordinaire Vix, who was on her 11th deed of the month and counting. WHAT?! Top work and may your good deeding be recognised by Father Christmas this year.

It was a chilly evening and so after some lovely warming up, we split into two groups.

Team one conducted Operation Rustle - led by Tom Benson....

A crack team of nine of us decided one task was not enough, so decided to double up our duties. First things first we busted into 4 teams and hit Brixton with loads of flyers to spread the word for a cracking homeless charity who believes everyone should get to open a gift on Christmas day.

After operation flyer was done we regrouped and all agreed it was flipping Baltic, so decided to peg it quick sharp down the road to Hillyard House to meet Julie. She had a special mission for us. In the main garden of this residential home she showed us a large pile of twigs and leaves that required moving into a compost patch. Now for technical reasons outside my knowledge, Julie had been told she was not allowed to move them and wait for someone to decide what to do with them. Well Julie was having none of that and so she may have showed us what to do and somehow all the pile ended up moving, as if by GoodGym magic. A lot of it involved piling leaves into a large pink plastic sheet and moving them that way. After we dusted ourselves down and had a group shot we hopped on our good feet and pegged it back to papas. Well done team, Operation Rustle was a clear success!

Team two conducted Operation Hustle - led by trainer Katie....

We split into two groups - those who wanted a 5km round trip to reach Brixton Youth Club and those who wanted to take the shorter 1-mile stretch down Brixton Road. Once we arrived at the youth club, we all knew what to do! There were many, many leaves to be gathered and bagged ready to be taken away. Armed with an assortment of rakes and brooms, we gathered SUCH LEAVES!

With momentary jumping jacks warm up breaks we finished the job and headed back to base for some stretches and then home for a hot shower to warm back up again!

TOP WORK LAMBETH!

This week 13 GG-ers ran 5.6km to help a dementia day care centre tidy up the garden.

We started, as always, at the Phoenix - where two newbies showed up for doc checks, but then ran away (and not with us). Next time!

We then did some quick house keeping, before warming up by the Phoenix. This included many lunges, wingles and hip thrusts. The sort of this Boomerang was made for, really.

It's always a slow burner warming up in winter, but those hills to Hornsey made sure we were at least warm in parts!

Damian lead the way, while Freya was our trusty back-marker. Tonight was Damian's 99th good deed! If you'd like to help him celebrate the big 1-0-0, he'll be doing a mission at Long Lane Pasture on Saturday. You can sign up here

Once we made it to the centre there was a little confusion at first about where the door actually was - the perfect opportunity for the gang to get their squats in while I figured it out.

Poppy welcomed up into the centre, offered the team some juice and water and explained what we'd be doing. Tonight's tools were kindly lent by the folks at Friends of Tottenham Green, as the centre doesn't have any of their own. We split into four teams to turn the soil in the raised beds, chop up a dead bush, pull the weeds from the bricks and collect the fallen leaves.

We'll be helping a few more times over winter to get the garden ready for spring time. This will mean the people using the dementia service will have the opportunity to use the wonderful garden and come outside. Unfortunately the garden becomes a bit too dangerous when it gets overgrown for people with varying mobility - so our help was very much appreciated!

We then gathered for a quick group photo, which Poppy kindly offered to take which means I get to be in it!

It was then time to run home - back up the massive hill!

Nothing like running uphill for over a kilometer to get those legs burning! We all had a little breather at the top before continuing to our next checkpoint, where we stopped and had a mini fitness sesh focusing on glute activation.

We then split into two teams: the speedy team zoomed off with Damian for the final 0.4 miles back to base while the less speedy group stayed with me. My group was doing 9min/miles, but I forgot to ask Damian what his group did. So I'm going to guess 7, because they vanished into the night so fast.

It was then time to stretch it out and loosen the muscles we worked so hard tonight. Followed by Chocolate Bourbons + Some fancy sweets from Moldova courtesy of Eleanor

13 of GG Barnet's finest ran 4km, helped Northwold Rose Gardens & did a pyramid session

On a full moon Halloween evening we gathered at the Phoneix Cinema, welcomed newbie Wendy and talked about the news:

1. Last GG Monthly Drinks of the year next Thursday in Stratford - all details here
2. GG Christmas Party is on Friday 8th December at Battersea Art Centre - costume theme is BLACK & RED!
3. There is an Unofficial Unofficial GoodGym Facebook Group if you'd like to join, it's full of news, races, meet ups and more. Just say your from Barnet in the request and I'll accept you.

Led by Damian and backed by Freya we headed to Northwold Rose Gardens to help Brian with some gardening. This was none of your weeding in the dark lark, our tasks for the evening were follows:

1. Shovelling, wheelbarrowing and laying woodchip around hedges and trees.
2. Emptying out three compost (curry flavoured) bins onto various plants to help keep it rich and well fed.

Splitting into small teams we got to work. Various tasks featured Skelton (Freya), BadGym Rep (Damian) and Death (Paul) - nice one for dressing up guys! Slightly terrifying...

Pyramid session IN the dark!

After 30 mins of spooky graft we were done and went to the dark tennis courts for a pyramid session - 1-2-1 for speed efforts with 1 minute recovery in between. Using the tennis court fences we could work out where we were.

Once we completed our 2km run back, we stretched and handed our treats (no tricks).

Sign up for next week here, I'm covering for Pennie again as she'll be recovering from NYC Marathon - good luck!

PB out

After a speedy intro chat we got outside for a warm-up. Thinking about warming up those ankles, shins, calves and hips.

Following that we headed off on the 1.4km run to Star road and Maystar Estate. The Hammersmith and Fulham Goodgym has been back here a few times this year to help out in both the communal areas and some private gardens of older people who aren't able to care for them. This time we were there to dismantle some broken office furniture that had been left in the community hall and plant some daffodil bulbs in the flower beds around the estate.

After leaving a team of 4 to get going with the furniture lead by Jason; Pauline, the lovely task owner took us on a walk through the large estate to pointed out the flower beds.

Unfortunately, the estate's trowels had gone AWOL so the planting crew had to use the handle end of the rack and hoe to make holes in the ground. The method certainly didn't slow them down.

Actually, both the planting gang and the furniture team got their tasks done in no time, which left us enough time for a nice run back via the river. Thanks for wearing your headtorches!!

After getting back to base and doing a warm down, we all trooped down to The Distillers for our October social. Cheers to everyone that came! Sorry to those that got stuck at work, you were missed!

Helen suggested we do the 10k in Putney on 3rd December. Will you join us? Details and RSVP here

Next week, is Halloween and we're helping paint garden furniture and plant MORE bulbs. Sign up here