Author: Messy Jesse

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Total Eclipse of the Sunrise 6k

Let me start this out by saying one thing.

Whoops.

Turns out I left the SD card in the bag rather than putting it in the camera, and therefore no group photos were captured. That means this morning didn’t happen. No one ran a 6k, our Strava proof is actually a glitch in the software that Paul Leak is working on fixing, and breakfast club 100% did not take over Dogtown Coffee. On a positive note this also means that the prizes we had for your fake times are now fake prizes that can be given out for other random things. read more

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Return of the Padulas (LAX)

Almost 3 years ago, Lauren Padula was visiting from San Diego. We knew she was one of the NPSD co-leaders, but we were unaware that Orrin and Angelo were going to let her experiment with the LAX tribe. Boxing Day 2014 was a massacre. The phrase “deconstructed Sebastian” sounded like music to our ears. Rather than doing 7 minutes straight of burpees, we only had to do 7 individual 1 minute rounds with a little run in between. Well, as with all things that co-leaders say while smiling, it was rough. The boat house looked so close to where we were. Turns out that it is roughly 200m away. Why would anyone think that doing a minute of burpees followed by a 400m sprint would be easy? read more

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Respect

Please take time to read today’s guest blog. The topic is sensitive, and there are bound to be mixed opinions. This is meant to open a dialogue and to ensure that November Project continues to be a positive place for everyone. If you have any questions, concerns, opinions, or whatever, please do not hesitate to reach out. read more

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California Magic

Yesterday morning was incredible. I say yesterday because I’m finally writing this at 2:22am after working all day. A lot of you know that I work some crazy hours, but some of you don’t. I’m not saying this to brag about myself, but rather to brag about you all. Waking up after 3 or 4 hours of sleep is easy when I have the tribe to look forward to. Honestly, you all made my day. I mean that with 100% sincerity too. Without this morning’s workout, today probably would have sucked a bit. That happens when you work a double between two jobs and get home around 2:30am. Today though was amazing! First off, at 5:30 we had Carla. Carla just so happened to be at the TOMS cafe when Elliott was telling a coworker about NP. Carla thought it sounded cool and #justshowedup. Kudos to you Carla for being awesome! At 6:30 I was stoked to see one of my new co-workers show up. I just started a new serving job and naturally I talked about my early morning ritual. Well, as fate would have it I work with an awesome cat named Eugene Kim. That’s right! LA has their own beardless, but still sassy version of Euge! My favorite part about this morning came during breakfast club. Eugene joined us for coffee, and we discovered that he and one of our tribe members, Kris, played high school football against each other. In Baltimore! Suck it Nick Rod! I don’t have much else to say except for this blog is just my way of thanking NP LAX for being fucking awesome! I love you all! read more

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Daddy Day Care

Day One of Mom’s vacation can only be summed up as a major success. None of the kids lost an eye, and I’m pretty sure all of the fun was had! Hidden among piggy back rides and wheel barrow carries was a tough total body circuit. There were burpees, hoistees, push-ups, russian twists, and plank hip dips. The amount of smiles that I saw today combined with the ever beautiful landscape that is Griffith Park was just what we needed. Off balance piggy back rides lead to laughter. Giggling while trying to walk on your hands makes a wheel barrow carry infinitely more difficult. This morning was one of those mornings that reinforced the idea that this is adult recess. read more

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All the stairs (LAX)

295 stairs up. Run around the corner. 220 stairs down. Run around the corner. Repeat for 40 minutes. Simple, but extremely effective! Ninja workouts are some of my favorite because the silent element brings added focus. You tune in to how your body is feeling, you hear every breath, and the rhythm of the pitter-patter of feet hitting the stairs is music to your ears. Joyful tunes for a few of us, and death metal for the rest. read more

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Tongva History

Tongva park is a beautiful gem that boast what are arguably the cleanest public bathrooms anywhere. Nestled in downtown Santa Monica many people have no idea it’s there. Probably because it is across from the Santa Monica pier and on the outskirts of the promenade. What exactly is the reason for the name though? I’m glad you asked, thoughtful reader of today’s blog. The Tongva were the tribe of Native Americans who lived in this area. Even cooler fact that Wikipedia taught me is that they were also known as the Gabrieleño and Fernandeño! These names came from the Spanish missions built near by. Now where have I heard these names before? HMMM…*Lightbulb* THE VALLEY! Now I know many of you are probably looking at the screen with a very confused look on your face. Afterall, the Valley doesn’t have a name other than Shadow Realm, Place that shall not be named, Far AF, Hot AF, No Thank You, or Land of the Casting Couch. Turns out, however, that the Valley does have a real name. There are actually two valleys! We have the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley! MIND BLOWN!   read more

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Run, hill, repeat.

This morning was beautiful. You could see the Hollywood sign clearly, the sunshine was bright with warm golden rays, and the summer air filled our lungs with what felt like clean oxygen. The trail repeats were tough, but there was nothing to complain about. Everyone was smiling, and high fiving. My favorite part was seeing a few people stop and say, “Hey you’ve been crushing it lately, but I don’t know your name.” It made me feel like my early days with the tribe, and how intimidating it could be. Back then it was only about 20ish people, but I still had a hard time figuring out how to be a part of the tribe. I went roughly 5 months before fully feeling like a part of the family. A big part of that was my own doing. I’m more of a shy person, and have a habit of not wanting to “bother” people. Sure everyone said they were glad I was there, but I was dealing with some ish at the time which lead me to being cynical about the sincerity. I still remember sitting on the couch of 4 apartments ago when I got a text message from Angelface. There was a small group going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal, and they had an extra ticket. I went, and that night the nickname #hashtagwide was born. read more

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stairs, Stairs, STAIRS! (LAX)

Well, that was fun. Stair repeats are always a good start to the day. I’ve heard many of you in the tribe mention how you miss #stairsforbreakfast. Now maybe you didn’t know that I was listening to you, or that I cared. However, the truth is that I do care and I definitely listen. That is why this morning we crushed 282 stairs. Over and over again. That’s right, there are 282 of those ridiculous stairs hanging out on the side of a mountain in Culver City, and you climbed up them multiple times. Getting back down to the bottom is a bit dangerous on the stairs, but luckily for us there was a sweet winding trail that went all the way back down to the bottom! read more

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Couple’s retreat with the Dirty B*****

Yesterday was America’s birthday, and I’m sure many of our tribe are feeling it today. That being said, boy did you miss an awesome morning! Like I said, we had a bit of a smaller crew today, but everyone that showed up definitely came ready to throw down! At 5:30 and 6:30 we had hikers, tourists, and even a professional cameraman with a shotgun mic filming us. It may have been a bit startling at first to have a random stranger with a European accent, wearing crazy spikey Chucks get up close and personal while we were grinding out some push-ups or burpees. However, when he would squeak out a good job or this is awesome, it made us feel even more badass. read more