Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 15: David Siik, Creator Precision Running at Equinox

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Episode 15: David Siik, Creator Precision Running at Equinox · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:01
Speaker 1: Hey, Handler's Emily here. The last time I checked in
0:04
Speaker 1: with you, I had just gotten back to New York
0:07
Speaker 1: City from a few weeks at travel, and now while
0:10
Speaker 1: I feel like I have been just as NonStop in
0:13
Speaker 1: the city as I was on the road. Also, it
0:16
Speaker 1: is scorching hot here, as in you can't go a
0:20
Speaker 1: full weekend day without incorporating either a movie theater, extreme
0:24
Speaker 1: air conditioning, a swimming pool or beach into your plans. Thankfully,
0:28
Speaker 1: my day today involves some poolside time at the beach
0:31
Speaker 1: at the Dream Downtown, which means, hopefully I'll be able
0:34
Speaker 1: to avoid melting for just one more afternoon. On today's episode,
0:38
Speaker 1: I sit down with David Seek in Los Angeles, California.
0:42
Speaker 1: He is the creator of Precision Running at Equinox, a
0:45
Speaker 1: wildly popular treadmill running experience out of the luxury fitness
0:49
Speaker 1: gym which also owns fitness brands Pure Yoga, Blink Fitness,
0:53
Speaker 1: and Soul Cycle. Now with two standalone Precision running labs
0:57
Speaker 1: in Santa Monica and Boston, and more than two hundred
1:00
Speaker 1: instructors certified in his method, called the Balanced Interval Training Experience.
1:05
Speaker 1: Some days David has to pinch himself that he started
1:07
Speaker 1: something that's become somewhat of a could favorite, but it
1:10
Speaker 1: didn't happen overnight, as a lot of great things don't,
1:13
Speaker 1: And in fact, David dreamed of running professionally for a
1:17
Speaker 1: career after college. In this episode, you'll hear exactly how
1:21
Speaker 1: he felt when he realized he had to pivot and reevaluate,
1:24
Speaker 1: explaining that in his mind, an athlete dies twice, once
1:28
Speaker 1: for real and once when they stop competing in their sport.
1:31
Speaker 1: I know I have a lot of runners that listen
1:34
Speaker 1: to the pod, so please, I want you to listen
1:36
Speaker 1: to the end every time, but especially today, stick this
1:39
Speaker 1: one out. David's got really smart advice for getting over
1:42
Speaker 1: the mental hurdles a lot of us face on those
1:44
Speaker 1: mornings we just don't think we've got it. In the take,
1:47
Speaker 1: he also talks about the mantra that it's not important
1:50
Speaker 1: how hard you go, It's important how you go hard.
1:54
Speaker 1: Interesting stuff. As always, check out Hurdle on social at
1:58
Speaker 1: Hurdle Podcast, Instagram, Twitter, email me if you need anything
2:02
Speaker 1: just want to say hi Emily at Hurdle dot us
2:05
Speaker 1: and check me out on Instagram at Emily A body
2:08
Speaker 1: a B b ate. That's it. Let's get to hurdling.
2:27
Speaker 1: Sitting here today with David c he's the creator of
2:30
Speaker 1: precision running at Equinox. So happy to be here with
2:33
Speaker 1: you today.
2:34
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
2:35
Speaker 1: Also pretty happy that we're in that beautiful Los Angeles,
2:39
Speaker 1: A nice little shift from my usual New York grind.
2:41
Speaker 2: I would say, it is nice.
2:43
Speaker 1: We're at the Line Hotel and we can see the
2:46
Speaker 1: Hollywood Sign right now, so it's not so bad.
2:48
Speaker 2: I'm staring at her.
2:49
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for coming in today. Before
2:53
Speaker 1: we get going, why don't you talk to me a
2:54
Speaker 1: little bit about what precision running is for someone who's
2:57
Speaker 1: never been to an Equinox club.
2:59
Speaker 2: Okay, precision running just very simply is like a track
3:04
Speaker 2: and field type of experience that happens indoors on treadmills.
3:08
Speaker 2: Got so it's a lot of kind of the flow
3:12
Speaker 2: in I would say focus of track and field. So
3:15
Speaker 2: it's a little bit more focused interval running class, but
3:19
Speaker 2: it has that athletic edge to it, but it's still
3:21
Speaker 2: fun and really accessible to everybody, and essentially precision running.
3:26
Speaker 2: The reason it's call precision running is because it has
3:28
Speaker 2: the exactness in programming that a high performance running program
3:33
Speaker 2: would have, but it has a really unique formula and
3:36
Speaker 2: a metric that makes it accessible to all levels, even walking,
3:39
Speaker 2: for example. You can even walk precision running.
3:43
Speaker 1: So there's different levels that you can tackle precision running at.
3:46
Speaker 1: And like I could be running on the treadmill at
3:49
Speaker 1: say like a six miles per hour, and the person
3:51
Speaker 1: next to me could be maybe jogging at five miles
3:54
Speaker 1: per hour, and it's the same kind of structure for
3:56
Speaker 1: both of us.
3:56
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. And that's actually the centerpiece of precision.
4:00
Speaker 2: And we have this thing called the PR the one
4:02
Speaker 2: minute Personal record, and it's a new metric. And when
4:05
Speaker 2: I designed the program, I wanted to keep things authentic
4:10
Speaker 2: to running, to performance running, but also I wanted to
4:13
Speaker 2: do what was right. I wanted to do what was
4:16
Speaker 2: emotionally right for people. And we're all runners. I mean,
4:20
Speaker 2: there's no there I say this all the time. There's
4:22
Speaker 2: no such thing as a bad runner. There really is,
4:24
Speaker 2: And everyone says that I'm a terrible runner. I can't
4:26
Speaker 2: take a treadmill class. There's no such thing as a
4:28
Speaker 2: bad runner. There's ways to do it better. But instead
4:32
Speaker 2: of saying beginners, intermediate or advance, which is a very
4:37
Speaker 2: easy coaching model, which is why it exists a lot
4:39
Speaker 2: in fitness for treadmill classes. I get it. It's it's
4:43
Speaker 2: an easy way to coach a class, and it's a
4:45
Speaker 2: easy way for a taker to say, Okay, I'm going
4:47
Speaker 2: to put myself in one of these three categories. But
4:49
Speaker 2: here's the truth. There is no such thing, and we're
4:52
Speaker 2: all going to be quote unquote beginner someday by speed values,
4:56
Speaker 2: but that's not true. You're not a beginner after the
4:58
Speaker 2: moment you were a toddler and you learn how to run.
5:01
Speaker 2: So what precision Mind does is it makes it one
5:05
Speaker 2: hundred and ten percent focused on your potential. So everything
5:08
Speaker 2: is based on your own personal records. So there can
5:12
Speaker 2: be three people next to each other. One person's top
5:15
Speaker 2: speed that they can handle is ten miles an hour,
5:18
Speaker 2: one person's is seven point five, and one person's is six.
5:23
Speaker 2: And if the workout says start two point zero below
5:27
Speaker 2: your pr everyone has their own scaled version based on
5:31
Speaker 2: their top potential. So it keeps it really safe and
5:33
Speaker 2: it creates it sets up everybody for success.
5:36
Speaker 1: I feel like there's this whole mystique around Equinox, and
5:39
Speaker 1: you say Equinox, and people think like beautiful gym up
5:44
Speaker 1: eucalyptus towels, like everyone's wearing black and looks super great.
5:48
Speaker 1: I mean, you look super great.
5:49
Speaker 2: I think.
5:51
Speaker 1: So I feel like from someone that maybe doesn't live
5:54
Speaker 1: in a big city like us, like Equinox is such
5:56
Speaker 1: a commonplace, But do you feel that there's like some
5:59
Speaker 1: sort of like mystique around the gym?
6:04
Speaker 2: I do. I do, and I think there was for me,
6:08
Speaker 2: Like the first moment I walked into an Equinox. I
6:11
Speaker 2: lived in New York and had not a lot of money,
6:13
Speaker 2: and Equinox was a little bit outside of what I
6:16
Speaker 2: probably could afford at the time. But I walked in
6:19
Speaker 2: and I had just come off of raising in college,
6:22
Speaker 2: and I was so inspired when I walked into that space.
6:25
Speaker 2: I had never seen anything like it. I'd seen the
6:28
Speaker 2: YMCA with a bunch of broken equipment in my town,
6:31
Speaker 2: and then you see that, And for me to be
6:35
Speaker 2: inspired at the place where I'm gonna work hard, it
6:38
Speaker 2: meant so much to me that I I was a
6:41
Speaker 2: member for I was a member for seven years, and
6:44
Speaker 2: that money was the best money I ever spent on myself.
6:47
Speaker 2: Every day I showed up, it was worth it. So,
6:50
Speaker 2: but that mystique, that part of it is there's it's
6:53
Speaker 2: such a it's such an interesting ecosystem, Like there's really
6:57
Speaker 2: so many layers of thoughtfulness that goes into an Equinox club.
7:01
Speaker 2: It's not just the beautiful kind of architecture and design,
7:06
Speaker 2: which we have such talented teams that do that, but
7:09
Speaker 2: all the things underneath it, like the front desk, how
7:12
Speaker 2: they manage themselves and how they treat you and stuff
7:15
Speaker 2: like that. You put that all together, that's the mystique.
7:17
Speaker 1: Right, and so you walk in and you feel like,
7:20
Speaker 1: all right, I'm about to get into something really special exactly,
7:22
Speaker 1: and that's awesome.
7:23
Speaker 3: It makes you want to go to the gym, it
7:25
Speaker 3: makes you want to work for the gym, and if
7:27
Speaker 3: you want to work for the company. I'd love to
7:29
Speaker 3: give a little background about how you got started running
7:32
Speaker 3: when you were younger, because you've been running for quite
7:34
Speaker 3: some time.
7:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much my whole life. But I really didn't
7:38
Speaker 2: start running seriously. I mean I was little when I started.
7:41
Speaker 2: I was like seven eight years old. But the reason
7:44
Speaker 2: I started running is because it was the only thing
7:46
Speaker 2: I was good at. I mean literally, I was the
7:47
Speaker 2: worst I played football. I played basketball. I did all
7:50
Speaker 2: the things my brothers did, but I was terrible. I
7:53
Speaker 2: was the kid that I hit in the face of
7:54
Speaker 2: the football. I was afraid of the baseball. I shot
7:58
Speaker 2: the basketball at the wrong basket. I was that kid.
8:02
Speaker 2: But I won the you know when you jump over
8:05
Speaker 2: the milk crates, like on the football field in like
8:08
Speaker 2: fourth grade or something. It's like one race down the
8:11
Speaker 2: football field and I won, and I was like, oh
8:13
Speaker 2: my gosh. I was not a cool kid when I
8:15
Speaker 2: was little, So it was the first time I had
8:17
Speaker 2: ever experienced being really good at something. And then, you know,
8:21
Speaker 2: the bully stuff that a lot of kids dealt with,
8:24
Speaker 2: it didn't exist in that place. Running for me, I
8:27
Speaker 2: was like, Wow, no one made fun of me. I won,
8:30
Speaker 2: somebody pat me on the back. It was the first
8:32
Speaker 2: time I really felt like that was my thing, and
8:35
Speaker 2: so I latched onto it and I became obsessed, obsessed
8:39
Speaker 2: with obsessed, And I mean I was the kid in
8:42
Speaker 2: northern Michigan. The up of Michigan is first of all,
8:46
Speaker 2: it's a very special place with special people, and I
8:48
Speaker 2: mean that with humor. But we have like nine months
8:51
Speaker 2: of winter. We have this horrific winter We're the only
8:54
Speaker 2: state actually in the US that has different high school
8:56
Speaker 2: track finals because our winters are so long. Wow. So
9:00
Speaker 2: but I used to train myself when I was like
9:03
Speaker 2: eight or nine years old with broomstick. I would set
9:05
Speaker 2: up broomsticks across my dad's like shop like sawhorses for work,
9:10
Speaker 2: and I would just practice hurtling. And I had no videos.
9:13
Speaker 2: This is back in the day, no videos, no personal coaches.
9:16
Speaker 2: I just had a picture of a hurdler and I
9:18
Speaker 2: had to figure out on my own how that person
9:20
Speaker 2: got over the hurdle.
9:21
Speaker 1: Can you give me a little time sense here? What
9:24
Speaker 1: is back in the day to find back in the day?
9:27
Speaker 1: Back in the day, so this would be this would
9:29
Speaker 1: be late eighties. Okay, yeah, you're just hurdling. I'm just
9:32
Speaker 1: hurtling in my alley behind my house.
9:35
Speaker 2: And so my brothers like, of course, I couldn't get
9:37
Speaker 2: any weirder to my brothers, who were, you know, busy
9:40
Speaker 2: practicing basketball for for whatever else. But yeah, there was
9:43
Speaker 2: David in the back alley and all my neighbors knew
9:45
Speaker 2: me jumping over broomsticks, like starting to figure out how
9:49
Speaker 2: to be a hurdler based on a picture I tore
9:51
Speaker 2: out of a magazine. It just looked really cool to me.
9:54
Speaker 2: But I also ran. I was the kid that I was,
9:56
Speaker 2: the little four st gump that ran all over my
9:58
Speaker 2: little town of Nagani and and just I just worked
10:04
Speaker 2: really hard. And like I said, I when you're from
10:07
Speaker 2: a small town like that, you don't have access. Like
10:09
Speaker 2: I meet kids now who have personal running coaches in
10:13
Speaker 2: high school, and I think to myself, I had nothing,
10:16
Speaker 2: you know, I just had to figure it out and
10:17
Speaker 2: I had to work hard, and that's all I could
10:20
Speaker 2: figure out.
10:20
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've talked about how you got into running.
10:23
Speaker 1: You kept running throughout high school, and then you went
10:27
Speaker 1: to college and you did it there as well. Correct, yes,
10:29
Speaker 1: all right, so what were your races?
10:31
Speaker 2: So I started as a hurdler. I was known in
10:33
Speaker 2: high school as a hurdler and four hundred meters basically,
10:37
Speaker 2: and that was my thing is I did really well
10:39
Speaker 2: in high school and I won. I was like, I
10:42
Speaker 2: was the up state champion. So a lot of people
10:44
Speaker 2: make fun of that because we have a Lower Peninsula
10:46
Speaker 2: Michigan state champion and an Upper the only state that
10:49
Speaker 2: does that.
10:49
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you what up stood for
10:51
Speaker 1: an hour on the same page the Upper Peninsula.
10:54
Speaker 2: So there was like dueling victors in the state of Michigan.
10:57
Speaker 2: So but I did well enough that I was convinced
11:01
Speaker 2: that this was my ticket. I was going to go
11:04
Speaker 2: really far with running. And so I put it in
11:06
Speaker 2: my heart and I put it out there in the world,
11:08
Speaker 2: and I was going after it. So I chose a
11:11
Speaker 2: college that had really good science and had a really
11:15
Speaker 2: strong athletic program that I wouldn't get lost in the shuffle.
11:19
Speaker 1: So did you have an interest in science from growing
11:21
Speaker 1: up as well?
11:22
Speaker 2: Always? Yeah, and the science of running too. Like I said,
11:25
Speaker 2: I was mostly self coach. I had a great high
11:27
Speaker 2: school coach, but I was mostly self taught, and I
11:30
Speaker 2: was really into how the body moves and how you recover.
11:32
Speaker 2: And I started to figure that stuff out very young,
11:35
Speaker 2: and so I naturally gravitated toward running science and things
11:38
Speaker 2: like that. So I went to Grandville State, which I
11:41
Speaker 2: know is super biased, but is it is literally the
11:44
Speaker 2: best kept secret in the US universities. It's a big school.
11:47
Speaker 2: Actually a lot of people don't know. They have close
11:49
Speaker 2: to thirty thousand students.
11:50
Speaker 1: That's a lot. I did not expect you to say that.
11:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's huge and it's so beautiful. Yeah, this campus
11:56
Speaker 2: is just incredible, but they have a really top notch
11:59
Speaker 2: athletic program.
12:00
Speaker 1: So when you were running in college, and I guess
12:03
Speaker 1: in high school, when was like the moment that you
12:06
Speaker 1: realized that you weren't just enjoying yourself running, but you
12:09
Speaker 1: were actually really, really good at it.
12:11
Speaker 2: Well, my first year of college was not easy for
12:13
Speaker 2: me because I came in as a hurdler and I
12:17
Speaker 2: wasn't cutting it as I wasn't excelling as quickly as
12:21
Speaker 2: I needed to do. The hurdles get higher in college
12:23
Speaker 2: and I struggled with that, and then my coach I
12:26
Speaker 2: made the one colossal mistake a track and field athlete
12:28
Speaker 2: makes is I was convinced to run the eight hundred
12:32
Speaker 2: meters the half mile, which is like, I think it's
12:35
Speaker 2: the dragon of track and field. It is a horrific race.
12:37
Speaker 1: Why is it a horrific race?
12:39
Speaker 2: It's on average, it's the maximum distance I think a
12:42
Speaker 2: person can can endure, almost sprinting. Before you go into shop,
12:47
Speaker 2: you go into oxy data stress, you start to really struggle.
12:50
Speaker 2: And anyone who's ever raced the half mile, they've had
12:53
Speaker 2: that feeling of like it is so difficult. It's such
12:56
Speaker 2: a tough race because it's eighty percent speed and eighty
13:00
Speaker 2: percent endoorans and you have to train for both. So
13:02
Speaker 2: half wils often have the longest training seasons. And so
13:08
Speaker 2: I was convinced to race the eight hundred meters one time,
13:11
Speaker 2: and I made the mistake of doing a good job,
13:14
Speaker 2: and the rest of my running career was the eight
13:17
Speaker 2: hundred meters because of that. But I did well enough
13:20
Speaker 2: out of nowhere that I was like, maybe this is
13:24
Speaker 2: really truly going to be a career choice for me.
13:27
Speaker 1: This is interesting. So what you're saying is typically a
13:30
Speaker 1: runner either is really good at quick things or they're
13:35
Speaker 1: really good at endurance things, and this particular race combines
13:39
Speaker 1: the both of them exactly.
13:40
Speaker 2: And that's a lot of people forget that. Everybody in
13:43
Speaker 2: track and field knows the sprinting category and the distance category,
13:46
Speaker 2: but if you're not in the track world, you might
13:49
Speaker 2: not know that there's a third genre that not any
13:51
Speaker 2: people talk about, which is middle distance, and middle distance
13:55
Speaker 2: is an actual category. It's the eight hundred meters is
13:57
Speaker 2: kind of the iconic race, but there's a few other
14:01
Speaker 2: like the fifteen hundred meters, the mile that are considered
14:03
Speaker 2: mid distance, but it's a it's a really interesting category
14:08
Speaker 2: that not a lot of runners choose to run. They're
14:10
Speaker 2: either they're just built for them and they accelerate at them.
14:14
Speaker 2: And that's what happened to me.
14:17
Speaker 1: So what give me a sense of how fast you're running?
14:20
Speaker 1: The s eight hundred meters.
14:22
Speaker 2: So in like for college, you want to raise, I
14:26
Speaker 2: would say, and again there's different divisions, but you're racing
14:31
Speaker 2: under two minutes for sure.
14:32
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Yeah, it's this crazy. I actually recently
14:36
Speaker 1: had Dina Castor on the podcast and Dina was telling me,
14:40
Speaker 1: I think her mile split for a marathon is it's
14:43
Speaker 1: like five fifteen.
14:46
Speaker 2: That would be really fast, but she is, she's quite
14:49
Speaker 2: the ass.
14:49
Speaker 1: I know it's underd I want to say that Dina's
14:52
Speaker 1: mile split, it's definitely under six minutes. She told me that,
14:55
Speaker 1: and I feel like I was staring at her and
14:57
Speaker 1: my mouth dropped. And I'm re experiencing that with you
15:00
Speaker 1: right now because that means, I mean, obviously you can't
15:03
Speaker 1: sustain under two minutes for the full mile, because that
15:06
Speaker 1: would be a four minute mile, and that is mind
15:08
Speaker 1: blowing to people who run a four minute mile.
15:10
Speaker 2: Under four minutes. Now, oh my god, I know it's
15:13
Speaker 2: gotten insane. Human beings are just like such interesting creatures.
15:17
Speaker 2: We keep getting better.
15:18
Speaker 1: And it's also, I mean the technology that I feel
15:20
Speaker 1: like we have assists that as well.
15:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's technology, it's also culture and attitude and things
15:27
Speaker 2: like that. It's very very competitive, totally yeah so but yeah,
15:33
Speaker 2: but honestly, under two minutes is there's high school kids
15:36
Speaker 2: that run under two minutes. Wow, they're really good. Ones.
15:38
Speaker 2: In college you have to run nder two minutes basically,
15:41
Speaker 2: But the low fifties are considered good. In the high
15:44
Speaker 2: forties like a minute forty five to a minute fifty,
15:47
Speaker 2: And I was in the higher end of the one fifty.
15:50
Speaker 2: But that's the category that's considered good. And then you
15:52
Speaker 2: got the professionals who are running under one forty five. Wow,
15:56
Speaker 2: those are really fast.
15:57
Speaker 1: Butos so you're running sub to eight hundred meters and
16:02
Speaker 1: you're loving it and you truly feel that this is
16:06
Speaker 1: this is your m O, this is your mission. These
16:09
Speaker 1: science classes are great, but what you want to do
16:12
Speaker 1: is run professional.
16:14
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah. And I my thing is I was like
16:18
Speaker 2: I was like a closet athlete, Like I went to
16:21
Speaker 2: a Division two school, and there's that nostalgia of a
16:24
Speaker 2: Division I athlete is your best chances of getting sponsored
16:27
Speaker 2: or becoming a professional athlete. There are quite a few
16:30
Speaker 2: Division two runners that become professional athletes, So it wasn't
16:32
Speaker 2: completely unrealistic, but it was I could never have told
16:38
Speaker 2: my friends and my family that, hey, I really want
16:40
Speaker 2: to be like I really want to run for a career.
16:42
Speaker 1: Or that's so interesting that you felt like you couldn't
16:45
Speaker 1: be candid with them about that. Did you think they
16:48
Speaker 1: weren't going to be supportive of that type of path.
16:51
Speaker 2: I think they would have been supportive. But in my head,
16:53
Speaker 2: I being a doctor was so much, so much more
16:56
Speaker 2: impressive and in my like I said earlier, I've known
16:59
Speaker 2: for for a long time that I could I could
17:02
Speaker 2: be a doctor. The running thing would be a really
17:05
Speaker 2: serious challenge for me. Just there's a limit of talent
17:08
Speaker 2: that you that you have or don't have. And I
17:11
Speaker 2: think because I knew that there was going to be
17:14
Speaker 2: that limit, I was I was doing the easy out,
17:18
Speaker 2: like I may not make it, So I don't want
17:19
Speaker 2: to tell anybody. I don't want to confess that I
17:22
Speaker 2: want to like make it. Sevent date to the Olympic Trials,
17:25
Speaker 2: like I wanted to run a one forty five eight
17:27
Speaker 2: hundred meters row, right, I believe that I could do it.
17:30
Speaker 1: When I sat down with Liz Poster, she's the editor
17:32
Speaker 1: in chief of Woman's Health magazine, and she was telling
17:34
Speaker 1: me that when she goes into a race, she has
17:36
Speaker 1: like three goals, one like she talks about publicly, one
17:41
Speaker 1: she talks about with like only her close friends, and
17:44
Speaker 1: then one she doesn't tell anyone. And usually like that
17:47
Speaker 1: one that she doesn't tell anyone is what she's really
17:49
Speaker 1: aiming for when she runs a race. I think that's
17:51
Speaker 1: so funny. It's like what you're talking about here, with
17:54
Speaker 1: what you wanted to do with your career aspirations, It's like,
17:56
Speaker 1: maybe subconsciously, I'm just going to be really phenomenal and
18:00
Speaker 1: you're all going to be so blown away.
18:01
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. It's surprised. But I also think it's
18:04
Speaker 2: a personality trait. I think that some people are just
18:08
Speaker 2: by nature are cautious about overstating things and kind of
18:13
Speaker 2: and that was for me for sure, because I wasn't sure.
18:15
Speaker 2: I wasn't confident that I was going to be able
18:17
Speaker 2: to make it, and so the last thing I wanted
18:19
Speaker 2: was to say, hey, everybody, watch me make it, and
18:22
Speaker 2: then you fall short.
18:24
Speaker 1: Right, I totally hear you. So you're nearing the end
18:26
Speaker 1: of your senior year and you've been running in college
18:29
Speaker 1: all four years, and you have this idea that you
18:33
Speaker 1: want to continue. When does it either come to fruition
18:39
Speaker 1: or not come to fruition?
18:41
Speaker 2: Started it started to happen right kind of at the
18:46
Speaker 2: beginning of my senior year. I had a good ending
18:48
Speaker 2: to my junior year. A lot of college runners will
18:51
Speaker 2: peak or meet their potential during their junior year, even
18:56
Speaker 2: sometimes their sophomore year. Not a lot of seniors get
19:00
Speaker 2: better and better and better toward graduation. So I fell
19:03
Speaker 2: into that smaller category where it just started to click
19:05
Speaker 2: for me. I just started to take time started to
19:08
Speaker 2: melt off, and then I remember I raised our conference
19:13
Speaker 2: championship in our region and I broke our school record,
19:18
Speaker 2: which was the oldest school record that we had left
19:21
Speaker 2: and it was a goal of mine, and so when
19:24
Speaker 2: I broke it, it was a big change in my speed,
19:26
Speaker 2: my time. So I was I was like, WHOA, the
19:29
Speaker 2: time's just coming off really quickly, and I qualified for
19:32
Speaker 2: nationals all of a sudden, and then I was going
19:34
Speaker 2: to go to Nationals and I was ranked, and all
19:36
Speaker 2: these things happened really quickly at the end of my
19:39
Speaker 2: senior year, which is really rare. So that momentum was
19:44
Speaker 2: building into my senior and then that kind of dream
19:47
Speaker 2: kind of became a little bit more real at the
19:50
Speaker 2: probably the worst possible time, which is right when you're
19:52
Speaker 2: about to graduate college and have to live a life.
19:55
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's that's the moment where I thought, sure
20:00
Speaker 2: that I.
20:01
Speaker 1: Can continue to but you're getting better and better, so
20:03
Speaker 1: what stops you from going on with it?
20:07
Speaker 2: There was a moment my last race. Basically there was
20:11
Speaker 2: the pressure building up to the National Championships. That was
20:14
Speaker 2: to be my last race in college, right, but I
20:16
Speaker 2: had expectations for myself, and I think my coach had
20:19
Speaker 2: expected I know that my coach had big expectations. Right
20:23
Speaker 2: when somebody takes off time like I was, you you
20:26
Speaker 2: can almost be that Rudy story, like you have that
20:28
Speaker 2: potential that you're going to show up at the National
20:31
Speaker 2: Championships and you can be rank seventh where you could
20:33
Speaker 2: break the national record. You could all of a sudden
20:35
Speaker 2: keep taking me. If I took off two more seconds,
20:37
Speaker 2: I would have won Nationals, and it would just that
20:41
Speaker 2: little change would have made a big difference. So I
20:44
Speaker 2: went into that last race at the National Championships expecting
20:48
Speaker 2: to shock the world. And I was feeling tired before
20:54
Speaker 2: the race, and I was maybe emotionally spent. I was
20:58
Speaker 2: emotionally spent. I was so nerve and so scared. And
21:03
Speaker 2: the gun went off, I've got two laps to finish
21:06
Speaker 2: the race, and I do what I always did. I ran,
21:09
Speaker 2: and then something around the three hundred meter mark left
21:12
Speaker 2: of the eight hundred meters is where that's where I
21:15
Speaker 2: would make my move. That's runners make different moves, but
21:18
Speaker 2: mine was always right there, and I remember making my move.
21:22
Speaker 2: I was like, here it comes, I'm going to blow
21:24
Speaker 2: everyone away, and I made my move. I shift my
21:27
Speaker 2: gears like I always did. But something was off. And
21:30
Speaker 2: it wasn't just one race. I was racing against the
21:33
Speaker 2: fastest kids in the country, and it hit me that, like, Okay, normally,
21:40
Speaker 2: I'm like rocket fuel right now, but guess what, everyone
21:44
Speaker 2: else has the rocket fuel too. And I struggled to
21:47
Speaker 2: pass the people like I normally did, and then I
21:49
Speaker 2: remember going into the home stretch and honestly, it wasn't
21:53
Speaker 2: even about winning. It wasn't about a record, it wasn't
21:55
Speaker 2: about it wasn't about anything other than I realized that
22:01
Speaker 2: I may have reached my greatest potential. And I thought
22:05
Speaker 2: to myself in that last fifty meters, I started crying
22:08
Speaker 2: before I crossed the finish line. And some runners do this,
22:11
Speaker 2: they know, they just know it that it's their last race,
22:14
Speaker 2: even if they did try to do more afterward. And
22:16
Speaker 2: I crossed that finish line, and I remember, I'm a
22:19
Speaker 2: very sensitive guy. I'm like the most emotional guy ever
22:22
Speaker 2: to begin with. But I went down to my knees
22:25
Speaker 2: and I just I started crying. And it wasn't because
22:27
Speaker 2: I lost the race. It was because from those moments
22:31
Speaker 2: of running over broomsticks in the alley. So I'm gonna
22:33
Speaker 2: cry right now. Oh goodness, nobody can see me. But
22:38
Speaker 2: I remember. You know, when in that moment you remember
22:42
Speaker 2: everything you remember eighteen years or you know, fifteen years
22:47
Speaker 2: of going after a dream, you remember every minute. In
22:51
Speaker 2: five seconds, you flash through everything you've ever done to
22:54
Speaker 2: get there. I mean, I remember crossing the finish line
22:57
Speaker 2: and just collapsing, went down on my knee and had
23:01
Speaker 2: my cry. I had my good cry, and I remember
23:03
Speaker 2: looking up at my head coach and I had the
23:05
Speaker 2: such a privilege of having one of the best college
23:07
Speaker 2: track coaches in the country, and I remember looking at him.
23:10
Speaker 2: The name is Jerry Baltus. He's still the head track
23:12
Speaker 2: and field coach there, and it was that look of like,
23:15
Speaker 2: ye gave it your all, but you know it didn't happen,
23:18
Speaker 2: and it was just so defeating that that was my
23:21
Speaker 2: last race. It wasn't my best race. I didn't get
23:24
Speaker 2: better in that last race, and that was supposed to
23:26
Speaker 2: be the big one, and everything you were for in
23:30
Speaker 2: this is like this is the nature of running and
23:33
Speaker 2: trying to run professionally. Is that, like I said, your
23:35
Speaker 2: careers are defined by tenths of a second, not just
23:39
Speaker 2: winning actually making a team or getting a sponsorship or
23:44
Speaker 2: the performances are seconds. It's not how many layups or
23:47
Speaker 2: how many points you scored. It's literally time, which is
23:51
Speaker 2: such a specific thing that anyway, So I it just
23:57
Speaker 2: hit me like everything you work for comes down to
24:02
Speaker 2: a few seconds, and so that's what it was for me,
24:04
Speaker 2: and I wasn't prepared for it. And a lot of
24:06
Speaker 2: college and I have such compassion for college athletes, because
24:10
Speaker 2: if you go to that level of discipline and working.
24:17
Speaker 2: My closest friend told me he was a Division one
24:19
Speaker 2: basketball player for the Navy. He played for Navy, he said,
24:21
Speaker 2: he said to me, you know, an athlete dies twice,
24:26
Speaker 2: once when they actually die, and first when they play
24:30
Speaker 2: their last game or they run their last race. And
24:32
Speaker 2: it's so true of every single college athlete. That last event,
24:36
Speaker 2: that last race, that last game. You'll never forget it.
24:40
Speaker 2: I still remember the back of the guy that was
24:44
Speaker 2: in front of me and how I couldn't catch him,
24:46
Speaker 2: and I hold on to that for years, that what
24:48
Speaker 2: what did I not do right? What could I have
24:50
Speaker 2: done better? And and so that moment just I wasn't
24:55
Speaker 2: prepared for it. I was in denial. And then that
24:58
Speaker 2: that was a as simply as I can say it, it
25:01
Speaker 2: was a wake up call that nope, David, you did
25:04
Speaker 2: not run one minute in forty five seconds.
25:07
Speaker 1: And so so this is affectionately your hurdle moment, so
25:13
Speaker 1: to speak. Totally you you start to understand that you're
25:18
Speaker 1: not going to leave college and keep running. You have
25:21
Speaker 1: this death of sorts, and how does that feel? It's devastating.
25:27
Speaker 1: I mean you you.
25:29
Speaker 2: Walk around moments after that and I and you know,
25:32
Speaker 2: track is several days, so I had to sit and
25:34
Speaker 2: support the rest of my teammates for day two. It's hard,
25:38
Speaker 2: I mean it's and I really put a lot of
25:43
Speaker 2: belief in I was going to be able to continue.
25:45
Speaker 2: I was gonna do something special. So you're stunned. I
25:49
Speaker 2: think every athlete is stunned. No one is fully prepared
25:52
Speaker 2: to finish something that they've worked so hard for for
25:55
Speaker 2: so long. And so I was a stunned. I was upset,
26:01
Speaker 2: I was I was angry. I was really angry. I
26:04
Speaker 2: was mad at myself. I tried to think of what
26:07
Speaker 2: didn't I do right over the years, and I looked
26:11
Speaker 2: the part, you know, I was a really lean, very fit,
26:15
Speaker 2: very well trained runner. I looked the part classically, I
26:18
Speaker 2: had great running form. I didn't have anything other than
26:25
Speaker 2: a potential. And that's that's what you know, and that's okay.
26:28
Speaker 2: All the years later, I realized that reaching your greatest
26:33
Speaker 2: potential is actually a beautiful thing, even if it's not
26:37
Speaker 2: the potential that other people have. And that was the
26:40
Speaker 2: hard part for me, is that I was comparing myself
26:43
Speaker 2: to everyone else, like why my potential is not as
26:46
Speaker 2: good as other people's potential. But as time went by,
26:49
Speaker 2: I realized that at least I knew what my potential was,
26:53
Speaker 2: and I will all and I sit here now, and
26:56
Speaker 2: I feel so satisfied because I did know what my
27:00
Speaker 2: potential was. I left it all on the track.
27:02
Speaker 1: So what happens then? What happens do you decide you're
27:06
Speaker 1: going to be some sort of scientist? Do you use
27:09
Speaker 1: the college degree?
27:11
Speaker 2: I went to full rebellion mode. Yeah I did, Yeah,
27:15
Speaker 2: I You know. The thing is, I had told everybody
27:18
Speaker 2: I was going to be a doctor because I thought
27:19
Speaker 2: it was impressive and I love science and I love school,
27:22
Speaker 2: I love academics, but I never really it was never
27:24
Speaker 2: in my heart, and I didn't. I felt I would
27:26
Speaker 2: be a bad doctor if it wasn't in my heart.
27:29
Speaker 2: So I took my amcats, I deferred my results, and
27:33
Speaker 2: I say, forget it. I'm going to do something outrageous
27:35
Speaker 2: I never had in my whole life. I was so
27:37
Speaker 2: disciplined since I was young for my running, and so
27:41
Speaker 2: for me, the most outrageous thing for me to do,
27:43
Speaker 2: coming from a small town and then going to a
27:45
Speaker 2: Michigan school is I'm going to go to New York City,
27:48
Speaker 2: and I'd never been, never traveled, never just postcards and
27:53
Speaker 2: a couple flashes on TV. So I did it. I
27:56
Speaker 2: couldn't even afford a plane a ticket.
27:58
Speaker 1: How'd you get there?
27:59
Speaker 2: Train?
27:59
Speaker 1: Oh? Oh, that's a long train ride.
28:01
Speaker 2: I had somebody drive me to Ohio because I couldn't
28:05
Speaker 2: even afford a train out of Michigan because it was
28:07
Speaker 2: like thirty dollars cheaper or something. So I had it
28:10
Speaker 2: was so so poor, and I had all my bags
28:13
Speaker 2: completely so naive on what New York City was, way
28:18
Speaker 2: too many bags. Can't hardly carry them.
28:20
Speaker 1: You can't even go to the grocery store and come
28:22
Speaker 1: back with more than two bags.
28:23
Speaker 2: Ye, it's true. So I got on the train and
28:28
Speaker 2: I was excited. I needed an adventure to kind of
28:32
Speaker 2: help soften the blow. And part of me was still like,
28:35
Speaker 2: I could have a re emergency running. I'm only twenty
28:38
Speaker 2: what twenty two? I can still go after this? So
28:42
Speaker 2: I thought I need a fresh start, I need to
28:44
Speaker 2: have an adventure, and so I moved to New York
28:47
Speaker 2: with no money and no expectations. I just was not
28:50
Speaker 2: going to use my degree. That's the only expectation that
28:54
Speaker 2: was my only expectation. It was. It was because I
28:56
Speaker 2: didn't want I was still holding on to find if
29:01
Speaker 2: running wasn't going to be my passion. I didn't know
29:02
Speaker 2: what it was, and I didn't want to. I'm not
29:05
Speaker 2: the type of person. I'm a creative person, So I'm
29:07
Speaker 2: not the type of person who can just commit to
29:09
Speaker 2: something and just keep doing it. Because I said I
29:11
Speaker 2: was going to do it, and that was my literally
29:14
Speaker 2: get on or get off the medical school train. And
29:17
Speaker 2: so I went to New York and had my typical
29:20
Speaker 2: New York adventure where you're poor and homeless and you
29:22
Speaker 2: know all of that.
29:23
Speaker 1: So I don't know if being homeless is actually typical
29:26
Speaker 1: of the New York adventure, I personally did not experience that.
29:29
Speaker 2: It was awesome. I live to find homeless. Well, I
29:33
Speaker 2: wasn't homeless. I was. I had nowhere to live for
29:36
Speaker 2: about three days long Beach Long Island. Oh my gosh,
29:41
Speaker 2: I had found an apartment. And this is, you know, again,
29:45
Speaker 2: back in the day, So two thousand and probably two
29:48
Speaker 2: thousand and three.
29:49
Speaker 1: I just threw some air quotes. Yeah right about back
29:52
Speaker 1: in the day.
29:52
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, age is catching up to everyone, right, You're
29:55
Speaker 2: telling me, so, yeah, I did. I had I found
29:59
Speaker 2: it apartment online. The girl, this girl and I think
30:03
Speaker 2: Jersey City. She was going to rent out her her
30:05
Speaker 2: other room and I was so ready to go. And
30:08
Speaker 2: I showed up at Penn Station and she had met
30:13
Speaker 2: me there. I didn't have a cell phone. So she's like,
30:15
Speaker 2: I tried to call you.
30:16
Speaker 1: This really is back in the day.
30:18
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I didn't have a sell Well, people had
30:20
Speaker 2: cell phones, but I just like Zach Morri's cell phones
30:22
Speaker 2: close like the Nokia you had to It was that
30:24
Speaker 2: it was the unlimited weekends, like people saved up their
30:28
Speaker 2: minutes for the weekends. That was that was back in
30:31
Speaker 2: the day. So I she's like, I'm so sorry. I
30:35
Speaker 2: tried to call you but couldn't. Obviously my landlord said
30:38
Speaker 2: I can't rent out the room. I'm so sorry, so
30:40
Speaker 2: good luck. And here was like a boy from a
30:43
Speaker 2: dirt road town who's like, literally like, oh boy, what
30:46
Speaker 2: do I do now? So I called all the places
30:49
Speaker 2: I had written down in long story short there was
30:52
Speaker 2: a place in Long Beach, but I couldn't. It was
30:55
Speaker 2: like I could stay there short term, but I couldn't
30:57
Speaker 2: move in yet. So and I never and told the
31:00
Speaker 2: guy who rented me the place in Long Beach because
31:02
Speaker 2: I just didn't want to scare him that I was
31:04
Speaker 2: like crazy or something. So I went a Long Beach,
31:07
Speaker 2: found it on a map and went there. And it
31:11
Speaker 2: was the wea. It was. It was the fall to me,
31:13
Speaker 2: coming from like Michigan, which is always so cold in
31:16
Speaker 2: the upright, it was nothing.
31:18
Speaker 1: I love this, like colloquial up usage. This is like
31:22
Speaker 1: so Michigan.
31:23
Speaker 2: It is, it really is. So you go to Long
31:25
Speaker 2: Beach and I hang out. I'm like, this is so
31:28
Speaker 2: nice the ocean, and so I slept on the under
31:31
Speaker 2: the boardwalk. It was clean and it was safe, and
31:34
Speaker 2: it was and I ate Ramen noodles. As soon as
31:36
Speaker 2: I moved into the place, I did. I did what
31:38
Speaker 2: you do when you're when you're broken, And I remember
31:42
Speaker 2: the first thing I spent. I spent most of my
31:44
Speaker 2: money on my stupid train ticket ticket in and out
31:46
Speaker 2: of the city, and I was trying to find a
31:48
Speaker 2: waiting job right just to get something started.
31:51
Speaker 1: So squiler Alert David tells me that he gets a
31:53
Speaker 1: waiting job at none other than car Mines in Times Square,
31:57
Speaker 1: and that you get back in contact with a modeling
32:01
Speaker 1: agency that had reached out to you. Is that correct?
32:03
Speaker 2: Yeah?
32:04
Speaker 1: Okay, so talk to me about the modeling agency. And
32:07
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that was kind of what gave you a
32:09
Speaker 1: little bit of money to really get things rolling. Yeah,
32:12
Speaker 1: that's that's where things change a little bit for me.
32:14
Speaker 1: But I had do you have to say at car Mines,
32:17
Speaker 1: I didn't deserve the job. I mean, you have to
32:19
Speaker 1: be a professional waiter to work at Carmines in Times Square.
32:22
Speaker 1: It's a serious job and no experience. But they had
32:26
Speaker 1: a job. Part of the waiting job was to be
32:28
Speaker 1: a runner, and I was like, oh, I can do that.
32:31
Speaker 1: I was like, what's a runner? And they're like, you
32:34
Speaker 1: carry really heavy dishes of pasta up and downstairs all
32:37
Speaker 1: day long.
32:38
Speaker 2: I was like, please give me the job. I need
32:40
Speaker 2: money so bad and I'm so hungry. I will run
32:43
Speaker 2: food all day long. And I was like, I'm a
32:45
Speaker 2: really good runner, like literally, and so they gave me
32:48
Speaker 2: the job based on so little segue there. I actually
32:51
Speaker 2: got the car Mines job because I was a runner.
32:54
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding. But then I was I was a
32:57
Speaker 2: terrible waiter blah blah blah, and I had gotten scouted oh,
33:01
Speaker 2: when I was a little bit younger in college, when
33:04
Speaker 2: I was in Chicago, and I wasn't interested in doing it,
33:08
Speaker 2: but I thought I was in New York and so
33:09
Speaker 2: I reached out to that agent at the time and
33:12
Speaker 2: went in and met with Ford Models, and I was
33:15
Speaker 2: very fortunate that an agent there saw something, and that
33:20
Speaker 2: day I went on my first casting And I've technically
33:23
Speaker 2: been with Ford for sixteen years now, so it's been
33:26
Speaker 2: really really magical. But it's really really cool. But I
33:30
Speaker 2: started to book jobs after about three or four months,
33:33
Speaker 2: and I had never made money like that. I mean,
33:35
Speaker 2: I'm in New York City, I'm a model, I'm with
33:37
Speaker 2: a great agency, and all of a sudden, it's like
33:39
Speaker 2: you can go to these parties and you can do
33:41
Speaker 2: all this stuff and you make this amount of money
33:44
Speaker 2: for doing what for just standing there and like look
33:47
Speaker 2: showing off a pair of jeans. I was like, dang.
33:50
Speaker 2: And I remember the first Ford paycheck I got. I
33:54
Speaker 2: walked into car Miones with my check in my hand
33:56
Speaker 2: and I gave them a two week notice was to
34:00
Speaker 2: be a model. Now I don't need to run food anymore.
34:03
Speaker 2: So that was I was very lucky, and I had
34:07
Speaker 2: a Really, I had a good modeling career where I
34:11
Speaker 2: lived in New York and was really living the life there,
34:13
Speaker 2: and I was able to run.
34:14
Speaker 1: And this is about the time that you actually went
34:18
Speaker 1: into your first Equinox, Is that right?
34:20
Speaker 2: Yeah?
34:21
Speaker 1: All right, So tell me about Tell me about what
34:24
Speaker 1: you thought about Equinox at first, and then how this
34:27
Speaker 1: kind of segued into what would eventually become precision running.
34:32
Speaker 2: First of all, I equinox. Really, my introduction to Equinox
34:36
Speaker 2: came because I was searching. I was looking for I
34:39
Speaker 2: had been training, I had running. I was just in
34:41
Speaker 2: New York for not even a year, eight months, nine months,
34:44
Speaker 2: and I was trying to find a way to train
34:47
Speaker 2: still because I still had it in the back of
34:48
Speaker 2: my head. I still believed somehow that I was going
34:51
Speaker 2: to have a rebirth in the running and racing world.
34:55
Speaker 2: And so I was still training. But it gets hard
34:58
Speaker 2: in New York. I learned very quick. It's a concrete jungle.
35:01
Speaker 2: There's Central Park, but that Central Park it's awfully cold
35:04
Speaker 2: and slippery in the winter. So I started to struggle
35:07
Speaker 2: to find places to train, and I couldn't. I couldn't
35:10
Speaker 2: make any of the clubs or teams at the armory,
35:12
Speaker 2: which a lot of developmental runners will make. So I
35:15
Speaker 2: was lost, and I started to shop around and I
35:18
Speaker 2: heard of this equinox Ford Models. Actually was like, Hey,
35:21
Speaker 2: there's this really great club and univited to go check
35:25
Speaker 2: it out. So I went and I walked into It
35:27
Speaker 2: was Columbus Circle in New York. And I walked in
35:31
Speaker 2: and I had never seen anything like it. I'd never
35:33
Speaker 2: seen people like that either, that were truly living like
35:37
Speaker 2: their best life like I was, just so I was
35:41
Speaker 2: inspired by every single detail of the club, the design
35:45
Speaker 2: of it, the feel of it, and then I took
35:47
Speaker 2: a little tour of it, and then I was obsessed
35:49
Speaker 2: with the people working out and the personal trainers there
35:53
Speaker 2: and everything in there was so inspiring. And like I said,
35:55
Speaker 2: I had never seen a place so well set up
36:00
Speaker 2: for a person to be successful, and I felt that
36:03
Speaker 2: right away. I thought, if this could be my thing
36:06
Speaker 2: to help me get back into focusing on, you know,
36:09
Speaker 2: my fitness level, my running and racing and training and
36:12
Speaker 2: stuff like that. And so I signed up right there
36:15
Speaker 2: and I became a member, and it was every month
36:19
Speaker 2: that money came out of my paycheck, out of my
36:21
Speaker 2: bank account and I was like, I never felt bad
36:23
Speaker 2: about it once. I made some other sacrifices, you know,
36:27
Speaker 2: I was young and just starting to make money, but
36:30
Speaker 2: I never one time considered my my membership like really
36:35
Speaker 2: truly a sacrifice. It was. It was an investment, right, And.
36:38
Speaker 1: So at Equinox, you're spending a lot of time kind
36:42
Speaker 1: of gauging your fitness and getting back into it a
36:44
Speaker 1: little bit, and you have this kind of thought when
36:47
Speaker 1: you're on the treadmill one day.
36:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it was actually like just the second, probably
36:51
Speaker 2: the second time I'd ever been on a treadmill, to
36:53
Speaker 2: be honest.
36:54
Speaker 1: Wow.
36:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a thing.
36:56
Speaker 1: So how do you feel about running in the rain?
36:58
Speaker 2: I love running in the rain.
37:00
Speaker 1: That's why you never go onto treadmill. I actually hate
37:02
Speaker 1: running in the rain, which is great. I actually hate
37:07
Speaker 1: running in the rain. I think I have PTSD from
37:10
Speaker 1: running Boston, especially now, so I'm all set with that
37:14
Speaker 1: for quite some time. But because I don't like running
37:17
Speaker 1: in the rain whatsoever, I have come to like running
37:21
Speaker 1: on the treadmill. But if you like running in the rain,
37:24
Speaker 1: I love running the rain.
37:25
Speaker 2: I'm an outdoors guy, yeah, I mean, I grew up
37:27
Speaker 2: on the shoreline of Lake Superior, which is biased is
37:31
Speaker 2: one of the most beautiful lakes the way right and
37:33
Speaker 2: so but a lot of it. There's a thing that
37:36
Speaker 2: not a lot of people know that competitive runners and
37:40
Speaker 2: outdoor runners, there's this thing about the treadmill. It has
37:43
Speaker 2: a stink on it. It's like, oh, this is not
37:46
Speaker 2: real running. There's a there's a I will not do that.
37:49
Speaker 2: It's embarrassing for a lot of quote unquote serious runners
37:52
Speaker 2: I had. I had the same attitude about it. I
37:56
Speaker 2: couldn't be caught dead on a treadmill. So my first
38:00
Speaker 2: time on treadmill at Equinox, I remember I went late
38:02
Speaker 2: at night and I just didn't want anybody to see me.
38:05
Speaker 2: I didn't want to like I was the one racing
38:06
Speaker 2: in Central Park going crazy and I'd run back to
38:09
Speaker 2: the club and do my strength training. But I was
38:12
Speaker 2: struggling to find time to run outside and stuff like that.
38:16
Speaker 2: So I got in that treadmill and it wasn't that
38:18
Speaker 2: bad of an experience. This is not that bad. So
38:20
Speaker 2: I started to use it a little bit more, and
38:22
Speaker 2: about the third time on it, and I was right
38:24
Speaker 2: away creating workouts for myself because that's how I'm wired.
38:27
Speaker 2: I've been doing it since I was a little kid.
38:30
Speaker 2: And I remember one day I was looking out over
38:33
Speaker 2: the cardio area and this is before like Netflix on
38:38
Speaker 2: the treadmills, this is before we had things to distract
38:41
Speaker 2: us that much. It was I felt so sad, this
38:45
Speaker 2: like sadness came over me. I was like, I love
38:48
Speaker 2: running more than anything, and I couldn't see any of it.
38:50
Speaker 2: People just were like stomping away at the treadmill. And
38:52
Speaker 2: I thought, oh my gosh, this is like the most miserable.
38:55
Speaker 2: Everyone is so miserable on these treadmills. Yeah, that's not
38:58
Speaker 2: Equinox's fault, that's the treadmill's fault. It's just that up
39:04
Speaker 2: until that point, and this is gosh, what is this
39:06
Speaker 2: like fifteen probably sixteen years ago or longer, running on
39:14
Speaker 2: a treadmill was misunderstood. And I realized it right there
39:18
Speaker 2: that moment that somebody should probably help. Somebody should create
39:24
Speaker 2: programming or at least like create a better experience, because
39:27
Speaker 2: it's still running. It's not that different. It doesn't change
39:30
Speaker 2: your form very much. And if people are already trying
39:34
Speaker 2: to do it but they're just not happy doing it,
39:37
Speaker 2: something's wrong. Something was broken, and I saw it.
39:40
Speaker 1: So how does one go from having these thoughts to
39:42
Speaker 1: actually getting in touch with someone at Equinox that would
39:46
Speaker 1: have the power to be like, huh, yeah, you've got
39:49
Speaker 1: something here.
39:50
Speaker 2: Well, it took a while. Actually. I had no intentions
39:53
Speaker 2: of working in the health and wellness business ever, no
39:56
Speaker 2: intentions at all. I was creating a little bit of
39:59
Speaker 2: a program for myself to kind of keep me training
40:01
Speaker 2: during the winter. But what happened is I love writing,
40:04
Speaker 2: It's a hobby of mine, and so I wanted to
40:06
Speaker 2: write a running book. And I realized right there there
40:08
Speaker 2: was probably a great need for an indoor running book
40:11
Speaker 2: or how do you balance the treadmill and outside? So
40:14
Speaker 2: I started to do really early research. Took me a
40:16
Speaker 2: long time to write the book, by the way, but
40:19
Speaker 2: that's how it started. The development of the class itself,
40:23
Speaker 2: or the kind of program as it is today, took
40:25
Speaker 2: a while. Basically, after a few years, I started to
40:30
Speaker 2: teach treadmill classes. I started to become a coach. And
40:33
Speaker 2: where were you doing that? That's right when I moved
40:35
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles, I was teaching it, and I was
40:38
Speaker 2: exploring all the other options out there. What's going on
40:41
Speaker 2: with the treadmill market indoor running in group classes right now.
40:45
Speaker 2: And first of all, I knew that the next ten, fifteen,
40:48
Speaker 2: twenty years, this is a category, this is going to
40:51
Speaker 2: continue to grow. I felt it, I observed it, I
40:53
Speaker 2: saw it, but I couldn't find the right thing, something
40:58
Speaker 2: that I could authentic as a runner and a lover
41:01
Speaker 2: of science, say that this is the best vehicle to
41:04
Speaker 2: give somebody the benefits of running, make it enjoyable, and
41:08
Speaker 2: most importantly, give them the long term benefits that come
41:11
Speaker 2: from running. And so I thought, you know what, I
41:14
Speaker 2: can't find it, so maybe I should try creating it.
41:17
Speaker 2: Maybe I should take that observation I saw years ago,
41:21
Speaker 2: and because it didn't dawn on me until five years,
41:24
Speaker 2: five or six years later, that maybe I do have
41:27
Speaker 2: the confidence of creating a program. Maybe I can, maybe
41:31
Speaker 2: I can become a running coach in a different way.
41:35
Speaker 2: So what I did is, and this is really funny,
41:37
Speaker 2: because I was gonna open my own treadmill studio. I
41:42
Speaker 2: couldn't find a treadmill studio, a dedicated running studio. There
41:45
Speaker 2: weren't any at the time. These different versions of boot
41:47
Speaker 2: camps and things like that, but there was no dedicated
41:49
Speaker 2: running facility at the time. So I came up with
41:52
Speaker 2: Tread's LLC. It was gonna blow everyone's mind. It was
41:57
Speaker 2: going to be the studio of the future. And I
42:00
Speaker 2: worked so hard on this, and I had a lot
42:02
Speaker 2: of people that wanted to invest, but I wanted to
42:04
Speaker 2: work with a big company. I wanted to to bring
42:07
Speaker 2: this to the urban market, which is where I think
42:09
Speaker 2: treadmill running does really well. And I even I went
42:13
Speaker 2: to Equinox and I can't remember, I was teaching a
42:17
Speaker 2: couple of classes at Equinox in West Hollywood. That's where
42:19
Speaker 2: I first started. I was my last year my membership.
42:24
Speaker 2: I became a treadmill coach, teaching like a tread and
42:27
Speaker 2: shred class, but I even tread and shread. Yeah. But
42:31
Speaker 2: I even managed to wiggle my way into a meeting
42:34
Speaker 2: and I presented my Treads LLC business plan to Equinox
42:40
Speaker 2: and to Equinox credit. They're very open to ideas and
42:43
Speaker 2: they love to hear and listen. That's one thing I
42:45
Speaker 2: love about the company. Did they give everyone a shot?
42:49
Speaker 2: I love that they really do. And so I had
42:52
Speaker 2: my shot. I presented it and I had like my
42:54
Speaker 2: fake staples briefcase, like I remember I got my shoes
42:58
Speaker 2: cleaned up, and I was like, I was trying to
43:01
Speaker 2: be super professional, but I had no experience in the
43:03
Speaker 2: professional field. So but I presented it and I was
43:07
Speaker 2: again so sure of myself. I was so confident that
43:11
Speaker 2: that this running facility is the future. And they were
43:16
Speaker 2: very kind and they're very polite, and they're like, maybe not,
43:19
Speaker 2: it's now not the right time for us to do it.
43:21
Speaker 2: And I remember I like, grab my business plan and
43:24
Speaker 2: I was very nice, but I remember like looking across
43:27
Speaker 2: the table and I was like, you guys are going
43:28
Speaker 2: to be sorry. Big mistake. It was like the pretty
43:32
Speaker 2: woman moment, like big mistake, you guys. So I laughed
43:35
Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah, I forget it. So I
43:37
Speaker 2: just taught my classes and I felt defeated. I was like,
43:40
Speaker 2: I loved Equinox so much, so I thought, well, if
43:42
Speaker 2: they don't see it quite yet, then maybe it's not time.
43:44
Speaker 2: And Equinox was right at at the moment, I think
43:48
Speaker 2: it would have been early to do it. But then
43:50
Speaker 2: fast forward, I was I started teaching the member I said,
43:53
Speaker 2: I was working on the programming for a while. I
43:56
Speaker 2: started to teach that personal method that I had worked
43:59
Speaker 2: on in my tread and shread class or in my
44:02
Speaker 2: treadmill class, and it started to catch on and people
44:04
Speaker 2: started to notice the difference. A group fitness manager, Keith Iras,
44:08
Speaker 2: who is now our vice president of group Fitness, so
44:11
Speaker 2: he has skyrocketed to being our fearless leader in group fitness.
44:15
Speaker 2: But he was like the very first one who said, David,
44:18
Speaker 2: this is a really great program. You should take a
44:21
Speaker 2: next step. And he supported me so that the question
44:25
Speaker 2: on who really kind of helped be that conduit to
44:29
Speaker 2: something more was Keith, who's now a mentor to so
44:32
Speaker 2: many of us, but he's our leader in group fitness.
44:35
Speaker 2: So he gave me that shot and said, go ahead,
44:37
Speaker 2: teach your method and start developing the program like an
44:41
Speaker 2: actual we call them signature format, said Equinox. And we
44:45
Speaker 2: put a lot of time into the science, tremendous amount
44:47
Speaker 2: of time in developing our signature format. So I got
44:50
Speaker 2: the opportunity to do that, and that's really how it started.
44:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so fast forward to now there are two
44:58
Speaker 1: precision running labs. Is that correct? Yes, one is in
45:02
Speaker 1: Santa Monica and one is in Boston.
45:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
45:05
Speaker 1: How did it feel when the first one opened? Because
45:08
Speaker 1: now these are just dedicated treadmill studios. This isn't an
45:11
Speaker 1: entire Equinox facility.
45:14
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's still pinching myself, like I'm going to go
45:17
Speaker 2: teach there tonight, Like it's it's a dream land for
45:21
Speaker 2: a running coach. It's so I still it's surreal to me,
45:23
Speaker 2: and I mean it was surreal to me to see
45:25
Speaker 2: precision running just on our schedule and we now have
45:29
Speaker 2: we have like two hundred I would say around two
45:31
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty plus coaches that are certified to teach it.
45:34
Speaker 2: We have over five hundred classes a week in all
45:37
Speaker 2: of our clubs. Where did the name come from? I
45:39
Speaker 2: came up with it. I came up with a list
45:41
Speaker 2: of potential names that I liked.
45:43
Speaker 1: That's the hardest thing when you're an entrepreneur. It's so
45:45
Speaker 1: hard coming up with the hurdle name took me literally
45:48
Speaker 1: over a year, and then one day it just hits you.
45:51
Speaker 1: It just it just you say it out loud and
45:53
Speaker 1: you're like, that's exactly what this is.
45:54
Speaker 2: It's perfect, right, Yeah, But it's hard. It is really
45:57
Speaker 2: hard because you sometimes think you have a great idea
45:59
Speaker 2: for a name, and you think it's so great, and
46:02
Speaker 2: you sometimes are not willing to listen to other people's opinions.
46:05
Speaker 2: But precision running. I remember I was working with the
46:08
Speaker 2: group fitness team and I was listing off the names
46:10
Speaker 2: and I said precision running, and everyone stopped.
46:13
Speaker 1: What I'm curious to know is obviously such a hard
46:16
Speaker 1: focus on the programming for someone who quote unquote is
46:20
Speaker 1: that person that says they're not a runner, What is
46:22
Speaker 1: like one tip you would give to them from the
46:25
Speaker 1: get go if they knew that they could do it.
46:28
Speaker 2: It's the number one thing I hear. I hear it
46:30
Speaker 2: every time somebody comes to Precision Run the first time
46:32
Speaker 2: they say, by the way, David, I'm not a runner,
46:35
Speaker 2: And I always say back, well can you run? And
46:38
Speaker 2: they said, yes, you're a runner. It's that simple. But
46:42
Speaker 2: everyone is afraid to take an interval class. It's very
46:46
Speaker 2: intimidating no matter where you go. But I would tell
46:48
Speaker 2: everybody you have to start somewhere and you have to
46:52
Speaker 2: make that leap. Nobody can help you make that first step.
46:56
Speaker 2: But definitely the great thing about a treadmill class is
46:59
Speaker 2: that you have an instructor. It's different than apps, it's
47:03
Speaker 2: different than all the kind of digital revolution that's going
47:05
Speaker 2: on right now. The in person experience with a coach
47:08
Speaker 2: is safe no matter what. No matter how hard that
47:11
Speaker 2: class is, having a coach and other people around you
47:15
Speaker 2: will soften it. So I would tell you take away
47:18
Speaker 2: all the pressure in needing to do a good job.
47:21
Speaker 2: Nobody should do a good job in their first class.
47:24
Speaker 2: That first class should be an introduction. Ease yourself into it,
47:28
Speaker 2: but definitely shake off all that pressure that you put
47:31
Speaker 2: on yourself to be as good as everyone else. Because
47:34
Speaker 2: there's one reality about running that is true for me
47:38
Speaker 2: and for you and for everybody of every level. Running
47:42
Speaker 2: is not easy for anyone nobody, no matter how fast
47:46
Speaker 2: you are, how slow you are, it's not easy. It's
47:51
Speaker 2: a bit overly poetic. But like running, to me, is
47:54
Speaker 2: the most It's the one thread that binds humanity. If
47:58
Speaker 2: you strip away every thing we do in movement, walking
48:02
Speaker 2: and running is the foundation of how we move as
48:06
Speaker 2: human beings. It doesn't matter what religion you are, what
48:09
Speaker 2: race you are, what gender you are, what your beliefs are.
48:12
Speaker 2: You watch the New York City Marathon or the Boston Marathon,
48:17
Speaker 2: I would argue it's probably the largest gathering in the
48:20
Speaker 2: world where nobody cares. It's not political, there's no it is.
48:26
Speaker 2: So it's one of the most unifying things that we
48:29
Speaker 2: have as a human race. Remember that when you go
48:31
Speaker 2: into a running class that everybody else that's showing up
48:33
Speaker 2: there that day they started somewhere. But start make that
48:37
Speaker 2: commitment because running, undeniably is so good for you when
48:41
Speaker 2: you do it right.
48:42
Speaker 1: For someone who does enjoy running and wants to get faster,
48:47
Speaker 1: what is one tip that you would offer them as
48:50
Speaker 1: someone who for so long wanted to get to that.
48:53
Speaker 2: One, I would say stay committed. A lot of runners
48:58
Speaker 2: nowadays because everything is quick. Everyone wants a quick fix
49:01
Speaker 2: for everything, instant gratification. Running will never work that way
49:05
Speaker 2: running anything that is natural science. I believe this by
49:08
Speaker 2: the way that there's ways to do it efficiently, but
49:12
Speaker 2: there is no shortcuts in running. There's just ways to
49:14
Speaker 2: do it more efficiently. So the most important thing is
49:17
Speaker 2: not how hard you go. And this is a motto
49:19
Speaker 2: in precision running. We don't believe in precision running that
49:22
Speaker 2: it's it's not important how hard you go, it's how
49:25
Speaker 2: you go hard. It's very important. It's got to feel right,
49:30
Speaker 2: and you know, you really know if you go to
49:32
Speaker 2: a running class and it's just it's chaos and it's
49:34
Speaker 2: way too hard for the sake of being hard. If
49:37
Speaker 2: it feels hard but with a purpose, you're on the
49:40
Speaker 2: right track. You're part of a performance program. But in
49:44
Speaker 2: that same message, you have to have consistency. Runners have
49:49
Speaker 2: to have consistency. Whether it's distance running or speed work,
49:52
Speaker 2: you have to have consistency. You can't show up to
49:55
Speaker 2: a you can't be a weekend warrior runner. That does
49:58
Speaker 2: not work. If you want to get faster, you I
50:00
Speaker 2: want to get faster, commit to your three training days
50:02
Speaker 2: of speedwork a week and commit to them, and you
50:05
Speaker 2: will get faster.
50:07
Speaker 1: What is the best piece of advice you have been
50:11
Speaker 1: given in your career?
50:13
Speaker 2: The best piece of advice? You know what it was
50:19
Speaker 2: my It was my college track coach. I remember I
50:23
Speaker 2: fell asleep during track practice once. I was basically a
50:28
Speaker 2: double major. I had a job I you know, one
50:32
Speaker 2: of those stories. So I was really tired and I
50:34
Speaker 2: was hard on myself. I was training hard and I
50:37
Speaker 2: did way too much. I was on every council at
50:40
Speaker 2: my university. I was in the symphony at my university.
50:42
Speaker 2: I played the bass in the symphony for many many years.
50:45
Speaker 2: So I did all these things, and my coach said
50:48
Speaker 2: to me, he was so mad at me. He kicked
50:50
Speaker 2: me out of practice. I can't say it here, you'll
50:53
Speaker 2: have to beep it out, but seek go home. And
50:57
Speaker 2: I was kicked out of practice. I had a moment
51:00
Speaker 2: after some of our intervals. I was just really struggling,
51:04
Speaker 2: and he said to me. He said, David, you can
51:09
Speaker 2: do a lot of things good in your life, but
51:12
Speaker 2: if you try to do too many things good, you'll
51:14
Speaker 2: never do one thing great. And it took me a
51:19
Speaker 2: minute to realize what he was saying, but it was
51:21
Speaker 2: so true. If you don't focus on your passion and
51:24
Speaker 2: focus on the things that are authentically, that are authentic
51:29
Speaker 2: to you and what your goals are, you'll never really
51:33
Speaker 2: reach a potential and never feel that you're great at that.
51:36
Speaker 2: So that advice I actually still apply that to because
51:40
Speaker 2: I'm a go getter. I love to be involved and
51:42
Speaker 2: do a lot of things. But every once in a while,
51:44
Speaker 2: I hear that voice in the back of my head saying, David,
51:48
Speaker 2: you don't have to be good at everything.
51:50
Speaker 1: One precision running was up and running It's good. Did
51:57
Speaker 1: you kind of feel like you finally found your purpose.
52:00
Speaker 2: Yes, when I took my first class with another coach
52:05
Speaker 2: and had a coach coach me and feel what it
52:09
Speaker 2: felt like, and I was amongst our members experiencing it.
52:14
Speaker 2: I from that moment on, I never doubted for a
52:17
Speaker 2: minute that I was going to be spending my future
52:23
Speaker 2: building out this type of program because there was a
52:25
Speaker 2: need for it. And you know, people talk a lot
52:27
Speaker 2: about wanting to help people, and I love that when
52:30
Speaker 2: people say that and they want to do it, But
52:32
Speaker 2: I always wonder sometimes, like what does that mean? Like
52:34
Speaker 2: I want to help people, but you can want to
52:38
Speaker 2: help somebody. But I really believe that you have to
52:41
Speaker 2: pick the things that you're really good at and you're
52:44
Speaker 2: passionate about in helping people, because then you will make
52:46
Speaker 2: such an enormous impact. And I realized that one precise
52:49
Speaker 2: running got off the ground that that's what I'm passionate about.
52:53
Speaker 2: And it's so funny how running came full circle for
52:56
Speaker 2: me because of that. And again we hear this all
52:58
Speaker 2: the time, don't lose your passion, find your passion and
53:02
Speaker 2: find ways to reinvent it. That's what I had to do.
53:05
Speaker 2: My colossal hurdle was the hurt that the running life
53:12
Speaker 2: that I expected to have didn't happen. But it didn't
53:17
Speaker 2: mean that I had to lose my love and my
53:19
Speaker 2: passion for running. I just had to reinvent it. And
53:22
Speaker 2: that's what precision Running did for me at Equinoxes. It
53:25
Speaker 2: allowed me to have a rebirth.
53:27
Speaker 1: That's so special. It's so interesting, this idea of like
53:30
Speaker 1: loving what you do. I think I was at a
53:33
Speaker 1: CrossFit gym last year, lying on the ground after a
53:37
Speaker 1: workout with this guy and he says to me, out
53:40
Speaker 1: of the blue, you really love what you do? And
53:43
Speaker 1: I looked at him and I was like, yeah, like
53:45
Speaker 1: I love getting up and writing and talking to all
53:48
Speaker 1: of these experts and being so integrated into the health
53:51
Speaker 1: and wellness community. He just looks at me blankly and
53:53
Speaker 1: he says, I don't like what I do. And I
53:56
Speaker 1: said to him instinctively, do you make a lot of money?
53:59
Speaker 1: And he looks an says no. And I'm like, so
54:02
Speaker 1: why you can do it? Like what are you doing?
54:04
Speaker 1: And it's so true. Life is only so long, So
54:08
Speaker 1: why are you gonna sit around and hate what you.
54:10
Speaker 2: Do every day? One hundred percent? And but this we've
54:12
Speaker 2: been saying, people have been saying this for so long,
54:15
Speaker 2: But you know what, I think it's actually because of
54:18
Speaker 2: the way society is right now. We have we're so
54:21
Speaker 2: socially connected now that everyone thinks that they can be
54:25
Speaker 2: a well everybody. They set their sights on being a
54:28
Speaker 2: celebrity or a professional singer or all of these things
54:31
Speaker 2: that they like doing. I always tell people young coaches
54:35
Speaker 2: who are coming up and trying to find their thing
54:37
Speaker 2: and running, I always tell them to do this because
54:39
Speaker 2: I'm a really humble person. I have a I'm overly
54:42
Speaker 2: humble sometimes and it gets me in trouble because I
54:45
Speaker 2: don't I'm not as forceful as I need to be sometimes.
54:47
Speaker 2: But a lot of coaches tend to be that way,
54:51
Speaker 2: and so I always tell coaches go home, as hard
54:53
Speaker 2: as it is for you, go in your bathroom, look
54:56
Speaker 2: in the mirror, close the door, and say out loud,
54:59
Speaker 2: what is the what are you better at than anything
55:02
Speaker 2: else in your life? What is the best thing you're
55:04
Speaker 2: at that you can do. Everyone has an answer, everybody
55:08
Speaker 2: has an answer, they just most people don't want to
55:10
Speaker 2: admit it. And for me that was the thing. I realize,
55:14
Speaker 2: you know what, what do I know more than anything?
55:15
Speaker 2: Running I've been obsessed with it since I was like
55:18
Speaker 2: seven years old. So would I Why would I hide
55:22
Speaker 2: that or why would I not let that flourish?
55:24
Speaker 1: So I love the saying that success is how you
55:27
Speaker 1: feel about yourself when you're by yourself.
55:30
Speaker 2: That's so good. Oh, I'm gonna steal that use it
55:32
Speaker 2: in class tonight. I'm going to use it tonight.
55:34
Speaker 1: I talk about it in my classes too.
55:36
Speaker 2: Oh that's good.
55:37
Speaker 1: Last question, if you had the opportunity to give senior
55:44
Speaker 1: year David one piece of advice, what would you give him?
55:48
Speaker 1: Looking back on.
55:49
Speaker 2: It now, Oh, that is such a good question. I
55:57
Speaker 2: would tell senior year David that I would tell him
56:05
Speaker 2: that no matter what happens, I would tell him right
56:06
Speaker 2: before the last race too. I would say, David, no
56:09
Speaker 2: matter what happens today, you are going to love running
56:12
Speaker 2: for the rest of your life.
56:15
Speaker 1: I love it. I'm so happy that we got to
56:16
Speaker 1: sit down.
56:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was so fun.
56:19
Speaker 1: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
56:21
Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
56:25
Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
56:27
Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at hurdle
56:30
Speaker 1: dot Us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
56:34
Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast David. Where can they find you? Aside
56:38
Speaker 1: from the Precision Running Lab in San Monica.
56:40
Speaker 2: Aside from that Precision running you can find me on Instagram.
56:43
Speaker 2: I'm definitely on there. I use Facebook. Still.
56:46
Speaker 1: Is it just at David C.
56:48
Speaker 2: It's at David C. Yes, all of my handles are
56:50
Speaker 2: just at David seeke And it's two Eyes. Everyone thinks
56:53
Speaker 2: my last name is Silk. Thanks, it's two Eyes, I promise, Si,
56:58
Speaker 2: I kay, that's right.
56:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am at Emily a body, another hurdle conquered.
57:04
Speaker 1: Catch you guys next time. M hm