David Torrence has always considered himself a lone wolf.

The professional middle distance runner has managed to train for years without a primary group and still post impressive personal bests across a range of events:

• 1:45.14 - 800m
• 2:16.76 - 1000m (American record)
• 3:33.23 - 1500m
• 3:52.01 - mile
• 13:16.53 - 5K (the famous race where he miscounted laps following Lopez Lomong in the 2012 Payton Jordan 5K)
  

Torrence trained with Coach John Cook for several years before Cook, 73, retired in 2013. Prior to retirement, Cook guided World bronze medalist Shannon Rowbury, American record-holder Shalane Flanagan, and Olympic silver medalist Leo Manzano, among other talented athletes.  

After attempting to train on his own for a few months, Torrence found a new coach in Jama Aden, the same coach who guided Genzebe Dibaba to a 1500m world record. But Jama’s training program wasn’t the best fit for a number of reasons, which led Torrence to ultimately return to Cook. With years of experience and trust built under Cook, Torrence brought the Olympic-level coach out of retirement and back to work. 

Sometimes training camps don't always go as expected. But when you have that one killer workout, it's all worth it. pic.twitter.com/yoi56tj6Jn

— David Torrence (@David_Torrence) April 13, 2016

FloTrack caught up with Torrence to talk about his decision to return to Cook after training with Jama’s international powerhouse group. 

FloTrack: You returned to Coach John Cook after a few years training under Jama Aden. Talk about the decision to return to Cook.

Torrence: It was an easy decision, but I just didn’t know it was available. When Cook retired in 2013, that’s when you saw a lot of his athletes — Shannon [Rowbury], myself, Leah Wallace— all went in different directions and coaches. Basically, I didn’t really know if he was going to coach again, but we always kept in contact and when I was looking for a coach last year he casually mentioned one day, 'Hey David, if you ever need anything, let me know,' and I said, 'Well, as a matter of fact, I could use a coach [laughs].'

He took the weekend to think about it. I sent him some of my training and what I’ve done, and he said, 'We can make this work.'

So he took me on. I’ve always responded very well to him and had my biggest breakthroughs under him.

FloTrack: He’s retired. How did you convince him to get back to work?

Torrence: Yeah, he’s in his early 70s and lives in Florida. Going to meets, going to camps -- I think he’s just not up for that anymore. I’ve always been a lone wolf as it is, always been able to train on my own, so I was able to calm his fear that I would need him all the time. I told him to send me the workouts, and I would try and see him once or twice a year, but he wouldn’t have to hold my hand too much. 

We’re in sync with the training philosophy and that makes a big difference. 

FloTrack: Before going back to Cook, you were training under Jama Aden, the same coach who guided Genzebe Dibaba to a world record and coaches Souleiman Ayanlah. Talk about what it was like training with that group. 

Torrence: When everyone went in different directions after Cook retired, Shannon went to Alberto [Salazar], Leah went to Joaquin Cruz, and I coached myself for six months. I’ve always kind of known their [Jama Aden’s] group, especially Jama’s brother Ibrahim, because at meets they all knew Cook and would always talk and I would always talk smack to Kaki or one of the top guys that they have just for fun.

When it came time to look for a new coach, I knew I wanted something different. I wanted to train with the best in the world. So I reached out to them and we decided to try and make it work. It was a good learning experience. It was tough being on the west coast and them being in Europe and Africa all the time. They do A TON of speedwork.

The big thing that I learned when coached by Jama is that Cook is considered a 'speed guy' here in the U.S., but Jama makes Cook look like a marathon team.

We sprinted a lot and very, very fast in that group. That opened my eyes to the possibility that I could be sprinting harder in workouts. Ending intervals with Cook we would go hard, maybe 90 percent, but with this group, we would hit the gas pedal HARD. 

But ultimately, the program wasn’t really working for me because I wasn’t racing that well and the communication wasn’t that great. So I tried to get things done on my own, coached myself for a bit. Then that wasn’t working, so I reached out to Cook again. 

Jama’s group was interesting — lots of fast stuff; some really slow, short stuff. But it just reinforces the fact that there are so many ways to get better. 

FloTrack: What is an example of the craziest workout you had to do under Jama?

Torrence: One workout that I didn’t think I could do was 150m, 200m, 300m.

The 150m was at 17 seconds, the 200m at 24, and the 300m in 35-37. Depending on how many sets we would do, it would be slower, so when I first did the workout, I did five sets but didn’t go quite as fast, but the first time I went and trained with them, we did that workout with two sets and it was 17, 24, 35.

And I was like, “Oh my gosh, 35?! I haven’t run that in, I don’t even remember when, maybe an all-out 400m? And now we’re doing it twice?!” I was a little nervous, but I just ran with the guys. The group isn’t just Souleiman and these top guys, it’s also these junior athletes, guys that are 17-18 years old, and Jama throws them in with us. A lot of times, Jama keeps them fresh so they get extra recovery and he kind of uses them to throw us off guard. He’ll tell them to go all-out from 200-300. So there were definitely lots of days digging into the well and running as fast as we could. 

FloTrack: How has returning to Cook’s training been?

Torrence: It’s been like a breath of fresh air to be honest. There’s definitely a level of comfort there. A lot of times, workouts I felt I needed he would give me anyway, without even really saying anything to him beforehand. 

I’ve been told by some of the guys in Flagstaff that I seem more confident this season, that I’m ready to roll.

Watch the full interview below where Torrence talks about the coaching transition, his ability to contend as a “lone wolf” in training, and making his 2016 debut in the 800m and 1500m at the Mt. SAC Relays this weekend.