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Introduction

Few individuals in American athletics can rival the track record of Cooper Teare. While at Oregon, he was NCAA Champion at 5000m, set the Collegiate Record in the mile (3:50.39), had multiple All-American finishes, and more. In 2022, Teare won his first U.S. title in the 1500m, and earlier this year, he added another U.S. title to his trophy cabinet in cross country.

Teare often draws comparisons to middle-distance legends of the past such as Seb Coe and Steve Prefontaine, and like these icons, he now commands space on the track. However, when you've shattered numerous records at the university level, what drives the pursuit of new milestones? We examined this aspect, his recent decision to resume working with college coach Ben Thomas, and much more during this interview with the promising American talent.

The Interview

Welcome to The Hammer, Cooper. How are you doing today? What's on the docket?

Hello, it’s a pleasure to be invited on! I’m doing well, just another day in the very exciting life of a professional runner where I run, chill, run, eat, and sleep. Some would call that living the dream and I think I would agree with them.

We're just wrapping up the indoor season where you raced just a couple of times. How were those races? How's the body and mind feeling going into the outdoor season?

I’m feeling surprisingly good coming off of the indoor season. This year was a bit briefer of an indoor season than years past, but I think I got out of it what I wanted (shaking the rust off and setting a foundation for outdoors). We started racing here in Blacksburg at one of the Virginia Tech home meets where Cole Hocker and I paced our teammate Matt Wisner to get his indoor USA’s qualifying mark in the mile. Matt consequently got bumped out of USAs by everyone’s favorite runner, Craig Engels, but the race was nonetheless a great effort. Going 1409 meters of a 3:53 mile sounded easy in my head going into the pacing job, but I quickly realized that I was in fact going 1409 meters of a 3:53 mile, and I don’t care who you are, that is never going to be ‘easy’. We doubled back about 45 minutes later and ran a 1k in 2:19 which was a PR for me, so I was pretty excited with how this weekend turned out. 

Following that, I shipped off to the Big Apple to race the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games. Now initially, I was slated to run the 2 mile, which, in hindsight, I think may have been a more appropriate event, but last minute Ben Thomas and I decided to go for the mile. This race sucked, plain and simple. By 1k I had taken the subway to lactic city and gave what I had left to finish up in 3:53. Not terrible for the circumstances, and the “haven’t even touched speed work” phrase ran through my head on a loop. 

Finally, I headed to Albuquerque, NM for USA indoors. I had been looking forward to this race for weeks because it was a shot to make the World Indoor Championships team for Glasgow 2 weeks later. This did not happen for me, I finished 4th about 0.2 seconds back from where I needed to be. Regardless, it was progress and I felt a million times better than weeks prior, and tactically, I ran like an idiot! But you live and you learn…it’s all a lead-up to the end goal this summer.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the experience gained this indoor season and how I stacked up against the guys that I will be seeing at USA outdoors this Spring. The body is healthy and the mind wants more.

Lots has happened for you in the last year or so. Departing a team (Bowerman Track Club), moving, and linking back up with your college coach Ben Thomas in Blacksburg, VA. How has the last year been, and what were the challenges associated with all of that?

It has definitely been a bit of a whirlwind over the last year. Making big changes in training is never easy, and I found that out through a mediocre year of racing in 2023.

Not that it was all bad, I think I gained a lot of new experience and maturity over the last year and that was a big step out of my comfort zone. In 2022, leaving Ben Thomas was hard, but I felt it was important to make that next step to a level that felt a bit more ‘professional’ if you will. Now, I feel very confident with the setup we have in Blacksburg, and moving across the country was easy to do for this awesome setup. We are pretty excited to start sharing more about the whole process and what we have cooking up here in Virginia.

How's the professional runner lifestyle for you? What does a typical day in Cooper Teare's world look like? Other than training, what do you like doing?

I would say I’m a pretty typical guy when it comes down to a daily routine. Running is obviously a big part of that. Most days we are at the track in the morning and afternoon, but between those, I try to look and feel as far from an athlete as possible. I always hated the student-athlete archetype on college campuses who just wears sweats and rides electric scooters around, so I try to live my life outside of running as I would as a normal person. I have a whole closet full of clothes, I figure I should wear them, right?

Now the problem is that most days I have next to nothing to do. That means lots of coffee shop trips (vanilla lattes only) throughout the week, and walking aimlessly around the main streets. Besides that, I do a lot of TV and movie binging with Rachel, a bit of reading here and there, and Fortnite when all else fails.

These days I am trying to be a little more involved with building the SOVA brand and learning the ropes of a lot of random, semi-useless skills that may or may not help us build that brand. Oh, and I almost forgot about being a bunny-dad; a huge part of my day consists of making sure our little rabbit is happy and trying to keep her from chewing a hole through our walls <3.

2024 is obviously a big year. Olympic trials in June and Paris 2024 Olympics after that. Are you and your coach approaching this year any differently than in other years?

2024 is a crazy year, and I think that [all of it] can be a little intimidating, and that might be where a lot of athletes go wrong. In terms of the approach, I think it's just like any other year: focused on a long-term goal. Personally, there are a lot more little things that I am trying to dial in on a day-to-day basis that I have not been as diligent about in the past that will help me take training and everything that comes with that to the next level. Long story short, the training works, and it’s everything else that accompanies it that is going to make those fractions of a second difference. 

Tell me, what is Ben Thomas like? What's his coaching style and what do you like about working with him? Give an example of a workout Ben would give, haha.

Ben Thomas is maybe best described as a very stoic figure with a lot of fiery energy behind the scenes. On the outside, Ben would probably not strike you as the mad scientist that he is. I once watched him watch 6 hours of race videos on a cross-country flight if that gives you any insight into his approach and attention to detail while coaching. He is pretty direct and laid back when it comes to training but will never fail to remind you to pack a "6 pack of whoop-ass" in your bag on race day. 

Ben’s training is unlike any other that I have been a part of or seen. I could forward you a weeks email and looking at it you might think half of it is written in Latin or something because the terminology only makes sense to the well-trained eye. Without giving too much away, I have found more recently that Ben, at the very core of the training, kind of follows a lot of the main principles of training that you might see in most other groups but in such a unique way.

I didn’t notice this until I started looking at the workouts with a broader view, but there are aspects of double threshold and progressions and all of that sort of stuff, but in a way that nobody else is doing. We have very intense weeks and then a day off that ends up giving us almost 48 hours off. We do a lot of cross-training and limited easy running which honestly, I love; I’ve done enough 8-mile runs in my life…I just want to go fast. 

Let's talk about your new team. From what I understand, it's called Sova Running. What's the process been like of building a new team and what are your goals for Sova in the coming years?

SOVA has been a breath of fresh air in my opinion. Making the move to Blacksburg was a bit of an unknown to be completely honest, and for a while, a lot of it was riding on if people wanted to pick up from Eugene, where we have been for years, and hike across the country to small-town Virginia.

When talking it over, I think we all saw the vision and it was a pretty straightforward decision, but we didn’t want to just fall into the same routines and identity in a different place. With that, we got here and wanted to be able to put a name to the faces training here but also try to build up something people could follow and root for. We spent a couple of months brainstorming and trying to figure out the approach to starting something like this and ended up on SOVA.

We want the main driving force behind it to be athletic excellence but not without some personality and flare to get people excited and attentive to what we are building. To be completely honest, I have no clue how to do most of the things needed to start something like this, so I’m super grateful that we have Aidan Tooker on board because he is a wizard at building decks and making connections and doing all things business so that the rest of us can focus on the creative side.

For now, the team consists of me, Rachel McArthur, Cole Hocker, Matt Wisner, and Aidan Tooker. We started off the year with 2 USA titles, so hopefully, we can keep that trajectory and people enjoy following along!

What's your biggest piece of training advice for all of the runners in our audience?

When it comes to training advice, I have always said that running is not a one-size-fits-all sport, and what works for me may not work for you, so the biggest thing you can do is tune out everyone else and find the approach that best fits your needs. I experienced this a lot with Bowerman when my teammates were doing 100+ mile weeks and I was hanging out around 75-80 and thinking, wait should I be doubling AGAIN this week? and getting in my own head quite a bit. Have fun with running and make it feel good and your body will thank you in the races.

Rapid Fire Questions: 

A song or album that's been on repeat?

Don’t judge me but Cole and I have had "1000 Gecs” by 100 Gecs on loop. Hand crushed by a mallet is my personal favorite.

Pre-meet dinner is ____?

Pre-meet dinner is pasta, boringgggg!

Your GOAT DMR team (choose anyone in history)

GOAT DMR team could go a lot of different ways, but I think I would put Sisyphus on the 1200 (if he can push a rock up that hill, he can probably run 2:40 something in the 12), Fred Kerley on the 400 (people forget that’s his best event), Rudisha on the 800 because who else could fill those shoes, and myself on the 1600 (that doesn’t need explaining).

What is track and field missing?

Track and field is missing a lot of things in my opinion. Celebrity interaction may be one of the easiest things that could boost the sport into the spotlight a little more. Noah Lyles is actually one of the biggest athletes in the world right now, he’s got NBA players in his X replies (they're angry but who cares) and he’s walking into the meet in Balenciaga… why don’t people want to come to see that? We need to better highlight our athletes and create fun and enticing narratives leading into races. Anyone could probably have this take, but whatever, it's true, and I hope we can dial it in over the next couple of years. 

Audience Questions (from real-life readers!)

"What's the craziest thing you've ever done pre-meet? I heard you had a crazy pre-race ritual in HS"

Unfortunately, I think most of these pre-race rituals are probably rumors, but I once watched all 3 National Treasure movies in a row on race day. Crazy? Maybe not in the way you were thinking but it definitely was not a great moment for me.

"Who wins in a pink-slips, everything on the line 400 between you and Cole [Hocker]?"

When it comes down to it, I think Cole is taking the win on something like that. I like to think I’m pretty quick but he’s got wheels and if he has that crazy look in his eye, you know he’s taking off and not coming back, that’s why I would never dare put everything on the line in something like that.

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