Coach suggestions

You may want to ping TRIBOMBER (Scott) for coach that he used for his IM.
He has good success with the coach.

What are your goals with a coach? I ask because I chose mine based off what I was looking to focus on. I knew that I didn't need a coach that had to motivate me for each workout or design a plan from scratch.

I already had a pretty solid IM plan that I have used (and tweaked considerably) over the past couple of years. I have been doing Masters swimming and do a few personal swim sessions with Duane Dobko (http://www.dobkanize.com/). I use Trainer Road and a powermeter for the bike. I really wanted to focus more on the run.

So, I found Derek Lindstrom (http://beyondperformance.org/). He focuses on the run but can also put together an entire plan for you. He has helped improve my plan based on my liking and strengths, pushes me with focused run workouts, and helps put together race specific strategies. He has completed over 100 marathons himself (2:29 PR or something crazy) and has coached hundreds of athletes to BQ's. He thinks that working together that I can get a Kona qualifying spot at IMWI... makes me like him more when he tells me this!

I worked with Kris Swarthout from Optum Health Performance (OHP) for 2 years and would recommend checking him as well as their other coaches.   http://optumhealthperformancestore.com/coaches. 

At that time OHP was based in Eden Prairie, but now they are working out of the YMCA downtown Minneapolis and Southdale.  Coach Kris and I spoke on the phone and we went through feeling out process to be sure he know what my goals were and to make sure we clicked.  He tailored the workouts accordingly and I learned a lot.  I personally liked having a place to go see him as well as workout, so when they were Eden Prairie, it worked well for me.

I would also mention Coach Jonny J.  He was at OHP at that time and ran a number of their group classes, including a killer 4 hour brick workout on Saturday mornings.  Jonny J is now at “Revolution de la vie” which is in Apple Valley.