I have been paying a personal trainer (about $60/week), since September.  At first, things were great, but she had few clients.  I told her I wanted to learn to run, and eventually complete a marathon without walking. She WAS great, pushing me and finding ways to build my legs, she emailed me training schedules for the days I didn't train with her (hill workouts, pace runs, temp runs, bike rides etc). I told her when I started that I wanted something different, something I couldn't do myself (ie don't stand there and talk to me why I run on a treadmill).  We never did the same routine and my progress blossomed (couldn't run .25 mile, to a 1 hr 10k in less than 4 months).  First the emails that came the night before or at 5 am (since I workout early), would come at 7, 8 or 9 am (2 hours after I finished my workout). Then, they stopped altogether, sometime in December.  In January, I reminded her I had registered for a half in March.  She went on 3 training runs with me. On one she ran about 300 feet in front of me and yelled like a drill sargent the entire 9.5 miles. I finished in 1:44:19 and she was furious I didn't do it in less than 1:30:00. The route had very steep hills, I had a hip problem and I'd only started running 4 months prior.  The next training run, she rode her bike, lied to me about my speed, yelling at me to go faster, then left me cause she was cold.  I should mention, she ALWAYS cancels when the weather is below 40 degrees and I am paying (seperately) for a gym membership where she works, I'm pretty sure they have HEAT.  I haven't used the gym in over 2 months.  All I've been doing is running, mostly by myself.  She was supposed to create a training schedule for my half in January.  Finally, I got pushy and got one 2 1/2 weeks before my big day.  She called me Friday and said she was coming to my half to pace me, then later, she called back to tell me the race officials wouldn't let her pace me, she had to register. She ask me to register her when I picked up my packet.  The waiting list for the sold out race was nearly 300 people, so I couldn't get her a spot. I called her to tell her this, she never returned my call,didn't show for the race, and didn't call to ask how I did.  BTW I finished in 2-1/2 hours, with 2 potty stops, 35 degree weather and a 30 knot wind.  This is the second time she hasn't showed for a race or asked how I did.  I can't tell you how relieved I was she didn't show.  I've ran a 5k with her, she ran backwards and yelled at me the whole time.  Her slow pace is 8 min miles.  My fast pace is 9:45 miles.  I've prepaid for about 20 more sessions, but I don't want to just run and have someone yell at me. I want what I paid for, training with variety.  I've tried a subtle diplomatic approach, I got treated like I didn't care about my training.   PLEASE HELP, I NEED ADVICE!!!!  I will not quit running, but it stinks I am locked into a gym membership I can use, for fear she'll be there and say something about me trying to do my own training.  Although, I did most of my half training by waking up and saying, what should I do today?...............I hate that!