RunToTheFinish

Online Running Coach | Running Shoe and Gear Reviews

About the Author

Amanda Brooks

I am a running coach with over a decade of experience helping thousands of runners to achieve their goals from running injury free to crossing that marathon finish line with a PR. I've run over 28,000 miles in my own running journey since 2002. Run To The Finish is my place to share that love and my deep dive in to researching all things running. I hold multiple run coaching certifications, as well as a personal training certification. But it's my ongoing desire to learn and progress as a coach that has allowed me to help runners from their 20's through their 70's! More ways to connect with me:

Amanda Brooks

Complacency Will Kill You and other Lessons for Big Results

Sitting in a cold auditorium is how I might have started many nap stories during college, but in 2012 at a work convention I stumbled upon what is to date…

21 Sneaky Vegetable Recipes: They Won’t Even Know They’re Eating Veggies

The gold standard for fruit and veggie servings is 7 to 9 a day. I admit that upon first reading that my jaw dropped and I couldn’t fathom making it…

Menopause by 30 – It’s not slowing me down

Menopause. Oye, that word…it just feels OLD. Like something my mother and her friends should talk about while knitting {ok she doesn’t knit}. Not me. Not at 32. I admit…

Vegan Clean Eating Blueberry Upside Down Cake

A few weeks ago David’s boss gave us tickets to the Orlando Magic game…not just any seats, but club seats meaning we had access to a buffet of food! I…

Do Your Best, Forget the Rest: Tony Horton Book Review

“I’m a guy who got tired of being out of shape, miserable, stressed out and broke. I saw my Big Picture, I put together a plan, and I acted on…

4 min PR and 3rd place finish – Best Damn Race Orlando

I’ve already said I’m not a fan of race reports, so mostly I’ll keep this short and sweet with some details for me to have as a record for later.…

Vegan Broccaulikale Masher Recipe – Crazy name, great taste

Boerenkool is a traditional Dutch dish using kale and mashed potatoes, which is what I initially set out to make to go with our fish. Nothing against the good ol’…

Wallflower Friday: Time to Delurk

My analytics tell me that thousands of you are visiting each day…I have gotten to know about 10% of you through great comments, challenges and events. The technical term for…

Best Damn Race Safety Harbor – Half Marathon Report

I really hate race reports. Mine. Yours. Famous people’s. Two exceptions: People I’m coaching {woot go team} and really good friends who have just crushed a PR or done something…

Ab Challenge Exercises Demonstrated

Time for another one month challenge! I asked what you wanted and ab challenge was the clear winner. I get it, spring will disappear on us in a flash and…

Ab Challenge Calendar

Time for another one month challenge! I asked what you wanted and ab challenge was the clear winner. I get it, spring will disappear on us in a flash and…

Vegan Kale Slaw with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Did you know that lime, sweet potatoes, pumpkin seeds and chili powder are some of the defining elements of Southwestern flavors? I learned this after debating whether I should be…

LHR Training Revisited with MAF Method

Last spring I started the low heart rate training method {LHR}, popularized by Phil Maffetone. It’s been buzzed about it for years, but it took Miss Zippy sharing her process…

Clean Eating White Bean Chicken Chili – DF, GF

After two very long years and a move from Miami to Orlando, my parents were able to come visit us again! Knowing they were coming on Monday, I wanted to…

Fitness Trackers: Fad or Future?

Get ready to geek out friends. If you love tracking workouts or get motivated by seeing progress on numbers, 2014 is the year it’s all going to grow even more.…

CES 2014 – Making life more fun

I love to talk running. No surprises there. However, I didn’t expect to be chatting running with the COO/President of Sony this week! Let’s back up a little bit though……

Tofu Breakfast Scramble: A Vegan Protein Veggie Feast

I’ve tried making my beloved scrambled “eggs” and veggie breakfast in a number of variations since finding out I could no longer eat eggs. Not a single one has satisfied…

Running Year In Review – Surpassing 1600 Running Miles

Being a numbers geek, I probably should have gone in to accounting or something else along those lines…instead I became a runner which allows me to track all kinds of…

How Floridians do Ice

I hadn’t planned to post again after the fitness giveaway until Monday to take an official break…but our Christmas turned out to be quite lovely and I had to share.…

Asian Style Quinoa Salad

During the FitSocial trip, we made a stop at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center where we got to workout and then eat!!! But of course this was a special…

10 Elements of the Successful Life

After you find the “intersection of your passion and your talent” here are 10 things you must do to capitalize on it according to Pat Williams. Some of you, like…

Photography and Food Weekend in Charleston, SC

If you follow me on Instagram, you already saw a few of my photos from this weekend…but since it was a weekend all about improving my photography skill {and umm…

Post 7 Day Juice Cleanse Thoughts

Thus far I am happy to report my marriage remains in tact after 2 full days of eating almost nothing but juice. I was surprisingly not HANGRY at all…had I…

Diary of a Juice Cleanse Day 3: Top 10 Juicing Questions

If you are considering a juice cleanse, review day 1 {the right way to do a juice cleanse} and day 2 {touted benefits of juice cleanse} as well! I was…

Diary of a Juice Cleanse – Day 2 Benefits

In an ideal world, we would all eat in response to true hunger. But the truth is we get in to habits of eating because of time of day, response…

Diary of a Juice Cleanse Day 1: What and How

You know I love my green smoothies. You know I’m all about high nutrient foods for recovery. You know I’m not a fan of fads or diets or lose weight…

Travel the World while staying Fit: Fitness Spotlight

How to stay active while traveling? How to eat clean while traveling? How to come home without needing to unbutton your jeans? Questions like this are definitely among the most…

The man BESIDE RunToTheFinish

It’s cliché to call him my best friend or the love of my life, but I think that’s because words sometimes fail to explain what it means when you find…

NYC Marathon – Beyond the clock

As noted yesterday, I did eek out a 1 minute PR for which I am absolutely grateful. I appreciate all the congrats and all your words of “any PR should…

Officially a 1:04 PR – NYC

At my current rate of race PR’s, it’s fantastic that I love this sport and view it has something to do for a lifetime because I’m going to need another…

No NYC race countdown here

You may notice that you’ve never seen a race countdown clock on my site. I don’t post each week how many days are left and when people ask the date…

The Last Ironman Finisher

Three minutes before the 17 hour cut off 78-year-old Harriett Anderson crossed the finish line as the oldest official finisher, the winner of her age group and the last official…

The Story of an Original Ironman

It’s a story as old as time…one man dares another in a bar and the next thing you know it’s a world wide event. Well something like than anyhow. Prior…

Ironman Kona 2013 Race Day

Some lessons you need to learn through experience and this weekend, I learned what it really means to be an Ironman. Spectating this event in person was so much more…

Timex Sports Behind the Ironman Journey

Tomorrow I want to share with you the story of one of the original 1978 Ironman finishers {15 entered, 12 finished}…then more of what we saw throughout the 2013 Ironman…

Three 20 Mile Weekends in a Row

Peak training is here and right now I feel SOLID!!! The last three weekends have all be 20 milers, but with extremely different conditions and times giving me a big…

Kona Lesson 2: Let it all hang out – Underpants Run

I don’t run in a sports bra…ever. I have talked before on the blog about me “abs” goal and my lack of having defined abs. I also recognize that eating…

From NFL to Ironman: Hines Ward

Can you imagine going out for your first run and doing a run/walk for just 20 minutes…knowing that you are already signed up for the Ironman World Championship race in…

Kona Lesson 1: Find Your Tribe

While marathons and triathlons are performed as individuals, it takes a team to make it happen. One of the recurring themes I heard on day one in Kona with Timex from a…

Chicken Quinoa Soup – A Classic Made Better

Mother Nature does a lot of things right…particularly sunrises which I shared a few of this week because I really believe they’re moments that allow us all to pause and…

Colorado Lovin: A Vacation Every Weekend

I confess that during my visit to San Diego I swore I was moving there…then during my visit to Boulder I swore I was moving there. In fairness, I’ve been…

Crossing off a Bucket List Experience

A few years ago, after being asked yet again “where do you want to be in 5 years?” I pulled out a sheet of paper and started thinking more about…