I also did not switch cold turkey. It's taking me more time to adapt to the new layout because of that... The thing is , i already type very fast with a qwerty layout. So, basically, since i want to do so many things at once, i could not tolerate to be slowed down.

So i just decided to take Colemak learning like a game. When i get to at least 40 wpm with a lesson, i switch to the next one. And so on.

I can practice anywhere with my USB stick.

Steps (On any XP-like system)
1. Connect your USB flash drive
2. Install Colemak
3. Using the window that pop outs, add the colemak layout to the list
4. Run Typefaster from the stick (It's a portable app yeaaa)
5. Shift+Control (fast switch to ColemaK)
6. Play

I already have the will to learn Colemak. But i didn't want to lose my productivity so...

By the way, if you learn Colemak with the proper technique. It's just about practicing the lessons over and over.
You need a strong will :P It needs to be stronger than a temporary geek excitement. So, learning the layout until the end is something that a few have achieved on this forum. And i can understand why!

I want to go faster too, and sometimes I feel too slow. But it's a bit like learning the piano: Periods of slow progress and hardship, then suddenly a leap forward as something "clicks into place". Once you pass 45ish WPM, you'll not be annoyed at your speed anymore if you are like me - and from there the rest is gravy as they say.

If you haven't touch typed before and manage 30 WPM after a month only, that sounds pretty decent to me. Don't fret about the people who reach insane speeds in no time - this isn't a competition (I hope), and people learn differently.

I've also found that people test their speed differently. I only run the 3 minute test at TypingMaster to assess my own speed, because I feel that a sustained speed typing real text with punctuation and whatnot is the best measurement of my actual performance. If I were to measure in some games, my speed might look better.. although what would it mean? Not much to me.

Remember to feel for the bumps on the index finger keys at all times. If you get used to feeling them, you won't lose your position anymore.

Take care to use your touch typing technique at all times, even if hunting-pecking seems just as effective in a pressed situation. You want to leave that behind, so do it.

Ok,  now for a bit of fun. 

I have VMWare Fusion installed on my Macbook with Windows XP virtual machine in it. 

Works nice. Even with debugging set on it's a lot, ... a lot!,  speedier than Virtual PC was on my Powebook. 

The Colemak Windows install.exe failed to install properly or somehow is being bypassed.

However the AutoHotKey config works great !!!!  No problems including CapsLock Backspace switch. Works fine.   I also installed TypeFaster and

It works fine to do Colemak lessons in TypeFaster in Windows XP in VMWare Fusion on OS X 10.4.8 on a macbook !

If I remember correctly, the Mac has a similar feature to Windows in that you can use a hotkey combination to switch layouts. And like in Windows, it's too easy to hit that combo inadvertently. I think it may have been Cmd-Space by default? I managed to find and deactivate it, and things went smoother from there.

struggling to break past 40 wpm. 

I think I spent a little too much time playing games rather than practicing.

I stumbled upon this quote in his 1st post, "I hunt and peck on a QWERTY keyboard at about 20-30 WPM"

Actually taking these typing tests, I think my original estimate of my hunt and peck speed was a tad optimistic. 
Probably typical was 20 wpm on a good day as a top speed.  I liked shells like tcsh because it was easy to re-use and edit the history.  Also autocomplete was a must.  Now sometimes I get irritated with autocomplete because it doesn't let me practice !  :-)

Anyway I hope this old dog can learn a new trick and I can get upto to 60 wpm as a minimum!   

thanks.

I am now clocking around 45 WPM on  http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/ 

though sometimes I am cruising and my hand spazs out and I hit ie instead ei and
freeze for moment and end up in the thirty something wpm to be honest.  Sometimes I feel if I try too quickly to correct I end up taking longer than if I stop and slowly speed up again. 

I had the interesting experience today of typing some pages from a book I am reading.  I did it only looking at the book page and not at what I was typing.  I felt myself actually speed up that way over glancing at what I was typing. I could start to appreciate the genius of this layout more also because so many times I felt I was cruising along barely moving my fingers and often my fingers felt like they were just over the right key.  The intelligence of the layout was helping me to type better. Only had few errors to fix after I was done so that was nice.  This seems to be a good exercise for me as a former non touch typist.

For me, it didn't require all that much will power. I had previously tried, but I had tried when I couldn't afford to lose productivity. This time, I switched right before going on a trip on which I would not be typing much. So, when I got back, I hadn't typed qwerty much for a week or so. I fairly quickly got to a workable 30-40 wpm, and can now type at around 61wpm, in colemak. That's faster than my old qwerty speed.

So if you fail once, don't give up.