Unless programming is a hobby for you, I would recommend you look for a job that has mentoring built in. I remember that at Google -- which hires pretty decent coders to begin with -- there were plenty of both educational and 1-1 opportunities to get better. In fact you had to pass a 'code readability review' with senior colleagues before you got access to check in any code.

If changing jobs is not an option, then, yes, remote coaching/pairing works pretty well. Lately, I have been starting remote study groups to master new technologies with other developers. Take a look here for an example: http://scalafp.pbworks.com and http://scalapro.pbworks.com