Disclaimer: I received a pair of free Aftershokz Trekz Airs and access to the Motigo Honolulu Marathon Training Plan to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!”
If you’ve been following me along all these years, you’ll know that I have run four marathons and have seriously trained for three using different training programs each time. When I signed up for Honolulu, I knew I didn’t want to train as intensely as I did for Chicago, which used Hanson’s marathon method. I simply did not have the time to train as much this time around so I knew I’d be looking for more of a beginner’s plan. Enter Motigo’s Training Experiences.
First of all, what is Motigo?
Some of you may remember that I used Motigo back in April for the Big Sur 21 miler. Motigo is, in short, a phone app that allows people to record cheers for a runner. The people recording the cheers can choose specific mile markers for their runner to hear the cheer and all the runner needs to do is log into the app and when the race starts, hit start. The app will then track the runner throughout the course and when the runner hits the appropriate mile marker, the cheer will play. This is a super neat app as people can record their cheers in advance if they cannot make it out to race day to cheer in person.
So what does this have to do with marathon training?
Using the audio aspect, Motigo has expanded into training plans and created “Training Experiences.” They call it an experience because it’s not just a marathon training plan. For one or two runs a week (typically during a long run) , there will be an audio component to the run. For those days, a runner can hit start on the run and as you run, the app will track your status in miles and when you reach certain mile markers, you will hear someone give you advice on how to tackle the mileage. Three to seven messages were expected for an audio run so if you typically run with music, these messages won’t interrupt your music too often. And you’ll know the message is coming because there will be an obvious beep followed by a pause before the message.
What did I think of the training experience?
So I signed up specifically for the Honolulu marathon training experience. For 18 weeks, I followed the plan as closely as I could and listened to the audio on those selected runs. On my particular plan because it was powered by BibRave, I heard various members from team BibRave giving me pointers as to how I should be running that day’s run. There were also anecdotes of issues they’ve come across during their training and races and suggestions were given out during the runs.
After going through the plan, I will say that this is a solid plan for someone attempting their first marathon or for someone who isn’t looking to break a personal record. The plan itself does not include specific paces that you should be hitting during your runs and it’s more of a run by feel for the designated mileage. They do however tell you to pick up the pace at times in the audio.
The weekly mileage is fairly manageable and had I been better with time management, I think I could have hit all of those weekly targets. The lowest weekly mileage is 20, whereas the highest is 40.
Looking back at how I felt during the marathon, I think the plan prepared me fairly well for race day. I did taper a bit earlier than the plan suggested, but that was because I was bad and on the day I was supposed to run 20 easy miles, I ran 6 easy miles and raced at 110% during the RnR Vegas half only 4 weeks before the marathon. Not a smart move as my body was taking its sweet time healing. LOL. Had I not done that, I think I could have shaved off a few more minutes of my full time. 🙂
So there you have it, my review of the Motigo Marathon Training Experience. If you have any questions about it, please let me know or read what other BibRave Pros had to say about the plan. They also have a half marathon training experience too if marathons aren’t your thing. 🙂
At first test, I found that the strap that the light could clip onto needed a bit of an adjustment. It is a one size fits all strap so I had to tighten it to just the right length for the light to not bounce around. It took a bit of trial and error to find just the right length. Another thing to consider is whether you want to wear it around your waist or your chest. I personally found that wearing it around my chest or even below my chest was not a good option for me. The strap would almost always slide down my body if I had it positioned around my chest. So for me, the waist was the way to go. 
I do know others who had better luck with positioning it on their chest though so it may be a body type thing. You are also able to clip the light around other straps if you have a sturdier strap. I found that clipping it onto my FlipBelt worked super well as the light didn’t bounce around as much.
