I mentioned when posting about watching Instagram workouts that I’d write this week about recording these workouts.
To be honest, I want to say just don’t do it. However, I know there are people who want to do this. I also know there are cases where, if you’re a member of a team, you may not get to decide whether or not you are part of a recording.
Why do I want to say just don’t do it? Because there is a lot of pressure to do something “impressive”. If you’re recording workouts on a regular basis for public consumption, there’s even more pressure to make them more “impressive” over time.
The problem with this is that, as I say frequently, the best training is boring. Training for distance running just doesn’t look impressive on social media. To paraphrase the book Once a Runner, success comes from the trial of miles, miles of trials. That trial of miles doesn’t make a compelling 60 second video.
So what do we do about this? Well, I do have a few thoughts if you must do one or more of these videos or if you feel compelled to do so.
Stick to the training plan
Number one, by far the most important, don’t sabotage your plan for a video on social media. Stick to the plan. If you have mile repeats planned, then the mile repeats will be what you are recording. Don’t change the workout and make sure you stick to the plan. Don’t decide that your 7:00 repeats won’t be impressive so you need to run them faster or put in a big kick at the end of each one.
Stick to the plan and make the best video you can out of that.
Get a good camera person
Even the most boring run can look more impressive if you get some good angles. Make sure your camera person knows those angles, then work with them to get video that can be used without sabotaging your workout.
Edit!
No, don’t make something fake but do some editing. A bunch of quick clips of you running by can make the video more compelling so edit things down and string together several different shots.
Keep the goal in mind
Going back to the first point because that is the most important. What’s the most important thing about the workout? Getting in a good workout or making a good video? I hope getting in a good workout is the priority for you. So don’t sabotage that workout for the video.