robust corn husk

i was taken aback by all the vocals on the first listen but they're growing on me

so I must remind you all: Pride is a marathon, not a sprint.

it's not a fucking marathon!

as i understand it, generally, after events that get described as "it's a marathon, not a sprint", you're hoping to remain upright afterwards. i want to be clear that, at the end of a marathon, you're wasted because you have run at 100% of the speed you can sustain over 26.2 miles.

thank you, nice volunteer at the last race who supported my entire bodyweight and respectfully dragged me out of the finisher's chute in a dignified way

you're looking for some other metaphor. perhaps "it's a hard run, not a race", or maybe "it's a randonnée, not a race". if it's really hard, maybe call it a barkley or a backyard ultra. let's get real into hair-splitting with metaphors because it entertains me, in specific.

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pace percentages are a weird but very useful way to compare running paces. frex, what's called 90% of marathon pace is (2-.9) x marathon pace, 50% is (2-.5) x marathon pace, etc.

as a starting point, every 5% pace you drop, you can run ~2x as long, and the other way around too: every 5% faster, can hold it ~1/2 as long. so 105% MP is approximately half pace, 110% is approximately 10k pace, 115% is approx 5k... it really starts falling apart at distances shorter than a mile.

(note the symmetry isn't there; 80% x (120% MP) won't exactly equal MP. but it's close enough for a first approximation!)

one of the beefiest training runs i did in my last marathon training cycle was 20 miles @ 90% MP. it's neat, because before that run (...and for three or four weeks after...), i wouldn't have been able to run 26 @ MP. and uh, i still haven't run at that pace; i fucked around and found out on race day. but i did run very close to my planned pace.: 26.2 @ 99%! so my point stands. i was upright after that run! for an entire day! i was wrecked the next day, however.

... anyway, my point being. if you make me sprint -- i can't 'sprint'! i don't know how! usain bolt does a different sport from me that happens to use the same equipment! -- if you make me do something that approximates a sprint, it's at something a little faster than 5:00/mile pace. my marathon pace is about ~70% of that. my hardest training run was 60% of that. my daily pace is not even 20% of that.

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there's a running club in the vicinity -- i am fond of them but not a member, because all their events are inconvenient for me -- that does a season or two of training sessions up there, so if you're there on a wednesday evening, everyone is doing a track workout.

but it's still an open-to-the-public track. so i could be there doing my own thing. at times, going faster than the club members; at times, going slower. if i hear their coach say "it's time for 10k pace intervals!" i am not obligated to do their 10k intervals, but also i shouldn't snap at the coach "it's fucked up that you're telling me to do 10k intervals. i think running at any speed is okay."