Patience vs. Understanding

Reading Craig's post today prompted me to write this post. I read an article recently about patience vs. understanding. This article was talking about working with toddlers and preschool aged children, but made a good point that carries over into life in general.

Patience can be defined many ways, but in general it implies a willingness to endure, to wait it out, whatever it may be. It requires mental discipline and stamina. Understanding, on the other hand, is defined as having knowledge about and applying it to the situation at hand, and therefore, reacting with intentional thought. In the case of young children, the argument is made that we don't need patience, we need understanding. Do we want to endure the times with our children, or do we want to understand them and respond thoughtfully? Would you rather your child had a teacher with patience, or a teacher with understanding? (Can you tell I'm deep into teaching the Intro class?) I vote for understanding. If we understand, then we don't need patience. Patience almost implies that a child is doing something wrong and it is taking our forbearance to tolerate it and wait it out. Rather, I want to understand. Where is the child developmentally? Are they simply acting and thinking according to their developmental stage? How can I guide them during this?

Okay, what in the world does my little lecture have to do with running? (I'm trying to emulate Donald here, but I don't have any girlfriend analogies.) Craig was discussing how hard it was to be a patient runner. In an earlier post, I mentioned my lack of patience for marathon prep. This could apply to recovering from injury (or personalizing it, surgery,) it could apply to the 10% rule in ramping up the mileage. It's hard to be patient when you are raring to go. So...maybe patience isn't the answer. Maybe it's understanding. What's with the 10% rule anyway? Where'd it come from? What happens if you increase 11% every week? What else leads to injury - is it just the 10% or is it form, shoes, nutrition, weather? What about recovery? When we are coming back from an injury/surgery, how do we know what to do? Do we simply "listen to our body" and follow how we feel? Do we follow a prescribed plan? Something the doc told us to do? (And is he/she a runner, do they know?)

Do we need to be patient runners, enduring the wait or do we need to be understanding runners, gathering knowledge about our situation and applying it? I vote for understanding (of course I do, that way I can do what I want!) I ask around, I discuss it endlessly, I talk to experienced runners and those who have come back from injury, and those who've gone the distance, and I add in my own experience. Then I try to put it all together and develop an answer. It works for me - now I don't have to be patient, because I've created something that I think will work and that I understand and am satisfied with.

I say toss patience out the window and work to understand it. As I read Craig's post, that is exactly what he was doing...thinking it through, eliciting comments, gathering knowledge. My experience leads me to believe that I need to push a little, not in speed, but in endurance. I know myself well, and I recognize the little twinges that warn me I'm pushing too hard. Good thing my current training plan is flexible - it's got to have room to mess around a little to accommodate life, as well as those little signals to ease up a bit.

Here's the week so far:
Monday: Pilates; rest from running
Tuesday: 6 miles; 1:10:05, average HR: 141, high: 158
Wednesday: 6 mile hill run, 1:13:47, average HR: 140, high: 161; subbed in Pilates after the run

I was planning to do 4 yesterday and 8 today, but then realized I had an early morning meeting at the Y, immediately followed by Pilates, so I split it into two runs for yesterday and today. I've been a little tired since the 13 miles on Sunday, so it probably wasn't a bad idea. I waffle back and forth between anticipating running 16 miles on Sunday - new mileage, nice route, new challenge- and dreading it - oh my gosh! 16 miles! never done it, can I do it? It's highly possible that running it is going to be way better than all this anticipation! And this is only a training run...