In the June 2010 issue of Running Times magazine, Jonathan Beverly's "Editor's Note" offers some good advice, for running and for life:

... But the path to running excellence is over the rough, difficult way—avoiding the trail is not only the road to injury, but the road to being less of a runner. The whole purpose of training is to seek out the difficult, to stress our bodies so they will grow stronger. ...

This brings to mind the Latin proverb quoted by Z. A. Melzak in his autobiography: "Difficilior lectio potior." Literally it translates, "The more difficult reading is the stronger." and is a principle of textual criticism in reconstructing ancient manuscripts. But in general it means: Take the hard way!

(many thanks to Caren Jew for lending me her copy of Running Times magazine; cf. InSearchOfTheFulcrumPartThree (2006-06-19), ...) - ^z - 2010-07-01