The hardest part of the long run has to be the mental aspect, and when your long run consists of two laps of the same route (mine was made up of a short run to the lake, then two laps of West Lake, before running home again) the hardest part is starting the second lap. I tricked myself into thinking it wasn't really two of the same laps, by running one direction first and then switching it up and running the reverse direction for the second lap. On and positive mantras always help, as does mentally planning or organising things in my mind as I'm running - I like to get the first draft of 'writing' done during my runs.
No running over the weekend or yesterday however, but I did a LOT of sweaty dancing, so that counts as cross-training right? Then it was back into my usual 11km-12km ish run this morning. I'm feeling really good and confident re: the Danang Marathon in just under 3 weeks' time now. Later this week will see me do my last long-long run, before I start to taper down for the race.
Bring it on Danang!!