We live in a hilly area, and even after I started running up the hills rather than walking them, I often found myself taking a break when I reached the top so I could catch my breath to keep going.
When I finally kept going, just slower, after the top of one of those hills, I was amazed to realize that after about a minute I had caught my breath and recovered even though I was still jogging and hadn’t stopped.
It felt great, and it helped me overcome some of the panic I felt about pushing during a race. If you’re running a little too hard during a race and you lose your breath, you can slow down a little and you’ll be able to catch your breath without having to stop or walk. This realization helps me tackle the fear of having to walk during a race when I really wanted to run the whole thing, a fear that can really affect your willingness to push yourself hard enough during a race to feel accomplished afterwards.
I love it when I run a race, and afterwards I feel like I ran my best. Learning to recover without stopping to walk has really helped me do that. I still take walking breaks during some of my long runs, but I stop a lot less after a big hill or challenging mile than I used to, and I think it makes running more enjoyable.