keep running and don\'t sweat the details wrote:
Yes it's ok to take a couple minutes break. I haven't read the whole thread but assume you are a HS or college runner.
As a HS soph I was an above average xc runner, but not good enough to qualify for state individually (my HS was never going to qualify as a team). The summer before junior year I decided on a weekly long run of 13 miles (my 16-year-old self reasoned this is what the best HS runners in my state did so I should too). Up to this point my longest run ever was 6 miles.
The beginning of summer I couldn't run 13 miles continuously. There was a nice park with a lake 6.5 miles from my home. I would run there and hang out for 30 minutes, sometimes cooling off in the lake if it was hot. Over the summer my 30 minute rest decreased to just stopping for a drink at the park water fountain. I finished top-5 at state xc that fall.
Ok fine, but there are also people who take the “stop if you need to” advice overzealously and get stuck in that rut unable to break off that habit.
I say stopping fundamentally contradicts the single most important LR advice: just run baby.