Speed up debugging

For scripts that take a while to run, the slowdown from attaching the debugger can be a bit of a problem.  In my case, it takes an hour to get to the first breakpoint.

Is it possible to attach the debugger after the script has been running normally for a while?  Then the first part, where I don't need any debugging, would run much faster.

Any other ways to speed up debugging (without resorting to print statements and running without the debugger)?

Thanks for reading!