I have walk cycle Questions

I’m fairly new to blender and have not posted anywhere before. I have tried to learn as much as possible so as to be able to ask half-way intelligent questions. I am currently working on two characters to animate. I have created a walk cycle with key frames in 40 frames and set to cyclical to continue the walk cycle. My problem is starting and stopping the walk cycle to have the chars do other actions and then walk again. If someone could direct me to tuts how to do this, it would be most helpful. I don’t know if I can attach a video or image here so I hope I’ve explained things correctly.

Thanks
jpl181