So during my regular runs it didnt seem that I had a pacing issue...then I ran a 5k and then a 10k . During the two races I found myself with no other runners close by and truelly struggled to keep a good pace; varying from too fast to sustain to too slow, and actually ended up running at a worse time then what I had done on a practice run. This led to the discovery that I think that I have been somewhat using my dog , my favorate running partner as a pace keeper. Unfortunatelly many races do not allow dogs, but I do not want to stop training with him either..any suggestions of what I can do during training to prepare myself to hold a pace when Im on my own?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.