As someone who doesn't race endurance distance races often, I am always slightly lost for what speed to run at on a training session, when the coach says, "Run at your 10k pace".
But seemingly, I am not alone in that lack of knowledge; or I am training with some Olympic quality runners, who never actually race at the pace they do in training!
Joking aside, and colleagues, if you're a 40 minute 10k runner, a 400m lap is 96 seconds at that pace, not 80s; here's a way to determine what is your race pace, based on your current level of fitness.
This is derived from two Instagram posts by Mike Trees.
Your 10k race pace
Run 3 reps of 3000m with 3 minutes rest between reps.
This is a hard, so don't do it in race week. Probably best done instead of your interval session.
It's important not to go off too fast and blow up, or set off too slowly. Probably take note of my comments on stride frequency (Need for Speed Too).
If done with near even pacing (you probably should tire towards the end), the average is your 10k race pace, so could be used for your training sessions.
Your half marathon race pace
Similarly to the 10k determiner session.
Run 3 reps of 5km hard with 5 minutes recovery jog.
Yes that's 3 consecutive Parkruns with just about enough time to find and get your barcode scanned before setting off again!
Same caveats as for the 10k
So now you know. You can probably work out how to determine what a session should look like to get your 5km or 3km race pace.
Happy running, at the right speed for the session!