2022: a track season

Updated 10 Oct 2026

Running notebook · Running record · Personal bests · Race history

2015–2019 · 2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023–2025 · 2026

In spring 2022 I was eighteen, finishing school and training for the middle distances. I graduated from twelfth grade in May. The year produced the 800 m and 1500 m marks I still use as historical reference points: 2:03.62 and 4:23.90.

Those numbers came after a progression. A January 1000 m time trial was 3:05; a February 1500 was 4:47. In April I ran an 800 time trial in 2:12. In May I went under 4:30 for 1500. June brought the men’s national championships, and July brought another two-day championship weekend in the U20 category.

The notes preserve more than improving times. They contain repeated workouts, my first session in spikes, pacing failures and several returns after injury. Together with the old training sheet, they let me look at how the season actually developed, rather than remember only its fastest days.

Races · Time trials · Selected workouts · The recovered programme · Recorded runs

Races

The federation’s original result tables identify me as Ангел Райчев, born in 2003, representing СКЛА Хай Левел — High Level, with athlete number 3163. The same details appear in all five races below.

New Stars took place at Sofia–NSA. The June men’s championships were in Veliko Tarnovo; the July U20 championships were in Sofia. The different categories matter when comparing places. The championship classifications also exclude the separate guest or out-of-competition entries.

In the May 1000 I finished third in series 1. The final combined result was 11th. My activity note called it the season opener and my first race ever. The season-opener description remains useful; the lifetime claim does not, because my earlier organised park and road races are now part of the record.

In the June 1500 I won series 1. My note from the race says I had hoped for a faster time, but lacked competition in my heat to push me. I was still happy with the personal best. The next day’s 800 note is more emphatic: I was very happy with 2:03.62, despite the wet track.

The dates have needed a correction. The 1500 activity is entered under 12 June, but the federation table puts the event on Saturday, 11 June. That agrees with my recollection that the 1500 was on day one and the 800 on day two. The race date here follows the competition record.

July adds a useful second reference. On 6 July, after another injury, I ran 600 m in 1:32.77 — 2:34.6/km — and hoped it would be enough for personal bests that weekend. The races were 4:25.96 and 2:04.54, just over two seconds and just under one second slower than the June marks. I finished sixth in 1500 series 2 and sixth in 800 series 3, with seventh in each championship classification. The June performances had another pair of official results close behind them.

Time trials

These are the times written in my activity titles and notes. They remain field time trials, with their original precision, rather than federation race results. Paces below are calculated from the written effort times and stated distances; they exclude recovery and are rounded to the nearest tenth of a second per kilometre.

The titles and descriptions matter here. A rounded whole-activity time in the export does not replace a more precise time I wrote for the actual effort.

Selected workouts

The complete list of recorded runs is below. These sessions explain several parts of the season that a list of best times would miss. Distances and rests come from the workout notes; unrecorded recovery remains unrecorded.

Winter work and the mixed-rest template

On 19 January, I ran 4×200 m with three-minute rests, then 4×200 m with 90-second rests.

First set: 30.3 · 30.5 · 29.6 · 29.9. Second set: 32.8 · 33.0 · 33.1 · 32.8.

This is the old session behind the mixed-rest fast template in the current notebook. The second set was slower after the earlier fast work and with the shorter recovery. Keeping both sets makes the reference more useful than remembering only a sub-30-second repetition.

The winter and early spring also contained substantial longer work. On 21 February, 9×1000 m / 4 min went 4:02 · 3:59 · 3:58 · 3:56 · 3:56 · 3:57 · 3:55 · 3:50 · 3:47. The 1000 m splits are also their paces per kilometre; the set averaged about 3:56/km. I wrote that I still felt fresh after the final repetition. On 14 March, 4×3000 m / 6 min went 11:59 · 11:50 · 11:42 · 11:37, or about 4:00/km, 3:57/km, 3:54/km, 3:52/km. The fast work belonged to a programme that also asked me to run longer repetitions.

A comparison worth keeping

Two Saturdays used the same format: 4×300 m / 3 min, then 4×200 m / 90 s.

On 26 March:

• 300s: 51.00 · 49.09 · 48.64 · 47.82.
• 200s: 29.34 · 30.32 · 28.64 · 30.34.

On 2 April:

• 300s: 47.40 · 47.30 · 47.65 · 46.75.
• 200s: 29.70 · 30.10 · 30.40 · 29.70.

The 300s became quicker and more even. The following 200s did not become quicker on average. That is a more specific observation than saying that the whole workout improved, and a reason to retain the sequence as well as the fastest split.

An earlier 12 March session used 185 m, with the same two sets and three-minute/90-second rests: 27.55 · 27.00 · 26.50 · 26.80, then 29.05 · 27.60 · 25.95 · 25.75. The sheet says 200 m for that day. The completed record keeps 185 m; those times do not become 200 m results.

Spikes, pacing and the cost of a session

16 April was my first time wearing spikes. The session was 1200 m + 600 m + 600 m, in 3:38 · 1:42 · 1:50, or about 3:02/km, 2:50/km, 3:03/km. I described the shoes as feeling strange and wrote that my ankles could not hold the pressure on the last repetition. The sheet marks that Saturday with SPIKES!; the activity supplies the actual experience.

On 4 May UTC, 600 m + 400 m + 300 m went 1:37.7 · 59.8 · 42.7. The 600 and 400 paces were 2:42.8/km and 2:29.5/km. I called it brutal training, with “PRs flying all over the place.” Those were earlier marks in a season that later brought the quicker 600 and 300 time trials and the June 400 after a 600. The recovery for this May combination is not recorded.

The notes repeatedly record difficulty after a strong opening effort. On 7 May, 1600 m in 5:08 was followed by 400s in 64 and 71, with one minute between the 400s. Their paces were 3:12.5/km, 2:40.0/km, 2:57.5/km. I described a large fade. On 23 May, 1200 m + 800 m went 3:33 · 2:31, or 2:57.5/km and 3:08.8/km; I wrote that I burned out on the 800 and vomited at the end. Those observations belong beside the times. They show why a fast first effort does not describe the experience of the full session.

Injuries and the run-up to U20 nationals

My 30 May note calls 1000 m + 600 m in 2:52 · 1:40, about 2:52/km and 2:47/km, the first training after an injury. On 1 June, I was still recovering, running 300 m / 1 min / 300 m in 42 · 44. The notes do not identify a diagnosis.

After the June championships, I began preparing for U20 nationals. On 17 June, 4×150 m / 6 min went 19.28 · 19.42 · 19.66 · 19.98; I wrote that I was still fighting injuries. The 18 June mixed-rest 200 session returned to 4×200 / 3 min + 4×200 / 90 s. The note summarises the times as around 27–28 seconds, with a severe effort. It does not give eight exact splits.

On 22 June, 600 m + 400 m went 1:32.74 · 56.05, or 2:34.6/km and 2:20.1/km. I was highly motivated. This is the exact sequence behind my remembered 56-second 400 after a 1:32 600. The recovery between the efforts is not supplied.

On 27 June, 1000 m + 600 m went 2:49.29 · 1:34.64, or 2:49.3/km and 2:37.7/km. I opened the first 600 of the 1000 at a pace aimed at 2:40, then faded badly over the final 400. I had slept only three hours and reported food poisoning. The recovery between those efforts is also absent.

The next substantial effort in the notes is the 1:32.77 600 on 6 July, after another injury. On 7 July, the final easy session before racing was 400 m / 1 min / 300 m / 1 min / 200 m / 1 min / 100 m, in 75 · 50 · 35 · 16 seconds. The opening 400 was 3:07.5/km. I labelled it 1500 m pace. The official July results then establish what I actually ran at the championships.

The season did not end on a single day

I have remembered July as the point when regular structured training stopped. The export preserves later interval sessions too: on 23 July, 8×400 m / 1 min went 1:29 · 1:20 · 1:22 · 1:23 · 1:22 · 1:21 · 1:21 · 1:21. Mean work pace was about 3:26/km, ranging from 3:20/km to 3:42.5/km. On 6 August, 2×2000 m + 2×1200 m + 2×600 m went 7:39 · 7:34 · 4:19 · 4:14 · 1:56 · 1:51, with no recovery supplied. The paired paces were about 3:50/km / 3:47/km for the 2000s, 3:36/km / 3:32/km for the 1200s, and 3:13/km / 3:05/km for the 600s. On 30 August, 3×600 m / 5 min went 1:54 · 1:51 · 1:47, about 3:10/km, 3:05/km, 2:58/km; I wrote that I was slowly getting into shape.

Those entries refine the memory of an abrupt July cutoff. They preserve some later structured sessions without supplying evidence of uninterrupted adherence to the spring programme. The wider transition belongs with the rest of the running record.

The recovered spring programme

The old sixteen-week sheet has weekdays and week numbers, but no calendar dates. Six matching dated sessions imply Week 1 on 7–13 March 2022:

That is a strong inferred calendar, with recorded differences preserved. The 12 March repetitions were 185 m against planned 200s. The sheet contains injury annotations in March, and filled training entries through Week 12. Its later blank cells cannot describe the June races and workouts, let alone the July championships: the June 800 even falls on a Sunday marked REST.

The complete dated programme preserves all 112 weekday entries, the matching evidence and the differences between the sheet and completed work. In particular, the recovery planned for 600 + 400 on 25 May cannot be transferred to the 22 June session.