And so the travel begins

"He who would travel happily must travel light." -- Antoine de St. Exupery

My friends and family think I live a great life. 'Your so lucky you get to travel' is the line I usually hear. The blank look I give them in respose usually throws them.

Hmmmmmmm lets just say it aint the Ritz. Imagine

- Cold meet European breakfast
- Sharing a room for 2 nights with someone you dont know. Unless you get there early and work the welcoming committee staff, to redo their rooming plan. (yes I have done this and I cant speak a word of Spanish, French or Italian)
- If you lucky staying in a Raddision hotel with internet access. If your not staying in the equivalent of an Ibis. lol
- European MTV. Its so funny but I know I will learn some really obscure song this summer from watching MTV Europe.
- The only English speaking channel is CNN. So at least I will be able to swat up on international affairs. lol




I don't mean this in a bad way. But playing pot luck with European airports who take it as thier personal challenge to loose your luggage is not a thought that I relish. Nothing worse than arriving the day before a meet with only a backpack to your name. Because that short hop from London to Madrid ended in you bag being sent to Malaga if it even left heathrow.



Hanging out with David Oliver and listening to his story of last summers luggage disaster has set me up to 'pack smart' this year. Davd somehow managed to lose his luggage for 10 days and managed with what he had packed in his back pack and a little hand washing. No he did not have to take his clothes down to the stream. But, you get my point. Yes D.O can hand wash. lol






So im packing light with the following in my back pack just incase



- Spikes (Tools of the trade)
- Competition kit (After all thats what I need the most)
- Change of underware (At least 3 days)
- Travel size toiletries (When in doubt borrow from others)
- Laptop (Im really not offering my laptop up as a gift to the baggage handlers)
- Change of clothing 3 tops (I too can hand wash, if I have to)

Outfit to the airport

- Jeans (you can wear them more than once)
- Competition trainers (no longer those cute shoes for the airport. Cause who cares? lol)
-Hoodie (I like to wrap up and sleep on all flights)

With the amount of travel I have over the coming weeks. I can not allow myself to be bothered with things that I can't control. So I will help myself as best I can with the things that I can.

Plus I can't even imagine calling my coach Brooks to tell him I could not run. Because, my luggage got lost and I dont have my equipment. But, I do have 2 pairs of jeans and a cute pair of heels. (Not even remotely funny)

Marisa My Agent

My agent Marisa launched her new website this earlier this month.



Feel free to check out the site. Track Pathos

I find working with Marissa a breeze. She is for her athletes and works on my schedule not the unknown agents agenda. lol

Track and field and racing is difficult. Just imagine there are only 8 lanes and how many athletes trying to occupy one. Having a GOOD agent is essential.

All those races that you see us at are called the circuit. There are to put it nicely many different versions of the circuit. I call it the A circuit, B circuit, C circuit and the slum tour. The slum tour is where I think everyone should dip a foot every now and again. It makes you value the sport that your in. Just imagine being sent to Bratislava,Slovakia via Slovenia by bus. Yep in a past life I did it. Surprisingly the race went pretty well.

Don't get me started on the food. Lets just say we are not all distance runners who require pasta. lol


I am luckier than my non European opposition as I always get to go home if possible after a meet No where on the European circuit is more than a 3 hour flight. They on the other hand are usually based somewhere like Germany, Holland etc. Home comforts are missed.

So this week I start my little magical mystery tour which is the circuit. I will keep you posted on my travels.

I suggest you check out Marisa's site cause she knows before me where I'm going. lol

And what did you do today Joice? I blew........................

Today I did a test at the EIS (English Institute of Sport) to determine if I had exercise induced asthma.

Check out the video below

So the day begins



Meet Charlie



Test number 1


Test number 2





Test number 3


The result


Homeward bound



Hmmm interesting day and conflicting results. I will have a chat with the Dr at Lee Valley tomorrow to determine what next.

Thanks Lenovo

I am a little late on this post as it occurred a couple of weeks ago.

Lenovo, who is the world's fourth largest computer manufacturer contacted Jack about there Olympic Blogger Program. They found her blog interesting and asked if there was anyone else that she could recommend for the program. Jack nominated David and I. Lenovo are the official electronics sponsor for the Olympic Games.

The offer to provide a new laptop and flip video camera were to good to resist. Plus they were not asking for anything more than I was already doing as far as my blog goes.

I am excited about being part of the blogger program as already the team have assisted me with a few quirks that I was having with my blog.

If anything giving me te flip video will make me a little lazy as I will be filming EVERYTHING lol. On the upside it will be in my handbag which means you guys will get to see alot more of my journey.

Loughborough - Update

Wow

Jet lag is a mutha.
I was absolutely broken for the race. Piss poor result and no energy.

I won't even bother to post the time. That 200 in my head never happened. Considering I just ran quicker in practice this morning. (Monday 20th May)

I have decided along with my coach to take off this week of racing and so will be heading to Geneva next week instead.

So a little recap of Loughborogh.

I am officially Jet Lagged. I chose the wrong day to come back in relation to be ready to compete. Day 7 is not my day.

I managed to leave the hand break off my car. Which proceed to roll down a small hill into Jeanette Kwakyes car. (Sorry Jeanette) This one will be taken up by our insurance companies. My mind has been all over the place. God I need to sleep!!!

Saturday night into Sunday's sleep never came. I watched the sun come up. Booo hiss to jet lag. Might have had something to do with me falling asleep in the call room before my race.

Anyway onwards and upwards.
I have a solid 10 days of prat ice before I next race.

Been gone for a minute

I've been home since Sunday morning. All I have been doing is trying to catch up with friends and family, get over jet lag and get straight into practice.

So I'm back to the 1 hour drive to Lee Valley each day. Booooo lol

Nah it feels good to be back. The week has gone well. I've had treatment from Physio Extraordinaire. Cris Kellet who is attempting to set my body right for this weekend.

I decided to head up to Loughborough today to help with my jet lag. That is instead of heading up tomorrow morning for the 11.30am relay practice that we have. I will be running in the 200 and 4x100 on sunday.

So really not that much to report.

Martinque

Quote for this meet
Turn your wounds into wisdom. --Oprah Winfrey



It’s been a minute since I last blogged. Why? Not much really been going on. Just training and getting ready to compete.
I competed in Martinique. This was my first time to that part of the world, and I must say it was beautiful. I was down there from Monday with limited internet access, and no blackberry. I raced on Thursday May 8th 2008. Why so early to arrive? You might ask. I think it had something to do with the magical mystery tour that I went on to get there. Let me break it down for you.

Orlando to Miami
Miami to Haiti
Haiti to St Martin
St Martin to Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe to Martinique.

Hmmmmmmmmm and roughly 17 hours worth of travel door to door.

Tuesday I basically went to the track and did a workout. The aim was to get the flights out of my legs. It went pretty well. I did some starts with Linnie Yarbrough 110H. I took him to two hurdles and even if I do say so myself. I took him for a walk in everyone of the starts that we did together. Lol

A group of us ended up down at the beach after practice. It was great to get in the sea and just relax.









This, is the first meet of the season for me. Where I got to hang out with pretty much the same people from the track circuit that I will see all this summer. It’s funny how on Tuesday the small group that arrived early were able to chill. But, by Tuesday night when everyone else arrived we had found our game faces. Lol. It officially became business. Even though I had to share an apartment with my competitor. Don’t know who’s bright idea that was? But, yes I shared with Nicole Whitman who is also running in the 100 and 200 also. Nicole is cool! I meet here a couple of meets ago in Miami.



Update after meet

Hmm lets make this simple
I got caught sleeping in the blocks for the 100m French starters. (I hate them lol). Basically I barely had my arse up in the air and he shot the gun. I was playing catch up from the start, and I did not catch anyone. Lesson learnt! You should have seen how quick I threw my arse in the air for the 200m lol. Lane 8 (the rabbit) I ran a pretty decent bend and came home strong 23.11. But, the wind was over the limit +2.8. I finished third behind Muna Lee who ran 21.91. To say she put a hurt on everyone in the race is an understatement. She whooshed us. Came off that bend and kept rolling. All I can say is that I finally feel like my old self. I ran a good race which I can and will build on.

Women
100 m Wind: 1.9
1 Muna Lee USA 11.10
2 Torri Edwards USA 11.17
3 Laverne Jones-Ferrette 11.29
4 Wyllesheia Myrick 11.30
5 Nadine Palmer 11.39
6 Nicole Whitman 11.43
7 Angela Daigle-Bowen 11.51
8 Lucimar de Moura 11.68
9 Joice Maduaka 11.69



200 m
Race 1 Wind: 2.8
1 Muna Lee 21.91
2 Nadine Palmer 22.84
3 Joice Maduaka 23.11
4 Angela Daigle-Bowen 23.21
5 Moushaumi Robinson 23.29
6 Lucimar de Moura 23.92


So I put Martinique to bed, and also my time in the USA for a while. As I will be heading home today. I have missed my family dearly and can’t wait to see them.

The domestic season starts for me in Loughborough next weekend.