#so it's like. nice but im seeing the same stuff with slight variations like three times at this point?

[leqclerc]

Charles Leclerc in Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Season 7 (2025)

[myuun]

do you live in nz? is it better than usa?

I do live in New Zealand! 

HMM… In some ways? I haven’t been to many parts of the US, I mostly stuck to the Southern states and have been to just the general touristy states like New York and California… but even then I haven’t seen all that much and I was a teenager and I really… can’t remember perfectly anymore… ;v; oh my god, I really can’t, I’M SO OLD NOW.

I have also not explored a lot of New Zealand, just Wellington (I live here!) and the nearby towns. 

My perspective comes from being raised on a small city in Mexico and studying in a small city in Texas, so I’ll go from there. 

I’ll go from the cons, cause that’s funner! 

CONS OF NEW ZEALAND:

- EXPENSIVE. Expensive. Expensive. If you come with American Dollars you gain more NZ dollars which is great. But the country is damn expensive. I’m used to my groceries for two people go to the hundreds per week. EASILY. Buzzfeed, save your words, I can’t save money on many things. Some things I can (which I’ll talk about in a bit). 

- You pay rent per week. Welcome to hell. Also, getting an apartment is the hardest thing you’ll ever manage to do. Don’t even talk to me about finding a job, even a temporary one. 

- Biggest bummer: NEVER ENOUGH JUNK FUCKING FOOD. NEW ZEALAND HAS THE STOMACH OF AN 80 YEAR OLD. Cheetos? Nope. Rice Krispies? NAH. VARIETY OF CEREALS? NO UNLESS YOU LOVE NUTS AND GRAINS. I have such cravings for shitty food. I miss simple, beautiful greasy food. POUR ME A BOWL OF PANDA EXPRESS ORANGE SHRIMP. Everyday I dream about Chick-fil-a and I weep. This country has things similar… but everything here is very healthy… too healthy. Which I guess its good, but when you are raised on grease, you miss it ya’ll. 

- It can get boring depending on where you are. New Zealand pretty much closes shop… early. In small towns, malls are closed by 5:30PM (a shocking discovery!). Most restaurants, if they serve at night, they close by… 9-10PM. It is shocking if something is open after that, and it is most likely a bar. We are pretty much in by 6PM and if we are out… we are definitely running late or its a blue moon. 

- EARTHQUAKES. This needs no explanation. I hate earthquakes. PETRIFIED. And I live on the top floor and it feels HORRIBLE. No thanks.

- No matter where you go you’ll hit water. My husband loves that we are on an island… I… feel uncomfortable? It’s a small country, we could sink easily if a tsunami hit. This is a bit half and half, it depends on who you talk to. For me, I… I’m not that big into islands. I like land.

- It’s a small country. Again, this depends on who you ask. Some people love it. I personally like it… to an extent. Im at the bottom of the north island and you can get to the top of it within 8 hours. That is… insane. That is HALF THE COUNTRY DOWN. It’s TINY.

- It’s small, so fashion, food, games, fads… all come later for us. So anything trending in the US… we know about it. But we cannot get it until a year later. It’s a cute joke that NZ is always ten years behind.

- The hole in the ozone is right about New Zealand, so you CAN get sunburned on cloudy days. It has happened to me, I swear. There is a SPECIFIC sunscreen made here by the cancer society because skin cancer is so prominent. Wear sunscreen! Fun fact: sun screen is also expensive. 

- It’s an island… and yet fish is expensive as HELL. ????!?!??? wh???!whw??? seafood restaurants? what??? who??? for the rich??? same with milk btw

- Lack of true racial understanding. This is a personal one, which I’ll elaborate on. There are SO MANY FOREIGNERS HERE. So many. But white people are the majority. So a lot of white people… have really strong stereotypes about people of color. I, personally, had never seen such incredible diversity before of religion, race, and nationality so to me, it’s amazing how much I learn, but… its a bit cringy as well how a lot of New Zealanders (especially older ones) are… quite… racist… Then again, this happens everywhere. I just thought with such a colorful variation of population… it would be more… open. And it is! But… ya know… YA KNOW.

- People don’t say bless you when you sneeze. ok I know its a small thing but it BOTHERS ME. 

- People pretty much dress the same… almost… the same. 90s style hipsters.

- So much hipster. 

- HILLS. SO MANY UPHILLS. SO MUCH… WALKING. if you’re into climbing, and foresty, and biking this is the country for you. But I’m not. 

PROS OF NEW ZEALAND:

- No matter where you go, it will always… always be stunning. I have a bit of a mocking attitude when people go to “scenic spots” because I feel it’s a waste of time? Personally… THE ENTIRETY of the country is a giant scenic view. No matter where you look, it’s absolutely beautiful. I look out my window and it faces another building and yet the sky and the trees are gorgeous. 

- The air is so fresh, that it cleared my skin. This is a no-joke, my skin actually got better when I lived here for a month and then went back to Mexico, and it burst into pimples. It’s so fresh here and almost NEVER humid. Sometimes, but its tolerable. 

- There is little, to no danger. We can walk at midnight in fling flang wherever and the likelyhood of me getting robbed is pretty minimal. It HAPPENS but it’s so so so rare. The newspaper writes about your neighbor’s tomato farm (seriously). Not… murders. 

- Animal care and respect is SO MUCH HIGHER here. As a huuuge animal advocate that lives for her animal shelter, the love and outpour people give their pets is amazing. It’s INCREDIBLY RARE.. AND I MEAN… RARE. To see a stray dog. In fact, mark my words, I’ve never seen a single stray dog. Maybe a stray cat, but cats are outdoors here a lot, so probably not. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THERE ISN’T ANIMAL ABUSE. There certainly are. But not as rampant as in the US or Mexico.

- It’s rare to eat bad food. I will honestly say in the three years of me living here… I’ve had shitty food… four times? five? And every other time… its been amazing. Idk what it is. It’s always… worth every penny. So I can tell you, when it’s bad… ITS BAD. It’s hard though, you really can’t fuck up here (well, at least Wellington).

- People are so… so nice. I think nice people are everywhere, but New Zealand is especially nice. SO NICE. 

- The diversity is amazing. I’ve never seen such a colorful city.

- RECYCLING AND KEEP NEW ZEALAND GREEN. It really has encouraged me to be more thoughtful and resourceful and soon I hope my lazy ass can fucking… whats it called… compost.

- Everything is very close by which can be very convenient. It’s a small country, so we are close-knit. 

- OUR PRIME MINISTEERRR. She is as lovely in person (my husband and I are lucky to have a selfie with her) as she is on TV.

- Tons of events, tons of artsy fartsy stuff, so many things to see. New Zealand encourages so much togetherness in their community so tons of events are honestly done by the entirety of the country. Festivals, community services, art stuff… Markets are AMAZIIING. 

- If you’re into health, gyms are cheap and walking is even cheaper. We walk… everywhere and everywhere is close by.

- Bus system is fucky, but certainly very useable. It’s all we take and it gets you everywhere. 

There is SO MUCH MORE IM SURE, but I’m about to have dinner and I can’t think of anymore. ;v; But I hope this answers your question. 

Overall, I do love New Zealand, but there are tons of things I miss about the US… mostly just the food… and all the food. And my family. It’s weird being in a country that is really far away from the world. It feels a bit isolating at times, but the kindness and community shown in New Zealand is fantastic, and I really love this country a lot. ;v; Please if someone here is close to the Chick-fil-a CEO, I’ll donate to have one open in Wellington. We just got Krispy Kreme… in one airport in Auckland.

Someone please sir… a bag of donuts and chick-fil-a waffle fries…

waffle fries i miss you

I don’t think New Zealand is necessarily better than the US because the US has such variety because of all the states and people and natural beauty, but I will say... politics wise, I do think we have a SLIGHT UPPER HAND THERE, SON. 

[coachjeffsworkouts]

Wrapping up phase one…

Okay, it’s just time to get this started as a regular part of our process. As it stands now there were so many different workouts I wanted to write, hesitated, and it was past. So, this is likely going to be a little on the long side, but still good info as we start the season,  so be sure you are reading all the way through National Group.

We’ll start with a general wrap up of the first 6 week phase and how we have started. I’ve stated over and over, but I think you are all off to a very impressive start to the season. The second half of the training period of the fall season will be what makes or breaks things from here. You’ve put yourselves in a great position to build off of the first half and really make some big changes, but it’s going to test you over and over for the next 6 weeks. It’s going to challenge how bad you want to reach those goals. Are you willing to push 100% when asked to go fast, because you know 99% isn’t going to get you there? Are you willing to focus on the details until you master the basics? With the understanding that mastering something is not the ability to do it correctly, but your inability to do it incorrectly. Build those habits that will get you to success. Make those Champion’s Choices. It’s time to decide how bad you want it and will yourself to push through the pain now, so you see that break through at the end of the season.

Our goals #WJTEAM #P2MR #P8FR are well under-way and we are climbing to them, and now is the time to keep those right in front of you like a carrot. Avoid that complacency by keeping that focus on those TEAM goals. We need to earn it daily!

Of which, we’ll make that the first pic. Our Sept 24th effort towards the #P2MR goal is below and is a solid start. The more we compete with each other and support each other, the better we are as a TEAM.

Okay, let’s touch base on some workouts here as well. First off some technical work for each of the strokes (non-free). I’m not going to spend a ton of time here, but I want each of you to know and understand those focal points on each. Fly is clearly power into rhythm. The pieces all need to then fall into that from there, but without those two you are lost. Backstroke is that connection of the pull to the rotation of the body. Not only creating more power with this connection, but it will set up the proper timing of the stroke to allow for efficient speed variations of the same stroke technique. Breaststroke is so many things to so many people, but our two focal points are going to be the power in our kicks and from there the insweep used to create the all-important timing of the stroke. While other strokes timing may make it a 1 (arms) + 1 (legs) = 3 equation when you add in the proper timing, for breaststroke it’s more like 1 (arms) + 1 (legs) = 7 equation when you have the right timing. You can take an average breaststroke puller and kicker, but have an impressive swimmer, all because of how it all works together.

Take a quick look through again just to understand those focus points. Keep in mind the more we find those things that not working for us, but against us, the more efficient you become in the water. That efficiency comes in the way of feeling much better at the end of races.

Be ready as well, we will do quite a bit of fast stuff with fins. I like the focus on being prepared to handle that type of speed and of course the increased leg drive to really benefit from fins is a bonus as well. (I included the front of the board for your times on the 100 from a push with fins)

Test sets coming up next. I’m not going to spend quite as much time on those here, but I do want to talk a bit as we completed the first round of the year. We have these 2 which will be our standards, and then we’ll also occasionally do one that is a throw back to my high school swimming days. We’ll do a best average set of 10x100 on 2:00 – break at 5 to collect times, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

First up was the Step Test. We’re focusing in on free or IM on the Step Test now. The goal here is to be able to have a pretty steady descent as you move from HR to HR (again, HR60 refers to 60 beats below max, or roughly 22-24 beats per 10 seconds) and down to the fast 200. I like 5 for us as if our strokes are where they need to be and we swim efficiently, we should be able to do this very well. If we are falling off or struggling, I believe it shows inefficiencies in either strokes, racing, or training. Your first goal is to be as fast as possible at each level, with as even of a swim as possible (100 to 100), at the designated heart rate. Learning how to swim 200’s like that, being efficiently powerful, and numerous other things will help us get better at that, and then the goal is to move the graph to the left at every point through consistent, focused commitment to the training.

Overall assessment is a good starting point. The set and 200’s seem to have been swum really well, but we need to be faster on the end. That’s both because of where we want to be, but also to some degree where we already are now. Next time the board will show circles for improvements and underlines for ties, and we need the board full of circles.

Below you’ll see a spreadsheet that you’ll get a link to on Google sheets. I’ll have the first one filled in, you’ll fill it in from there. I have a master sheet that is linked to each of yours and I’ll get an alert when they are updated, so we can all stay on the same page. The graph on the right shows the first set, and then will compare against that line each time as they are already all set up. We are using an average 100 time, so just divided by 2 and done the math for the full heartrate. Danny was first on the list, so you can see his below. Pretty steady climb overall, and needs to be faster. The main focus would be the big jump in heartrate from the 4th to the 5th swim, but the time not having that same corresponding size jump. Shows a bit of an inefficiency there (although only slight as I have seen many work harder and go slower, there was still an increase in speed here), as we as a similar steapness to the line from 1 to 2. Your refernce line is around a 45 degrees.

Up next was the Challenge 100’s. Short interval, holding stroke. It’s that drive and push to maintain stroke on the end of the 200 all wrapped up in a test set. How much will you be able to drop that interval this year? Again, improved set performance is definitely still possible at this point, but the main goal is physical changes by what you do on a daily basis between now and the next set. Three of you need to start thinking about your next interval as well.

I’ll wrap up the write up for the first phase of training with some shout outs. First and foremost, you need to all understand that you are off to a great start. So my first shout out goes to the entire group, and that is the most important piece by far. We are in a fantastic spot, but the thing is that the chase never stops. We need to be striving for excellence daily. Pushing through to new levels. That’s the opportunity you have opened up for yourselves, the opportunity to work your way through the door of greatness.

AS – is just getting it done, we found a stroke flaw that really stood out finally and not only was she able to change it, but it already seems to be her stroke and showing amazing advancements already, that’s impressive, then add the determination to work herself to the level she wants to be and oh, still swimming fast along the way, big things coming

NC – look out for Nicky, she is just getting the work done day in and day out, if she builds her confidence with things like already hitting her Challenge 100 pace and all of her other sets, and then allows herself to race like that at the end, 😊

KR – consistency? I think this is it. If I am not mistaken, she’s found this needed focus in workouts and is ready to take this great start to new levels. Consistency at this level alone, let alone any gains from here, is going to yield a lot of smiles in the end

AY – making some great stroke changes and finding a way to have some speed when tired, this could be a very fun year indeed

DS – sometimes the first step is learning what you have to learn, then moving forward from there; doing a nice job learning those steps still to take to become the swimmer he wants to be; pedal to the floor

RD – refocused, driven and ready for big things it appears

IH – getting after it daily in workouts and if he is getting ready to race that same way, he is in for some big swims

Okay, I think that will wrap up the first phase of training and on to the next. Time to find some speed!

Great job all. It’s time for all of us to settle in and find that consistency over the next 6 weeks. Recruit trips winding down, tests taken, school trips done, it’s time for us to settle in, be consistent, and roll through this phase even better than the first.

Keep it up and …

Go Rose Bowl!