Angela Naeth, our top pro, just finished 4th at the Hy-Vee 5150 US Championship. There are a number of things about that race for her that were extremely impressive and a testament to doing the right kind of training.
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That started this summer with some stroke work she did with Eney Jones, a Boulder CO resident who was and still is one of the best open water swimmers in the world. The challenge is this. Angela actually has a pretty good stroke, but her turnover is fairly fast. So one theory, do the Michael Phelps and work on a semi-catch up stroke, slow the stroke rate and increase the power in each pull. That’s a great idea if you have the upper body strength to accomplish that. But if you don’t all it will do is tire you out.
So Eney worked with Angela to help her gain speed using her naturally high turnover rate and to transfer the power phase of her stroke from the front where Angela had been gaining most of it and working the power curve more toward the middle and back part of her stroke.
Result: In Hy-Vee Haskins lead out of the swim in 19:43, Angela was about 2:50 back in 22:31, a turnaround of 1:20 compared to their splits from St. Antony’s.
