TrainingPeaks Member Profile: Maryka Sennema, Kona Qualifier

Maryka started out as a swimmer, picking up running and cycling along the way to eventually culminate in her first triathlon, where she won her age group and was instantly hooked. “Growing up in Canada, I was a swimmer from a very young age and swam competitively through high school.  Running and cycling I took up later in university as a way to stay fit and de-stress.  Triathlon was always something I thought I’d like to try but it wasn’t until 2003 that I did:  a sprint distance on my knobby-tired MTB where I ended up winning my age group!  After that I decided to pursue it more seriously, picking up a second-hand road bike and reading all the triathlon books I could get my hands on.”

Maryka went from reading books to joining a triathlon club in Europe, where she trained and raced with very experienced triathletes. “In 2005, I moved to the Netherlands and joined my local triathlon club, Hellas Utrecht, and that really took my cycling and running to another level. European racing is so high quality and I had lots of talented teammates and coaches with Kona and ITU racing experience to encourage me. Within 2 seasons I had completed a number of short and long distance races, including a 3k/110k/30k “three-quarter distance” race with top ten results (pros and age-groupers race together in the Netherlands).  In 2008 I did my first real Ironman in Germany and knew I could qualify for Kona if I put my mind to it. So that was my goal for 2009: qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii.”

Along the way towards this goal, Maryka has been supported by an active local community. “I now live in the UK where I started cycle racing this year, and that’s taken my cycling even further than I could have hoped.  England is a real runner’s Mecca as well, with some of the hardest races in the world and a whole bunch of tough competitors.  So my running has improved quite a bit this season too.  It’s funny that when I started triathlon, swimming was my strength, but now I would say I’m more of a runner or a cyclist.”

In addition to the community, Maryka has also been supported by her husband. “I’m fortunate to have a very active and supportive spouse and we train together quite a bit, both running and cycling (I still need to teach him to swim!)  We’re also members of our local cycling club and running club, so we often train with other people. ”

Maryka has also been fortunate enough to have plenty of time for training this year. “I’ve been lucky enough to take this past year off from work and become a ‘full-time athlete’ — it should be noted this is different from being a pro! — so my schedule has been a lot fuller training-wise than in the past.  And living in southwest London along the Thames where the weather is rideable all year round is a real boon.”

Finally, training with technology has also really help Maryka make progress towards her goals. “I train with a Powertap wheel on my bikes and a Garmin 405 GPS watch for running. Training by power and pace has been a revelation to me; I don’t think I could have improved so markedly this year without those tools showing me exactly what I am and not doing. Both seeing the data as it happens, and analysing it later have really added a lot of value to my workouts and in fact motivated me to get even faster and stronger.”

For analyzing the data from her hardware, Maryka uses TrainingPeaks software. “I started with TrainingPeaks in 2007 when I had signed up with a coach who used the software to transmit my training schedule to me.  Then once I got the Powertap and the Garmin 405, I got my hands on the WKO+ software and now I use that all the time to track my training and summarize what I’ve been doing.  Most recently, I used the software to lay out a taper plan for both running and cycling for Kona, as I felt that I had not tapered as well as I could have for my qualifying Ironman in Lake Placid.  Being able to plug workouts into the software in advance, along with their respective training stress scores meant I could use the performance charts to predict how rested I could and should be by race day and I’m hoping that will lead to a great performance.”

”Pretty much anybody who trains with power and pace should use WKO+, it’s really the benchmark analytical software.  One of my favourite things to do with the software is take a cycling teammate’s data from the same race and compare the numbers to see how the “story of the race” is told from different riders’ perspectives.  It’s quite fascinating what power data can reveal about riders and races.”

Despite her taper for lake Placid, she did well enough at that race to qualify for Kona, achieving and even expanding upon her goal for the season: she now hopes to place near the top of her age group in Hawaii. “As I said, I set my main goal this year to qualify for Kona and I achieved that in Lake Placid, actually winning my age group in the process.  After a bit of downtime, I was back at my full-on training and I think I’m going into Kona now even stronger than I was earlier in the summer.  So in that sense, I’ve gone above and beyond what I thought I could achieve this season, and in turn that’s encouraged me to set my goals even higher.  In January, I thought getting a Kona age-group spot would be the pinnacle of my season, but now I’ve got my eye on a top Kona age-group placing as well!”

For next year, Maryka is actually thinking about focusing on cycling instead of triathlon. “To my surprise, what started as a way to get some high intensity training in the winter on the bike has turned into a major interest of mine:  cycle racing.  The races I did this year garnered some good results, so with some focused training next year I think I can improve even more.  After my win in Lake Placid, I came home to find some form on the bike a few weeks later, standing at the top of the podium at both a road race and a 10 mile time trial for the first time.  And cycling pays out cash to winners, which is a nice bonus! Having achieved what I set out to do in triathlon for the time being, I see myself taking a break from that next year and instead pursuing some more cycle racing results at the national level.  I’ll never be an elite racer but as cycling is a team sport, I know I can perform well enough to help a teammate get to the podium.  After years of racing triathlon — which is pretty much an individual thing – I’m looking forward to being part of a team-based sport again.”

Happy training, Maryka! You can read more about Maryka on her blog.

Comments

[Groover]

All the best for Kona, Maryka. You'll rock it!