Maier will have to rely on her trademark toughness to bounce back from her runner-up result in her debut attempt at the 243km Coast to Coast last Saturday when she races in the 226km Challenge Wanaka long-distance triathlon on Sunday.
''It will be hard and I will suffer heaps but I'm prepared for that,'' Maier said.
Suffering is not an unfamiliar concept for German-born Maier (35).
She gritted her teeth in the inaugural Red Bull Defiance event and literally towed team-mate Marcel Hagener when he could not maintain her blistering pace. It paid off - the pair won the mixed teams section, and it attracted a sponsor willing to cover Maier's Coast to Coast entry fee.
A recent second place at a team adventure race in China meant she had some funds to buy a kayak (and a car to transport it), so she decided to give it a crack, with only two months to prepare.
Maier was aware the 67km river section would be her weakest discipline and despite three runs through the 33km Goat Pass, the fastest route was still largely a mystery.
She led defending champion Jess Simson for the first 55km bike and part of the way into the mountain run, but at the end of a 13-hour day, Maier finished 19 minutes behind her fellow Wanaka multisporter and adventure racer, with Simson claiming her second consecutive victory.
''I just had to try. I'm pretty stoked,'' Maier said of her first Coast to Coast.
There was never any question over whether she would contest her favoured full-distance triathlon, Challenge Wanaka, eight days later.
''I can't live here and not be part of this amazing event.''
Talking to the Otago Daily Times three days after the gruelling multisport race, Maier was pleasantly surprised at her lack of aches and pains.
''The body actually feels good. I'm quite amazed.''
She planned to spend this week having a few massages, going for some short swims in Lake Wanaka, spinning out her legs on the bike and taking a couple of little jogs.
''It is amazing what the body is capable of. I am happy to have a whole day out doing what I love doing - racing [on Sunday]. I feel confident that I will still have a good performance.''
Maier, who balances her training around a part-time lifeguard job at the Wanaka pool, at first says her main goal is to finish, before her naturally competitive instincts get the better of her.
''My aim is for top five. Top three would be a dream.''
If her past form - three podiums in the four Challenge Wanaka events she has contested since 2011 - is any judge, the front women in the pro field, including New Zealand's Gina Crawford and Michelle Bremer, plus American athletes Kristin Lemos, Charisa Wernick and Katya Meyers, will not be able to discount this tough cookie.
