Is this the year of Cross-Country moms?
Rebecca Dussault showed up with her husband Sharbel and her 2-year old son Tabor at the SuperTour races at Soldier Hollow last week – a “blew” the rest of the women’s field away at four of the five races. Katerina Neumannova of the Czech Republic last week also won her first race back after giving birth last July – at the World Cup in Ramsau. Are “mom's in!” this year?
 normal family life and still do extremely well in endurance sports?</B></p>
<p>To start with I would have to say that I have been very blessed. Some people might look at us (my family) as regular or normal. Personally I don’t know if you can call my life normal or regular so far. Being home schooled, choosing to get married and have a baby at such a young age is not normal these days. We own our home, help run our family business and get out into the wilderness as much as possible. Maybe you could call a few of those things normal. With that said, I do see myself as “proof” that you can live life to the full and still train hard, be a mom, run a business and persevere through life with all its ups and downs. It is all a matter of Gods graces helping me prioritize and schedule my life so that I can accomplish all of my goals. </p>
<p><B>It is also interesting to hear about your training plans (or lack of) – can you briefly tell us what you focus on (in training) through summer and fall?</B></p>
<p>Last year I might have done around 180-200 hours (I didn’t keep any records, so this is a guess), and I’ve never trained more than 330 hours in a year. I trained on average 2 to 3 times a week and a lot of times it was with our little boy on my back. This year though, I wanted to do more hours so I worked with Pete and Chris from the US Team and we came up with some good ideas for training that would work with my lifestyle. I started training in late spring, 2 weeks after Spring Series, and I felt that I stuck to my training plan pretty well through the summer. I would take one week at a time and try to keep it simple and specific. I focused on building a good base of endurance, doing core strength a couple of times a week, and working on specific strength by roller skiing. I probably averaged about 10 hours a week in 5-7 training sessions. I have come to believe that being 10% under trained is better than even 1% over trained. I have the ultimate way of listening to my body on a day to day basis because I don’t have a team or a regimented training scheduled. Each day I just decide what I can fit in. </p>
<p><B>You won four out of the five races At the Soldier Hollow SuperTour – so obviously you're strong at all distances and both techniques. Do you however have an event you feel you're best at (or is a favorite of yours)?</B></p>
<p>I know that I’m typically known as a great skater, but I would really like to make my performances equally great in both. My classic has come a long way this year and that makes me very happy. I would have to say that I really love a 10k skate.</p>
<p><B>What are your (racing) goals for this season?</B> </p>
<p>My goals were pretty vague at first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to fair against other US skiers. Then I found out the details about the Supertour and the automatic entry into the World Cup for the person winning the overall series. That got me excited. I told myself that I would start out and do the first couple of Supertour races and see how things went and where I would fit in. Now after 7 races I have a pretty good idea of what I want to accomplish this season. My plans are to win the Supertour series, then I will be doing the Boulder Mtn. Tour, the Subaru Vasa and then the Birkie which I would like to win. I will have a few days after that to rest and prepare for the World Cup trip. My goal is to get at least one top 20 in the World Cup. I will finish off the year with Spring Series if I have any legs left under me!</p>
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