Weekend warriors know the challenge of trying to find time to train around a full-time job and still feel competitive.

Now, so does former U.S. Cross Country Ski Team member and Bend resident Ben Husaby, the two-time defending Pole Pedal Paddle champion who joined the workaday world last August.

”I’m crossing my fingers that on race day I’m going to feel good,” said Husaby, who goes for a ”threepeat” Saturday in the 25th annual event. ”It’s my first year of having a 9-to-5 job. In essence, it’s my first real job, and that obviously takes precedence.”

That means the world-class athlete, who married 2 years ago and built a house last year, finds himself with the same time constraints as just about every other weekend athlete trying to get an edge on the competition.

”I have a ton of respect for that,” said Husaby, 35. ”I see now how difficult it is.”

And the six-discipline PPP a fund-raiser for the Mount Bachelor Ski Education Foundation sponsored by U.S. Bank will be sure to find any weaknesses.

The PPP begins with a downhill ski leg at Mount Bachelor, with competitors working their way over the 36-mile course to the finish line at Drake Park in downtown Bend via cross-country skiing, biking, running, paddling and, finally, sprinting.

Projected winning times are under two hours for top male competitors, and just over two hours for top female racers. The Male Pairs division will be the first wave of competitors, starting at 9:30 a.m., followed at five-minute intervals by other classes. Top male individuals start at 9:50 a.m., and women individuals start at 10:05 a.m.

Don’t expect Husaby to hand over the title simply because he’s part of the rush-hour crowd these days. His competitive desire helped him win three cross-country national titles in 1993, and he also has recorded three top-25 finishes at World Championships.

Now, though, he concentrates on helping up-and-coming cross-country skiers get faster as cross-country program director for the MBSEF. That puts his competitive drive in the background, meaning he views the PPP, like the vast majority of other entrants, as an opportunity to have fun.

”I have to,” Husaby said. ”If I have any illusions of being what I used to be, it will be a long day. The hard part is, I don’t really have any goals as an athlete anymore, so I wait until I’m motivated to train. Hopefully, it didn’t happen too late this year.”

Evelyn Hamann, the defending women’s PPP champion, knows all too well the constraints of a full-time job.

Portland’s Evelyn Hamann returns to defend her women’s title.Pete Erickson/The Bulletin File.

The 44-year-old director of fitness at Northwest Club Management in Portland tries to cobble together enough training time in each of the PPP’s six disciplines to at least hold her own, though she has skate skied only twice this winter.

”I don’t even try to kill myself in the skate ski,” said Hamann, who had four PPP runner-up finishes before breaking through last year. ”It’s just not worth it. I just get into my groove and pour it on in the bike, run and kayak.”

Hamann is a former member of the U.S. Rowing Team and has competed in world championships. In last year’s PPP, she used her rowing skills to take the lead in the boat section.

”You really have to pace yourself,” Hamann said. ”With six legs, you’ve got to be able to push and push and push. If you blow up, you’re sunk. It’s too long of a race to feel like you can go all out in one particular leg.”

For Husaby, this year means not only racing in the PPP but, as an MBSEF employee, putting in a busy week leading up to the event making sure it goes off smoothly.

”Coming from a racing background, I just assumed everything ran naturally,” Husaby said between answering race inquiries at the MBSEF office. ”Now, I’m finding there’s a lot more involved on the other side.”