White Papers

Documents to help you fuel the multisport lifestyle as an athlete, coach, race director, fan and more. Check back for more white papers as they become available.

Introduction to Multisport Racing

The USA Triathlon/Ordinary Mortals Introduction to Multisport Racing (PDF)
By Steven Jonas, author and columnist for USA Triathlon Life magazine
Click here for the author's bio and website

You're thinking about doing your first triathlon or duathlon. Or you’ve done a couple on a lark and now want to get more organized in the way you are going about it. But you've got some concerns. You know that it takes a lot of time, effort, and energy to train for multisport racing and that the races themselves are invariably challenging. Some multisport athletes do train a great deal and some races, especially the longer ones, are very challenging. But many of us live quite normal lives.

For an “Olympic distance” triathlon, setting out to first get to the starting line and then cross the finish line happy and healthy, we train no more than 5-6 hours per week, total in all three sports. You can do the “sprint” triathlons and the short duathlons on 3-4 hours a week. Most of the shorter races are on courses that are just plain fun. This USA Triathlon/Ordinary Mortals® Introduction is designed to usher you into the wonderful world of multisport racing.