The 2017 season was a rather strange one for me. For a variety of reasons, I did only three races, which I believe was my lowest total in my 35 years in our sport. But in each of those races I had a special experience. So, despite the small number of races, it was, in its own way, a great season. This despite the fact that I was not able to even start what would have been my biggest race of it, the Sprint Duathlon Age Group World Championships in Penticton, British Columbia. And so, in this column let me share some of the lessons I learned about staying with our sport, even when things seem to be going wrong.

By Dr. Steve Jonas | Nov. 16, 2017, 10:07 a.m. (ET)

Talking Tri-/Duathlon for Ordinary Mortals®: A Series, (No. 47, 2017/11)

First, let me say that while I live in a part of the country, the New York City Metropolitan Area, that has a cold winter, I do recognize that there are many multisport athletes who live in a moderate-to-warm climate year-round. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t have a winter. It just means that you don’t have a cold winter. And, while some people can race and train pretty full-bore year-round, many of us cannot.

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | AUG. 29, 2017, 5:01 P.M. (ET)

Talking Tri-/Duathlon for Ordinary Mortals®: A Series, (No. 46, 2017/08)

When I meet first-timers at a race I am fond of telling them, “Remember today, for you will never again do your first triathlon (or duathlon, as the case may be).” And while I don’t remember too many of the 250-plus triathlons and duathlons I have done, I surely remember that first one, and in some detail, too. It was the second running of the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon, the first one to be held at Sag Harbor on New York State’s Long Island (where it has been held ever since).

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | JULY 27, 2017, 11:42 A.M. (ET)

For those who might not know, Jayme McGuire, who happens to be a dear friend of mine, is the editor of our quarterly magazine, USA Triathlon.  In the Spring, 2017 issue, in her regular feature “From the Editor” (p. 12), she wrote, in part:

“While many of the athletes we feature [in the magazine] strive to be ambassadors for the sport and encourage others to get involve, there are some triathletes who perhaps unknowingly are pushing others away from the sport.

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | JUNE 05, 2017, 5:58 P.M. (ET)

A while back a journalist working on a triathlon publication decided to do his first triathlon, along with several fellow staff-members, some of whom were experienced triathletes. He experienced a mixed bag of results, which he happened to discuss with me.

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | MAY 08, 2017, 4:11 P.M. (ET)

Just about the time I first started running, back in 1980, I met Dr. Charles Ogilvie, Professor of the History of Medicine at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) in Fort Worth. At Charlie’s invitation, I had come to TCOM as a consultant in medical education and preventive medicine.

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | APRIL 03, 2017, 11:36 A.M. (ET)

Last year, I believe it was, Pearl Izumi issued a Pact (http://thepact.pearlizumi.com/). Online (of course) they urge people to sign on to it. In my long experience with our sport (34 years at the end of last season), I’ve never seen anything quite like it. And so, in this column, I would like to share it with you, along with some comments and the retailing of a few relevant personal experiences. 

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | MARCH 06, 2017, 2:16 P.M. (ET)

This column is about my long-time friend, Dan Honig, the founder and long-time President of the New York Triathlon Club. I first met Dan at the second triathlon I ever did, the East Coast Championships at Barnegat Light/Long Beach Island, N.J., in October 1983. I was already into “finishing happily and healthily,” in a race that was at distances that approximated today’s Olympic-distance racing like my very first, the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon at Sag Harbor, N.Y.

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | JAN. 17, 2017, 6:23 P.M. (ET)

On Jan. 1, 2016, even though I wouldn’t become 80 until Nov. 22, I entered the USA Triathlon 80-84 age group. That’s because, as most readers of this column already know, the age group you are in is determined by the age you reach during that calendar year (which makes age-group determination much easier for race directors/scorers.)

 As my regular readers know, this is one of my favorite themes/topics, one that I have turned to on a regular basis for just about as long as I have been writing about our sport. For I think that doing so — that is setting goals that work for you — is the key to having fun in the races, whether you are fast, slow or in between. As I have said many times, if they are to work for you, the central element is that the goals that you set have to be rational and realistic, for you. 

On Sept. 25, 2016, I reached a milestone in our sport: closing in on the end of my 34th season, I did my 250th multisport event. For those of you who know me or follow my columns, in recent years I have been getting even slower. As I approach membership in the 80-84 age group, I have also been going shorter than I did for the bulk of my career. You also know that 2014 and 2015 were not great seasons for several reasons. And finally, you’ll recall that at the beginning of my first race this year, I was actually thinking of packing it all in. But everything turned around during that race, and it has been a great summer. 

BY DR. STEVE JONAS | SEPT. 27, 2016, 5:49 P.M. (ET)

The 2016 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships were held at Omaha, Nebraska, on August 13-14. I have been lucky enough to have been able to go to a number of triathlon national championships, beginning with St. Joseph, Missouri in 1999. But for a variety of reasons, I had not been to one since 2012. So this year was special for me.

I first did the sprint at CGI’s New Jersey State Championships at Princeton, New Jersey, in 2012. I did it again the next year, but then I missed it until I was able to get to it once again this season. There are two events, a sprint and an Olympic-distance race. Since 2009, they have been run on separate days, like a National Championship. Since then, both races have been sold out. The race is centered in Mercer County Park, outside of Princeton. 

Last month I wrote about getting renewed in our sport. As it turned out, that happened in the Pawling Triathlon, an unofficial race for me in which I only did the bike and the run (with the permission of the race director, Dan Honig). The goal was to get my feet wet for the season — without actually getting my feet wet. At any rate, I did get renewed, and so off I went to the USA Triathlon Duathlon National Championships in Bend, Oregon for my sixth Duathlon Nationals.

I started racing in triathlons in September 1983 at the second running of the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon, the first in Sag Harbor, New York. At age 79, this season is my 34th, and I have done a total of 243 triathlons and duathlons. Starting at the end of last season I was already looking forward to this one. Depending upon how I felt and the weather (last year I lost two planned races to bad weather, plus one to car trouble) perhaps I could make it to 250 this year, while at the same time qualifying for USA Triathlon’s Duathlon Century Club. (Back in 2012, I was a very happy member of the inaugural group for the USA Triathlon Century Club.

Last year we talked about the “Basic Eight of Regular Exercise.” In summary they are:

1. The hard part of regular exercise is the regular, not the exercise.

2. The best exercise routine for you is the exercise routine that is best for you.

3. There are many reasons for exercising regularly, other than for race training. For example, there’s feeling better and feeling better about yourself and helping you organize other areas of your life.