Tips from Tassie

I wrote this for our latest OSB Multisport newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe to it (it's sent out monthly), click this link.

There are so many traits that my dog has that I wish I could instill into my life. For example, she is ALWAYS happy in the morning, no matter what the time. It’s as if she’s thinking, “A brand new day! Yay!” She gets incredibly excited when we take her for a run, and is very sad when we don’t. I don’t necessarily want to be spinning in circles (ala Tassie) at the beginning of every run, but I do wish I could be that eager for most of them – I am doing something I love, after all.

Another trait Tassie has is she absolutely won’t quit. She has been trying to catch a squirrel ever since we brought her home almost 4 years ago, and has continually failed, but that doesn’t stop her. If she spies one in the backyard she lets you know that she has to get outside RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately, although she is very fast, she makes way too much noise and then doesn’t always actually run to the squirrel's location. In other words, her chances of catching a squirrel are about as good as Marty being able to donate his hair to charity.

But she doesn’t care; every failure is immediately erased from her mind and the next opportunity is always just around the corner. This is really a remarkable lesson that we can use in so many different aspects of our life, but since this is a triathlon newletter I figured I’d relate it to the sport. How many times do we dwell on a bad workout or race? You can always learn from everything, but beating yourself up over it is not productive. You had a bad run? Well, guess what – there’s another run on your schedule two days from now! Make that one count and forget about this one. Or how about in a race? Perhaps you had a crummy swim – don’t think about your crummy swim the entire bike ride – it’s over. It’s done. Get on the bike and only think about the bike.

Maybe you haven’t had the season you’ve been hoping for? It’s not over yet. You still probably have a few races left –these are your opportunities to get after it. Don’t give up on the squirrel. You may just catch it someday.