This was another workout that made me feel like a badass.  I was traveling for a work related training event this weekend.  Up to Bangkok to stay in a hotel on Friday and Saturday night for a conference on Saturday and then some sightseeing on Sunday.

Perfect excuse to skip a workout right?  Traveling.  Working on the weekend.  Crowded hotel fitness facilities.  Completely suboptimal conditions.  Except that I didn’t.  Skip that is.

Instead, I went down to the hotel pool after my seminar wrapped up and knocked out the following swim:

Not too impressive right?  Right.  Except that I had plenty of good excuses not to do it (including the fact that I had to dodge clueless, oblivious goofballs in the hotel pool) and I did it anyway.

I think this is something that is absolutely key to my fitness consistency and lifestyle stability: ignoring optimization.  It is way, way too easy to justify skipping a workout because of suboptimal conditions.  Let me know if any of these sound familiar:

• I don’t have enough time to do a REAL workout
• I don’t have enough time to do my full, planned workout
• I don’t know a good (run/bike) route
• I don’t have the right (shorts/shoes/attire) with me
• I don’t have my (iPod/Garmin/headphones/piece of technology) charged.
• I don’t want to bother the other people who will be around.
• I’m too embarrassed to work out in from of these complete strangers.

That’s what I thought.  Overcoming or ignoring any and all of these excuses and conducting “suboptimal” workouts is critical to maintaining workout momentum and a good rhythm.  Something is better than nothing.  A good plan now executed with aggression is better than a perfect plan later (or never).