Heather Hates Cardio

I.  HATE.  CARDIO.  Absolutely hate it, with a passion.  It bores me to tears, I find it incredibly tedious (sorry best trainer in the world Julie Costa but its true).  Ok, so I actually like spinning but that’s about it.  I think I hate running the most, both treadmill and outside.  Its boring and stupid and I think anyone who says they love it is full of crap.  I hate the elliptical, rowing machine, and step mill slightly less, but make no mistake I hate them.  Yawn, I’m getting bored just writing about it.  I’ve tried to spice it up with intervals, hills, and tabata, and though they’re better for counting down the time they’re still a snooze-fest.  So whats a gal to do?  I’m supposed to get 5 days of cardio in a week but I can only handle feeling like I’m on a hamster wheel for so long.  I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to think outside the box.
 
Cardio is really just getting your heart rate up, right?  So I just need to find some creative, even offbeat ways to get my heart rate up.  First up, Irish step dancing at the Woods School of Irish Dance.  I took lessons from Peggy as a kid and I remember what a great cardio and lower body workout it was.  And how hard can it be?  You don’t forget that stuff, right?  That’s why they have that phrase ‘its like doing Irish step’……or is it ‘like riding a bike’?
 
So I wrote the first to paragraphs as a naive optomist (eternal optimism will always be my downfall).  So what happened when I went Irish step dancing?  Do you really not know?  It was all over the interweb, and I think the Track Gals even did a piece on it.   I broke my freaking toe!  What a loser!  Seriously, what kind of grown ass woman breaks her toe Irish step dancing?  I’m sure many of you who know me have some rather colorful answers for that question but keep them to yourself please.  So how did it happen?  Well let me set the scene.  It was during the second half of the lesson, we were learning out-straights (its this legs straight out jump thing which I will be more than happy to show you once the piggy toe heals) across the room and on my last out-straight I kicked a wooden bench that was attached to wall, hard.  I tried to walk it off and keep dancing but I knew something was wrong.  So the con is I broke my toe, I haven’t been able to wear heels and my toe is now maroon.  The pro is apparently my legs are a couple inches longer than I thought, so that’s good.
 
My little injury isn’t going to derail me from my Riverdance dreams or my cardio pledge.  Once my toe has healed (which I can’t believe it hasn’t yet, 6 days thank you very much) I plan on keeping up with the Irish step and trying out some fun new cardio.  I have some ideas in the works for cardio but I could really use all of your help, anyone have any ideas for some fun cardio?  Let me or caught in southie know!  And I hope to see all of you at The Woods School of Irish Dance tonight and every Wednesday night, we’ve got nationals to prepare for!