Friday Five: Favorite Fitness Activities

When the ladies of the DC Trifecta (Mar, Cynthia, and Courtney) suggested “Five favorite fitness activities” as the topic for today, my initial response was “I only run”.  And, well, that may be true right at the moment, but it wasn’t always that way.  I mean, running will be my number one love as long as my body agrees, but the days of forcing myself to workout are long gone.  I work out now because I love how it feels.  I’m looking forward to mixing some cross training back into my life in a few weeks.

So, here are my five favorite ways to get the blood pumping:

1. Running – I love running.  It makes me happy.  Even when a run sucks, it’s better than no running at all.  6 years ago, I ran my first 8k.  It nearly killed me.  I’d never run more than 4 miles before that day (metric conversion FAIL).  But I fell in love with taking my running to another level.

I’ll never be fast.  I’ll never win a race.  I’m unlikely to win my age group again until I’m in my 70s.  But I’ll still be out there and I’ll still be running for as long as my legs will allow.

2. Spin – Loving spin came as a total surprise to me.  I hate biking.  I only do it under duress (or when my husband promises me a beer.) But spinning is everything that biking is not. I can’t fall off or over (at least I haven’t managed to yet.) I don’t have to watch for cars. Or pedestrians.  I control how hard I push for how long and how often. It’s a freezing cold place to go on a hot summer day.  I can’t wait to have time to go back to my local studio.  I’m thinking a month of unlimited rides might be just what the doctor ordered after all this running is done.  (Read my review of RevolveDC)

3. Pure Barre – The beauty of Pure Barre is that there is nothing you can’t do on your own, but let’s be honest – do you ever push yourself as hard by yourself as you do when someone is telling you what to do?  I don’t.  I may think I’m getting a good workout by myself, but it’s nothing compared to what I get when someone else is guiding me.  A studio opened up fairly recently near me and I got the chance to go with my friends from Moms Run This Town.  It was an awesome workout!  I wish it were a bit closer to my house (and honestly a bit cheaper).  I’d love to add it to my regular workout rotation.

4. Hiking – Hiking has always been a favorite activity of mine.  I don’t particularly enjoy walking, but give me a path with some hills or even better, a mountain, and I’m a happy camper.  (You’d think I’d love trail running, but… no.)  When I lived in New Mexico as a child, we used to hike up to the Sandia Crest at least a couple of times a year.  On vacation, I’ve hiked around Scotland, Iceland, Alaska…  It’s one activity that Beer Geek and I both love to do and we’ve done our best to get our children to enjoy it as well.  The lack of real hiking in the inner suburbs of DC (and the huge amount of traffic between us and real hiking) is one of the things I dislike most about where I live.

5. Ziplining and white water rafting – I got to try ziplining when we visited St. Martin.  I thought I’d hate it.  But it was awesome.  While I obviously enjoyed the zipping down part, I found the climbing and tightrope walking and other things we had to do to get to the top just as enjoyable.  White water rafting is a long time love.  Beer Geek and I used to go at least once a summer before we had kids.  I was just starting to become good enough to try the Gauley River when I got pregnant with Jones.  We’ve gone a couple of times in recent years and I can’t wait to have it be a regular activity again.

I’d much rather get a full body workout in a functional way than to spend a comparable amount of time in a gym or my basement with a set of weights.  In fact, as much as I know I need to do something besides straight cardio, I have a really hard time getting myself to actually do it.

Note that I didn’t list yoga.  I’ve tried to love yoga.  I do love how I feel when I’m done, but I hate while I’m actually in it.  Life’s too short to spend an hour wishing the time would pass faster.

Is something else your favorite? What is it and why should I give it a try?

Don’t forget!  Still a few days in my Apera Bag giveawway!!!