Cardio Boredom

Lately I've been going heavy on cardio. Not only for the obvious reason of keeping my aerobic capacity high but to stay in good shape. Too much cardio and not enough weight training is a big thing I need to watch out but that isn't the point of this post. If you ever get bored of cardio and need a little bit of creativity to keep you from hating your workouts, I have a solution. These are some ways that I keep myself busy and happy with my workouts.
So when I spend over an hour on cardio, I get bored. Anyone would, right? I try and mix up the types of cardio I do to train different muscle groups, which helps. I still get bored after a few rotations of stairmaster, treadmill and elliptical. I absolutely HATE doing the bike. It's not fun for me at all because it never really burns my legs the same way a good stairmaster workout does.
 Even though I alternate machines, I still get bored. So then I play around with intensities. If I'm doing the elliptical, which is what I usually spend the most time on, I will turn up the resistance to start at level 10 or above. Then I'll mess with speed and sometimes I'll even change direction and go backwards so my hamstrings get a chance to be worked. On the treadmill, I like to raise the incline up to the maximum level and walk at about 3.7 miles per hour. After I do that for a few minutes, I'll slow down the speed and cut the incline in half. Then after a few more minutes, I'll lower the incline down to a 2 and I'll raise my speed to 6.5 miles per hour. After that,  I'll completely drop the incline to 0 and turn the speed up to 7.5 or 8mph for about a minute or two. I usually repeat the cycle a few more times before switching machines. 
If I'm still dreading my workout even after doing all of these things, I'll distract myself by pulling up a show on Netflix. I'll drop my intensity a little bit and remain at a static pace so I can easily pay attention to my show. Otherwise I usually play around with Pandora or look through my old music and make a new playlist that matches the pace of my workout.
There are lots of little things to do to keep your workouts interesting. Doing the same thing every time you workout can get really boring so I feel like it's important to change things up. Maybe some other time I'll share how to change up a weight training workout? (450)