Cardio vs Lifting

Also the big question is what do you enjoy :-) At the end of the day this is a lifestyle question as much as anything. Are you going to do something for the rest of your life that you don't enjoy :-)

Personally I do a bit of both but I mainly do Cardio - I do this because I enjoy it. I love getting out and about and I love swimming :-) I look at the exercise as my hobby now. Resistance training doesn't really float my boat but I do it all my the same because I can see the benefits to my main hobby. Perhaps things will change in the future though. There are a lot of great benefits in Cardio work. It burns fat, is very good for your heart , lungs and circulation. Its a good stress reliever as well. Your body will adapt and build stronger tougher muscles (which can be supplemented with weight training)

I fully agree with your first paragraph: working out, especially in the long-term, is about what you enjoy doing and where you have sufficient incentives to do the (hard) work - like, e.g. having fun doing so!

The second paragraph, however, sounds to me like you're glorifying cardio exercise a little too much. Don't get me wrong, any exercise is better than none, and there are certainly significant health benefits to doing cardio. Don't underestimate the influence of the running lobby in the public discussion, though. As far as I'm aware, there's very little scientific evidence that the classic cardio exercises keep you any healthier than other forms of working out (like weight lifting). What matters is that you're active, stress your system and build a fitter foundation. How you do that - this depends on your preferences.

There's quite a few stronglift etc. sectarians on here and I'm not one of them by any means. However, I do share three key assumptions with them:
a) "holistic" exercises which involve your whole body are superior to ones which focus on individual body parts (e.g. squats vs biceps curls -- but also running or swimming!).
b) getting "stronger" (in comparison to getting "bulkier") is a good thing, no matter your goal (weight loss, weight gain, health or looks).
c) to get stronger, you have to keep coming up with real challenges. Whether that's constantly beating your own records when running (don't forget to mix up speed, intervals, length and tracks to keep your muscles from developing a routine) or increasing weights when lifting. The latter is easier to accomplish because you'll be instantly aware of your accomplishments (or the need to mix things up).

One last piece of advice: Don't try mixing up cardio and weight exercises too much if you're looking to improve in lifting quickly. As was mentioned above, doing one or the other each week is preferable. An even/odd day pattern is not likely to show great results as your muscles do need plenty of rest when taking lifting seriously. If lifting is supposed to just supplement cardio, doing it one or twice a week is fine - either directly before/after cardio, or with a rest day afterwards while doing only lighter cardio the day before (your muscles need to realise that growth is needed instead of maintenance).

I find that I balance them out...and it depends on areas of improvement I'm focusing on. I really like the way that weights tone and shape my body and with proper nutrition and diet, the burning of calories isn't too concerning. I do enjoy the benefits of cardio now though and it certainly helps when I resumed participating in different sports

Again, great reply. My current fitness, I run 10kms, can road ride for 4-5hrs covering 70 ish miles, play soccer for hour. So my base fitness is ok. My core strength is my weakness. I can run a sub 50min 10km, but struggle to do more than 5 push ups. Nightmare!

Obviously like everyone there are weight exercises I prefer more than others. We all love to do bicep curls!

I believe you work different muscle groups at different times. How would you advise to split? I guess you'd do back and core on different days. So hypothetically would you do something like this...

Day 1 - Arms/Core
Day 2 - Back/Pecs

Also I know it sounds like I need to commit more, but I struggle to do more than 30 minutes of muscle work per session. Just don't find it that fun. I guess I should be able to do what I need in 30 minutes?

Bicep curls...*shudder*

Focus on compounds. They all help build a stronger core. You could do Starting Strength and be in and out of the gym in 30 minutes for probably the first 2 weeks. By then you'll have decided if it something you will warm to or not.