During the Boot camp part you do some quick calisthenics, well there was a wall of mirrors and I look like a dancing horse.

I love the gym during the winter and that includes spin classes. They aren't the same as cycling but if you look at them as good high intensity cardio workouts they are great. Between the music, other riders, the instructors exhortations, and my own ego I go harder in that hour than I do on my own. Beyond spinning, don't discount the other benefits of a gym during the off season. Particularly strength and core training. Maintaining muscle mass is hugely important as we age. Easily as important as cardio and it jacks your metabolism for longer. It's also an opportunity to work the muscles that cycling doesn't to give your body better balance. My normal weekly routine is a couple spin classes, a couple seesions on a stair climber, 3-4 sessions of lifting, and I try and get in a swim or two. Core work is included in my lifting sessions. If you can do it at home that is great. I find that paying for the gym makes me go and when I'm there I am more focused because I don't have the distractions of home.

The first rule of going to the gym is that nobody pays any attention to you. Unless, of course, you are the hot woman in spandex. I call that view "pace booty".