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@h2o
I've been doing a mixture of strength and interval training in the gym recently in an effort to regain my fitness of about ten years ago (christ I feel old saying that).
Basically has consisted of doing interval training, mainly on either my bike or on an exercise bike - cruise at a cadence of 90 or so at 50-60pc heart rate, then up the resistence and the cadence to spin like a crazy f*cker for up to a couple of minutes at 90pc heart rate, then back down again for a bit to recover, then up again etc. Rinse and repeat a few times. I'm time-poor so tend to work very hard in a very short session, hence the exercise bike in the gym, but you can achieve the same thing riding up hill and down dale at a good speed, fixed.
Then on the strength training, have basically been choosing weights that are an effort but don't hurt and doing more rather than less reps. Easier on the joints, and better for getting limber, rather than gaining mass (gaining mass is whole different ball game).
Am a lot fitter than I was a year and a half ago when I started, and can do things that I didn't think I could do before then. But I'm not going to win races on that alone! You have to get out and ride your bike with people to learn how to pace yourself if you want to do that.
Edit to add - rowing machines are good for cardio, if you can find one. That whole bleep thing that people used to do at school is quite good too, if you can deal with the running. I hear skipping (as in rope-jumping) can work if you're fast enough? Never tried it myself though.