i've read that taking your heart rate every morning can be a good tool to:

- see your fitness progress as it hopefully reduces slowly as you get fitter
and
- helps you spot signs of overtraining or illness (indicated when it is higher than usual)

I took mine over a few days (with minimal cycling miles) and the results were:
56, 56, 54, 65. Interestingly enough the day before the 65 i did a 35 miler at a brisk pace.

A couple of questions:

1) if you do it what is your waking heart rate?

2) Would the 65 above indicate i need more recovery and should avoid riding long or hard that day?

3) what king of variance from the norm would be considered normal? i.e. would not indicate illness/overtraining

btw my maxHR is 191.

Correct correct correct. The variance is a personal thing. For me, 4-5 bpm higher than normal isn't much since I get a lot of rest anyway, and I can really feel it if I'm sick. There's not much harm you can do if your HR is elevated 5% for a coupla days in a row, you may be in the middle of a block of intensity. Just make sure you're able to recover. Again, that's a personal thing. You can only find out by pushing yourself and experimenting.

I know, a HRM is a great tool for avoiding overtraining, but use it too conservatively and you'll have no fitness gains.

My morning resting heart rate (MRHR) is between 46 and 55, depending on recent training load. I use 48 as my "normal," so if I'm 54 and up, I figure I need to take it easy for a few days. That's personal. Yes, I'd say the 65 means "take it easy."

Interestingly, I'll get a more elevated MRHR from several days of long mileage at moderate HR. Just one hard day usually lowers my MRHR for a few days.

well yesterday i took it easy - 40 mins at about 70% of HRMax and this morning i was back down to 60.

think i'll definitely keep monitoring it to see how it varies with my workload.

it's a bit of a pan having to 'strap up' every morning though!

While I don't have much experience with this, I've always been told that 10 BPM above your norm is when you need to step back, so I would so your "on the edge".