I have been using a HRM for about two years now simply because I like to see data from my workouts. It hasn't necessarily caused me to change the way I train. If you don't want to spend a lot of money you can try a couple of "pro-deal" websites. www.theclymb.com and www.leftlanesports.com are both great places to pick up good workout and cylcing stuff at steep discounts. They don't cost anything to sign up, just set up a username and password. I have ordered loads of stuff from both sites without issue.