I know about logging miles under my belt but never paid attention to my progress. I've been cycling for a year now and just pretty much been riding all over the place, no focus on anything nor direction. Even with a heart rate monitor I never used it wisely. I ride either alone or with my brother and he likes climbs and he's got more miles/experience under his belt, sometimes I get caught up in his pace which always ending with me hitting the wall. People on here will say miles, miles, ride, ride. Yes I will continue doing that, but I also like to have a structured training regiment like for example, 1 ride, do 5x20second sprints. Next ride, do this etc. I also would like to know about training on the right heart rate zones, how hard to train during a ride to make it effective yet not dangerous, how do I increase my FTP? which book is a good read for training? I'm not trying to be a pro cycling or anything, I just like training with some thought put into it like how I used to when I was lifting weights. Right now I'm at 165 lbs 5'8 1/2, 26 years old. I'm only looking at using my HRM for this training, no power meter yet! Max heart rate I've clocked with my garmin was 208 BPM. Sorry if my wording is confusing!

Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist Plan is a good place to start. He has a HRM option that worked well for me when I first started training with a purpose.

Forget about maximum HR. look at the sticky at the top of this forum, which gives a method for testing for your aerobic threshold. Then set your HR zones based on that threshold. I use the following: Z1 65% - 80% threshold. Z2 81% - 88%. Z3 89% - 93%. Z4 94% - 99%. Z5 100% and up.

Most of your training should be in Z2. The border between Z2 and Z3 is a good place to be to build aerobic fitness. If you want to increase FTP, do some Z4 and Z5 intervals a couple of times a week.

Have a look in the racers forum on this site. There's a sticky at the top of "The 33 - road bike racing" with a huge menu of suggestions for interval training. And if you take up Caloso's suggestion, and buy "The Time Crunched Cyclist" do yourself a favour and start with the beginners programs. The "experienced riders" programs are strenuous and will burn you out unless you have a biggish base.