I'm not one to recommend gadgets or gear -- your cycling budget is better spent on race fees, nutrition and flowers or beer for your significant other -- but there's one device that all cyclists need to consider: a heartrate monitor.

It's a basic principle of training: In order to improve your fitness, you need to stress your body. But how do you know whether you're stressing your body enough? You can go by how you feel -- "rate of perceived effort," or RPE -- but a much more objective measurement is your heartrate. Cyclists are notorious liars, especially when it comes to how hard they're working. Numbers, on the other hand ...

There's plenty of literature on the Web for how to train with a monitor, and I'm not going to pretend to duplicate it here. Conventional wisdom, however, recommends a heartrate between 65 percent and 80 percent of your maximum during your endurance training, including those long "base" hours of winter. (This is just a general recommendation. Let's not get started on lactate thresholds and VO2 maximums.)

But what, my more well-heeled and analytically minded readers are asking, about power? Power is great! Training by power has its detractors, but there's no denying that it's an even more precise way of quantifying your work. But power meters aren't cheap (yet). For the beginning racer looking to save money and spend evenings doing things other than pore over wattage charts, a heartrate monitor should be the first major purchase after bike, helmet and chamois.

When you change a tube, position the tire so that its logo is on the right and directly over the valve. This lets you quickly find the valve when you're in a hurry. And if you have a flat and decide to go all CSI, this helps you trace a puncture to a piece of glass or other defect in the tire.

With a lot of out-of-town racing coming up with Superweek, Michael Kelly (South Chicago Wheelmen) reminds me that this is a good time to hone your pre-race checklist. You don't want to be three hours from home and realize you've forgotten your shoes. (Or the key to your roof rack, which I've seen happen more than once.)

Kelly sends along this pre- and post-race checklist from Smart Cycling of Glenview, which one could use as a starting point for coming up with one's own checklist.

Here's a spread of things I brought to a stage race last year. I always try to pack the night before, so that I have a chance in the morning to figure out what I've forgotten. Then as I leave the house I do a quick mental scan from head to toe -- Helmet! Sunglasses! Jersey! Gloves! Bibs! Socks! Shoes! -- and try to remember packing each of these essentials.

Our Chicago newspapers may have shoddy coverage of cycling, but they're still useful for something. Jeff Wat (XXX Racing-AthletiCo) reminded me of this after this week's torrential rains, which no doubt caught many of us out on the path.

When you get home and your shoes are soaked inside and out, stick a sheet of newspaper in each one. The paper will absorb the water, leaving them bone dry by the next morning.

Don't use too much, or the air won't circulate. And I personally recommend a broadsheet. None of that tabloid nonsense.

Chicago racers will often have to drive an hour or more to races, but you don't want to spend all morning sitting in your chamois. You also don't want to have to waste time before your race hunting for a place to change, and it's bad form to do the boxers-into-bib hokey-pokey behind a car door. It scares the children.

So bring a beach towel to your races. I don't know why, but it took me forever to notice that everyone else seemed to have one and that it made changing quick, convenient and discreet.

Plus, having a towel is helpful when you have excess chamois creme on your hands and no teammates nearby to wipe them on.

Whenever I watch a Cat 5 race start, I always check my teammates to make sure they're starting in their big ring. Someone gave me this tip early on and I've always heeded it.

If a race starts fast, as many criteriums do, there's a risk you'll spin out if you start in your small chainring. Suddenly it's the second turn and you're off the back and your $20 entry fee is down the drain. Better to start in a big ring and maybe your second-biggest cog and shift to your smaller cogs as you pick up speed.

(The chain rings are the toothed circles by your feet. The cogs are the ones on your rear wheel. Don't laugh: When I first started racing, I didn't know the difference.)

Given the flat nature of the races around Chicago, you're better off sticking in your big ring. It will still let you cruise at a high cadence, but you've got enough range there to cover any accelerations. And if you never change rings, you eliminate the risk of dropping your chain. Whenever I hear about someone dropping their chain in a race, I ask, "What were you doing in your small ring in the first place?"