When you are just starting out, heart rate is cheaper to get into and will help you measure improvement. Don't waste time with devices that calculate power based off speed and heart rate. The advantage of a power meter is it measures real time power that you use getting from point A to point B. If you go up a little hill, it goes up. When you come down it goes down. Hear rate is always lagging behind and varies depending on your fitness level and what kind of day you are having. Let's suppose you didn't sleep as well as usual the night before. Your heart rate will likely be faster than usual when you ride. The power calculators (They will call them meters but they really aren't.) will tell you that you used more power to get from point A to point B. However, the power meter will show you that you used the same amount of power but that your heart rate was up so you know you were just a bit off for the day. True power meters are a bit expensive but the prices are coming down. Examples of a true power are Cycleops Power Tap and SRAM Quarq. Examples of power calculators are iBike Newton and Kinetic inRide. If you don't want to drop the money for a power meter, skip the power calculators and just use heart rate.

When it comes to the boredom, TV can help. Training videos really help but there are HUGE differences in training videos and what works for one person is a waste for someone else. I like the Sufferfest videos myself. The spinervals was a waste. Real Rides was OK. I liked the information that was on the screen and how they talked through what they were doing. The Sufferefest videos really break up a long ride with small sprints, challenges and sometimes goofy quips that help you get through even a two hour ride without feeling like you just went to a two hour lecture on the life cycle of a mugwart. The training videos like Sufferfest also help you concentrate on certain aspects of cycling so you can work on climbing, sprinting, TT or endurance.

Fluid or magnetic trainers are great. Both can be purchased with straight resistance, progressive resistance (mimics how it's harder to go the faster you go) and adjustable resistance. Wind trainers are VERY noisy!!!!!!! If you live in an apartment, stick with the fluid or magnetic trainers. Fluid trainers are the quietest and they don't have the leaking problems they used to have.

Hope that helps.

There are bike computers that are set up to track off the rear wheel and most of those also do cadence. I have a trainer and a spin bike and I enjoy my indoor workouts. Not near as much as actual riding, but when it is cold and dreary it is a nice way to keep cycling. I use videos to keep things moving. I do find that if I'm not working out with someone else it is hard to keep spinning at an effective level without a distraction. I have Joe Friel's Optimum Fitness DVD's which are great training DVD's and are developed for use with trainers. I also have a couple of the spinnervals DVD's too, they also designed for use with trainers. I have some workouts that I have put together from research that I do with music. Also, for sustained endurance, I'll slap in a movie (any movie that I want to watch) get my heart rate up to a target zone and watch the movie while maintaining that constant heart rate, giving myself five minutes of slow spin recovery every 30 minutes. Hope this helps you.