newbiie here xD

[nolemom]

I found the book, Every Woman's Guide to Cycling: Everything you need to Know, From Buying Your First Bike to Winning Your First Race by Selene Yeager to be a helpful book. It discusses the very basics at the beginning of the book. I cannot vouch for the training schedules since I have not followed them but I found the general information on gearing, etc. to be informative.
It does not give specific advice about which bike you should buy once you have made the general decision - mountain bike, road bike, etc.