If you are not starting your training until the winter, keep doing your research. There are a lot of different philosophies on the best ways to train--find what will work for you. Just avoid internet sites where teenagers are giving most of the advice--I have seen too many kids who have no clue what they are talking about (but I have seen plenty of intelligent ones also
)
There are lot of great books out there on sports training. My favorite site is
www.fitfriends.com. A lot of training professionals visit that site, and you can also find out about a lot of the good books that are available. If you go to amazon.com, you can find a lot of the books in "used" condition which are about half the price.
The more knowledge you gain and the better informed you are, the more successful your training will be in my opinion!