Stuff to practice would be the aforementioned scales and scale patterns, arpeggios (picked and swept) and if you have any solos you'd like to learn (i do it with classical pieces) play them to the metronome too.
As for sweep picking, the idea is to play arpeggios with a continuous upstroke or downstroke, going across the strings, rather than starting a new motion with your pickign hand for each note. I might get some flak for this, but I don't think its a particularly useful technique outside of showing off. Their application outside of metal is very, very limited, if existant at all. Even in the style where they are at home (shred/metal) you can't rely on them to much, because there is only so much you can do with them. If you want to practice them, do so, I admit that I do, but I think that getting good at normal alternate pickign and economy picking (read open discussion: picking hand" is more useful. Also, remember, not all arpeggios must be swept, I practice a lot of 2 octave 7th (maj7 min7 dom7 7b5) arpeggios that don't use sweep picking, just regular alternate picking. If this all sounds like a bit much, don't try to take it in all at once, the key is to be comfortable with what you are practicing at the moment, not to try and do everything at once, fail, and get discouraged.
