As long as you follow our cycling training plans guide, you can successfully challenge the “SHOU KA (壽卡)”, the commanding heights of the South Link Highway, it is also the section that scare newbies the most. even if you have zero experience!
Cycling Training Plans & recommended training routes in Taipei
Cycling Training Plans in Taiwan: Two Keys of Success Factors
There are two key-points in cycling training plans around Taiwan by bicycle, I believe you will have good training results!
1. Cycling Training Plans Intensity Should be Gradual
Cycling Training Plans can be divided into distance and time.
In the first month, you should conduct cardiorespiratory load training with “time” as the goal, requiring yourself to gradually shorten the completion time under the same distance conditions.
In the second month of your cycling training plans, it’s time to shift your focus to distance-based endurance training.
This means prioritizing long-distance rides as your primary goal. By dividing your cycling training plans into manageable phases and gradually adjusting your body’s overall fitness, you’ll achieve more effective results than simply pushing yourself through high-intensity workouts.
Here are the main points to remember about cycling training plans.
- Distance-based endurance training: Prioritize long-distance rides to improve your stamina and ability to sustain effort over extended periods.
- Phased approach: Break down your training into manageable phases, gradually increasing the distance and intensity of your workouts.
- Gradual progression: Allow your body to adapt to the increased demands by gradually increasing the intensity and duration of your training.
- Avoid overtraining: Listen to your body and avoid overtraining, which can lead to fatigue, injury, and burnout.
Benefits of distance-based endurance training
- Improved cardiovascular health: Long-distance rides strengthen your heart and improve your overall cardiovascular fitness.
- Enhanced endurance: You’ll develop the ability to sustain effort over longer distances, making it easier to tackle challenging climbs and longer routes.
- Increased mental toughness: Long-distance rides challenge your mental fortitude, teaching you to persevere through physical and mental fatigue.
- Greater confidence: Achieving distance-based goals boosts your confidence and self-belief, motivating you to continue pushing your limits.
Remember: Consistency is key to achieving your training goals. Stick to your training plan, listen to your body, and gradually increase the challenge as you progress. With dedication and perseverance, you’ll unlock your endurance potential and conquer long-distance rides with newfound confidence and strength.
2. Proper Rest and Recovery
Prioritizing rest and recovery for optimal training outcomes
In addition to incorporating intense training sessions into your cycling regimen, prioritizing rest and recovery is equally crucial for achieving your fitness goals. Neglecting adequate rest periods can not only hinder your training progress but also increase the risk of injuries and burnout.
The importance of rest and recovery
- Enhanced training effectiveness: Rest allows your body to repair muscle tissue, replenish energy stores, and adapt to the training stimuli, leading to improved performance and reduced injury risk.
- Reduced physical and mental fatigue: Rest periods provide your body and mind the opportunity to recuperate from the demands of training, preventing overtraining and allowing you to return to your workouts with renewed energy and focus.
- Improved overall well-being: Adequate rest promotes overall health and well-being by allowing your body to regulate its systems, strengthen its immune function, and maintain a balance between training and recovery.
Incorporating rest into your cycling training plans
- Scheduled rest days: Plan regular rest days into your cycling tours schedule to allow your body to fully recover.
- Active recovery: Engage in low-impact activities like yoga, masage, or easy cycling on rest days to promote active recovery and maintain fitness levels.
- Listen to your body: Pay attention to your body’s signals and adjust your training plan accordingly. If you’re feeling fatigued or sore, take an extra rest day or reduce the intensity of your workouts.
A suggested cycling training plan with rest
- Week 1-3: Focus on building endurance and strength with moderate-intensity rides.
- Week 4: Schedule a week of active recovery with shorter, lower-intensity rides or cross-training activities.
- Week 5-6: Resume moderate-intensity rides, gradually increasing the distance and intensity.
- Week 7: Repeat the active recovery week.
- Week 8-12: Continue building endurance and strength, incorporating longer and more challenging rides. Remember, rest is not a sign of weakness; it’s an essential component of effective training.
By prioritizing rest and recovery, you’ll optimize your performance, reduce injury risk, and enhance your overall cycling experience.
3. Maintain a Speed of 25 km/h on Flat Roads
In addition to your regular exercise routine, incorporating high-intensity training sessions can significantly enhance your cycling performance.
A recommended target intensity for these sessions is to maintain a speed of 25 kilometers per hour (25 km/h) on flat roads.
Benefits of cycling training plans at 25 km/h
- Improved anaerobic capacity: Training at this intensity challenges your anaerobic energy systems, which are responsible for powering short bursts of intense effort. This can lead to improved sprint performance and the ability to sustain high speeds for longer durations.
- Enhanced lactate threshold: The lactate threshold is the point at which lactate starts to accumulate rapidly in the bloodstream. Training at 25 km/h can help you elevate your lactate threshold, allowing you to maintain a higher intensity for longer periods before fatigue sets in.
- Increased VO2 max: VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during exercise. Training at 25 km/h can help improve your VO2 max, which is a key indicator of cardiovascular fitness and endurance.
There is a difference in practice!
You should know before taking on Cycling in SHOU KA.
SHOU KA: A Challenging Climb Cycling in Taiwan It located in Pingtung and Taitung counties, stands as the highest point along the South Link Highway, reaching an elevation of 460 meters. Located at the 455 km mark of Provincial Highway No. 9.
The ascent to SHOU KA demands not only sheer physical endurance to conquer the relentless uphill but also resilience against the relentless sea breeze.
The unforgiving sun, with virtually no shade along the entire route, adds another layer of challenge, making the ride a daunting task for many cyclists.
Key characteristics of SHOU KA
- Length: 21 km
- Elevation gain: 460 m
- Gradient: Average 2-3%, with sections reaching up to 5-6%
- Challenge: Continuous uphill climb, strong sea breeze, intense sun exposure
Therefore, before challenging SHOU KA, in addition to understanding the difficulty of the road section, you also need to confirm whether your physical condition is sufficient to withstand the severe climb section.
Take the counterclockwise route around the island and there are three routes to SHOU KA
1. Fenggang (Provincial Route 9: South Link Highway) - SHOU KA
This section of the route is the shortest route forward to Taitung among the three routes. Usually, cyclists plan a route that takes less than 10 days to circle the island.
▲ Cycling Route Planning: Depart from Fenggang in the direction of Taitung (counterclockwise), the distance is about 98 km
Climb all the way up the Provincial Highway 9 to Shouka. The route is fairly simple. It is not easy to get lost on the way.
▲ Famous Scenery: 伯勞鳥展示館（楓港），蔡英文總統古厝（楓港）、董家百年紅樓（楓港）、多良車站（太麻里）、灌籃高手平交道 （太麻里）
▲ Hotel Recommends:
2. Hengchun (County Road 199) - SHOU KA
This section of the route is the one that more people choose to cycle among the three routes. Because there are fewer cars, the scenery is very beautiful and quiet, it is usually a route taken by cyclists who plan to spend 10-12 days around Taiwan.
▲ Cycling Route Planning: Depart from Hengchun to Jinlun, Taitung (counterclockwise), the distance is about 86 km.
Hengchun (Provincial Highway 26) → Keep right on Xincuo Road (Ping 51) → Shanjiao Road (Ping 51) → Turn right onto County Road 199 → SHOU KA Bicycle Station → Turn right onto Provincial Highway 9 toward Jinlun, Taitung
▲ Famous Scenery: 阿嘉的家，鹿境
▲ Hotel Recommends:
3. Kenting (Provincial Highway 26) - SHOU KA
This section of the route is the longest and most hilly route to Taitung among the three routes. Riders who usually plan to spend over 15 days around the island can stay in Kenting for one more day to enjoy the enthusiasm of Southern Taiwan
▲ Cycling Route Planning: Depart from Kenting to Dawu, Taitung (counterclockwise), the distance is about 90 km.
Provincial Highway 26 (passing Longpan Park) → Turn left onto County Road 200A (Jialeshui) → Turn right onto County Road 200 → Provincial Highway 26 (Gangzhi Desert) → Turn left onto 199A (Xuhai Police Station) → Turn right onto County Road 199 → SHOU KA Bicycle Station → Turn right onto the Provincial Highway 9 towards Taitung Dawu.
▲ Famous Scenery: 墾丁國家公園，最南點 – 鵝鑾鼻燈塔，佳樂水，旭海大草原
▲ Hotel Recommends:
Taipei Cycling Route Selection - Cycling Training Plans Just Ride!
As long as the route can climb, it is a very good cycling route to train your physical fitness.
Find it according to your place of residence and training intensity. I highly recommend this functional website – Taiwan Cycling Baiyue Map: Guide to Road Cycling Climbing Routes, here The website provides detailed “difficulty level analysis, climbing analysis, distance analysis, time estimation, temperature difference” of a certain cycling route for reference.
The following cycling training plans around Taiwan starts from MathewBike. The difficulty analysis uses “SHOU KA” as a 40% reference. Taipei cycling mountain road routes/Taipei cycling tour groups are selected. Cyclists are welcome to come and ride at any time!
1. Beitou - Yangmingshan - 7-11 Qingtiangang Store (Lin-Bei Local Riding Group)
Difficulty Analysis
Estimated Time
2 hrs
Distance
- 27 km
Slope Analysis
- Maximum slope: 10%
- Uphill: 714 m
The Lin-Bei Local Riding Group is composed of cyclists from Shilin and Beitou who love to ride bicycles. They meet every Wednesday at 8:30 pm at the MRT Qilian Station (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University). They climb all the way from Beitou Gongguan Road to Dunxu High School, turn to Hushan Road, and end at the end. It is the 7-11 Qingtiangang store.
2. Shilin - Baraka Highway
Difficulty Analysis
Estimated Time
3-4 hrs
Distance
- 50 km
Slope Analysis
- Maximum slope: 10%
- Uphill: 1125 m
The starting point and end point of MathewBike is about 50 km, with an average gentle uphill climb. In the training stage, it is more of a long-distance route.
3. Fengguizui - Central Community - Jiannan Road (Fengzhongjian)
Difficulty Analysis
Estimated Time
3-4 hrs
Distance
- 35 km
Slope Analysis
- Maximum slope: 13%
- Uphill: 812 m
Start training on steeper terrain!
The starting point is the 7-11 ( The National Palace Museum), start climbing up to Jiannan Road.
The starting point is at the top of Jiannan Road, descend to Zhishan Road, turn right when you see Zhongshe Road, and climb to the second stop on the top of the mountain: Central Community.
The starting point is Central Community, descend to Zhishan Road, turn right when you see Fenglin Bridge, and climb to the third stop on the top of the mountain: Fengguizui.
4. Yangde Blvd To Mt. Datun Navigation Station
Difficulty Analysis
Estimated Time
4-5 hrs
Distance
- 17 km
Slope Analysis
- Maximum slope: 20%
- Uphill: 1028 m
More difficult than SHOU KA Hills! Climb to the topeak make you question your existence! If you can defeat it, SHOU KA justv piece of cake 😀
- Velodash
- Google Map
5. TOUR OF GRAND TAIPEI 180K
Difficulty Analysis
Estimated Time
8-9 hrs
Distance
- 180 km
Slope Analysis
- Maximum slope: 24%
- Uphill: 1490 m
The difficulty of long distance tests muscle endurance and willpower!! After riding the recommended routes 1~5 above, you should feel at ease around Taiwan!
MathewBike will make your own Cycling Training Plans for Around Taiwan Adventures
Embarking on a cycling tour around Taiwan is an exhilarating and rewarding experience, offering breathtaking scenery and a true test of your physical and mental endurance.
However, with the diverse range of cycling routes and variations in individual fitness levels, crafting a personalized training plan is crucial for success.
At MathewBike, we are dedicated to assisting cyclists of all levels in achieving their around-the-island aspirations. Our customized cycling training plans begin with a comprehensive assessment of your current fitness level, riding experience, and goals.
This personalized approach ensures that your training regimen is tailored to your unique needs, maximizing your progress and minimizing the risk of injury.
Distinguished by age: cycling around the island training suitable for the elderly, cycling around the island suitable for parents and children.
In addition to physical cycling training plans, when you choose our Touring Bike Rental, we will also explain the riding posture, control skills, cycling knowledge, etc. to the riders, and arrange a complete and sufficient training from physical to psychological training plan.
After reading the above training guide for Biking Around Taiwan, I hope you want to complete the cycling in Taiwan efficiently. Start by consulting MathewBike on a cycling plan that suits for Biking in Taiwan!
Read More: Guide to cycling days around Taiwan
