The Basics

Welcome to the Full Throttle Endurance training program, arguably the best amateur triathlon team (and program) in the country. But that’s not what we hang our hat on. We’re a community and a family first. We train as ONE group – and this is why daily we’re able to elevate the benchmark for everyone and perform together beyond expectations. The more you train as a team, the stronger you become in your abilities, your knowledge, your sense of purpose, and your accomplishments.

So, who is this program right for? Is it only for elite athletes? The simple answer is this program is EVERYONE and at any level – from first-time racers to National competitors and even Team USA and All-American athletes. There are no egos here, that gets checked at the door.

From your very first practice, your coach will set you up for success. You’ll be placed in the appropriate lane for swimming, the right group for running, and we’ll get you properly sized on your bike and set up with the right Functional Threshold Power (FTP), so you can truly push yourself, ride aerobic, or recovery on the bike all in the correct training zones. As you get stronger in each of these three modalities, we’ll move you into stronger and faster groups. Make no mistake, you have to put in the work and show up for the workouts to see the results.

One important piece of advice as you start your journey with Full Throttle – never be afraid to ask questions. Never be afraid to ask for help or more knowledge. Take responsibility for moving yourself through the program, but tap into our team to get you where you want to be.

So we can build you the most effective training plan, please complete these 3 steps if you haven’t already:

Step 1 – Schedule your in-body assessment to be conducted at Chelsea Piers. It only takes 3 minutes. The In-Body Assessment machine analyzes your body weight, muscle, fat, water, metabolism (and more). Knowing this information (e.g. how many calories it takes to run your system), helps us structure your training and nutrition recommendations. It also empowers you to make smarter decisions and monitor your progress over time.

We perform assessments on Mondays and Thursdays from 7:00am – 7:45am.

Step 2 – Complete your Athlete Intake Form. We use this information and data to help us understand your age group ranking, plan ordering gear in the right sizes, and make modifications to your programming. While this information is voluntary, we can’t express enough how much answering all the questions will benefit you in your training and development as an athlete.

All information will be kept PRIVATE.

Step 3 – Email us a bio photo. Your photo will live publicly on our Athlete Page and in our internal system. If you are new to the sport, you may not have a race photo, and that’s ok. For now, send us anything you have that feels athletic. Don’t worry if it cropped right. We can take care of editing it for you.

New York is a fast and tough city. Most people have long hours, and some just have off hours. This is why we have two identical sessions each day. There is a 5:45am and an 8:00am.

Consistency is important if you want to get the most out of your training. It’s ok to try different times out, but you want to maintain the same schedule arc week-to-week.

Every workout is specifically designed to build you and the team as a triathlete. Skipping a workout versus ”relocating it” to another time (or perhaps day) is important. Try not to skip.

We have 13+ sessions per week. Each day, two of those sessions are identical – both a 5:45am class and an 8:00am. So, in fact, there are 8 unique sessions per week to fuel your training.

Each week is comprised of the following:

We hold four swim sessions per week because, for a majority of athletes, swimming is a weakness. It’s also important to be comfortable enough to swim in a variety of situations so that you are properly prepared to race in open water conditions.

Perhaps swimming is not your weakness and running or cycling is. That fact is, everyone has a weakness. And so that is what you should focus on improving most. It’s important to design your training to be strong in all 3 modalities, which must include your weakness if you intend to race.

To start training, here’s the basic gear you need to show up with your first week:

We also have some of the best sponsors in the sport and they give us Discount Codes for Full Throttle athletes to use on their websites to make discounted purchases. Most things are close to wholesale price. We can help guide you in choosing the right gear from these Sponsors, as well as Full Throttle branded essentials like our t-shirts, hats, visors, sports bra tops, and swim caps.

Picking a race is one of the first things we aim to do with a new athlete, even for an absolute beginner.

Why? The fact is that training just for yourself vs. training for a specific race are two very different mindsets. Without a race (and we all have been there), you’ll hit the snooze button, you won’t elevate the benchmark enough, you’ll miss a workout or you will just find a way to avoid it.

How far out should you schedule your first race? Our general rule of thumb is a minimum of 12 weeks before you compete in your first short-course race. It’s not impossible to get you ready in less time, but helping you develop the correct form, figuring out the right volume of training hours for you, and building your abilities to perform well in the race takes roughly 12 weeks. There are two short course distances:

If you’ve joined Full Throttle intending to do a long-course race (Ironman or Ironman 70.3) right out of the gate, that’s a different beast. It involves considerably more planning and a lot more training hours than the 8 sessions per week we have scheduled as a group. There are two long course distances:

We’ve created several digital resources to help you stay connected to the team and informed about everything Full Throttle. Most notable is the new website we launched in 2022. Here are a few things we think you should see:

Step 1 – Check out your teammates on the Athlete Page. There are currently 130+ athletes on the Full Throttle team.

Step 2 – Explore the “Community” section on the website. This is a private section for NYC athletes, where you’ll find all the information you need to fuel your training, racing, and staying connected to your teammates. Access to this section is via log-in only. You’ll need an active athlete account and login credentials to access it. Here you’ll find:

Step 3 – Add hello@fullthrottle.nyc to your contact book so our emails don’t go into your spam folder

Step 4 – Follow us on instagram @fullthrottle.nyc to see everything that’s happening day-to-day, even at races!

One of the unique opportunities you have at Full Throttle is to not only benefit from the group program but to benefit from your coach’s expertise and knowledge outside of the class. Private coaching is a great way to fine-tune specific techniques, address problem areas that are too nuanced to engage during class, or take specific skills to the next level. This is not something that you NEED to do, but a private session now and then will only make you progress faster.

If you are interested in private coaching, please reach out to Coach Scott Berlinger.