COACH CHRIS

“Coach Chris” is a full time endurance sports coach based out of Chicago and one of the most experienced triathletes in the country with over 200+ triathlon and 22+ Ironman finishes in over 20 years of endurance sports racing – including qualifying over 25 times for TeamUSA in a wide variety of multisport distances for duathlon, triathlon, aquathlon, and aquabike. He has helped over 4,000 athletes train for marathons and triathlons, including helping over 50 athletes qualify for world championships!

Coach Chris has been featured in Club Solutions , USATRI, and Men’s Book Magazines while making appearances promoting endurance sports and the multisport lifestyle on WGN TV, NBC 5, ABC7, FOX32, CBS Morning News, and CBS2 Chicago. He has also been a featured presenter at IHRSA with Korr Medical, several USAT Triathlon & USA Cycling Endurance Exchange conferences, and at several IRONMAN events including IRONMAN 70.3 Rockford and Wisconsin. He’s also been a guest and host in a wide range of podcasts including Metabolic Mastery, TRI312, and the TriDot Podcast. You can also catch him providing tips in the Chicago Triathlon by Supertri First Timer’s Program and #ChiTri Swim, Bike, Transition, and Run video series.

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In 2021, Chris and 4 Star Endurance won the “shark tank” competition for the USA Triathlon (USAT) Entrepreneur Business Plan of the Year award to help triathlon innovate through technology and eSports – and to develop more urban diversity in the sport!

Chris has since become a serial entrepreneur as the founder of the Tri312.com Indoor Triathlon Series, the MetabolicAthlete.com metabolic testing lab, the SkylineSwim.com swim school, and the 4 STAR ENDURANCE athlete club – an official USA Triathlon (USAT) and IRONMAN TRI CLUB. As a TriDot and IRONMAN U Certified Coach, he has supported athletes and teams in delivering over 50+ TeamUSA, Ironman World Championship, and Ironman 70.3 World Championship qualifiers! His top athletes have won the USA Triathlon State Championships, USAT National Championship, and even the global ITU World Championship titles!

Leading one of Chicago’s premiere triathlon clubs and multisport coaching organizations, Coach Chris has been regular contributor to the TriDot Podcast and TRI312 Youtube Channel, a presenter and panelist at SuperTri, IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events, as well as led industry talks at the Endurance Exchange conference for USA Cycling (USAC) and USA Triathlon (USAT).

Coach Chris is an independent coach, actively supporting several clubs, coaches, partners, facilities, and organizations in the Chicago area. Some of the teams and programs Coach Chris supports include BFF Bikes, Lakeshore Sport & Fitness (LSF) – Illinois Center, Team to End AIDS (T2), Chicago Tri Club, xXx Racing-Athletico, Open Water Swim Chicago Clinics, and he is the official coach of the Chicago Triathlon‘s new Corporate Challenge program!

Want to work with Coach Chris directly? Join our 4 STAR ATHLETE CLUB to get started with 1-on-1 coaching support using platforms like TrainingPeaks and TriDot!

Often known simply as the “Metabolic Athlete” or Chicago IronMonster, Chris left a desk job in the financial services industry as a successful Vice President to “retire from the real world” before the age of 30 and has since been a full time coach in Chicago for more than a decade. Leaving a career as a professional “Certified Ethical Hacker” (CEH) and risk manager in the corporate IT world behind, Chris leveraged his technical expertise to engineer his way to becoming an 22x TEAM USA qualifier, metabolic performance testing specialist, certified endurance sports coach, and race director. He has helped support over 5,000 triathletes and coached 50+ athletes to become qualifiers for TeamUSA and world championships in several endurance sports including the IRONMAN World Championships, ITU triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon, Ironman 70.3 World Championships, and even UCI eSports cycling!

“Coach Chris” is an IRONMAN U Certified Coach, USA Triathlon (USAT) Level II Certified Coach, Adult Learn to Swim (ALTS), and certified Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist (METS-FCP). He has been a full time coach since 2009, and helped Chicago become nationally recognized as a hub for triathlon by establishing the first and only USA Triathlon (USAT) Certified Performance Center in the Mideast & Midwest regions at Fitness Formula Clubs (FFC).  Over the next 10 years at FFC, he served as Endurance Program Manager and founded their Human Performance Lab and Endurance Training Center – delivering over $1 million in revenue while overseeing a team of over 25 coaches in swimming, cycling, running, and triathlon programs across 10 of Chicagoland’s premier health clubs. 

With expertise in metabolic testing and Metabolic Efficiency, Chris established one of Chicago’s largest metabolic testing programs with 7+ locations while training a team of over 20+ metabolic specialists in VO2 Max, Blood Lactate, and Metabolic Efficiency testing. Working with sports performance, metabolic testing, and medical companies on product testing and research projects, Coach Chris has performed over 500+ VO2 Max tests and pioneered a simple and effective “4 STAR METHOD” for improving accuracy and consistency of VO2 Max testing in fitness club settings. Demystifying fat/carb metabolism and making heart rate training simpler, more accurate, effective, fun, and easy to understand is what Coach Chris developed into MetabolicAthlete.com and the “Metabolic Athlete Method”, helping people understand and convert VO2 Max test results into useful & actionable TrainingPeaks, MyZone, and Garmin data for custom-tailoring metabolic profiles with greater accuracy for virtually any athlete using virtually any technology platform!

MEDIA & PRESS
During Chris’ tenure as head coach, FFC has been voted “Best Club to Train for a Triathlon” (Examiner), “Best Gym” (CitySearch; Chicago Magazine), and “Best Health Club” five years in a row by Competitor Magazine (2012-2016).  He helped produce over 50 FFC indoor triathlon events for over 2,000 triathletes and has been featured in Club Solutions , USATRI, and Men’s Book Magazine. His endurance coaching endeavors have also led to appearances promoting endurance sports and the multisport lifestyle on WGN TV Channel 9, NBC Channel 5 Fit Club, CBS 2 Chicago, ABC7 Chicago and even while performing live on stage at the HOUSE OF BLUES! 

USA TRIATHLON (USAT), INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON UNION (ITU), and SUPERTRI
Chris has served on the USA Triathlon (USAT) Mideast council, and been selected to serve as a sports Ambassador for both the ITU World Championships (2015), TEAM USA (2018 & 2019) and the USAT Foundation (2022-2024), helping to inspire future triathletes and welcome thousands of the world’s top international athletes to the booming multisport community in Chicago. In 2024, he also joined supertri to helped support local triathlon clubs, communities, the new corporate challenge program, and welcome the professional athletes and medalists from the Paris Olympics as they traveled to Chicago as part of the supertri professional race at the Chicago Triathlon!

CHARITY-FIRST FOCUS
Chris coaches, supports, and is actively involved in several local charity training groups and non-profit club teams, having coached over 1,500+ athlete finishers from official charity partners at both the Chicago Marathon and Chicago Triathlon. His volunteer, client, and partner organizations have included TEAM TO END AIDS (T2), Team Bright Pink, American Diabetes Association (ADA), Chicago Tri Club, Tri-Masters Youth Sports Initiative, Dare2Tri Paratriathlon Club, World Bicycle Relief, and xXx Racing-Athletico to name a few – having helped endurance athletes raise over $4 million for local charities in the past 10+ years.

ATHLETIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Some of his personal highlights and achievements include having placed “1st overall” at one of his favorite local races (the Chicago Triathlon Divvy Supersprint in 2017, 2021, and 2022) and winning the Overall “Sprint Championship” of the Chicagoland Tri Series in 2014 – while leading his TriMonster club team to win the national championship as the 2014 USA Triathlon Club National Champions! Most recently he’s claimed the 2023 USA Triathlon (USAT) Illinois State Championship for his age-group (1st place, Men 40-44) and 3rd Place at the 2023 Illinois eSports State Championships.

He is an 20-time qualifier of TEAM USA in Triathlon (SuperSprint, Sprint Draft-legal, and Long course), Duathlon (Standard, Sprint Draft-legal, and Long distance), Aquathlon, and AquaBike. He once qualified and competed in 5 different world championships in 5 consecutive years, having represented the United States at the ITU World Championships in Aquathlon (2015), ITU Long Course Triathlon (2016), IRONMAN World Championships (2017), IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships (2018), and ITU Long Course Duathlon (2019).

Having raced over 160+ triathlons and 400+ endurance races, Chris is also a Kona finisher, 40+ time marathoner, and 21+ time Ironman, ranking as high as 9th in the U.S. and 33rd in the World (Ironman Age Group Rankings).

In 2020, he embraced eSports and was ranked as high as top 500 in the world on Zwift and even placed top 5 in a professional eSports Cycling race, and 3rd place at the Illinois eSports State Championships. while helping to coach pro-triathlete Jacquie Godbe to the podium at the UCI eSports World Championships and creating the free and open Chicago Virtual Cyclists (CVC) community!

Needless to say, Coach Chris lives and breathes the sport of triathlon and is always eager to share his passion for adventure and grow endurance sports in new and creative ways.  Reach out anytime for private coaching, clinics, speaking engagements, or just for some endurance training advice!

See below for a few of Coach Chris’ appearances on TV shows, Podcasts, webinars, interviews, and more:

IRONMAN appearances:

TriDot Podcast appearances:
Episode 191 – Performance Testing for Triathletes
Episode 228 – Bike Maintenance Tips for Speed & Safety
Episode 241 – What Triathletes Can Learn from Cyclists
Episode 260 – 5 Skills to Become a Savvier Short Course Triathlete
Episode 272 – The Official TriDot Podcast 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Episode 286 – 6 Big Time Cycling Tips for Triathletes
Episode 295 – 8 Common Race Day Run Problems

For coaching, clinics, conference, and training opportunities, please contact coach@4starendurance.com or visit 4StarEndurance.com to find our GETTING STARTED and COACHING RATES pages. Prospective athletes, please be sure to connect with Coach Chris or create a free account on TrainingPeaks with him here. Coaches interested in mentorship opportunities can find more info at the CHICAGO ENDURANCE COACH ALLIANCE (CECA).

You can also find Coach Chris online at:

• TRAINING PEAKS
• IRONMAN U
• TRIDOT TRIATHLON TRAINING (Free TriDot Trial – RunDot Trial)
• LINKED IN
• USA TRIATHLON
• SLOWTWITCH
• TRI-FIND
• Facebook: @4StarEndurance | @tri312triathlon | @MetabolicAthlete
• YouTube: @tri312triathlon | @4starendurance | @MetabolicAthlete | @SkylineSwim
• ATHLINKS
• ROUVY
• ZWIFT
• TriMonster
• xXx Racing-Athletico
• Chicago Tri Club
• Chicago Virtual Cyclists
• Chicago IronMonster
• Twitter:
• VidFitness
• STRAVA
• STRYD
• GARMIN

US Masters Swimming – Coach & Adult Learn to Swim (ALTS) Instructor

Member Status: https://www.usms.org/people/069KH
Member Profile: https://community.usms.org/members/069kh

USA TRIATHLON

IRONMAN U

RUN EASI

SAFESPORT

METABOLIC EFFICIENCY (METS I-FCP)

STRYD RUNNING

SPINNING

CPR AED

RED CROSS – FIRST AID