4 STAR ENDURANCE FOUNDER
CHRIS NAVIN
ABOUT 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 150+ triathlon and 21+ Ironman finishes in over 20 years of multisport racing – that has included qualifying 16+ times for TeamUSA in a wide variety of distances for duathlon, triathlon, aquathlon, and aquabike. He 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, and CBS 2 Chicago. He is also the founder of the Tri312.com Indoor Triathlon Series, the MetabolicAthlete.com metabolic testing lab, and the 4 STAR ENDURANCE athlete club – one of Chicago’s premiere triathlon clubs and multisport coaching organizations that have supported athletes and teams in delivering both the USA Triathlon State Championships, National Championship, and ITU World Championship titles.
Coach Chris is actively coaching through several partners, facilities, and organizations in the Chicago area, including BFF Bikes, Lakeshore Sport & Fitness (LSF) – Illinois Center, Team to End AIDS (T2), Chicago Tri Club, xXx Racing-Athletico, Lifetime Fitness Chicago Triathlon Open Water Swim Clinics, and more! Want to work with Coach Chris directly? Join our 4 STAR ATHLETE CLUB to get started with support using 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 11x TEAM USA qualifier, metabolic performance testing specialist, certified endurance sports coach, and race director who has helped generate over 5,000 triathlon finishers and coached athletes to become qualifiers for world championships in several endurance sports including ITU triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon, Ironman, 70.3, and even UCI eSports cycling!
“Coach Chris” is currently a USA Triathlon (USAT) Level II Certified Coach, 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, and even while performing live on stage at the HOUSE OF BLUES!
USA TRIATHLON (USAT) & INTERNATIONAL TRIATHLON UNION (ITU)
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), helping to inspire future triathletes and welcome thousands of the world’s top international athletes to the booming multisport community in Chicago. In 2021, Chris also won the USAT “shark tank” competition for the Entrepreneur Business Plan of the Year award to help triathlon innovate through technology and eSports to create more urban diversity in the sport!
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.
@ 2017 IRONMAN World Championships
@ 2019 ITU Long Course Duathlon World Championships
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).
He is an 16-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 – 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!
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:
It’s all about having fun!
Head Coach of Team Bright Pink
2x Chicago Triathlon Champion
(Divvy Supersprint)
Completing a triathlon on a Divvy bike?
It’s all about having fun!