veohtu noun.
Pronunciation: vee-oh-two.
1. The volume of oxygen consumed per minute (VO2).
2. A measure of aerobic metabolism.
2. A measure of aerobic metabolism.
Hello, I'm Thomas Solomon, the founder and sole owner of Veohtu.
I’m a former Associate Professor turned endurance performance and nutrition consultant, and would describe myself as a trail-running, gravel-riding, cross-country skiing, rock-climbing, photograph-taking, craft beer enthusiast with a big orange beard.
My mission is to help people improve their running performance while they learn how to master their training journey, forever.
From deep dive articles to monthly research reviews and practical training plans, I meticulously research and write all content to ensure you receive evidence-based information you can trust.













I’m an accomplished health science researcher with specialised expertise in metabolism, biochemistry, nutrition, and exercise science. I spent 16 years in academia (2002–2018) and, as a former Associate Professor and research group leader, I gained extensive experience in team management, clinical trials, evidence synthesis, biostatistics, scientific writing, and peer review. My success as a researcher is demonstrable through several large grant awards, many media interviews and invited talks, and 90 journal publications that have been cited over 7000 times.
I left academia in 2018 to establish Blazon Scientific, where I provide freelance consulting in scientific/medical writing and data analysis to universities, biotech companies, and independent scientists globally. At the same time, I founded Veohtu.com, a free educational platform dedicated to exercise and nutrition science. Here I aim to filter the signal from the noise and enhance science communication with high-quality, thoroughly-researched, bullshit-free information about human health and performance.
Since 2002, I have worked with hundreds of people to integrate a physically-active lifestyle and better nutrition choices into their daily habits. Over the past 15 years, I have also advised, coached, and designed training programmes for athletes of all levels, from the armchair through to elite international racers. I am driven to help people learn and understand the underlying principles of health science. In doing so, it is my passion to relay accurate, evidence-based scientific knowledge to the real world, and to use my expertise to help people optimise their health through physical activity or to maximise their performance with up-to-date endurance and strength training methods. I have studied the philosophies of some of "the greats" from the running world, including Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Mihaly Igloi, Harry Wilson, Renato Canova, Steve Magness, and Peter Coe, consulted strength coaches on power development, and consulted bouldering coaches on grip training strategies. I have developed my expertise from a wide range of experiences as a scientific researcher, lecturer, coach, adviser, and athlete. I personally test everything I prescribe so I can understand people's feelings, effort levels, and recovery expectations from their sessions. With my passion for learning, I have widely studied the principles of training approaches and nutrition-exercise interactions and have always sought to understand the why in such methods. This has helped me achieve several fitness qualifications: I'm an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist, an ACSM-certified Personal Trainer, a Jack Daniels certified VDOT O2 Distance Running Coach, and a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) with the Association for Nutrition. I have also pledged to the Clean Sport Collective and am "I run clean" certified by European Athletics.
With my PhD, I'm trained in the critical evaluation of scientific findings and evidence synthesis, am connected with experts, and regularly review emerging research. To maintain and enhance my skill set, I actively pursue continuing education through conferences and scientific meetings, weekly journal clubs, consuming podcasts, journal articles, and books, and taking courses. Every day is a school day.
My coached athletes have had many successes including:









In 2018, I was named “Coach of the year” by the OCR Audio podcast. In 2019, four of my athletes were selected to be a part of the first-ever Spartan UK Pro Team. In 2020, one of my athletes was selected to represent the UK as an elite athlete at the inaugural FISO World OCR Championships.
Over the past 25 years, I have maintained a high level of athletic performance beginning as a rogue youngster with soccer, basketball, middle-distance track racing, and cross country running, coached in Kingston-upon-Thames by Stan Belton and Dave Lucas until 1998. As a youngster, I represented county and regional teams and by age 17 had run 52.12 for 400m and 1:56.98 for 800m. I became a little bored with running and ventured into road and track cycling, coached by Luke Moseley and advised by Jack Hill and Alan Milway until 2003, riding as a domestique for Jack en route to his British University Road Race champs win. That was when my interest in coaching was sparked, and thereafter I started observing, reading, and knowledge sponging so I could self-coach and begin to advise others. To combine cycling with running, I moved into duathlon racing, finding success with a 10th place finish at the 2003 World Championships. But I fully returned to running when I moved to the USA in 2007, running sub-16 for 5 km and sub-33 for 10 km aged 27, later achieving a marathon racing best in 2015 of 2:37:14 at the London Marathon aged 35, all self-coached.
However, something was missing. It turned out that my love for the ruggedness of the outdoors was being neglected and this led me to seek out trails and off-piste scenery. Hence the development of my passion (read: borderline obsession) for trail running, mountain climbing, bouldering, gravel biking, cross-country skiing, and obstacle course racing (OCR). From 2016 to 2018, I dedicated my athletic pursuits to OCR and finished 9th in the UK OCR League in 2016 and had several top 5 and podium finishes in elite wave races. I finished the 2018 Spartan Race season ranked 42nd elite male in the world, 5th elite male in the UK National Series, and was very proud to race under the UK flag at the Spartan Race European Championships in Morzine and the Spartan Race World Championships in Tahoe. In 2019, aged 39, I retired from dedicated racing but continue to train for fun and continue to enter events to recce new developments in the trail / mountain / OCR world to provide current information for helping educate athletes. In doing so, I've maintained decent fitness as a Masters athlete, entering several mountain running events each year.
I have always supported my own training as well as my coaching/advising with a focus on mobility and strength. I am an advocate for the mastery of body movement and spatial awareness and engage in activities like bouldering and callisthenics since the skills one develops from such activities (mobility, balance, and proprioception) are transferable to mountain/trail and obstacle success. They also engage my most important mantra for leaving the house to train:
If it isn't fun, make a change.
What did I do over the last 12 months to keep learning how to be a better performance consultant?














— A life on our planet. By David Attenborough.
— The Future We Choose. By Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac.
— The Skill Code. By Matt Beane.
— The Secret Cyclist. By The Secret Cyclist.
— Visualize This. By Nathan Yau.
— The History of Bees. By Maja Lunde.
— The Anxious Generation. By Jonathan Haidt.
— Bayesian statistics the fun way. By Will Kurt.
— The coach's guide to teaching. By Doug Lemov.
— The Future We Choose. By Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac.
— The Skill Code. By Matt Beane.
— The Secret Cyclist. By The Secret Cyclist.
— Visualize This. By Nathan Yau.
— The History of Bees. By Maja Lunde.
— The Anxious Generation. By Jonathan Haidt.
— Bayesian statistics the fun way. By Will Kurt.
— The coach's guide to teaching. By Doug Lemov.

— Mind Set Win. From RedBull.
— Fueling Endurnce. From Steph Gaskell and Alan McCubbin.
— BJSM. From the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
— Inside exercise. From Glenn McConnell.
— The Drive. From Peter Attia.
— Finding Mastery. From Michael Gervais.
— Nordic Nation. From FasterSkier.com.
— The Psychology podcast. From Scott Barry Kaufman.
— Matt Stephens Unplugged. From Sigma Sports
— Just Ride. From Rob Warner and Eliot Jackson.
— Iron Culture. From Eric Helms, Eric Trexler, & Omar Isuf.
— The Real Science of Sport podcast. From Ross Tucker & Mike Finch.
— The Stronger by Science podcast. From Greg Nuckols.
— Koopcast. From Jason Koop.
— Science of running. From Steve Magness & Jon Marcus.
— TED talks Daily. From TED.
— Bobby and Jens. From Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt.
— The Move. From Lance Armstrong.
— Watts Occurring. From Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe.
— Tetragrammaton. From Rick Rubin.
— DataFramed. From DataCamp.
— Fueling Endurnce. From Steph Gaskell and Alan McCubbin.
— BJSM. From the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
— Inside exercise. From Glenn McConnell.
— The Drive. From Peter Attia.
— Finding Mastery. From Michael Gervais.
— Nordic Nation. From FasterSkier.com.
— The Psychology podcast. From Scott Barry Kaufman.
— Matt Stephens Unplugged. From Sigma Sports
— Just Ride. From Rob Warner and Eliot Jackson.
— Iron Culture. From Eric Helms, Eric Trexler, & Omar Isuf.
— The Real Science of Sport podcast. From Ross Tucker & Mike Finch.
— The Stronger by Science podcast. From Greg Nuckols.
— Koopcast. From Jason Koop.
— Science of running. From Steve Magness & Jon Marcus.
— TED talks Daily. From TED.
— Bobby and Jens. From Bobby Julich and Jens Voigt.
— The Move. From Lance Armstrong.
— Watts Occurring. From Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe.
— Tetragrammaton. From Rick Rubin.
— DataFramed. From DataCamp.