Who is Thomas Solomon?

veohtu noun.

Pronunciation: vee-oh-two.

1. The volume of oxygen consumed per minute (VO₂).
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 use up-to-date scientific evidence combined with years of empirical observation to provide educational content designed to help people achieve their fitness goals. My expertise has been honed following 10+ years advising and coaching in athletic performance and lifestyle change, and 15+ years of academic research at world-leading universities and hospitals. I also have 20+ years of experience in competing at a high level in running, cycling, and obstacle course racing. I have a PhD in Exercise Science and have published more than 80 peer-reviewed publications in medical journals. I am also an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-EP), an ACSM-certified Personal Trainer (ACSM-CPT), a VDOT-certified Distance Running Coach, and a UKVRN Registered Nutritionist. With my personal experience of middle-distance track racing (800m to 10,000m), road racing (5 k to marathon), trail running, mountain running, road cycling, and obstacle course racing (OCR), I deeply understand what it's like to train and compete — I've been there, done it, and gotten sweat, mud, and tears on my t-shirt.

Although I no longer train to be the best I can be, I do still train for fun and continue to recce races, new workouts, and coaching approaches — I've never prescribed anything to athletes that I've also not personally endured. Click here to check out my training habits further down this page.

For details about my qualifications, background, and experience, click the drop-down boxes below.

BSc (Hons) Biochemistry.

PhD Exercise Science.

ACSM-Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM-CPT).

ACSM-Certified Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-EP).

VdotO2-Certified Distance running coach.

Association for Nutrition Registered Nutritionist (RNutr).

European Athletics "I Run Clean" certification.

IBM Professional Certificate in Data Science.

Important I have a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Exercise Science but do not provide medical treatment or medical counselling. I'm also a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr), but do not practice medical nutrition therapy, and I'm an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist (ACSM-EP) and ACSM-certified Personal Trainer (ACSM-CPT) with a VDOT Distance Running Coaching Certification, but do not provide physical therapy. I always operate within my remit, and will advise in finding the correct practitioner outside of my remit. The information I provide is not medical advice. Before making any changes to your habits of daily living based on any information I provide, always ensure it is safe for you to do so and consult your doctor if you are unsure.

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:

Multiple sub 3-hour male marathons and sub 3:30 female marathons;

Multiple PBs at distances from 800m through to marathon;

Several top 5 UK-ranking in Masters 800m and 1500m racing;

Several wins and podiums at trail races;

Multiple wins and podiums at UK OCR League races, Spartan Race National Series races, and Hyrox Races;

Several athletes finishing in the top-5 of the Spartan Race UK & Ireland series rankings;

Multiple athletes gaining national team selection for international championship events in middle-distance track racing and OCR;

An age-group Bronze medal at the Adventurey OCR World Champs;

A Bronze medal at the British Masters Indoor Track Championships.

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?

I completed all types of workouts to remember and understand what they feel like.

I ran 2 races to remember what athletes feel on race day and the logistics they need to overcome.

I completed 3 'long-days-out' of running, hiking, & climbing to remember what it feels like and what logistics are needed.

I tested several different shoe models from Inov8 and New Balance.

I attended 5 seminars hosted by the American College of Sports Medicine.

I completed 48-hours of data science courses on DataCamp.

I wrote 9 running science nerd alerts.

I had 45 × 1-hour science discussion video meetings with Dr Matt Laye.

I wrote 3 free deep-dive articles to sharpen my cutting edge knowledge on training, nutrition, recovery, etc...

I updated my sports supplements tool, my recovery tool, and train smart framework.

I wrote 15 articles for Examine.com to sharpen my knowledge on general health and nutrition topics.

I published 2 journal articles.

I read 100s of journal articles.

I read the following books:

— 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.

And, I regularly listened to the following podcasts:

— 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.

Hello, I'm Thomas Solomon, the founder and sole owner of Veohtu.

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 provide information you can trust!

Integrity is at the core of my values.

Move. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

My goal is to have fun with running, hiking, riding, skiing, climbing, and lifting.