Training advice for older runners from a 72-year-old venture capitalist who started at 54

• Greg Ho, 72, is the president of a New York venture capital firm and an avid marathon runner.
• He sleeps 4.5 hours a night to fit his workouts into his schedule.
• Here’s how he plans to train to run 100 marathons by age 100.

The president of a New York investment firm struggled fit exercise into your busy daily routine until he was 50 years old. Now 72, Greg Ho has run 43 marathons and plans to run 100 before he turns 100.

After experiencing numerous ankle and leg problems as a young man from judo and skiing, Ho fitness it was not the same as it used to be when he turned 54 years old. He had very little time to devote to exercise due to what he described to Business Insider as his “high-stress job” as president of Spring Mountain Capital.

But Ho said his wife told him he needed to be healthier and signed him up for cross training programas a boot camp, in 2008.

Around the same time, the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York-based charity dedicated to fighting poverty, asked Ho to run a marathon to raise money for them. He said he had already achieved a decent level of fitness – he could comfortably run four to five miles at a pace 10 minute mile step.

His orthopedist had previously advised him to stop running because he had a torn medial meniscus in his knee, osteoarthritis and ankle problems due to multiple fractures. But his doctors said he could probably run one marathon, so he agreed, knowing that through his work and connections he could raise a lot of money for Robin Hood. He was right: He raised more than $20,000 in his first marathon “without really trying.”

marathon training program When Ho got down to business, he said, “it was terrible and painful.” “It wasn’t fun. But gradually, as I raised more money and people became more interested, it kept me going because now I had an obligation to show up at the race.”

So, at the age of 56, Ho spent his first marathon.

“I literally cried with relief when I crossed the finish line because of the pain,” he said. “But after about a minute I said, ‘I can do this better. I’m going to do it again,” because that’s my nature. So I did.”

The following year he ran two more marathons and continued fundraising with friends and colleagues.

Ho was also interested in how far he could push his body—despite doctors’ warnings of possible injury, his cholesterol levels and blood pressure improved after running, and his joints were fine thanks to a healthy anti-inflammatory diet and habituation to exercise.

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“I found that the difference between my perceived health and what I could achieve with some effort was astounding,” he said.

Fifteen years later, Ho has completed 43 marathons and plans to run 66 more before 100th birthday. His personal best is five hours and 15 minutes.

“The game plan is to do three a year from next year until I’m 80, then two a year from 81 to 90, and then one a year from 91 to 100,” he said.

Ho structures his day to fit in 8 hours of training per week.

Over the past few years, Ho has run two marathons in the spring and two in the fall. He follows the same 18-week training program leading up to races each season, which requires about eight hours of running per week. This includes different types of running such as interval training, slow runs, long runs and fartleks, where the runner alternates between slow and fast paces.

His schedule is very busy, so he has to exercise where he can.

“I get up at 4:30 am every day and usually go to bed around 11 pm. I spend four hours of the evening doing recreational activities—dining with my wife or with friends, or doing the performing arts—and the rest of the time I’m working,” he said.

Sometimes he goes to the gym or goes for a run in the morning before heading to the office at 6:30 a.m. or after finishing a project that needs to be done before lunch.

He also likes high intensity interval training because when he is busy, since “you haven’t been doing this for a long time.”

Running helps Ho maintain his lifestyle

“Physically and mentally, running allows me to work even when I don’t get much sleep,” he said. “It gives me the energy to do what I want and keeps me engaged.”

Ho listens to audiobooks while running to maintain her voracious reading habit and optimize her time.

Running also connected him with like-minded people because runners tend to be “healthy people looking for a purpose,” he said.

It also helped him understand the importance of healthy aging in communities of color. Spring Mountain, a Ho firm, supports West Harlem Innovation Networkwhich develops new businesses and entrepreneurial talent in underserved areas of New York City.

He tries to maintain other habits for longevity – besides sleep.

Ho only gets 4.5 hours of sleep every nightwhich research shows is not healthy. One 2022 study published by PLoS Medicine found that for adults over 50, sleeping less than five hours a night can increase the risk of developing chronic diseases by 20%.

Ho said he is “desperate to get five hours of sleep a night” but at the same time trying to practice other habits that promote longevity, such as eating right and reducing stress.

He said he follows the “basics” of healthy eating: abstaining from junk food and processed foods and managing calorie intake.

Although he tries to minimize stress, this can be difficult in a stressful financial job. The environment, he added, is full of “high-performing teams and lofty goals, so we’re always under stress.”