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

The president of a New York investment firm struggled to incorporate exercise into your busy routine up to fifty. Now 72, Greg Ho has run 43 marathons and plans to do 100 before he turns 100.

After developing numerous ankle and leg problems due to judo and skiing as a young man, Ho’s aptitude was no longer what he was when he was 54. He had very little time to devote to exercising due to what he described to Business Insider as his “very stressful job” as president of Spring Mountain Capital.

But Ho said his wife told him he needed to get healthier and enrolled him in a cross training programas a training camp, in 2008.

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

His orthopedist had previously told him to stop running because he was suffering from a torn mediolateral meniscus in his knee, osteoarthritis and ankle problems due to multiple fractures. But his doctors said he would probably be able to run a marathon, so he agreed, knowing he could raise a lot of money for Robin Hood through his work and connections. He was right: for his first marathon, he raised more than $20,000 “without much effort.”

THE marathon training program Ho went into it “it was miserable and it hurt,” he said. “It wasn’t fun. But as I raised more money and people became more interested, it kept me going because I now had an obligation to run for office. race.”

Thus, at age 56, Ho headed his first marathon.

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

He ended up running two more marathons the following year and continued to fundraise alongside his friends and colleagues.

Ho was also interested in how far he could push his body: despite his doctors’ warnings about potential injuries, his cholesterol levels and blood pressure had improved through running, and his joints were fine, thanks to a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet and get used to training.

“I found the difference between my perceived health and what I could accomplish with some effort to be staggering,” he said.

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

“The game plan is to organize three per year from next year until I turn 80, then two per year from 81 to 90, then one per year from 91 to 100,” a- he declared.

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

Ho has completed two marathons in the spring and two in the fall in recent years. He follows the same 18-week training program before each season’s races, which requires about eight hours of racing per week. This includes different types of running, such as interval training, slower, longer runs, and fartleks, where a runner alternates between slow and fast paces.

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

“I get up every day at 4:30 a.m. and usually go to bed around 11 p.m. I spend four hours in the evening on leisure activities – dinner with my wife or with friends, or in the performing arts – and the rest of the time I work,” he said.

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

He also likes high intensity interval training because when he’s busy, since “you haven’t done it for a long time.”

Running helps Ho maintain his lifestyle

“Physically and mentally, running allows me to perform well with little sleep,” he said. “It gives me the energy to do what I want to do and keeps me engaged.”

Ho listens to audiobooks while shopping to maintain her “voracious” reading habit and maximize her time.

Running also brought him into contact 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, Ho’s company, supports the West Harlem Innovation Networkwhich develops new businesses and entrepreneurial talent in underserved New York City.

He tries to maintain other habits to survive – apart from sleep

Ho is only 4.5 hours of sleep each nightwhich, according to research, is not beneficial for health. A 2022 study published by PLoS Medicine found that for adults over the age of 50, sleeping less than five hours a night can increase their risk of developing a chronic disease by 20%.

Ho said he was “desperately trying to work up to five hours a night” but at the same time was trying to practice other longevity-promoting habits, like eating well and reducing stress.

He said he follows the “basics” of healthy eating: avoiding junk food and processed foods and manage your caloric intake.

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