Just found this and maybe I can help a bit . I ' ve just came back from doing the trek myself 2 weeks ago . I would say I ' m above average shape when it comes to cardio long distance runner , 60 km a week , resting heart rate under 50 . It helped me a bit , but to be honest I was still really struggling walking up some mountains there Kala Pattar , Gokyo Ri , Cho la Pass . Running in a flat environment doesn ' t help that much when you have to constantly climb up and down on that trek . You will still be out of breath . The one upside was that I recovered really quickly once I was up on those damn hilsmountains . You have to be able to walk up to 89 hours , so I wouldn ' t put too much thought into running and more into actual hiking on the weekends . You don ' t have to be fast , but that time frame should be the goal . Are you doing it with a group or with your wife and a guideporter solo ? How many days from Lukla to Base Camp ? I did it in a group . There were all kinds of people from all age groups up to 65 years olds . There was noone severly overweight , but we were not all skinny athletes either . From what I ' ve seen around on the trek , lots of people do it , that look like they don ' t really belong there . It ' s seriously not that hard or impossible . You can ' t really prepare for the elevation either . Getting altitude sickness does not really have to do with your fitness level . It can hit anyone . If you lose some weight and do long hikes on the weekend you will be able to do it easily and you will enjoy it more , but don ' t force yourself into two miserable years just to prepare for it . Thats not necessary . Keep it reasonably .