Aging and Feeling Good While Running

A thread on Letsrun.com on which I was participating got me interested in starting this blog (I am TDF in the message board posts). For a few years now I have considered writing an article for my local running club's newsletter highlighting the A-Z of therapies and strategies that enable me to keep running and to help out with the many imbalance problems, pains, and struggles that I have as a runner. Many strategies worked for a while or worked while I can afford them or at least brought me closer to that running feeling that I had lost. The problem was nothing brought me to a point where I could feel in control of my imbalances and as a result each day, workout, or race was a new effort at trying to run pain free and bio mechanically smooth.
It looked like another winter of losing all the gains I had made in the summer and fall as my activity levels dwindled and my body reverted to worsening level of running form. In January, I began trying a new type of therapy called Z-Health. I learned about it as I read about Kettlebells online (something else I started doing this Fall). I have worked on the bones (chiropractic), the muscles (massage), and even the connective tissue and fascia (rolfing), but Z-Health works on joint mobility and the nervous system. As soon as the DVDs arrived I popped it in the player and did the routine. It was easy and different, but remarkably, I noticed an instant improvement. Now not yet a month later, I continue to do the exercises and I have a control that I never had before. Running is definitely easier and my form is making drastic improvements. Most important my body feels loose and free throughout the day and the old patterns of pain and imbalanced posture are becoming a thing of the past. I enjoy running because I don't have to think as much about what my bones and muscles are doing. Z-Health looks like a real keeper. I will blog more on my experiences with Z-Health and all the other stuff that keeps me running.
This weeks running has all been on the treadmill as weather and time have kept me indoors. I have missed a few days but the last three runs were 10 miles, 10 miles, and my longest treadmill run in years 13 miles. Last year at this time, I was in better shape but running just a few miles on the treadmill seemed impossible as I couldn't hold a form that made running remotely pleasurable.