Today was my fourth try at the 45 minute jogging program on the treadmill.

Endurance-wise, I could make it. 6 kmph is my baseline walking speed, which I could do for hours, but the jogging kills me. The longest stretch I could do was two minutes at 7 km/h, then five at 9 km/h, and another two at 7 km/h. I'm not sure whether I should be walking or jogging the 7. It seems to slow to jog, but too fast to walk, so I usually end up manually boosting the speed to 10 km for three minutes until I feel pain in my knee, then setting it back to 6.

I've been very active since Christmas time, and even before then, I did an aerobics class three times a week. I'm very flexible, but I've always had trouble with squats and lunges, and I can't sleep with my leg straight at night unless I spend a few minutes stretching it. I thought that if I just increased my activity, my knees would get used to the movements, and wouldn't bother me so much.

What's the problem with my knees? Do I need to strengthen them, or will they always bother me? Will I ever be able to jog?

What sort of knee pain are you experiencing, Guava? More details, please.

It's not a sharp stabbing pain, just a feeling like I've been running too long. A dull ache, I suppose. I can push through it, but it's not comfortable. My knee bothers me on the bike as well.

When I crouch down to do squats, my knee cracks, so I rarely do squats. I've been doing wall slides instead with my stability ball.

Hmmm... Still a little vague. I suffer from patello-femoral syndrome myself, which is caused by poor kneecap tracking and manifests itself with an audible creaking and pain behind the kneecap. I found a lot of helpful literature about problem knees online, especially on running sites. Check out some of these:

MedinceNet (http://www.medicinenet.com/Knee_Pain/article.htm)
Cool Running (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_5/194.shtml)
Runner's World (http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300,1-78,FF.html)
Orthoteers (http://www.orthoteers.co.uk/Nrujp~ij33lm/Orthsyllabus.htm) - on this page, scroll down to the knee section

:gl: