re: For those that run on a consistent basis, do your knees ache?

My knees didn't ache, but my feet did. Turns out I had a bone structure issue in my foot. Now I just walk for exercise instead of run, and no more problems.

A brisk walk gives you ~70% of the benefit with much less damage IMO.

I run 40-50 miles a week during my peak training. When I started running a few years ago, I got shin splints a few times and had occasional knee and ankle pain.

Overtime, I improved my form and stopped wearing shoes with a bunch of unnecessary support in them. I also became much stronger and learned to pace myself correctly for most of my runs and increase my mileage slowly during he first phase of my training each season.

At age 40, I run 30-50 miles a week through most of the year and only experience the usual muscle soreness. I wear a light shoe with only a 6mm heel-toe drop and exercise my stabilizing muscles (feet, hips, glutes, abs) regularly with a tilt board, wobble board, and Swiss ball in addition to general weight training. I also use a foam roll as needed.

I suggest that you pay attention to your form. Overstriding and/or heel striking can cause a lot of joint problems and shin splints. Wearing minimalist shoes can actually help to resolve the form issues. The shoe companies have been selling the "more is better" perception for a long time in order to rationalize the increase in shoe prices, but what the experts are finding is that less is better in this case.

It is generally advisable to increase your weekly mileage by no more than 10% during your base training and to reduce your mileage to about 60% or so every 4th week to give your body a chance to recover and adjust to the increased loads.

I'm 71 - been at it since 1975 - one knee scope in 1997 (frayed meniscus) - no other problems - ran a few marathons, but - around 64 I said screw that - do my 7 to 8 a day at around 8:50 clip - never really had any knee pain accept for the Houston Marathon in the early 90's - all concrete - sore for a week or so after. Good friend of mine has done a marathon in each state and is presently training for his 58th - guy is a machine.