Do your knees/legs feel beat up as you get older?

No, why?

If you eat right and don't overdo the running your legs and knees will do fine.

But you've got to get off that junk food train Greg!

If you are only running 20 mpw, that's your problem, not your knees, your lack of endurance. And maybe the cold weather doesn't help.

Biking is not the answer young man.

I'm 51 and do more walking then running these days,but always kept my weight good which helps. Recently got meniscus tear from doing work around the house of all things. Everything hurts right now. Lol

Do you have any soft running surfaces available in Edmonton? At least when the ground isn't frozen solid? That can help if you've mostly been running/walking on hard surfaces.

Greg wrote:

... my knees feel like they've taken a beating from running/walking.

If your knees hurt after you run, then you have an injury or a biomechanical problem (which is just an injury waiting to happen).

You need to find the cause and fix it.

My first suggestion would be to make a radical change in shoes. There's a reason that the #1 brand in the Over 50 runners group on Facebook is Hoka. Hoka's change how the foot impacts the ground. Will that fix your knee problem? I don't know, but the way to find out is to try a middle of the road model, like the Bondi or even the Clifton, and find out.

If they work, you're welcome. If they don't work, keep looking. Maybe you have a pronation problem that stresses the knee. Try Superfeet inserts.

Your situation isn't unique. Just keep searching for a solution until you find it.

shoes are major, as others have said.

Another thing that helps me, and i find it a bit counter-intuitive, is to do a bit of strength training.

Short sessions in the 25 minute range, for legs, seem to help me avoid feeling very beat-up. I think it has to do with getting blood into the muscles and stretching everything. Probably doing it later in the day, after the run, would be preferred.

If you don't have access to some weights or a gym, body weight stuff would be just as good, i would imagine.

This seems to help legs in general as opposed to knees in particular.

And stretching, moving around, maybe a little foam roller and/or rolling stick might help as well.

not a "normal" part of aging. One thing which can hurt your knees is if you kneel directly on them and apply bodyweight like if you are doing yardwork. If you take care of yourself there is no reason why you can't run a lot of mileage up until your 60 or later. I do between 40 and 50 miles/week and there are many others on this website running more year in and year out without injuries or pain. "Wearing out your knees" is pure fiction and what people say when they are rationalizing being inactive. So long as you don't have significant soft tissue damage and your kneecap tracks as it is supposed to they should be good for 80,000 - 100,000 miles

Greg wrote:

I'm only 36 but my knees feel like they've taken a beating from running/walking.

I think some non impact cardio is the way to go. Another poster on the board mentions doing the bike twice a week.

Unfortunately I don't have a stationary bike right now and you can't use them at the gyms right now due to covid.

Most days I run 4 miles and do the same amount of walking. It's not really that much physical activity compared to what some people do, but damn, the impact on your legs is undeniable!

No. No issues with my knees. But I'm only 74.

I run trails unless there is enough snow to cross country ski, then I might run roads once or twice per week. My knees and shins feel fine. I’m a fair bit older than you

Greg, I never had issues with my knees. If I sensed a bit of tightness near it or the beginning of something it was always because of tight hips or calves. Keep your hips and ankles mobile and muscles balanced.

Knees are fine, legs take longer to recover between hard runs after 40 years of running. Keep it off the 'crete was the best advice I was given as a young runner.

When I started having knee problems around age 47, I began wearing ChoPat knee straps. I had to wear them if I was running longer than 3 miles, otherwise, my knees would swell up. At age 55, I realized that my form was different when racing versus training. In racing, I'd be a forefoot striker, but after a while, I'd have to revert to my normal and severe heel strike landing.

I decided to make a radical change from heel to forefoot. This was in 2001 before barefoot running or frankly any real consideration of form as an issue for runners to address. As a result, it took me 6 months to transition. After a couple of years, I realized that I no longer needed the knee braces. A change in form had eliminated my knee issues and had also made me a lot faster at my chosen race distances... first the 5k, then the 800m, and now the 400m. I'm 73 and no knee issues. However, I no longer run marathons although I'll do the occasional 10-12 miler with friends.

So a change in running form might help. You should also look into whether you are pronating. Overpronation collapses the arch and rolls the ankle in, which torques the shin and moves the kneecap out of its optimal track. Eliminate the pronation with homemade inserts (as I've described here at least a dozen times) and you might eliminate the knee issues.

Search LetsRun for arch crafts felt inserts fisky and you should probably find one of these old posts. Oh, and fisky is my dog's name, who left for the rainbow bridge about the time I converted from heel to forefoot. I still miss that dog.

I'm 37 and have had issues with my knees. Its due to muscle imbalances somewhere. For me, its weak hips. If you can, I recommend going to a PT and getting a functional evaluation. You will then know what you need to strengthen. I also find my knees hurt more when I'm not running much. Another poster said something about not having enough endurance. I believe that. Fatigued legs lead to poor form, which leads to injury.

I do recommend using a bike instead of easy days though, no need to be beating up your knees for no reason. I also find that cycling strengthens my quads and glutes. Its making a big difference for me. I'm mostly pain free these days.

Greg wrote:

I'm only 36 but my knees feel like they've taken a beating from running/walking.

I think some non impact cardio is the way to go. Another poster on the board mentions doing the bike twice a week.

Unfortunately I don't have a stationary bike right now and you can't use them at the gyms right now due to covid.

Most days I run 4 miles and do the same amount of walking. It's not really that much physical activity compared to what some people do, but damn, the impact on your legs is undeniable!

I do 2 days a week biking instead of running. But my knees are fine anyway. Heel striking can cause knee pains. My pain is in muscles and tendons which goes away with some recovery.

Find grass or dirt or gravel to ease the impact, but check out possible heal striking. Landing flat footed below your body is more gentle

I had problems in my late teens / early 20s with my knees. Strengthening my quads fixed it.

Try lengthening some of those runs, having a day or two off and doing them at different speeds and on varied surfaces.

I'm 54 and my knees give me pain if I push too hard too fast (or if I run downhill, the rim to rim to rim left me nearly crippled for a couple of months). I would try barbell training, specifically squats. Made all the difference for me.

To deny the effects of aging is to deny reality. Sure you can try to mitigate the aches and pains, but as you age your body breaks down.

There's a reason doctors offices are full of old people and it's not just that all those people were lazy and inactive. They are OLD. Your body breaks down.

You have this injury, that leads to that ache due to overcompensation, then another part hurts because of whatever... it is inevitable.

We are each an experiment of one when it comes to aging. It's why you can read about some Masters runners that excel and run great times and they mostly just do very long slow distance running with very little as far as "workouts" go beyond some tempo stuff. Other Masters runners swear by cutting mileage but keeping their range of motion and speed up "use it or lose it!"

All you can do is find what works for you.

That's BS.

Greg is just in his thirteens. His body is only breaking down because he sits in his white cube the whole day and munches junk food.

Aging is a real thing but it should not be used as an excuse to just sit at home.