odd knee pain

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Search "plica" and "cartilage" and see if those symptoms match up better. The fact that it is shooting and comes and goes quickly made me think of this issue.

Also, the fact it hurts most when your knee is flexed makes sense because that is when the greatest strain is put on your patella. I have some sort of weird knee pain (posted the other day) and when I get to 30 degrees or more it's a pain like no other.

Does your knee swell up at all?

I had this all last winter running on the treadmill. I think the quads get tight and pulls on the knee creating the pain. As soon as I got outside and off the treadmill, the pain went away.

Try raising the incline and slowing the pace and see if that helps. This winter I was running at a very steep incline and had no knee soreness. The only problem is that different muscles are getting used and my legs were really sore when I ran on the flats.

Another option may be to alternate between incline and flat so the same muscles aren't getting overworked.

It might be patellar femoral syndrome; which means your knee cap and femur (upper leg bone) are getting way too close and grinding past each other. One thing that holds all the parts in place the way they're supposed to be is having balanced strength in your legs. Oftentimes our outer quadricep is much stronger than the inner quad, leading to problems. Running on the treadmill may be affecting your stride which is causing the muscle imbalance.

Maybe play some b-ball or some cross training activity where you run quite a bit instead of hitting the treadmill as much, or invest in some yaxtrax(sp?) for your shoes so you can run in the snow without slipping

I agree that it sounds like Patellar femoral pain syndrome. I had that this summer. You should take some ibuprofen and do relative rest for a few weeks. I had it this summer, basically took a week off, then started running 3 miles a day for a week, then 4 miles for a week, then 7, then back to normal. Just be sure to stop running if you "tweak" it.

B-ball is a terrible idea. So is IB profen long-term (inhibits healing). It sounds like it could be a cartilage issue (though I hope not for your sake). You should see an orthopedic surgeon, and they can do whatever imaging is necessary to diagnose the problem.