No Pain, No Gain

By "gain", of course I mean "lose" but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? In my attempts to lose some poundage, I got a membership to the rec center nearby. I start with 20 min or so of cardio on the treadmill then try to keep up my heart rate by hitting the machines in a circuit. So the second day I'm working out, I get on the last available treadmill which happens to be next to this jock-looking guy. I get my pace going and notice that it is the same speed as Mr. Jock (so he's obviously not that much of a jock if he's running at the same speed as my out-of-shape self). So what am I to do but step it up a couple of notches?? I get going and into a groove so I stay at that pace for a few minutes when I see my treadmill neighbor casually glance over at my settings like he's cheating off my paper in grade school or something..so what is HE to do when he sees that he's being outrun by Ms. Mommy Frump, but step up HIS game, which he does...for a couple minutes and then he wimps out on me. All the time, I'm staying at my same speed, a feat I'm pretty proud of since it was only my second workout in a long while. Pretty soon, Jock Jack does his cool down for a couple of minutes. But I'm still trucking faithful at 5.0. Once he leaves, I get back in touch with reality (not to mention the fact that I can't breathe and probably about to kill over with a heart attack or something) and slow down to a fast walk. But I was able to stay at that speed for 9 whole minutes! And I wiped the floor with my next-door pal! Or so thought till I woke up the next morning...It's been a week now and my knee joints STILL hurt really bad. Man, I'm old..