Hi,

I am a real newbie when it comes to exercising. I am 22 years old, 187lbs and 5'8. I scored pretty high on the local written police exam, and I just found out that the physical exam is going to be in about a month. I am incredibly out of shape, and I quit smoking 6 months ago. I got myself some running shoes and I started walking/jogging in the park. I was doing it every day for around 12-15 minutes.

Then I read on the internet that you should only run every other day or so, which I did once and then my knees started killing me, so I haven't ran in about a week or so.

So basically I have a month or less to go from being incredibly out of shape to running 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. I know it doesn't seem that tough, but it seems impossible for me where I am right now.

Do you guys have any tips for my situation and why my knees are killing me so much? Do you think I can reach this goal with a lot of hard work or am I just wasting my time?

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!