Trying not to lose my shirt with AK

[HajiShirazu]

I check this flop. This type of flop will always have hit your opponents, you'll never take it down with a bet, not even the 2-3% of the time that would make betting correct, and your outs are dirty w/ no real backdoor chances. Whether to call a bet on the flop depends on the action although check folding wouldn't be the worst thing.
The second hand I would be a little more inclined to bet but not that much, I check that one a decent amount as well. What do you do against a turn raise? It's pretty easy for a decent opponent to put you on the big ace, so I think a bluff raise is a worry here. I'm not saying betting is wrong, you probably do have the best hand.

[me454555]

I'd check it for same reasons I'd check the first. Against 3 opponents I don't expect to have the best hand often enough to make a bet here profitable. I don't want to get raised here.

[The Goober]

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I'd check it for same reasons I'd check the first. Against 3 opponents I don't expect to have the best hand often enough to make a bet here profitable. I don't want to get raised here.

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This is something I've been struggling with quite a bit in my game.

I understand all the argument for checking the flop sometimes when my AK misses, but there are two problems with this that I have a hard time with. The first is that I feel like if I raise PF (especially from a blind) and then check the flop, thinking players can easily put me on exactly what I have. This means that I could potentially get bluffed/semi-bluffed off of the best hand (most likely on the turn) by an agressive player (or else have to call down a lot with A high). Likewise, I won't get any action if I spike my A or K on the turn (unless I'm beaten).

The other problem is that I feel like I have to balance my strategy for those times when I raise PF with a big pocket pair - since I'm virtually always going to be betting out the flop in these cases.

How do I reconcile these issues?