First of all, congrats to

First of all, congrats to my internet running friend Cassie, who ran her first marathon in San Diego on Sunday. Hooray! Though with her IT band problems, she may be joining me in the MRI room. 🙁
I went climbing last night for the first time in a while, and after two hours my knee was throbbing a bit and painful to the touch. Here’s an experiment you can do at home to understand exactly what is hurting: Stand up. Lift your left leg off the ground. Now squat as low as you can on your right leg (starting to look very Karate Kid-ish), and then push yourself back up to a standing position using just your right leg. It’s that type of motion — using my leg to push myself up, a perfect example of which is going up stairs — that hurts my knee. Well, that motion and the impact of running.
I guess I should have the MRI and see what needs to be done, eh? I just don’t want to have surgery. Surgery = bad. I mean, I can still walk! And run! And play soccer and bike and rock climb! How can my knee be damaged badly enough that I might need surgery? I’ve very much enjoyed my 27 years with no cutting into any joints or organs, thank you very much.
Sigh. Well. Hopefully I won’t need it.
Climbing was fun though. I haven’t been regularly enough for long enough now that I have basically reverted to where I was a year and a half ago. In other words, I have no skills. I have no muscle endurance. I have no strength. So I gotta build all that up again.