Today's Workout and Subsequent Sore Bionic Knee . . .

were brought to you by the wicked stairs at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. I hit these stairs every couple of weeks just to do something different and give my lower body some love. I've surfed a lot of late and knew I'd have to take a day off today. My shoulders went on strike, daring me to cross the imaginary picket line, waiting to pelt me with rotten tomatoes while hurling four-letter epithets (SCAB!!!) in my direction. In other words, there would be no surfing today. So, I opted to do the stairs. I hadn't tackled them in a few weeks as I find them a bit boring. It takes forever to climb to the top. Going down is treacherous, therefore most of us take the hiking trails that serpentine down the hill. I think it takes me about an hour to go up and come back down three times. Running in the sand is much more enjoyable, but I don't want to make a habit of it too often until I'm certain my knee can handle it. My key to doing them non-stop? Don't look up. Just put one foot in front of the other, regulate your breathing, ignore the burning in your quads and make sure your iPod is up loud enough to drown out your tortured breathing as you get closer to the top.

Of course, now my knee, quads and glutes are killing me. What's most important is that my shoulders feel just fine. I'll be back on a board tomorrow.