New Year's Run (and Rum)

Holiday Rum Balls

These rum balls are a favorite during the holidays and new year.  I love them because they're easy to make and require no baking.  People always think they're loaded with booze, but there's only a half cup of rum for about 50 balls.  So you'd have to eat about 12 of them to get just one shot. 

1 box of vanilla wafers
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 cup dark rum (I use Myer's)
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
powdered sugar

Crush/chop the vanilla wafers into a fine crumbs.  Combine all of the dry ingredients and add the rum and corn syrup.  Blend well.  Shape into one inch balls, and roll in powdered sugar.  Best if made the night before so flavors can develop.

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I've been trying to get back into running.  Different doctors have told me different things, and rather than sit and sulk about not being able to run, I've decided to run just twice a week at the fun runs.  So I ran five on Saturday and six on Wednesday.

Saturday's run was fine and pretty uneventful.  In the last mile, I started to feel a tingle in my ankle, but it wasn't too bad, and I finished without any pain, and without any change in my stride.  No significant butt/hamstring issue at all.  Saturday evening, though, I realized that I was limping because of the pain in my hamstring.  It wasn't debilitating or anything, just an achiness that felt like it needed to be massaged out.  But when I tried to massage it, I couldn't really pinpoint where the pain was coming from.  Frustrating.

I thought maybe some yoga would help out, so I went on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  I think all of the warrior poses did help my hamstring, but I realized that every time I do a forward fold, I felt the pain moving into my butt.  I've also discovered, although I'm not sure if this is new or not, that when I lean to the left, I feel a tightness/strain in my right hip that is not in my left hip.  So it's my hip, butt and hamstring that's all giving me problems.

I also went on a run on Wednesday.  Six miles.  Not sure if this was the smartest move.  Pretty early on, I felt my hamstring acting up.  It has never really bothered me on my runs before (just afterwards) and although it wasn't a terrible pain, the fact that it existed at all concerns me a bit.

Tuesday I got an MRI on my lower back.  This was my second MRI in a month (the first one was on my ankle), so I thought I knew what to expect.  But this time it was completely different.  Instead of going feet-first into the machine, and leaving my upper body exposed, I went in head-first.  So for about half an hour, I was stuck in a little coffin-like enclosure.  I had ear plugs on to block the jet-engine noise and sirens emitting from the machine.  The top of the opening was about 2 or 3 inches from my face.  I've never really been claustrophobic, but this was a little too much for me to handle.  I realized it was much more bearable if I closed my eyes and tried to let my mind wander.  To my surprise, the next thing I knew, I woke up to the technician pulling me out of the machine.  I ended up sleeping through the whole MRI experience.  Thank goodness--it would have torture to have to be awake the whole time.

Tuesday's MRI is making me extra sensitive about my back.  Perhaps I'm just being a hypochondriac, but I feel like I'm noticing some new aches and pains there.  I went back to yoga yesterday (Thursday).  Several times during the session, my lower back felt uncomfortable as I was transitioning from upward dog to downward dog.  So now I'm all paranoid that something is really wrong.

Today (Friday), my hamstring still feels a little achey from Wednesday's run, and I have a tightness in my ankle that started yesterday.  Mikey and some others wanted to go on a ten-miler tomorrow.  I tentatively said that I would join them, but I'm wondering if I need some more rest.  There's also a five-mile fun run on Sunday that the club is doing.  The Under Armour store on West 57th Street is sponsoring it, and apparently they've custom printed FRNY shirts for us all to wear.  I've decided to skip the NYRR Fred Lebow Classic 5-miler tomorrow, which is particularly disappointing because it was the first NYRR race I ever ran, back in 2006.

My appointment with Dr. Babiy to get the results of my MRI is not until next Thursday.  I'll try on Monday to see if I can get her to talk to me over the phone.  Chris Stoia recommended that I see his doctor, Eric Degis.  I have an appointment with him next Wednesday. 

I'm about to head out to a FRNY Happy Hour at Vlada.  Maybe then I'll decide if I'm running tomorrow.