Pain in the backside

Up until a week ago I had my running headed the right direction. Suddenly today I was ready to head out for a run and paused to take a peek at my logbook. I was shocked to read that I had not run since last Wednesday (a week ago). I was on track to run more miles this month than I did last month. Then I took a strange week off. It has been cold and rainy at times during the last week and I have been busy. All of that added up to one excuse after another to derail me.

I only fell 8 miles short of beating last month and was still better than many of my other recent months. Just surprised that the month ended and I hadn’t realized that I threw away a week.

Over the last 5 weeks I have been developing a horrible pain in my right leg. It is piriformis syndrome. I am not entirely sure what caused it, but three of the main causes are running, biking and sitting. Other than sleeping I think that describes just about everything I do. Thankfully it is only in one leg.

Piriformis syndrome is when the piriformis muscle squeezes on the sciatic nerve and causes a pain down the leg or up into the back. This can be due to an injury that causes damage/swelling to the region, or because of excessive muscle tone. I am not sure how I feel about the thought that my rear end muscles may be the most developed ones I have.

The way it effects me is that when transitioning from a sitting to standing position it feels like my muscle spasms and locks up tight over that nerve. When I give it a few seconds to relax the sharp pain goes away as quickly as it started. It does not bother me at all while running, walking or performing any normal activities. It is mostly just that one movement when I flex the muscle to extend the leg that it bites me in the bottom.

When I remember to do stretches and take lots of ibuprofen the pain subsides wonderfully. But each time I have a good day I make the mistake of not being as religious about the exercises and the medicine. That sends me into another day of intense pain.

I will get over this. Or at least get to the bottom of it.

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