Piriform-WHAT?!

So as you may have heard a time or two from me on my blog, on Facebook, or especially on Twitter... my glute has been bothering me a lot since Ragnar.

At first I just thought it was normal post-race soreness.  After all, I ran hard for 15 miles with over half of them in the 7's (if you don't follow my training, I NEVER run miles in the 7's).  But then the rest of the soreness faded away and I felt 100% better everywhere else except my dang glute.

Then a lovely Twitter follower thought maybe it was my "piriformis".  PIRIFORM-WHAT? 

But some lovely searching later and I was up to date on the piriformis and also 90% sure that was my exact problem.

Thanks Wikipedia

The piriformis is this lovely muscle in the middle of your butt that, when it becomes inflamed, begins to irritate the sciatic nerve (or SOMETHING - go read more about it here for the rest of the story).  Anyway, it appears to be a real pain in the butt for runners (pun intended).  I'm not experiencing any back pain as it appears is common although sometimes my hamstring is very tight and that might be related.   Also, I consider this issue fairly minor as of now, but I'd like to keep it that way, and ideally make it dissapear.  I've got places to be and races to run, after all!

Only 3 weeks to go!

So, what have I been doing about it, you ask?

Foam rolling for starters.  But I can't seem to get much of my body weight or pressure on it with the foam roller, probably because its in the center of my body.  So then some lovelies recommended using a tennis ball or a frozen water bottle.  Speaking of frozen water bottle, I've also been trying to ice.  Icing is no longer the modest affair it used to be, however, since I pretty much can't be wearing clothes in order to ice.  I suspect the ice bath is going to make an appearance again soon as well, although I so despise it. 

And finally, I think I'm supposed to stretch and strengthen.  Though I'm not entirely sure how to do these things. 

Possibly this.  source

Has anyone had glute and / or piriformis issues before?  What did you do?  How did you make it go away?  And how did you make it go away QUICKLY?  Is it safe to run through minor piriformis pains?  Give me all your advice!