Looking for some suggestions here.  Since my marathon last September I've had some pain in my left hamstring.  The best way to describe it is that it feels like a cramp but it's not cramping.  It's about a third of the way up from my knee on the outside of the leg.  I've also had some pain on the lower part of my ass when sitting for a while.  Unfortunately I sit a lot.  I have an hour commute each way to work and I am a cube jockey so I sit all day at work.

A couple of weeks ago I got tired of it and decided to look into doing something about it.  I did some googling and also reviewed the thread Mikey started a couple of months ago about his hip pain.  Armed with that I concluded that it was piriformis and / or glute and that the hamstring pain was more of the referred type, or maybe the sciatic nerve was inflammed.

So I attacked with massage and stretching.  For massage I used a billiard ball.  With that I definitely found some sore spots.  Along the upper part of my ass toward the outside was real sore, but it was on my other non injured side, too, so although it may be tight I'm not sure if that is the true problem area.  One spot that was noticeably more prevalent on the injured side than the other, that was the lower part of my ass toward the outside.  As for stretches I have a bunch from yoga that I know so I am covered there.

It doesn't bother me all that much when I run, it's more tightness than anything.  But there is a lot of pain (not severe) when I am sitting.  That's a big problem because I can't avoid sitting.  I've been standing up and stretching every so often throughout the day.

So what I am asking you folks is a) what do you think this is, piriformis maybe?  Also, would taking time off benefit me.  If I were to take time off I'd prefer to do it soon while it's not racing season.  Right now I am leaning on giving it another week then see about taking off if there is no improvement.  Also besides massage and stretching is there anything else I could be doing?

Thanks.

Before I even got to where you suggested it I was going to offer piriformis.  I've had this a few times, though not going down into the hamstring.

Piriformis can be related either to the muscle or to an inflamed/irritated sciatic nerve, but it sounds like you already know that.  I always got some relief by doing intensive stretches -- anything that pulled well on the muscle.   That never fixed it though.

I will tell you what I did but I will not tell you to try it.  It worked for me but could either help you or make it worse, I haven't the first clue.  When I finally got sick of the irritation I went out and busted a 3Xmile workout with long recoveries, cranking the speed way up so my stride was forced out.  It hurt like hell to do but the next day the tightness and pain were completely gone.  I've done this twice now.  Perhaps I was equally likely to pull something but got lucky.  All I can figure is that the muscle had healed tight after getting sore during mileage increases (not a lot different than recovering from a marathon) and the tightness was irritating the nerve.  Breaking the tightness relieved the irritation.

If you decide to do this, you had better be certain it's not a muscle pull or this is guaranteed to make it worse.

Beta hit on something that worked for me - trigger point self massage. Hurts like hell but gets the release needed. Good book on it at B&N (our library carries it so I didn't have to fork over the $18).

Also, I don't know what surface you use for running but changing it up helps me. If I ran on trails too often or slick roads (think midwest sping) I tended to get some aches in the lower glutes and groin due to lateral stability issues. Running on the TM helped this in the short term. Got rid of it by strengthening exercises.

Good luck.

Spaniel, take a look here an note the last suggestion.  I'm thinking about it.  I understand the risk but at this point the stalemate is irking me and I want to break it.

 Now I feel a little better about telling people that.  It did work for me and as the person in the link says, the benefit was almost immediate (overnight in my case).  Maybe I'm not as much an idiot as I thought.

Don't answer that.

If you carry a wallet or flask in your ass pocket, you may want to stop. They can trigger/aggravate piriformis.

And nice to see that L Train has your interests at heart.

I might just try the 3 x 1 mile next week instead of the damn tempo.  I'm getting down under HM effort doing those tempos but I can still get away with a shorter stride at that pace.  I do feel a shorter stride due to some tightness, at least I think I do.  It might be time to open it up. 

Some 400s will fix that problem for you...