One lap too many

A couple of days ago, I did one 1,000-meter repeat too many as part of my tapering and ended up injuring my piriformis muscle.  Apparently, this is a muscle deep inside the buttocks that when inflamed also constricts the sciatic nerve causing a symptom similar to sciatica.

With the pain still persisting after two days, I decided to visit today a local Extreme Sports Massage therapist who works on many Western State runners.  Let's just say that I almost cried.  OMG.  He applied so much pressure to the muscle deep inside my buttock with his elbow that I literally stopped breathing expecting his elbow to come through the other side of me somehow. I later found out that Extreme wasn't meant to modify "Sports" but "Massage". 

Good pain training for Western States. I really don't mind the pain so much (I've gotten used to pain), but the muscle appears to be in some sort of spasm, and this in turn radiates throughout my lower back and restricts my flexibility.

I do feel better after the session, but the pain is still there. I'm visiting him again in 4 days (that will be four days before the race). 

I'll get it fixed somehow, even if I have to have Trish walk on my butt with her high heel shoes.

I'm icing it too; here is a picture of that for kicks.