Less Than Good

I've been putting off writing another entry on here because, honestly, I've been hoping that things would turn around. In my last post, on Monday, I reported the problems that I had been having with my right knee and how I hoped that a couple days of rest would get me moving again. Well, it's Saturday now, and things are not looking good.
This week has been a trial in my patience, which if you know me very well, you will know I have very little of to begin with. Training-wise I took Monday off, tried to run a little on Tuesday night, made it 3.5 miles and was met with pain. Wednesday I managed to push through 6.5 miles, Thursday I got up and tried to do a morning run but was done after half a mile. Friday was off again and then today I made it 3.5 miles running before I had to quit and go to the gym for 8 more miles on the elyptical machine.
I've now seen three doctors, my chiropractor, Active Release Technique (A.R.T.) guy and my friend Jason who is one of the head  doctors at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. After two ART treatments and one session of dry-needling with Jason, I feel awesome EXCEPT when I get a couple miles into a run. All of these doctors have told me that they do not think that the problem actually has to do with my knee. Rather they all suggest that it is referred pain stemming from my VMO and quad muscles. The dry-needling seemed to have had some effect but didn't come close to healing me in one treatment.

I've have been talking to nearly every good runner that I know and they all seem to think that it is too early to think about pulling the plug on San Antonio (whew!), saying that my fitness will not go away that quickly and that I simply need to getting this better ASAP, even if it means a few days completely off. Mentally, that's just the tough part for me. I feel like when you put this much effort into a goal only to have the slightest thing go wrong so close to the test, it can just turn you into a complete headcase and cause you to make bad/irrational decisions. I've seen it time and again with friends and that's why I'm trying to instead take the advice of my friends and doctors so that I can get through it and hopefully be good to go in 22 days when I am meant to toe the line in San Antonio.
All of that said, this has been a tough week and an extremely depressing post to have to write but I wanted to keep everyone out there reading this up-to-date on how things are progressing. Unfortunately, it's just all part of marathon training at this point. One things for sure, I think I can conclude that the while the Jack Daniel's formula had gotten me into excellent shape, without more/any time off written into the schedule, it was simply too much for my body. In the future, I will have to do some tweaking if I try to use it again. Thanks for reading. Happy Training!