Up In The Air

So, it's been exactly a week since I last checked-in here and it's been a tough one for me, for sure. Shortly after writing last week and thinking that things were getting back on track, I was greeted with a surprising occurrence at the dog park of all places. Long story short, a dog ran into me really hard, hitting me just below my left knee. It took me out completely, knocking me off of my feet and keeping me down for a bit. Turns out the dog had done a good bit of damage, since I could barely walk from Tuesday through Thursday. I think that it was hyper-extended, stressing a lot of the ligaments/muscles in the knee but luckily since then it has been getting back to normal pretty quickly.
All of the above said, I did NOT get much running in AGAIN last week and am uncertain as to how the original knee with the problems (the right one) is going to hold up. I got out for 3.5 miles on Saturday and then 8 yesterday. Aerobically, I feel awesome and my body seems to have a lot of spring to it, but as I get further into runs or push the pace, I can still feel that VMO in the right leg tugging on my knee and creating (a little bit of) pain.
Tonight I went about 8.75 miles at around 7:20 pace and tried to push a little faster for one mile. I didn't even feel the pushed-pace aerobically, but I felt like I was right up against the pain-barrier for this knee. Also only managed to go around 6:35 for that mile. I honestly don't know what to do at this point. I've talked to quite a few people about it and realize that it will not be the end of the world if I have to push the race date back to a January race, I'll just be disappointed if that is what I have to do. More than anything, I just wanted to be able to race in mid-November so that I could then take a few weeks off and relax before starting the off-season training in December. Ahhh well, my plan at this point is to continue running this week. Give it one faster paced effort on Thursday or Friday and then make the call. If I can get about a 6-miler in at near 6-minute pace, then I will add a 12-15 mile easy run on Saturday and just taper into next week but if there is any pain during that tempo run, then I will scrap the San Antonio race and wait for Houston or P.F. Chang's in January.
This coming weekend is the NYC Marathon. To all of my friends racing out there, good luck!