Physical Therapy

So I've had 2 sessions of physical therapy thus far to build up the strength of my legs and muscles around my knees. My knees, left in particular, have been pretty painful when running, bending, climbing stairs, and bending my knees to sit. It's your basic common diagnosis: patellofemoral pain syndrome (runner's knee). IT bands (ligaments on the outside of the thigh) are too tight, quads are too weak, so my knees take the brunt of all the impact. They're holding me up instead of my leg muscles. Not good. So I bought a foam roller (a must for runners supposedly and a horribly painful exercise) and a yoga ball. Here are some of the exercises I'm doing daily thus far (not a really interesting blog entry, more for my purposes than anything else):

Leg stretches with a strap - 3 reps, 30 seconds each, both legs. There are 3 exercises: sitting & leaning forward at the waist; lying down on back lifting each leg up; IT stretch, pulling leg across body

IT band stretch with foam roller - 3 minutes each side

Side leg raises - 10 reps, 3 sets each side

Wall squats, individual leg isolation - one leg at a time, hold for 30 seconds, rest for 30

Quad contractions - sitting up, contract as hard as I can for 10 seconds, release 10 seconds; 10 minutes

The wall squats are the most painful on my knees, the foam roller the most painful period. Honestly, I haven't done it every day like I'm supposed to. But I'm getting better at my commitment there. I feel so much better when I do. I have been surprised to see how pain causes an emotional reaction in me. And I know I've only begun to feel the pain - I haven't experienced even a degree of what I will experience as the training continues. But the stretches and exercises help tremendously and I can feel a marked improvement in my knee pain. I definitely need to get some new shoes too, but where is that money going to come from at the moment. I think that would help a lot, so I'm budgeting and praying that some money will come through somehow for that specific need.

As of right now, I feel frustrated because I can't really run that much. But I've been filling that time with all these exercises. I have to be able to regularly run at least 3 miles comfortably by August 14. Any suggestions on how to get there? It shouldn't be that hard of a feat, but the last time I ran 3 miles I killed my knees, so it's obvious I'm not strong enough for that yet...at least not to do it on a regular basis. So I need help - all suggestions welcome!