The summer that would not end (but that's good)

In the month of July I ran more miles than in any other month before, about 98 miles. That's an increase of 12 over June, when I did 86. I think for the month of August I'll likely be somewhere between the months of June and July. At some point before the marathon in November I'm sure I'll push way past 100 miles in a month, though. And maybe that's not really that much, but it seems like a lot to me.

I've met a lot of my goals this summer. Last summer I kind of took it easy and never ran on consecutive days. This summer, though, I've been running at least four days a week, and many times five. And I've increased the mileage; usually I'm around twenty-five miles a week.

I'm still not sure what kind of goal I have for the marathon. I'm thinking about four and a half hours, but I've still never ran more than 13.1 miles at once, so it's still up in the air.

Yesterday was my birthday. I decline to say how old I am (it increases every year!), but I don't feel any older than I ever have. And I'd probably say I feel younger now than when I was 22 or 23 (now I'm starting to give hints, ha ha). Younger each year, right? I'm not sure I can feel younger, but I can at least maintain, I guess.

Here are some pictures:

Gelato! That's after we ate at Elote for my birthday. I have a mark under my eye from my running sunglasses . . .

That's after the Firecracker Run on the Fourth of July

That's after the 9.7 mile race we did last Saturday

And, in celebration of my birthday, here's a video of some of my friends and family singing happy birthday to me last year. I contribute a very enthusiastic "thank you" at the end:

Here's to the rest of 2010,

Ryan

Easy To Love

Here's a song I just recorded:

I wrote most of it last September, but earlier this year (maybe in January?) I added a verse and the bridge. It's a happy song, and is pretty self-explanatory, I think. That's probably why it took me so long to post it, ha ha (the self-explanatory part, not because it's happy).

I might end up doing another mix of it, as this version here ended up sounding more like Sonic Youth than I ever intended. Mostly because I did the thing where I tune my electric all to the same note (which also was done on Leadwood Folk's song "Girl From Madison County"), and I added some flange to the distortion. I'm sure it would sound better if I used an amplifier instead of going straight in. Maybe when I don't live in an apartment. Anyhow . . .

I'll likely post a "running update" in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here are some recent pictures:

Actually, that's the only recent one I have. That's me and my brother-in-law playing air hockey.

Here's just some random one so I'm not only posting one picture:

Ryan King

Maybe Forever

I've been working on recording a new song that I like bunches (did I really just use the word "bunches"???), but it's taking a while to finish. So I figured I'd go ahead and post one that I've never posted.

I wrote it in the middle of last August in 2009, and I recorded it back in January. I'm still not sure how satisfied I am with this recording, but at this point I realize that most of these are just demos, anyway, as I get closer to the end of law school and the possibility of starting another band. It sounds at least somewhat the way I thought it would, so maybe that is success.

Here's the song, called "Maybe Forever":

I think one positive and negative aspect of writing is that whatever you produce can transport the author back to that time period. That's why I don't like playing a lot of the songs I've written. But I think I still like this one.

It feels like this summer has lasted forever, but I'm okay with that.

Here's a picture of the fireworks from the Fourth of July:

Explosive,

Ryan King

Another new song . . .

I'm kind of enjoying recording other people's songs. This is a song called "2541", originally done by a songwriter named Grant Hart as his first single after the band Husker Du broke up:

Despite how much I like Husker Du, somehow I was able to avoid hearing this song until last fall when I bought Hart's great debut solo album, Intolerance.

My recording consists of two different acoustic guitars (one played with a capo), a flanged electric guitar, and two distorted guitars played slightly out-of-tune in order to create a chorus effect. I didn't add any bass, and there is no percussion. There are also some strange noises at the beginning, made by me blowing across the strings of my guitar with the flanger on.

I've always liked the way that Grant Hart sounds when he sings. I think I often try to imitate that, and I definitely do that in my recording of this song. He is, of course, a much better singer than I am.

Here's Grant Hart's (clearly superior) version:

Letting in the sun,

Ryan King

Last couple of weeks

I've went to St. Louis and Kansas City the last two weekends, and I've seen the Cardinals play in both cities.

Here are some pictures:

We were by the left-field foul pole at Busch Stadium. Matt Holliday hit a home-run that landed not too far from us.

We ran into Iron Man at a Dollar General in North Kansas City.

Kaufman Stadium is very beautiful. It was really hot that day, though.

They have lots of fountains. I wanted to jump in, but they will prosecute you . . .

The Cardinals won both games that I saw, so their record this year with me in attendance is 2-1. Yay for me.

Running update: I've done about 76 miles so far in the month of June. By the end of this month I'll be somewhere in the mid-80s, which is by far the most I've ever run in a month.

It's taken longer than I thought, but I'm starting to wear down a bit; my average time per mile from week-to-week was pretty consistent, but has dropped by about twenty seconds the last two weeks. I'm going to try to sleep a little more (I've been getting about 5.5 hours a night) and I'm going to start taking some nutritional supplements again to see if that helps. No pain, though, just soreness from time to time.

This Sunday is the Fourth of July 5k (I'm sure it's called something else). I'm not setting a goal, I'm just going to do whatever is my best, and God only knows what that will be.

That will be,

Ryan King