Post competition reflections

As some of you might know, my past weekend was spent at a crossfit sectional competition in Austin. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm very grateful I was able to be there and compete, in part because it's good to test oneself from time to time. A greater pleasure though, was simply being around a myriad of like-minded people for a few days. The workouts are great, but it's the community and camraderie shared betweeen athletes that make crossfit what it is. As great as that was though, I'm a little bummed about my performance.

Let me clarify, I'm disappointed in how I performed but not because of a lack of effort on the weekend. Rather, my disappointment stems from the 3 months leading up to the competition. You see, even with school and my work at the gym, I have a fairly relaxed schedule which allows for plenty of time to train. I didn't have a great showing in Austin as a direct result of my failing to use the time I had to my advantage. To sum it up, I was lazy. It's not as though I was completely sedentary, but I assuredly missed the mark of consistency. This may be somewhat of a shock to you, because I appear to be rather fit. You can take your pick of cliches about appearance to insert here. Someone who is fit will have an aesthetically pleasing physique as a side benefit, but one who possesses the physique isn't necessarily fit. At the moment I fall somewhere in the middle.

The competition was ultimately a missed opportunity for me, but it was a great thing to do. I have the drive to train hard again that might've taken longer to come back than if I hadn't been smoked those two days. The lesson here is to take advantage of the opportunities life presents. Learned.

Who is this kid?

You may have asked this question to yourself before, or perhaps it has never crossed your mind. In either case, you'll get some potentially interesting (though not terribly useful) information about the guy that makes you run, lift, and do burpees.

Well, where to start? My full name is Schyler Derrik Turpin. I am the the only son and the youngest of my family and I am 20 years old...and a half. My father was a Music Director for churches for much of my life, growing up. I inherited his love of music, but while he enjoys singing primarily, I have always been more inclined to play an instrument. I am a better-than-average saxophone player, and a fair drummer. Lately, I have neglected any sort of musical practice, but that's something I hope to rememdy in the near future. As a result of my being raised in church, I share the christian faith (admittedly, I am not the greatest practitioner of said faith).

I have always been a somewhat well-rounded athlete in that there weren't many people who were simultaneously stronger, faster, and more proficient in gymnastics than myself. I joined powerlifting my freshman year of high school and fell in love, so I continued on with it throughout my high school career. As a natural result, I came to hate running; I still don't enjoy it, but I can tolerate it now.

I am a big fan of good story telling. I love to read; fantasy literature mainly, but I'll devour anything that I find interesting. The same is true of movies and video games. (Yes, video games. They've come a long way since pong folks, give 'em another chance.) Some of my favorite actors are Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne. Quite a few of my favorite movies will have one of them present.

Well, I think I've given you enough to digest just yet. Will there be a sequel? You'll just have to tune in next time to find out...