30.03.08
Posted in Crossfit, General at 9:03 am by Colin McNulty
Continuing with my Pose Running, I went for a run again this morning. I’ve been trying to slow down my runs and concentrate on Pose Form and today managed a modest 10:35 but this was the easiest run yet. Whilst “easiest” is clearly a relative term for me, for the first time… well ever really, there was this small and strange thought in the back of my mind: I wonder if I could keep going? 
The route I’ve got runs round the outside of 6 square blocks of houses, so I could easily start by adding an additional block at a time. Maybe next time…. maybe.
I thought I’d give Pistols a try too (one legged squats), I learnt 2 important things trying Pistols:
- Pistols look easy.
- Pistols are a lot harder than they look !
The only way I could manage them was to use a dumbbell as counter balance, and that was surprisingly successful. I managed to hold the Pistol position for 15 seconds each leg. Will try these again when I’m not tired after a run.
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26.03.08
Posted in Crossfit, General at 8:25 pm by Colin McNulty
Following on from my previous write up about Crossfit Manchester at the 2008 British Masters Weightlifting Championships last week, I’ve put together 2 videos of 2 of the Crossfit competitors. Congrats to both Mark and Jo, they did great:
And now Jo:
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25.03.08
Posted in Crossfit, General at 3:52 pm by Colin McNulty
Acupuncture is a mixed bag. I find the whole experience barely tolerable and I’m dreading the thought of going back for another session. Apart from the general pain of having needles poked, twisted and worked in till each one hurts, the last time the needle in my hand near my thumb was particularly painful. Afterwards I could barely hold the wheel of my car driving home and the pain lasted all day. Not pleasant.
I say it’s a mixed bag though as I’m not sure, but I think my elbow might be marginally better. If there is any improvement, it’s only slight. It doesn’t really feel any better generally, but when I poke around at it, the pain seems a little less, I think, or am I just getting used to it / imagining it….?
Hardly definitive I realise, especially as I’m not doing acupuncture in isolation to other stuff, so it’s hard to tell. I need to decide in the next few days if I go back for another session or not.
I’m still trying to workout though. So I got up with the post Easter guilty intention of going for a run this morning. Then I noticed how cold it was outside and decided better of it. So instead I did a Split Half Angie, i.e.
- 4 rounds of:
- 25 sit ups
- 25 squats
I figured it was be more intensive to split the 100 sit ups and squats into four 25’s. I managed a respectable 6 mins 20, or faster than 2 secs per rep. Would have done it faster but started to really slow down on the sit ups on the 3rd round.
It would be interesting to do a full Crossfit Angie sometime as rx’d, and also do a split version in quarters. I suspect that with the Crossfit mantra of Intensity, the quartered Angie would be faster and so a higher intensity.
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24.03.08
Posted in General at 4:39 pm by Colin McNulty
I’m far from a geneologist, though I enjoy getting updated McNulty family trees from the geneology the my Aunty does. However I’ve recently been sent a document entitled: “Origin of the Surname, McNulty, and its Association with the cDonlevys/Dunleavys of County Down” written by a Paul McNulty PhD.
This is the summary, how much do you know about your family?
It is generally accepted that the McNulty surname is derived from the MacDonlevys/Dunleavys who fled early Ulster (primarily County Down) after their defeat by the Anglo-Normans in 1177. Some of the Dunleavys who migrated westward to Donegal became known as Ultach and some of their descendants assumed the name, Mac an Ultaigh, son of the Ulsterman.
The first record of the name, McNulty, appeared in the Four Masters in 1281 when Murtough Macan-Ulty was among the distinguished slain at the battle of Desertcreagh in County Tyrone. However, the surname transformation to Mac an Ultaigh/McNulty was not confirmed until 1601 when a pardon was granted by Elizabeth to a yeoman, Morris m’Nich. Ultagh. Further confirmation was apparent through the similarity of their coats of arms although it is more likely that the McNulty arms was a modified replica of the MacDonlevy arms.
DNA analysis, on the other hand, revealed a divergence of the McNulty and Dunleavy genes suggesting that the surname, McNulty, could have been derived from other Gaelic families who migrated from early Ulster. Analysis of the so called 1659 Census and Griffith’s Valuation (1848-1864) revealed that the Dunleavys and the McNultys were well represented in Mayo, Donegal, Sligo, Armagh and Down. The exceptions were the McNulty/Nulty strongholds of Tyrone, Meath, Leitrim and Cavan where the Dunleavys have little presence.
An outline of the ancient and early genealogy of the Dunleavys leading to the possible evolution of the McNulty name is presented. Further research into medieval history as well as genetic profiling may provide more information on the origin of the various McNulty septs based on the presumption that they are derived from Gaelic families who migrated from early Ulster.
A line that goes back some 830 years, not bad huh? Oh and here’s the McNulty Coat of Arms mentioned:
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16.03.08
Posted in Crossfit, General at 10:33 am by Colin McNulty
On Saturday I took a 200 mile round trip to the Lilleshall National Sports Centre near Telford to support 7 members of Crossfit Manchester who were competing in the BWLA British Masters Weight Lifting Championship Finals!
Who were these mighty giants of British Weightlifting? Mark Beck, my Crossfit coach is by most weightlifting measures a wee slip of a man, in fact I think he was probably the lightest male competitor there at about 65kg. One of the other competitors said to me incredulously:
“There’s not an ounce of fat on that man!”
What about the other 6 monster British weightlifters from Crossfit Manchester: all women. In fact at a stroke, Crossfit Manchester doubled the number of women competing in the entire event. So much so that for the first time in living memory it seems, they had to split the women up into 2 lifting groups, something previously unheard of.
Bare in mind that this is the British Masters Weight Lifting championships, which means that you have to be over 35 to compete. 5 of the 6 women are over 40, several of which are ordinary working wives and mothers, who have done no more weightlifting training than simply attend Crossfit for a year, since the doors opened in Manchester.
The most entertaining part of the day was to be found in conversation with other established weight lifting competitors, who were amazed at the 25 or so Crossfitters who had invaded their domain, and were keen to learn about where we were from and what Crossfit was. The best question was:
“So do you do Power Lifting as well as Weight Lifting at Crossfit?”
Imagine their faces when I replied: “On no, we’re not a weight lifting gym at all, we’re a fitness gym. Weightlifting, combined with gymnastics and circuit training, is just part of what we do to get Stronger, Fitter, Faster!” Haha. 
I was not trying to belittle the man, I have the greatest respect for athletes of any kind, and there were some very strong and technically accomplished lifters there (there were some who had shocking form however). Many competitors may have been strong, but for the majority, you’d be hard pressed to apply the tag of “fit” to describe their physiques however. Fat, over weight, pot bellied, are words that spring to mind. I did joke that perhaps we should have challenged a few of them to a quick Crossfit Fran or something similar. Lol. It was a good example of how specialism differs in physical results from Crossfits deliberate generalism.
It is a testament to Crossfit’s efficacy that we were able to field 7 competitors in this very specialised event. As it happened, every one of our competitors was unopposed in their combination of age group and weight category, so Crossfit Manchester can now boast a massive 7 British Masters Weight Lifting Champions! And proud of them all I am.
I hope that by next year, my Golfer’s Elbow will have sorted itself out, and I’ll be able to compete myself. At my current weight, I’ll compete in the 85kg category and so need to lift 175kg combined across a Snatch and Clean & Jerk in a satellite competition in order to qualify for the finals. I would hope that a 75kg Snatch and a 100kg Clean & Jerk should be achievable within a year.
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14.03.08
Posted in Crossfit, General at 6:37 am by Colin McNulty
Just a little video I knocked up at the weekend:
Only joking, that’s some impressive stuff by a Team GB Gymnast called Damien Walters. Running at a wall and doing a back flip is pretty much all I aspire to, but he does a forward flip off a wall, now that’s impressive! In fact the whole thing is just amazing.
Here’s a couple more videos of Damien, there’s humility here too as he’s included one clip of him stacking it at the end:
And finally to show the guy has a sense of humour:
Hmmm, wonder if we can get him into a Crossfit gym…..?
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10.03.08
Posted in Crossfit, General, The Zone Diet at 10:02 am by Colin McNulty
I’m painfully aware that I haven’t done much in the way of actual “blogging” recently about what I’m upto (not that anyone seems to have noticed, lol). So here’s a whistle stop run down:
Work: busy, busy, busy! I’ve been pitching to some new clients over the last few weeks, and have won one new contract, which is nice. But it has taken up a load of my time. I’m also launching a new website of my own shortly, and am actively working on 2 other potential new lines of business, which I can’t currently talk about.
All in all I am working 10-12 hours a day at the moment, generally from 8am to 9-10pm, only stopping to eat and spend time with the family when the kid gets home from school.
Crossfit: has come to a complete halt. My golfers elbow has put a halt to almost all exercise and I’ve spoken to Mark at Crossfit Manchester and explained that I won’t be going down again for a while. The simple reason is that I can do virtually none of the crossfit exercises and so it becomes rather depressing going to the gym and seeing everyone else do what I can’t. If you take away the exercises that make Crossfit what it is, it’s also rather dull to be honest.
Still I am actively seeking the cure for Medial Epicondylitis and have so far tried / am trying:
- Complete rest
- Remedial Massage
- Ultra-sound
- Interferon
- CT Cream
- a Band-it Forearm Band
- and these week starts Acupuncture, which will be my first time ever and I’m rather nervous about it to be honest.
I am however doing some runs. I’ve got route round the block, which is just over a mile, and am running that 2-3 times a week, depending on when I wake in the morning. I’m hoping that this will improve my running performance when I do return to Crossfit.
The Zone Diet: My current weight is 12 st 12 (180 lbs / 82 kg) and I am currently wearing jeans that were too small for me the day I bought them from Ford market in West Sussex some 8 years ago! Yes I kept a pair of too small jeans (2 actually) for 8 years, that if nothing else, is evidence that I’m an optimist at heart! I continue to either maintain weight or lose the odd pound here and there, on the following formula: Strict zone for breakfast, lunch and pm snack. A roughly zone diet / lower than “normal” carb tea. Then at least half the week, all bets are off in the evening and the wine and/or chocolate is broken out. Bad I know, but I’m working on it.
Mostly that’s it, my life at the moment is consumed by work and injury recovery.
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07.03.08
Posted in General at 9:19 am by Colin McNulty
Mark my words, this is the future of gaming, oh yes! If you’re really impatient to see why, skip to the 3rd video below, the first 2 introduce the technology and set the scene for the 3rd.
Why is it the future of gaming? Do you remember when you first played a first person shooter type game, ie. when you play as if looking through the eyes of the character? For me it was DOOM back at university some 15 years ago. It was revolutionary and no one had ever played a game like it. This was evidenced by 1 simple observation:
People would duck and dive and lean in their seats to avoid things or peer round corners.
Sadly these days that feeling of immersion has been lost, as gamers have realised that the missile coming for their heads isn’t really going to hit them. (Shame.) Well these videos you’re about to watch is going to change all that again. Without any change to 3D cards or monitor or PC’s you can get real 3 dimensional effects out of your computer, and PlayStation and XBox etc, with just a Wii Remote! Enough talking, watch the videos:
How to use the Wii Remote to track your fingers aka Minority Report style:
How to use the Wii Remote to make an Interactive Whiteboard:
And now with Head Tracking 3D bit, watch the demo at the end, it’s extremely impressive, the future of 3D Games for sure!
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