30.03.10
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 6:36 pm by Colin McNulty
Thanks for all the messages of support, I can confirm that I did win my category at the 2010 BWLA British Masters Olympic Weightlifting championship finals this weekend.
I was expecting to be lifting against Anthony (Tony) Down, from the Empire Club in Bristol, but it turned out that he came in overweight for the 77kg category at 78kg, which left me lifting all on my own. (I weighed in comfortably under at 75.9 kg.) All I needed to do was get a total and I was home and dry. To be clear then, here are the relevant rules:
- To qualify for to be able to compete, you must lift the qualifying total in a BWLA officiated (3 judge panel) competition in the previous 12 months. I did this when I lifted a 165kg total in the Northern Masters Weightlifting Competition in 2009, which is the qualifying standard for Mens Group 1 (35-39) in the 77kg body weight category.
- On the day then, you must open within 15kg of the qualifying total, so I had to open with a minimum of 150kg. I opted for easy openers of 65 Snatch and 90kg Clean & Jerk. I could/should have opened 5kg higher on each (70 and 95) which was my plan had I been facing Tony, but there was no point risking it. Especially after my recent shambolic training performances.
- You need to get at least one Snatch and at least one Clean and Jerk to make a total.
That’s it, all I needed to do was get my openers and I was the winner. Sadly I started the video camera too early and it ran out of juice (I may try to send it back as a full charge only lasted 70 minutes!) so I only got a video of the snatches, which I may upload at some point. I’ve pondered whether this default win detracts from the occasion? But the way I see it, it means I actually won it back when I lifted 165 at the Northern Open, as I was the only person (apart from Tony) who made the qualifying weight, I just didn’t know it yet!
The snatches went very well and I easily power snatched the 65, then the 70 and finally did a full squat snatch (though had to chase it across the platform!) for 75. Which considering my body weight of 75.9, was less than a bag of sugar away from a body weight snatch. To be honest, now with hindsight, I regret not opening at 70 as I’d originally planned, as I reckon there was a snatch PB in the offing (current PB is 77).
C&Js didn’t go quite so well. The 90kg opener was trivial, but then I made a mistake and jumped straight to 100kg. It seemed like a good idea at the time, 100kg is an =PB lift for me, and 95 meant nothing so going for it seemed the right thing to do. In reality, the 10kg / 11% jump in weight caught me off guard and I dropped both my 100kg attempts. Note to self: 5kg increments only in future.
So I finished with a 165 total (70 + 90). But I suppose the real question is, how would I have done if I’d been facing Tony? Tony it turns out is a very nice fella. Well of course he is, he’s a 5 year Crossfitter! We shared a warm up platform and generally encouraged each other throughout. It is hard to say what would have happened as it turns out that his personal best total of 177 is exactly the same as mine!
Tony got a 70kg Snatch and 100kg C&J, and he was competing against a Scotsman in a close run race, so on the face of it, he would have beaten me. However had we been competing, I would have started at 70 snatch, which I got, as I got the 75 and reckon I would have got a new PB of 78. Similarly I’d have started at 95 C&J which should not have been a problem, and I reckon the smaller 5kg increment would have seen at least one of my 100kg lifts come off which I’ve got several times before, giving a 178 total. But then, maybe Tony would have lifted differently if he was against me? Who can know, it’s all academic.
I do know several things though. 3.5 years ago I was a fat couch potato who hadn’t done a jot of exercise for 15 years and now I’m British Champion at an official Olympic sport. How does that happen?!? Here’s how, and I owe a debt of gratitude to all involved:
- I decided to change my life, but I didn’t know how.
- My mate Ian Sturrock put me onto Crossfit.
- Mark Beck and Karl Steadman opened Crossfit Manchester and filled it with a great bunch of supportive people.
- They got me on the Zone Diet which has morphed into more of a Paleo Zone.
- Mark especially has coached my weightlifting form over the last 3 years and always selflessly gives his time to coach me when I’m at a competition, and generally be helper extraordinaire. I am very grateful and would definitely not have done it without his help and support.
So what’s next? I think I’m going to take some time off the weightlifting focus and get back to more regular Crossfit for a while. Crossfit is a whole load of fun, dropping snatch after snatch whilst training on your own (when I’m away from home) is not. As a result, I’ve left the gym I go to in Cardiff: Aspire Fitness, especially as my contract should be finishing up shortly. They’re a nice bunch down there, and I’m sorry to leave them.
There are 2 things to aim for I think, one is the European Masters Championships. I need a 182 qualifying total so need to get my snatch up to 80 and clean and jerks up to 102. But it irks me that both the 2 biggest Masters competitions of the year: the British Masters and the Northern Masters, are outside the qualifying window for qualification. That’s bad planning! Also there’s the simple fact, that if I wait a couple of years till I’m in the 40-44 category, the qualifying total comes down to 172, which is much more doable, lol!
The second thing is the the English Indoor Rowing Championships (EIRC), which I’ve had my eye on for a couple of years, but always chosen the weightlifting in preference, as often they are both on the same weekend. I’ve got my eye on the 500m title, which if I can make the 75kg lightweight category, I could win easily. Judging by this years numbers my personal best is 7 seconds faster than the 1st place time! So I need to be good this Christmas and not pile on the pounds if I’m going to make 75kg by 3rd week in Feb.
Anyway, it was an exciting weekend and I’m currently very chuffed. I’m sure the feeling won’t last long.
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24.03.10
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 7:34 pm by Colin McNulty
Well the British Masters Championships are this weekend, and if I’m not ready now, I’ll never be. Which is to say, I’m not ready now! I hate preparing for competitions because I’m *never* ready!
This week’s lifting went ok, but could have been better. The highlights are, on Tuesday I managed 3 out of 6 snatches at 70kg (154lbs), which was disappointing but not terrible. And today I managed 2 out of 3 Clean & Jerks at 95kg (209lbs) which again was just ok, not fantastic. I also bailed on the WOD I had planned today due to a slightly twingy back; no point in risking injury this close to the comp.
In other news, I was bang on the weight limit this morning, for the first time this year, and with just days to go, not a moment too soon! It’s taken me 3 months to loose the weight I put on in December and get back to what I was in November and was bang on 77kg (12st1 or 169 lbs) this morning. Here’s my weightloss graph for this year:
All hail the mighty Zone diet which comes through for me again. After this comp, I’m going to try some experiments with my diet. I foresee a lot of milk in my immediate future. 
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10.03.10
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff at 9:07 pm by Colin McNulty
Well Tuesday didn’t go at all well! Snatch practice was meant to be a simple matter of getting confident with my opening lifts, but it couldn’t have gone much worse. I dropped 3 out of 6 attempts at 65kg and dropped 2 out of 3 attempts at 70kg. Honestly, I should be getting every lift at these weights. I think months of training alone with no coaching is taking its toll. :-S
I still need to lose 5 lbs in the next 18 days so I finished up with a small Crossfit style metcon workout of my own devising. I included burpees as punishment for my failure at the Snatch, lol:
21 – 15 – 9 reps each of:
- 24″ Box jumps
- Pull ups
- Burpess
For what it’s worth, my time was 12:38.
As for today (Wednesday), well that was a complete bust. I had felt a twinge in my hamstring doing deadlifts at the weekend, and so eased off. Well whilst I didn’t notice it at the time, I must have aggravated it on Tuesday, as it is slightly sore even to walk on at the moment. I think discretion is the better part of valour and so I’m going to take it easy. The last thing I need is a proper injury 2 weeks before the comp!
In other news, I’m working on a Crossfit post that has literally taken hours to put together. It’s probably the most useful Crossfit related post I’ve ever done on this blog, something I’ve been thinking of doing for ages and I can’t wait for it to be finished so that I can post it up! It’s even better than the Named Crossfit Workouts (the girls) post I did ages ago, that I still haven’t got round to updating yet. One day…
Anyway, this post will be ready in the next couple of days, it’s going to be awesome. 
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04.03.10
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 12:43 pm by Colin McNulty
I’ve started seriously thinking about the BWLA British Masters Olympic Weightlifting Competition at Lilleshall (I came 2nd last year) at the end of March and how I’m going to prepare for it. For reasons I won’t bore you with, I’ve not done as much lifting as I should have done in preparation for this competition. It’s too close to the comp now to actually consider improving strength really, so I’m just going to focus on technique and get my confidence levels up for what I want my starting lifts to be.
The rules say that you must start within 15kg of the qualifying standard, which was 165kg for the 77kg M1 category. So starting at 150 would be an easy 60kg snatch and 90kg clean and jerk. I think I’m going to do a bit better than that and work towards 65kg and 90kg as starting weights, and see how it goes this month, I may up them both to 70kg snatch and 95gk C&J openers. I do need to be confident of getting a total though, so will err on the side of caution if training this month doesn’t go smoothly.
My aim for training is to not try anything that will cause me to drop a lift in the next 4 weeks. I want to go into the comp with utter confidence that I can lift my openers, then just increment each one by 5kg say on the day for the 2nd and 3rd lifts. That would mean if all goes perfectly (ha, when does that happen?!?) my current PB’s of 77kg and 100kg are in range.
With that in mind, my training this week was:
Tuesday
Hang Snatch and Snatch: 2×40, 2×45, 2×50, 2×55, 1×60
Snatch + 2 Over Head Squat: 2×60, 3×65
Snatch Pulls: 3×70, 3×75, 3×80
Then ½ the Crossfit.com WOD, which was 8 rounds (I did 4) of run 400, with 90 second rest between runs. I only did half as I’m not that used to a lot of running and I had brand new Evo Viva Barefoot running shoes and didn’t want to over do it first time out.
They are Vibram FiveFinger substitutes, as I don’t have the right shaped feet for Vibrams (boooo!). Certainly, they have not a lot of sole to speak of and you do feel a lot more of what you’re walking on. They’ll take a bit of getting used to, but should help the Pose running that’s for sure.
Wednesday
Hang Clean & Jerk + Clean & Jerk: 2×50, 2×60, 2×70, 2×80
Clean & Jerk Singles: 3×85, 3×90
I followed this with a Crossfit WOD from a few days ago: Row 5k. I’ve never done a 5k row before, in fact the most I’ve ever rowed has been 2000m, and only once at that, so this was a bit daunting! In fact, it went better than I’d hoped. Each 1000m split was faster than the one before, and I had enough left to end with a bit of a sprint, finishing in a respectable (I thought) 20:28. Will have a go at beating 20mins next time.
Actually the biggest battle at the moment is making the 77kg (169lbs) weight category. I’m down from a portly 13st5 after Xmas to 12st7 as of this morning, so only 6 lbs and 3.5 weeks to go. Should be no problem, as long as I can continue to be good, hoho.
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24.11.09
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 6:16 am by Colin McNulty
It’s hard to start this post… without resorting to impolite expletives! This weekend’s weightlifting competition went about as wrong as it could have done, short of bombing (failing to get any lifts).
I could wax lyrical about my failures, but can’t quite face it to be honest. It was a shambles that’s soonest forgotten. The short version is, I got only 2 of my 6 lifts: 70kg Snatch and 95kg Clean & Jerk, for a 165 total. A mile away from the 182 total I was hoping for. Here’s the high def video, in all its embarrassing glory:
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20.11.09
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 2:00 pm by Colin McNulty
The day I’ve been waiting 2 months for has finally arrived – the Northern Open Olympic Weightlifting competition, held in Mytholmrod, West Yorkshire (England that is).
First the important stuff: I made the weight. For the last 5 days I’ve been at or under my target weight, which is the upper limit of the 77kg weight category (169 lbs, or 12 stone 1 in old money). On my more accurate scales, this morning, I weighed 76.5kg (168.8 lbs), happy days! Although not happy enough for me to be able to have any breakfast or indeed drink much in the next 4 hours till the official weigh in. See my previous post for how I tweaked the zone diet to loose the weight I needed in just 3 weeks. The zone diet comes through for me again. Here’s my weightloss graph for the last 3 weeks:
I was asked yesterday if I was ready. The answer is: I’m never ready! Well I never feel ready anyway. On the face of it that sounds bad, but think about it for a moment. If I felt ready, that is comfortably ready with the knowledge that I was perfectly able to lift the weight I wanted to, then wouldn’t I be trying below my potential? I don’t know, but I do know that I’m relying on that bit of adrenaline to out perform my previous best ever lifts, either in competition or training.
I’ve been nominally following a Hungarian weightlifting program, set weekly by my coach at Crossfit Manchester. It will be interesting to see whether I’ve progressed in the 2 months I’ve been doing it. I certainly think I have, but whether I can translate that into performance on the day, we’ll see.
Just to recap, the purpose of this comp is to qualify for the European Masters Weightlifting Championships in 2010. I’ve already qualified for the 2010 BWLA British Masters Championships. For this I need to improve on my current personal best total of 177kg, and lift the qualifying weight of 182 total. Here’s the game plan (and anyone who knows me, knows that A LOT of thought has gone into the following):
Snatch: Warm up to 70kg. Open with 75, then 78, and then 80. Current PB is 77, but I’ve only ever lifted over 75 twice ever. To be honest, opening with 75 is the big risk, just 2kg below my PB and whilst I know I can do it, I’ve not been consistent in training, dropping four 70kg snatches in a row only last week for example! There’s a significant chance I will bomb at 75 (fail to get any lifts).
Clean and Jerk: If I make the 80kg snatch, then I open with 97kg (current PB is 100), then I get 2 cracks at 102 which would give me the 182 total I need. If I get the 102, then 105 will be just for fun.
However if I get the 78kg snatch, then I’ll be starting the C&Js having just dropped a lift, so will start at a confidence building 95, then 100, and finish with 104 for my 182 total. There’s a temptation here to start higher, at 100 say, and potentially get 2 goes at 104. That will depend on how the C&J warm up has gone and how comfortable I feel.
If I only get the 75 snatch, I’m in real trouble and will need a massive PB increase; starting with 97, then 102, then the big 107.
Either way it’s PB territory or bust today! Now to stay busy and forget about my empty belly…
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14.11.09
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 5:36 pm by Colin McNulty
With a few weeks to go before the competition, it was time to focus on some full Olympic lifts and see how the last 2 months of focus on weightlifting. 2 weeks ago I decided to see if I could pull off any new personal best lifts.
To do this, I needed to get up to a top weight pretty quick, without tiring myself out. So here’s how it went, Snatch (current PB = 77kg) on one day, Clean and Jerk (current PB = 100kg) on the other:
Day 1 – Snatch: 3×40, 2×50, 60, 65, 70, 75. Then I failed at 77.5 five times in a row.
Day 2 – C&J: 3×50, 2×60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100. Then I failed to clean 102.5 four times in a row.
On the one hand, I lifted pretty well, getting up to either very close to, or equal to my PBs quickly. On the other hand, I failed to improve, which was disappointing. This week, I worked on high % reps in final prep for the Northern Open next week.
Day 1 – Snatch: 3×40, 2×50, 60, 65, 70, 3×75. This went well, 3 good lifts at 75kg all felt hard but comfortable.
Day 2 – Snatch: 3×40, 2×50, 60, 65, 70. The 70 felt wobbly, so I thought I’d try it again before moving up. That’s when it all went wrong. I dropped the 2nd 70. Then dropped the 3rd, 4th and 5th! What was going on? I was bombing badly on what should have been a warm up lift. When this happens, it’s sooo demoralising.
Day 3 – C&J: 3×50, 2×60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 95, 95, 95(F), 95. There were several days between Day 2 and 3 to get my head back in gear. 4 out of 5 lifts at 95kg was a good day.
So there we have it. 7 days to see if I can pull off 2 new PBs and qualify for the European Masters and to see if the last 2 months have all be worth the effort. There’s also the small matter of whether I can make the weight, but that’s looking doable now:
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04.11.09
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 9:31 pm by Colin McNulty
I didn’t get round to posting what I did last week, which was week 7 of the program. Because of holiday I only managed to get to the gym twice, and was recovering from the back niggle from the previous week, so took it easier that I perhaps should:
Day 1
- Snatch – singles up to 75%: I started with trebles, then doubles, then did singles up to 65kg.
- Clean & Jerk – singles up to 75%: I started with doubles, then did singles up to 85kg.
- Front Squat – 3 x 5 reps up to 75%: I did the 3 sets at 70, 80 and 90 kg.
Day 2
- Power Snatch Doubles up to 85%: I did 40, 50, 55, 60, 62.5, 65kg
- Power Clean Doubles up to 90%: I did 40, 60, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90(F2), 90(F2) which means I failed on the second lift.
This week (Week 8), as it’s getting close to the competition, I decided to see if I could set any new records. If you remember, my aim is to lift a total of 182kg (80 Snatch and 102 C&J say) to qualify for the European Masters championships in 2010.
However, I also need to lose some weight, as my weight has crept up over the last few months, mostly due to too many sweeties (shock horror!), not helped by Halloween I can tell you! So I actually started the week with a Crossfit style workout, to get the ol’ heart rate up and to burn a few extra calories.
Day 1
10 minutes of 1 minute rounds, each consisting of:
- 15 squats
- 10 sit ups
- 5 push ups
In hindsight, this was a bad idea. I should have known better than to do expect no after effects from doing my first Crossfit workout in 2 months! Over the last 2 days, I’ve had significant DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) in my pecks and thighs. Not great to have when going for a new PB. :-S
Day 2
- Snatch singles for max: 3×40, 2×50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, then I failed 77.5kg (170 lbs and PB attempt) five times before giving up. Same old problem: losing it forward at the bottom.
Day 3
- Clean and Jerk singles for max: 3×50, 2×60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, then I failed 102.5kg (225 lbs and a PB attempt) four times before giving up. Actually I failed to clean the 102.5, which was a blow. I was getting under it, but again, losing it forward i.e. it was rolling off my shoulders at the bottom of the clean.
All in all, not what I was hoping for. However the 75 snatch was just off my record of 77 and the 100 clean & jerk was an equal personal best, so it’s far from discouraging. I’m hoping the adrenaline of the competition will carry the day, as has happened before. No more PB attempts before the comp now.
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05.10.09
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 5:31 pm by Colin McNulty
Whether it was because I was rushing to try to fit in a Crossfit WOD afterwards, or whether it was just because day 3 of week 3 was a very heavy day with a load of work, I don’t know know, but either way, I managed to tweak my back on Saturday. 
Not good. To be fair, it could be worse, and I’m already seeing an improvement, but it can still be pretty painful.
So instead of going to the gym tomorrow, I’m going to the physio instead and getting a back pummelling. Actually he’s a sports massage dude. Hopefully that will just help things along enough, combined with this week being an easier week, to mean I can do day 1 on Wednesday:
Week 4: 70-75% work
Day 1
- Power snatch 7 sets of 2 reps up to max of 70%
- Clean & jerk 7 sets of 2 reps up to max of 70% d
- Dead pull of snatch 5 sets of 3 reps up to max of 100% of snatch
- Front squat 7 sets of 3 reps up to max of 75%
Day 2
- Push jerk doubles 6 sets of 2 up to 70 %
- Power hang snatch 6 sets of 2 up to 70%
- Power hang clean 6 sets of 2 up to 70%
Day 3
- Snatch 7 sets of 2 up to 75%
- 2 power clean + 1 push jerk 7 sets up to 75%
- Dead pull of clean 5 sets of 3 reps up to 100% of clean
- Back squat 5 sets of 3 reps up to 75%
By the way, Giles Greenwood commented on whether the percentages for hang power snatch, should be based on my best hang power snatch (for example) rather than my best snatch. I have since confirmed that the answer is yes. BUT as I’m still technique limited (rather than strength) all my hang and/or power lifts, are pretty close to the weights I can lift the full versions. So currently, it makes sense to base the percentages on my best lifts.
Besides, I don’t really have a clue what my best hang power anything is!
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30.09.09
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, Olympic Weightlifting at 5:52 pm by Colin McNulty
This is this week’s weightlifting program. It’s the last hard week of strength before easy week and reintroduction of classical lifts next week. I can only do 3 days this week so:
Session 1
Power Clean Push Jerk – 6 sets of 3 up to 80% (of Push Jerk) = 72.5kg
High Pull of Clean – 6 sets of 3 up to 107.5kg
Dead Pull of Clean – 4 sets of 3 up to 112.5kg
Front Squat – 5 sets. First 3 sets are 5 reps building up to 75% (92.5kg) last 2 sets are 3 reps at 80% (97.5kg)
Session 2
Push Jerk – 6 sets of 2 reps up to 80% = 72.5
Power Hang Snatch – 5 sets. First 3 sets are 3 reps building up to 80% (62.5kg), last 2 sets are 2 reps at 85% (65kg)
Power Hang Clean – as above – 80kg and 85kg respectively.
Session 3
Power Snatch 7 sets. First 4 sets are 3 reps up to 75% (57.5kg) last 3 sets are 2 reps at 82% (62.5kg)
Power Clean – as above – 75kg and 82.5kg respectively
Dead Pull of Snatch – 5 sets of 3 reps 85kg
Back Squat – 6 sets. First 3 sets are 5 reps up to 75% (112.5kg) last 3 sets are 3 reps at 82% (122.5kg)
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