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Day 3 in Sharm El Sheikh

Today was our last day of our diving trip. I did three dives today, bring the total number of dives on our diving trip to nine. To date, I have dived 21 times in total.

The first dive today was at Gordon Reef, and something unique to this reef is "The Lovilla", a boat that's stuck on the Northern edge of the reef, above the water. It's been sitting there since 2005, and has largely corroded away. It some point the remains will fall in the water and will make a very enjoyable dive site. Here's the ship:

Anyways, Haitham asked me to solve some simple math equations on the first dive at a depth of ~30m to test my tolerance to nitrogen narcosis. Reefs today were spectacular. I didn't take my camera underwater this trip unfortunately, but Tarek and Haitham did. I'll share photos from them once I get it.

I was supposed to head to Dahab today, but I felt pretty exhausted so I just hung out with Tarek and Abu ElHaz. Tomorrow morning I head to Dahab!

Day 2 in Sharm El Sheikh

Weather today has been much nicer - more sun and less wind. We ended up taking a boat, حرية السويس, and visited a couple of dive sites. I did three dives during the boat trip. The first two dives were "drift drives", where I was learning to glide with current while enjoying the marine life. Both of these dives were with my instructor Haitham.

I then did a third dive, this time with Captain Abdelhameed, and that was a buoyancy dive, where I did drills to help control my altitude under water and to be neutrally buoyant.

Finally, I did a fourth dive with Haitham, Tarek, and Juan. This time, though, it was a night dive. I've been craving doing a night dive for a long time, and it certainly was worthwhile. I'd almost compare to going to outer space - the blackness of the sea vs the blackness of space and the buoyancy in the water vs the free gravity in space.

Anyways, we wrapped up today with a great seafood dinner at Fares. I am exhausted now. Time to head to be to catch another boat for a couple of diving trips in the early AM. Tomorrow will be the last day on this diving trip, and I then will be heading to Dahab to work out of there for a bit.

Day 1 in Sharm El Sheikh

Today was a bit of a rough start to our diving trip. The weather was cloudy, dusty, and very windy. One of the boats that went out in the morning came back shortly after because of the weather conditions.

We plowed through it tough and decided to dive directly from the beach without a boat. Haitham, my instructor, guided us in two dives in Shark's Bay. The first was a refresher, as it had four years since I last dived.

The second one was supposed to be a navigation dive, but it was cut short because Haitham's dry suit was leaking.

The original plan was to do a night dive this evening and then take a boat at dawn tomorrow to Thistlegorm, the British shipwreck from WWII. That unfortunately won't happen tomorrow also because of weather conditions. Hopefully the day after (?)

Week 1 – Day 4

Today was abs day. The previous program I did in Small Fish didn't have any designated ab workouts, so this is a nice change.

Today's workout was 4 sets of the following:

  • Bicycle Kicks (20 seconds)
  • 15 sit ups
  • Left plank (15 seconds)
  • Right plank (15 seconds)
  • V hold (15 seconds)
  • 15 crunches

I was to do around 30 seconds between sets, but it was easy enough that I didn't need that much rest.

يوم في شارع المعز لدين الله الفاطمي

بدأت السنة الجديدة بزيارة لشارع المعز لدين الله الفاطمي مع معتز و أحمد عليوة. أنا محرج و أنا أقول إن هذه هي زيارتي الأولى لهذا المكان. من مفهومي أنه تم ترميم الشارع و آثاره من فترة بسيطة. ولا أنكر أن  زيارتي غيّرت انطباعي عن القاهرة بشكل عام (إلى الأفضل). رونق هذا الشارع فريد من نوعه بالرغم من أنه يزال ينقصه الكثير.

استغليت زيارتي لشارع المعز و اشتريت أباجورة لأمي بمناسبة عيد ميلادها. الأباجورة شغل يدوي و رحت على كهربائي في باب الشعرية عشان يركّب الكهرباء. طلّع دين أهلي بس شكلها طلع مش وحش في الآخر. منقوش عليها "قل أعوذ برب الفلق":

Week 1 – Day 3

I am still getting used to this new type of workout. Before I used to take longer breaks, but now my rest is time-bound, which makes it more difficult, but more rewarding as well.

I did 3 cycles of the following with 30 second breaks between them:

  • 10 chinups *
  • 15 regular pushups
  • 90 degree pullup holds (15 seconds)
  • 15 reverse chair dips
  • 10 shoulder press ups

* I did 9 chinups on the third set. Couldn't make it to 10 🙁

Project Medium Fish

Update: this is an outdated version of the project. Check out the new updated version here.

Following the success of Project Small Fish, I feel now more ready than ever to start another project. This project is an extension of Project Small Fish, and I thus dubbed it "Project Medium Fish".

Project Medium Fish, like its predecessor, is a mental and physical fitness project. To me, this project is deeply foundational. It's a challenge to grow myself mentally and physically. It's a statement. It's a statement that I am in control, and in my control I shall be disciplined and I shall thrive. I don't need to rely on a new year's resolution to motivate me or a gym membership to make me feel better. My mind is now much stronger than three months ago, and I believe that I now have the mind to take this project to completion and many others to come.

Deadline: April 15, 2018

Current Progress:

17%

For this project, I decided to follow a program called "The System" by Bar Brothers. As someone who suffered from a shoulder injury, I need to spend more time building my calisthenics foundation, and I think this program will help me build a solid one.

It's a 12 week program, and by the end of it I should be able to do the following between three different workout sessions:

 Exercise Reps Sets Rest
Handstand Pushups wall assisted 5 6 40sec
Pushups stance shoulder walk outs 10 6 45sec
Pike Pushups 14 6 50sec
Handstand Hold 45sec 6 1min
Muscle Ups 8 6 30sec
Pushups 15 6 40sec
Dips 15 6 45sec
Pullups 10 6 1min
Clap Pushups 12 6 30sec
Type-Writer Pushups 12 6 40sec
Inner Pushups 12 6 50sec
90 Degree Pushups Hold 10sec 6 1min

In addition, there is a test to compare fitness levels before and after. I did the test today (12/31) and here are my results:

Exercise Reps Sets Rest Result
Pushups Max 1min 3 1min 31,14,10
Squats Max 1min 3 1min 26,34,38
Dips Max 30sec 3 1min 15,16,12
Situps Max 1min 3 1min 34,21,30
Pullups Max 30sec 3 1min 8,9,5

I'll be reporting my progress as often and as thorough as I can. It's showtime!

Also, there's only a few hours left in 2017. Happy new year!