11/29/10 Tri Training: Swim at Santa Clara

Brrrr... It was 48 degrees leaving my car to head to the pool. It's going to be a long season!

It was the usual swim practice...
150yd warm up (I didn't finish the full 200yds)

Drills:
150yd catchup
100yd drag
100yd thumb to thigh

Main set: Pyramid style
25yds (2 times)
50yds (2 times)
100 yds (2 times)
100yds (2 times)
50yds (2 times)
25yds (2 times)

100yd cool down

Total swim: 1,300 yds

When I was heading back to the car, I was chatting with one of my teammates that I recently met and as I was whining about the difficulties of swimming she patted me on the back to tell me that I was actually doing well at this stage of training and the best thing is to keep coming to practice. Then she threw in how she just ended chemo 2 weeks ago.. Huh?? 2 weeks ago?? So, here I am complaining about not being able to swim and this gal just finished chemo and here she is training for Lavaman. These cancer survivors are just amazing and give me more purpose to "just keep swimming" and to remember why I've joined in to fight for this cause to cure cancer!

Good night!
Aloha,
L

Sunday - 11/28/10 Hill Repeats - Finally!

The forecast for this Sunday was cold, but sunny!  Yeah, finally, I get to do a hill repeat this season!  We had 9 people show up for this morning's hill repeats.  These workouts are held at Mt. Eden in Cupertino.  It's only about 7/10 of a mile long, but there are some 8 - 9% grades.  Doesn't sound like a lot, but do it 4, 5, or even 6 times...it's definitely a good workout.  Plus, our coach always has us working on something when going up the hill each time.

Today, we climbed the hill 4 times. It sounded like a few of the participants had the toughest time when the coach asked us to try and stand all the way up!

Here's a pic of everyone enjoying the sun at the top of the hill on our last climb!

So, this was a pretty good week for me as far as workouts go.  Last Wednesday was Spin Class, Thursday (Thanksgiving day), I got out on the bike for a little leisure ride while Laarni, our two older kids (Hana and Marcus) and my niece and nephew (Halie and Daniel) went on a 4.5 mile run.  Friday, I did a 42 mile ride with some past TNT folks, Saturday was the buddy ride, and then this morning was our hill repeats.  Yeah, I'm pretty tired!  :o)  Can't wait to get back out on the bike again!  Goodnight!

H

11/28/10 Tri Training: Captain's Bike/Run

After eating, laying around, eating and more laying around these last 2 days it was about time to get back in the saddle (literally) and get some exercise in! We didn't have our usual Saturday training due to the holiday but it was back to Edgewood/Canada for this "brick" workout. It was cold once again but thank goodness we had no rain! We started out on the bike and rode north on Canada Rd to Highway 92 and back. The loop is about 6ish miles.  Martin, our captain told us to try and focus on keeping cadence high which will help with speed. We were to ride for 60-75 minutes in the loop.  I managed to get in almost 4 roundtrips but I had to cut my last one short because my maximum time on the bike was coming up.

I headed back to the car for a quick change to my running gear. I had no idea where I was supposed to run so luckily a couple of teammates were running ahead so I just followed. We ran along this dirt pathway along Canada Rd. I almost turned my ankle a couple of times due to the terrible terrain. It was also still wet and muddy from the rain so the conditions were not good. Once we got back, I realized that we did 3.5 miles! It was a great feeling to finish my first "brick" workout of the season!

Aloha
L

Saturday 11/27/10 - "Winter" Buddy Ride

This morning was Coach Kristy's buddy ride. Buddy rides are non-supported training rides where participants can show up and ride with whomever they choose to ride with (ie: pick a buddy and ride).

I got to McKenzie Park in Los Altos about 30 minutes early and of course it was raining!  Even though the forecast was for showers on Saturday, the rule of thumb is we always show up for a training ride rain or shine and then the coach makes the final call.  When Coach Kristy arrived, it had stopped raining but clouds were definitely looming.  She decided that she was not going to ride but that it was up to the rest of us to decide if we wanted to go.  A few participants still wanted to go for it so I thought I'd better go to make sure that everyone would be ok.

We got a lot of rain, there were a lot of puddles, but we did get a tiny bit of sun as well.  By the time we finished the 32 miles, we were soaked!  I was also put to the test as I decided to hook up with two fast guys.  My legs were pretty worked by the time we were done.

The cool thing though was watching 3 participants finish the entire ride.  Even though they were soaked, they were still all smiles and pretty pumped up for completing the ride! Here they are celebrating with some chocolate milk!  Congrats to Susan, Sharon, and Stephanie!

11/25/10 Tri training: Thanksgiving Day Run

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Since we had family in town and preparing for the Thanksgiving Day festivities, I skipped out on our coached track training last Tuesday. To makeup for that training, I decided to go for a run before beginning the eating fest for the day. My niece, Halie, my nephew, Daniel, and our two older kids, Hana and Marcus joined me on this very cold and crisp morning around the community where we live. Harold also joined in but on his bike to help me out in case the kids straggled behind. The boys and I stayed together during the run. They did awesome especially with all the hills! We made it back home in 55 minutes and did 4.24 miles. Bring on the turkey!!

Aloha,
L

Pre-Thanksgiving Spin Class

Wednesday evening spin class was still on for this week even though it was the day before Thanksgiving.  Thank goodness it still happend since our last two training rides were washed up.  But then again, Coach Patrick really made us work this evening!  He had us climbing much of the class and then we did "jumps".  That is, stand up, sit, stand, sit, stand sit...etc...

My legs are sore, but glad we did it so I don't feel guilty indulging in some Turkey with the family tomorrow!

I have a lot to be thankful for. Laarni and I are lucky to be surrounded by loving family members to share the holidays with. We are also very lucky that we can train as much as we do as we know some people are not as fortunate.  Finally, we never forget how fortunate we are to have such wonderful friends and family who have supported us in the fight against cancer.  As of today, we are about 30% to our fundraising goal.  See http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/lavatri11/teamdeguzman

Again, thanks to those who have helped us so far.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

H

11/22/10 Tri Training: Swim at Santa Clara

The Santa Clara Swim Center is a really nice place if you must swim and tonight is yet another Captain's swim workout. This time I was prepared to get into the pool as soon as we were able. The water temp was very nice!!

Workout summary:

200 yd warm-up

Drills:

4x50yds kick using a kickboard (fins ok)

3x50yds catch-up

3x50yds drag

3x50yds thumb to thigh

Main set:

6x25yds

3x50yds

1x150yds

100yd cool down (used pull buoy)

Total swim: 1400 yds! 

I'm still relying on the wall to be there and my breathing is all out of whack. I am able to swim nice and slow which is helping me not be so out of breath after every 25yds but I still have moments of panic which really doesn't help the breathing. This facility helps me since I'm swimming in deep water and can't just stand up when I want to. I'm really trying not to stay holding on to the wall for very long but the continuous swim is one that I really need to work on. I joked with Martin (our captain in charge of this swim workout) and asked if I can hold onto something every 25yds in the ocean. He joked back by saying, "if you swim out deep enough there may coral you can grab onto." Yikes! But I will give myself some credit to be in week 2 of swimming and no longer having my fins and my pull buoy attached to me the entire time!

Aloha

L 

Sunday - 11/21/10 Hill Repeats - Another Win for Mother Nature

Several of us showed up on Sunday morning (10/21) to do hill repeats on Mt. Eden. The morning started out a bit cold but it was sunny and dry.  Unfortunately, by the time it was ready to roll (10:30am), the rain started coming down...again!  The group had to huddle up and stay dry!



After about 20 minutes, it started to clear up but the coaches still contemplated whether to go out or not.  Hmmm.....what does mother nature have in store for us?  After some consideration and since we were already out there, Coach Patrick decided to give it a shot.  We made it to base of Mt. Eden (about 3 miles from our starting point of Monta Vista Park in Cupertino) but we definitely were not dry.  Yes, it poured on us while riding to Mt. Eden.  Well, if anything, a lot of the new riders got to experience and practice riding in the rain.  But, it was too dangerous to try and do hill repeats so we called it a day.

This cannot continue all season long, it just can't and I know it won't!  :o)

H



11/20/10 Tri Training: Bike/Run...

The tri team also had practice at Edgewood/Canada so it was nice to be able to carpool with Harold to practice. It wasn't raining when we got there but then it started to lightly sprinkle. Since this was the first official bike training, we had a meeting to discuss bike safety. During the meeting, it started to rain harder so Coach Mike gave everyone the option to bike or run.

Many folks still opted to bike and mentioned that they would run after, so I joined them. I'm not very comfortable in the rain so I took it slow. The rain didn't let up so we got very wet and it was pretty cold. I couldn't feel my fingertips or my toes and I was having a hard time seeing where I was going. I didn't feel safe at all! I finished the 8 mile loop and decided to call it a day, mainly because I couldn't see and I was shivering. The run will have to wait another day.



Coach Denise & Coach Chris trying
to keep the signout sheets dry

 











Aloha,
L

Saturday 11/20/10 - Pacelining Clinic...Almost!

Even though the forecast for this past Saturday 11/20 was for rain, rain, and more rain, the cycling team still met up at the corner of Canada and Edgewood to do a clinic on pacelining. If it's too bad, then we will not start. But as of gametime, around 8:30am, the weather was actually pretty nice.

Coach Kristy showing us how to rotate
out of the front of the paceline

A lot of new folks to cycling don't know what pacelining is and why we do it, so several of the coaches did an off-bike demonstration.

After that, we broke up into groups and headed out.  Unfortunately, after about 3 miles in, the weather really turned bad and it started to pour.  The head coach, Patrick caught up to the individual teams and cancelled the rest of the training day.

Looks like we will have to reschedule the pacelining clinic since it's such an important part of riding efficiently, especially on a century!

Tri Training: Week 1 of Swim

Monday, 11/15:
Our first captain's swim workout at the Santa Clara Swim Center. Martin, who runs the practice announced that we only had 7 lanes to swim in so that everyone would have to share and from left to right it would be swimmers fast to fastest. It was quite cold on the pool deck so I didn't take my clothes off right away. That was a mistake because by the time I got lane choice, I was in a middle lane. Martin tells me not to worry as they would reshuffle later. So, I jump in the pool and OMG, it was deep! Most pools I swim in you can stand, this one you cannot. So, Martin then tells us to do a 200yd warm up. There were 5 of us in the lane and the 3 gals had obviously done this before. That left me and another guy who struggled for these first laps. We only managed to do 100yds before we were told to do drills.

There were 4 drills:
Drag - 100 yds of dragging your fingertips along the top of the water (this one I didn't understand)
Catch up - 100 yds of touching fingertips at the top before finishing the stroke
Thumb to thigh - 100 yds of finishing the stoke by brushing your thumb against your thigh
6-3-6 - 100 yds of side kicking (6 kicks), face in for 3 kicks, side kicking (6 kicks) **never got to this drill because we were moving on**

Next the pyramid. Our group had to do 25-50-75-100(yards) and back down with a 15 second interval between each set. For all of you thinking that's crazy... yes, it was! Oh, and I wouldn't have done any of this if it weren't for my fins and my trusty pull buoy. Apparently, I need to slow down when I swim so the pull buoy definitely helps to slow me down. After finishing with the pyramid we had to do a 200yd cool down.

Swim total 1,100 yds!! Didn't I say this was the first day?? And the lanes were not reshuffled... Thank goodness we have 4 months to train because unfortunately in the ocean I can't stop every 25yds to hold the pool edge.

Wednesday, 11/17:
Coached swim at Burgess Pool in Menlo Park. The practice began with some stretching and core exercises. This pool was indoor in "the bubble" which is what the dome is referred to. Again, we got into the lanes based on swim ability so thankfully I was able to get into the proper lane this time. We were told that the warmup would be 5 min so we should swim as much as we can in that time. I was able to get in 150yds.

Coach Keith led our group and explained how your body should be in the water in order to have the best efficiency without any drag. So, in order to help train our bodies to do that, he had us do 3 drills:

Catchup for 200 yds
Head down looking at bottom of pool with the rotation of your body from side to side for 200 yds
Side kicks for 200 yds

All of these drills I only managed to do 150yds each. I continue to have difficulty with my breathing. Again, 4 months of training. Hopefully it'll click eventually.

Swim total: 600yds (but no fins and no pull buoy)

Aloha
L

Cycle Training - 70 miles!

What?  70 miles already?  Well, not really.  Earlier in the year, Laarni and I had signed up for a metric century before we knew we would team up and do TNT.  So, although we both missed formal trainings with our respective teams this weekend, we definitely got our workouts in by riding 70 miles through Solvang and included about 4,000 feet of climbing.  It was a beautiful ride and although it is a different ride than what the TNT Cycle Team plans to ride in March 2011, we will ride some of the same roads!

Cheers!

H

Tri Training: First Swim (Unofficial)

With Monday, 11/15/10 being the first official swim practice I figured I should at least get some practice laps in so I can reacquaint myself with the pool. I have not swam ever since my last tri event at the end of September. To me, the event was over so I had no reason to swim again. Until now... Even though I was swimming prior to the event, I still cringe everytime I think about swimming. It actually makes me nauseous. So, I forced myself over to the Silver Creek pool.

Team in Training (TNT) provides a detailed training schedule for the week to give the participants an idea of what you should be working on and what distances based on three levels. You can also be a different levels for each sport. In the pool, I am not confident and so I categorize myself in between the lower to middle level for swim. Based on this, I should be swimming between 400-500 yds. If this was truly my first time ever back into swimming, I would say "you're crazy!" Swimming one length of the pool which is 25 yds is a feat in itself. Luckily, I had all my gear: my googles, swim cap, fins, kickboard and pull buoy. Prior to me swimming, I had no idea you need all these things to develop strength and endurance.

Swim practice always begins with a warmup. TNT's recommended warmup is 200yds in freestyle. So, that's what I started with and my first 50 yds of my swim, I was out of breath and all I could think about was "what did I get myself into?" But I tried to remain calm and realized that I swam that first 50 like I was racing. My wonderful swim instructor, Mrs. T was the one who said "swim nice and easy." So, I tried to remember that and I headed out for my next 50 but again, I felt out of breath and even sucked in some water. My breathing was not good! So, I decided to get my friend the pull buoy (and for you non swimmers, this device forces you to use your arms only when you swim). Many people don't like it but my main reason for liking the device is that I only concentrate on moving my arms, keeping my head down and breathing. For some reason, when I add the kicking, I overtire myself. I finished my warmup with 100yds using the pull buoy.

Now for the main set... I alternated between freestyle, kickboard and the pull buoy. This is what I ended up doing.

2 x 50yds freestyle
4 x 50yds pull buoy
2 x 50yds kickboard
1 x 50yds freestyle

My final swim total was 650yds. I would've attempted to swim additional yards but my last 50yds was done in what I would call my best freestyle so I wanted to end on a good note. Still not confident but I have 5 months...

Aloha
Laarni

First Spin Class - Equinox in Palo Alto

For the second year in a row, the TNT Winter Cycling team is lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to a beautiful fitness center, Equinox in Palo Alto, for indoor cycling (Spin) classes each week.  Coach Patrick is also a certified Spin instructor so he put us to work right away.

It was a great turnout...we must have had over 20 people from our team.  Coack Patrick did not take it easy either. He let us warm up for a little bit but we started on both seated and standing climbs. We also did a lot if interval training.  It was hot in the room too so we were all sweating bullets! No better way than to get a great workout in the middle of the week!  Coach Patrick not only is generous with his time as he volunteers to teach the class, let alone head coach of our cycle team, but he also promised $100 to any fundraiser who makes it to each and every Spin class over the course of our 4 month season.  I hope he has to pay up a lot of dough!

Both Laarni and I will be missing our trainings with our respective teams this weekend, but we'll be definitely working out as we will be doing a metric century (about 65 miles) this weekend with some friends in beautiful Solvang, CA.

H

Tri Training: Intro, Day 1 and 2

I'm officially part of the Silicon Valley TNT tri team! Lavaman, here I come! Yay! It took me quite some time to register. Besides figuring out the logistics of babysitting since Harold is also training this season, I am also terrified of this event. Yeah yeah, the event is in Kona but swimming in the ocean... now that's a different story.

It was only this past July when my wonderful friends who will remain nameless but knows who they are, got me on this kick of doing a triathlon. So, I entered and finished my first tri last September. It was called a sprint tri where you swim 400 yds, bike 11 miles and run 3.1miles. As Harold mentioned earlier, I'm not water friendly. I'm the one who will literally scream if you splash me in the pool and will only be in the pool or a body of water if I can stand. So, in order to complete this event I had some serious training to do. I took swim lessons and joined a masters swim program. You can all do the math, this was all in a 2 month time period. By the time I was faced to do the open water swim portion (which was in a lake in Pleasanton), I freaked out and did the entire swim in backstroke since I could not put my face in the water. My description to anyone who asks is "it looked like a scene from the Titanic where everyone is just swimming to survive." It took everything in me to calm myself down and talk myself through until I could finally get to a point in the lake where I could stand. As much as I was thankful for not drowning that day, I wasn't very thrilled of my performance.

Ever since Harold joined TNT a year ago, I look at every season's brochure to see where the events are being held. I kept saying if I ever do an Olympic tri I want it to be in Hawaii. So, here I am... I joined a wonderful group of people who will be doing the same thing I am. We will swim .93 miles (4 times what I did my last tri), bike 24.8 miles and run 6.2 miles. Some have done it before but there are others even in worse situations than myself, no swim, bike or run training. Yes, TNT will train you to do all those things!! What inspired me even more to do this event was at the Info meeting, a woman named Vanessa spoke to us about her experience with cancer. She was diagnosed with cancer right as she was graduating from college and if it weren't for the clinical trial drugs at the time she wouldn't be standing telling her story. That was in the early 90's. Some of the drug protocols she received are actually now part of the chemotherapy drugs today. But because of those drugs, she continues to have medical issues related to those drugs. She is also a participant in the Lavaman event so now my teammate.






Vanessa is just one of the many people we have met or heard their story about how the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has helped them.

Day 1:

Our first official training was last Saturday, Nov 6th. After the busy morning, getting our babysitter all situated... (Shout out to Kristine btw who without her I probably wouldn't be doing this!! Thank you!) I finally made it to the Sports Basement in Sunnyvale. After doing a quick, get to know your fellow team members, we split up into our mentor groups and rotated around to 4 stations;  bike fitting, 1 mile run, tire changing and core work. Here we are headed out to do our 1 mile run (that's me in the front)...Afterwards, there was a gear clinic where they talked about all the required items needed for this event and all the luxury items. Being on the tri team can get quite expensive if you don't already have gear.

Day 2:

Marci Hanisch's mentor group

Last night, we had our first track workout at Foothill College. I thought for sure we'd end up running since we had a fairly easy practice on Sat but again we broke up into 4 groups and rotated around different stretching activities. While doing our stretches, we were able to get to know our fellow teammates once again. The coaches stressed how important your core and stretching will be for this event. This is a good reminder because I have a weak core (I'll blame that on being pregnant 4 times!) and I never remember to stretch. After we did our stretching exercises, we did a scavenger hunt with our mentor group and had to make up a team cheer.It was all in good fun and a good way to get to know more people!

The night ended with HWTG (Hang With the Gang) at the Boardwalk in Los Altos for some well deserved dinner. Once again, more social time with the teammates. This is all fine and dandy now as I'm sure the training will start to get more intense...

Missing next practice due to our 65 mile ride in Solvang this weekend. But the next practice I'll be attending next Monday will be swim! Yikes!

Until next time.... Aloha!

Laarni

First Day of Hill Repeats - Not a Good Day of Learning!

Warren, Coach Patrick, Peter, and Harold
by Rick's van in an attempt to stay dry!

Sundays will bring hill repeats at Mt. Eden.  The cycle team meets at Monta Vista park in Cupertino and then will ride a 3 mile warmup to Mt. Eden.  Unfortunately, the first day was a washout. We had 2 participants actually show up!  It reminded me of me last year when I showed up to every training ride rain or shine.  Not one ride last year was cancelled due to rain so this was a first for me.  But, like Coach Patrick said, it's not a good day of learning.  If this were week 2 or 3, or if this was a regular training ride and did not involve hills, we would have still road our bikes!  Yeah!  I love it!  Cheers to Warren and Peter for still showing up!  Also pictured is coach Patrick.  And of course our great web captain Rick showed up...he's taking the picture! 

Next up, Spin Class this Wednesday at Equinox!

H

First Training Day for the Winter 2011 Cycle Team

Just like last year (my first season with TNT), I was totally excited about the new season.  But this time, unlike last year, I had almost 3,000 cycling miles under my belt.  Yup, in just one year, I logged in almost 3,000 miles.  I remember that first day last year when the 15 mile orientation ride felt like I would never be able to do a full century.  Now, I'm mentoring for TNT and having a blast!  Our first team ride was this past Saturday 11/6/10 at 9am.  That's way too late to start riding!  :o)

I got to our meeting place, McKenzie Park in Los Altos, at 6:30am.  It was dark and cold as could be but I got my bike prepped, put on some layers, turned on the lights on the bike and started to roll on my own at 7AM on the nose.  I did a 20 mile loop from Foothill to Page Mill to Aratradero to Alpine and back down to Foothill.  Got be back to McKenzie Park at 8:30am with plenty of time to spare before the actual team ride at 9AM!  Great warm-up!

Here's a picture of a new participant, Dori (thumbs up), with two other mentors around her, Wendy and Mark, and then there's me!  We are just filling her with information and what a fantastic time she is about to have this season!  She is ready!

The first ride was simply an orientation ride, about 15 miles.  We had folks out on road bikes, as well as mountain bikes. Some in full on kits (bike uniform talk) and some in simple gym attire.  At the end of the ride, our Coach, Patrick, asked for a show of hands if this was the longest ride they had been on. There were around 8 or 9 people who raised their hands!  Awesome!  I was one of thoses who raised my hand a year ago! I still remember how excited I felt and how awesome it felt to be with this team!  I can only hope that the new participants feel the same way!

We can't forget why we are here doing what we are doing, so we had two Honorees speak during our breakfast after the ride.  Honorees are those who are fighting or who have battled cancer and are willing to tell their story.  Not only have both of these gentlemen fought Lymphoma, but they are in remission and are riding/training with us today. In fact, one of them, Tom (the guy on the left) was a TNT coach during the Summer season!  These guys were sitting there telling us how it was because of people like us that have helped them stay alive.  The drugs that cured both of them, called Rituxan, was brought about because of the help of LLS and the funding that it provided. It's because of the research and support that helped both of these awesome men stay alive.  Now, they share their story so that we could continue raising money for new medicines.  We've heard time and time again, how sometimes medicines that are around today don't work for some people so they have to try new things. With new things, you never know what the side effects are.  That's why we have to continue to research and find a cure!  That's why we do this!  Thanks to both Tom and Gene for sharing their stories with us!  They are very inspirational!

Until next time! 

H



Let's Do This Again!!

Ok, so it's been about a year to the day that I created this blog to share with everyone my TNT experience. For those of you just joining us, TNT is Team in Training and is part of the Lukemia and Lymphoma Society. Their mission is to abolish all blood cancers! I joined TNT to help fight the cause! You may think, wow, that's cool that you're doing that Harold. What a great guy you are for doing this. Well, as you all know, I couldn't have done it alone! My wife and teammate, Laarni, was a huge part of my team and helped me accomplish everything I wanted to this past year!

Let's see, she not only supported me in my adventure of training for and actually accomplishing the 100 mile ride back in February 2010, but she also supported the team a few times by volunteering to work at a rest stop. With all this, she still managed to keep things in order at the house, help with the homework, get to plays, baseball games, dance classes, and even found time to scrapbook for her own well being.

Well, this time, Laarni is doing even more! She's decided to fundraise with me and do an event on her own. Yup, we both will be training to do an endurance event. We just kicked off our seasons this past Saturday 11/6/10. I will do another 100 mile ride, but this time as a mentor with TNT. That means, I have the opportunity to help out new participants who are just starting out. My event takes place on March 12, 2011 and will be held in Solvang, CA.

Laarni on the other hand is going to try something really courageous! That is, an Olympic Distance Triathlon. This entails a 1.5K swim (about a mile), a 40K bike ride (about 25 miles), and a 10K run (about 6 miles). It hasn't even been a year since Laarni got her first road bike and her first running shoes. It was even more recent than that when Laarni got her first pair of goggles. If anyone knows her, she never wanted to get her hair or face wet when entering a pool! Now she's going for the open water swim! Oh, did I mention that her event would be taking place on April 3, 2011 in Kona, HI? Yeah, I know, I know, paradise, right? Hey, but it's still a Triathlon and it will take everything she has to train for it. I am very proud of her for taking on this challenge!

Not only will we have the challenge of training as we both have a training schedule that will require 2 - 3 days of training each week until our events (sometimes on the same days as each other), but we'll also need to juggle taking care of and spending time with our kids...all 4 of them! Hana (10), Marcus(7), Zachary (5), and Kailie (4) are our little angels and we are so glad that they have come to enjoy our new found family...TNT!  That also means a lot of babysitting expenses for us!  But it's all worth it when we think about why we are doing this!

So, this blog has now officially become the blog of Team DeGuzman. Both Laarni and I will be posting our experiences throughout the season here. Oh, by the way, remember why we are doing this? Well, go check it out here:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/lavatri11/teamdeguzman

I know it can sometimes be an imposition to ask for money, but it never hurts to ask is our motto. It's not like the money is filling our pockets, but is going to a very good cause. Again, please consider donating to this worthy cause and help us find a cure. Together - We Can Fight!!

On behalf of Team DeGuzman, ALLLLLOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHAAAAAA! 

Team DeGuzman Fighting Cancer Together!