Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
Here’s how to save!
Wanna save some cash and support the site? These companies help support the site! With Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.
You can also pick-up tons of gear at REI via these links, which is a long-time supporter as well:
Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!
You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.
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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
2
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
3
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
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My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
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The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
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Training is pain and suffer!
Fell over on my bike the first day I got it. Slowed down next to a guy who looked like he had a flat to see if he needed help and just fell over sideways right in front of him cause I couldn’t get unclipped.
Just this week. Second ride out with SPD’s, and after overtaking the lorry advertising “proud sponsor of UK Athletics” at roadworks, didn’t manage to unclip… you can guess the rest.
It’ll be funny when the pain has gone!
Battery of FR60 died after the winter duathlon (I was getting back to home already) and wasted all stats. OK, OK, I should replace the battery when it’s getting close to depletion, I know… And that was my first sports event ever :)
i once did a training with my best friend who during the training asked himself who is shouting for him. we realized that it was a sheep standing next to us making his normal noise but it was really like the german short version “mihi” for name michael. training was almost not possible after this because we had to laugh so much
I was out for a run in the woods in the evening hours, after 10minutes hr monitors battery was empty, twenty minutes later when I was in the middle of nowhere, my headlight died too :)
did not see the uneven pavement while running then tripped, rolled twice then got up and ran again like nothing happened.. sore hands and knees for the next few days though
Realizing I had left my front wheel back home in the garage. Major fail. After the second time of doing this I’ve since gotten a different roof rack that secures the entire bike!
Hi DC,
Since I am in Hawaii, and we can train pretty much all year, I guess my entry won’t count?
Training stories–having more than one pair of the same trail shoe and showing up for a trail run with two left shoes.Oops!
Aloha,
Bob
Funny / embarrasing moment in racing was last September when I only realised after jumping onto my bike out of T1 that I had clipped my shoes onto the wrong pedals. Being a sprint, I didn’t stop, but 20k with your shoes on the wrong feet just aint comfortable!!
Funniest moment: on holidays, after a long and hard run I used the ‘back to start’ function on the 305. It guided me home perfectly: my house was only 10 yards away…but also 200 yards lower. So, another 5 miles of running to get home…
Funny, well… sweating and moaning on a 13% 1 km climb when a elderly cyclist on an e-bike is passing and greeting me at a speed of over +25km/h. In the descent I got him eventually :-)
WOW! How cool is this!
Funniest training moment?
I left on an early morning long runlast summer and I must have been still asleep when I got ready. For the first 2 miles I kept wondering why my running tights felt a little funny and bunched up.
Yeah, they were on backwards. Dashed off into the woods to the side of the road to switch them around and there was this older couple walking with their doggy who got to witness this whole thing. I am sure they are still wondering what I was doing…..
Nothing really interesting…swimming into others count?
I don’t have any funny training stories to share so I will share this:
Hello and Happy Spring!
Thanks,
Casey
I thought a group of runners coming toward me were people that I knew (from a group of visually impaired runners). So I started waving my arms and shouting. Only when they were practically on top of me, did I realize that I had no idea who they were (and vice versa!). I laughed for the rest of the run (and am now thinking that I need a volunteer to run with me on my own runs!)
Getting trapped on a trail by a defensive swan…I had to find a long way home, but it made for a longer run :)
when i saw a runner run over another runner because of stupidity. :D
Hi
Take my running too seriosuly now I know how fun I’m: Will change.
last spring I was caught by surprise when it started heavily snowing on a climb I did. It got up to the point where I just didn’t have enough traction and had to push my road bike the last 200m to the top.
Getting to the gym after work and realizing I had not grabbed my sports bra, ended up changing and still running a few miles in my regular bra.
2 counts of the same offence your honour, riding over grids that were missing a bar, the resulting gap being the same width as my wheel plus 2mm each side… The second time was right outside work where about 120 colleagues were waiting for a bus. Luckily the hi vis top and shorts rendered me virtually invisible…
hi from Portugal!
On a training run I was passing by some farmland when a couple of horses decided to get intimate with each other. Awkward.
learning how to use SPD pedals on my mountain bike….
Hello from the great white north
Ewan
Once I was riding with my wife, we got to a stop light. I stop and unclip my right foot. She got next to me, to my left, and was unable to unclip so she just grabbed me. But my left foot was still cliped …
Thanks for the giveaway Ray!
My funniest training moment is probably when I tripped and did an awesome nose dive fall with a roll on Chicago’s lake front path. I rolled right up onto my feet. The guy behind me looked at me with a face that said, WTF happened? I continued my run.
During a training run with the temperature in the single digits, I needed to make an “adjustment” in the groin area. Initially, I thought some chaffing had started to occur, but to my dismay I quickly realized that my extremities had begun to freeze! It turns out that I foolishly put on cotton briefs, and they were completely soaked with sweat. I was about 6 miles away from home at this point and began to panic a bit. The only choice I had was to use one of my gloves! So I crammed a glove in there, pulled my sleeve down over my hand and started to run again. About ten minutes later I noticed it wasn’t getting much better. So off with the second glove and down with the sleeve! I ran another ten minutes and realized I was mostly back to normal. I ended up running about 13 miles that day. The funny part was wondering if the cars passing by noticed that I wasn’t wearing gloves, or the bulge in my pants!
Hi!
Being attacked endlessly by an angry magpie while cycling. Me cycling, not the magpie. Okay, not so funny for me, but bloody hilarious for anyone watching me trying to shoo it away.
HI !
Fell asleep while biking (end of a very long ride, had to work really late the day before).
Fell asleep mid tent pitch a little later.
The ride was really beautiful though.
Hi. I forgot my helmet one morning, setting off a mad scramble for a Wal Mart, where I bought the first helmet I could find. Not terribly “funny” but true.
Hi there!
Hi
hi!
Hi!
Hi
Hi!
Turning a 35 mile ride into a nearly 50 mile ride with one wrong turn (while leading a group of 10 ladies). Never hear the end of it….
I’m in
Hi Ray!
My funniest moment was when I went our for a run in my favourite orange t-shirt… What’s funny about that?
Well, it all started when a apiarist went by in truck car with couple of beehives at the back.
Apparently, bees like orange color, so instantaneously they went after me. I ended up tossing that t-shirt into ditch and running away with more than 10 stings all over my body :-)
No funny momments to date, I’m pretty new at this… that could change with a brand new 310XT though =)
No really good stories I can think of so I will just say Hi! – Thanks!
Once, i was running, seeking for a rowing club in a new place, i got to the piece of water, saw some rowing boats on the river, wondered to turn either left or right to seek the rowing club.
I choose the right and ran for 75 minutes to reach the rowing club that was standing behind the 1st building had I turn on the left.
Running with a male partner and needed to go… and not just pee, but there was no porta potty insight. Typically I would have just found a try, but we had not been running together very long.
I held it for 4 miles and spent the rest of the day in pain. Serious pain. NOT a good idea and I will NEVER do that again.
When I told him the next day, he was furious with me and declared, if it was him, he would have found the closest tree.
Hi.
My funny training moments are all fashion related – the 310XT would be a great accessory for my Boston outfit.
Rob
Hi Ray… I have a story, but since it is about a significant other I might get in trouble for sharing it, so I won’t…
When I was just getting into running/triathlons, I went for what was to be an easy 3 mile run. My wife had just done a 4 mile bike and spoke of how easy and flat it was. I tried to run the same route, but in reverse. All was well until a fork in the road. I should not have taken the fork for “Hession Hill Road”. It was not flat! Two hours later I stumbled home after walking over 6 miles, mostly uphill or down.
35 miles into ride and my chain snapped, long walk to the next town.
almost getting arrested at Prince William Forest after a friend and i drove in the wrong entrance and ended up in the restricted area. we found a building labeled visitor information and went inside (door was unlocked). It tripped an alarm and we were questioned for about 20 minutes, and had the car searched. I joked that there is nothing we could hide in our cycling clothes – but that didn’t go over very well.
Checking my weight after a workout. Stepped on the scale and it cracked down the middle. Lots of running happened after that.
Maybe I’ll win this one to replace my 305!
No really funny stories, just love the training and the Garmin will make a good addition to my “All the gear, no idea” get-up ;-)
When I tried to stand up to check the AC located in the ceiling of the spinning room. I forgot that pedals on a spinning bike don’t stop instantaniously…
/Roger
Maybe I will have funny moments training with a FR 310XT :)
Getting to the pool and realizing that I had forgotten my bathing suit
Not sure I have a funny story except for the usual “poop” stories. Haha! Thanks for putting on the contest – I’m in!
Driving 50 miles for an MTB ride to find I’d packed shoes with Crank Bros. cleats to use with my SPD pedals. Oh, how I laughed! :(
Funniest/ embarrassing moment was running the ING New York City Marathon last year and after a porta john stop around Mile 20 I failed to realize that I had TP stuck to my shorts.
Hi!
I bike commute as part of my training and last summer I saw that a DC summer rain storm was coming soon, so instead of riding I took the bus home, but the bus stop is 2 miles from my house, and it hadn’t started raining so I was sure I could “beat the rain” so as I was riding home the storm hit, and I was drenched within seconds. Now if I had ridden the full way home it wouldn’t have been a big deal to get so wet because I would have changed into biking clothes, but since I was only riding 2 miles I rode in my work outfit, which that day was a pair of WHITE pants, which when got wet became SEE-THROUGH!!!! So I mooned my neighbors while being fully dressed.
Hola! Ca Va! Aloha! Hi!
Coming back to training in the gym after a long layoff, I was quite confident in pushing a 40-pounder on the chest press with a bar. Oops! Ended with the bar crushing my chest and had to let the weights fall with a loud noise that the whole gym heard and watched! Hurt my self-confidence, not my chest! Excellent blog!
Picking up someone else’s bike at the start of a La Mans style bike race.
Not sure he thought it was funny…
Just last Tuesday – in the evening i went out for 10k run. After first 3k on the regular road i ran in the trees and realized batteries in my headlamp just ran out and i couldn’t see anything. It was quite stupid of me i didnt check them before and potentially dangeous, as something could hit me on my way back, but as it had happy end… it turned to be quite funny ;)
Hellooooooooooooooooo :)
andrew nagy
ajnagy@hotmail.com
Probably falling of a windtrainer
In. Thanks.
Hi! No real embarasing moments but sure could use that Garmin as I’m still using a 301!
This cracks me up to see all the comments when you’re giving something free away, pretty impressive though to see how many people follow your blog Ray. As always keep up the good work.
It was definitely funny to watch me on my first training swim at the pool.
Hi
Just a hello as well. Wish I had a funny moment to share!
Hi DC Rainmaker!
Dog chases on the bike. It’s never funny at the time, but I can always laugh afterwards, because they’ve never knocked me over, and I’ve yet to be bitten. I’ve never climbed faster than with a dog nipping at my heels… great for the heart rate too.
:)
Funny moment training was probably on a cycling ride when i fell over clipped in while i was stopping to talk to a cute girl i knew…
My funniest training moment was probably getting ready to ride down off the levee bike trail I train on, only to find out I was coming in quite too fast and having my wheels come out from under me in the wet grass, then waving and laughing (glad to be okay) to a few cyclists who looked very concerned as they rode by.
Arriving at the pool for a lap swim and realizing that I only packed a beach bikini. Made for some interesting flip turns…
running into parking meter.. funny in a three stooges kind of way. I didnt laugh at the time but my training partners sure did
Coming to a slow rolling stop, unclipping my right foot, leaning left and eating pavement. Right in front of a plant, where 3 people asked me if I was okay. After assuring them the only thing I hurt was my pride, I biked off red faced and laughing at myself.
I don’t train.. I live. lol
But my funniest moment also involved clipless pedals. I fell over right in front of the garage.
Being pulled into a river by my dogs whilst out running with them. At least everyone who saw it thought it was…
I’ll drop a “hi” for you…I just woke up and am in no position to try to find something funny right now! Erin in ND
It’s not all /that/ funny, but I was out for a quick ride and pretty much in the zone. So I’m cruising along down a bike lane, all hunched over focused on form and cadence when I felt someone reach out and grab my shoulder and say something. As you can imagine it was quite surprising, I didn’t recognize the voice and could figure out how they would have gotten close enough without me seeing them first. It was even more surprising when I figured out it wasn’t a person, but a bird trying to land on my back and the “talking” I heard was probably the bird’s reaction to my flinch as it’s landing space turned into a shifting platform.
I saw that bird on the return trip, it eyed me as I went by :)
Hey :)
Too many tripping incidents to choose just one.
Hi !!
Hi!
i’ve had a few dreams that involved me swimming nude at masters practice and not being embarrassed about it. not sure what that is about.
clip-less peddles are always fun.
I’m in.
My first time riding my road bike alone(2nd time riding it ever), I was going down a busy stretch of roadway here on LI. I didn’t want to have to get stuck at a very busy intersection ahead so I decided to cut up a side street. Said side street has a hill that is upwards of an 11% grade. I slowed to make the turn onto the side street, never even though about shifting to a lower gear and by the time I was 3/4 of the way up my legs and all forward motion stopped, I started to tip, fell and did a backwards somersault with my bike still attached.
Lotsa injured pride that day.
A friend of mine ran into a pole because he was watching a couple of girls play tennis
Looking back at it; its funny. I was on my first group ride and we had to stop at an intersection. We all started rolling again and someone yelled car back when I was in the middle of the intersection. So I push hard on my pedal and my shoe must not have been clipped in. I slide about 40 yards. I was fine until the railroad tracks. At that point I had to lay the bike down. I came out fine but I do not recommend riding on the top tube.