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.
4
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!
5
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.
Aloha!
Well, I work on Friday and Monday, so no major plans. I’m sure I can find some time to squeeze in some delicious BBQ though! Thanks for all the great posts!
I’ll be spending 4 days backpacking in the Ventana wilderness with friends. There is a possibility that we will be taking “the road less traveled,” which includes a 1 mile, 6 hour section of bush whacking. If I win Ray’s Garmin giveaway, but do not make it back from the weekend, I will the Garmin to “the girl.” No, silly, not Ray’s girl – My girl.
I’ll be running intervals on Friday, swimming on Saturday, racing on Sunday, and biking on Monday…and in between, spending lots of time with family and friends!
This weekend I’m cutting at least 10 inches off my hair and donating it to Locks of Love! And then I’m taking my daughter to a birthday party, babysitting my niece and then going to visit my brand new nephew. It’s all about family this weekend!
Great Blog check it daily
I’ll be heading to the beach on Saturday & Sunday. Working on Monday. I plan on doing a little swimming at the beach.
Hmmm, didn’t realise that it was a three day weekend. I’ll probably be working on the normal day and doing the usual biking on the weekend.
Thank you for the great reviews… extremely informative… I can only imagine how much time you are spending on these…as far as for my weekend… hoping for some sunshine, so I can enjoy some running, some biking and a lot of time with the family ;)
Heading to Quebec city, my hometown for the long weekend and some extra days!
Thank you for the chance!
Is there a way to win a 610 covered in BBQ sauce? If so, sign me up.
5k afternoon with my woman, then we will go on a 40 mile ride Saturday morning. Shower and change for a crawfish boil Saturday night. Rest Sunday with another run and/or ride monday!
Three day weekend .. sounds nice, but I’ll be working on Friday and Monday here in Germany. Plans for the weekend include continueing with my Marathon recovery and hopefully a bikeride on Sunday. Probably a BBQ, too – but nothing all that special (a bit of meet and a sausage or two). Probably going to follow IM Brazil if ironmanlive is working for a change.
I plan on taking my son to the zoo, get in a good long run on Sunday, and catching up on tasks around the house, pretty exciting indeed.
Going to Berlin for the weekend with my good colleagues. Must remember to bring my running shoes…
Kayaking Friday, Cycling Saturday & Sunday Morning Hopefully get in a swim and a run in the afternoons and then Cycling and Kayaking Monday. No BBQ for me :(
Inlaws coming town. Eek.
Awesome Giveaway!
I’m planning on spending the weekend rock climbing and hiking with my kiddos :)
Pre- and post-emptively celebrating the end of the world!
Interesting giveavay ))
I’d like to join
We were off to see the wizard :)
I’ll be at the races in beautiful florida with 14 of the junior athletes I coach for a beautiful sprint distance race. Then my whole team and families will go for lunch on the river with pontoon boats, snorkeling and manatees! Sunday will be for relaxing and Monday “the guy” and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary. We’re going on a 50 mile ride (no kids) and a mile ocean swim and then hitting the Ritz and drinking mojitos all afternoon! Great weekend ahead!
Climbing a mountain! Looking forward for a great adventure in a tropical rainforest.
Thanks for doing another giveaway! I’ll be spectating a 10 mile race on Saturday, running the Madison Marathon on Sunday, and eating my weight in hot dogs on Monday:)
Headed to the Lake of the Ozarks to meet up with family for the long weekend.
Bike road race saturday. Ride hills sunday and 90 minute run sunday afternoon.
Nice job Ray!
Yes, put me in for this one. 6-hour ride planned with friend Lauren for Saturday – hoping to get from Fort Lee, NJ to Bear Mountain, will perhaps extend slightly past the 3-hour ‘out’ mark if we are near our destination but not quite there! Sunday will be 1.5hr swim and 2-3hr run (getting over a lung ailment and thinking about cutting long run from 3 to 2 hrs) – or the days will be switched out if thunderstorms come Saturday…
Plan on spending my weekend watching my teammates compete in a half ironman and freeze their butts off in a cold west coast lake.
will be back in the saddle after a gap of two weeks. 100Ks on my bike and topping it off with a mild 7K run
Great review of the 610. Love your site.
Actually off to a mates 40th birthday bash so that will probably kill training for the weekend.
me too :)
I’m still stuck on Easter, so it will be barbecued Peeps, with barbecue sauce. Yum!
I’ll swim, bike, run, and eat!
Hi, in Italy we have a normal 2 days week end and for me there is a big party with a lot of relatives and big BBQ. CIAO!!!
This weekend? This weekend will be like any other, three days or not. I’ll start off by lying to coworkers about my big plans involving running, relaxing and spending a tremendous amount of time watching television, only to later make a run for the empty field near my house. I’m nearly certain an old sailing vessel or a partly dissaembled Dook LaRue from Showbiz Pizza’s “The Rock-afire Explosion” band are buried in that field. Or maybe it’s something else altogether. I won’t know for sure until I dig it up. There’s also a thin chance nothing is buried in that field. Nothing at all. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll probably go ahead and spend my new-found spare time by inventing a teleportation device that only works for objects or persons who are currently being consumed by fire.
Swim, bike, run … bbq.
Ribs and brats for me … mushrooms for the lady!
I’ll be doing a tempo run Friday, bike of 60km or so on Saturday, then long run and possibly also swimming Sunday. Have a good one everybody!!
Hopefully having a birthday barbecue if it doesn’t rain!
I’ll be skiing at Arapahoe Basin on Saturday, followed by a short run. No plans other than a long run on Sunday, maybe I’ll go for a ride too? Monday is a BBQ at a buddy’s house where he is breaking out his new smoker to do up some ribs. I’m definitely going to bring a couple of kegs of my home-brew (probably my Mexican Chocolate Stout and a Kolsch)
I’m from New Zealand so no out of the ordinary plans for me. Easy 5km on Sunday with Steady 16km Sunday. Will be stormy and wet so should be good fun! Enjoy your long weekend.
Gonna be hiking 10mi up a peak on Saturday and doing some biking and running the next two days. Hope it doesn’t rain.
I haven’t seen my two daughters in a year. They are flying in on Thrusday. My husband and I are so excited to spend some time with them this summer. This weekend we will be heading out to Massacre Rocks State Park in ID, enjoying a cabin, and hopefully doing some rock climbing if the weather permits. Oh and BBQ? Yeah we are BBQ addicts!
Thanks,
Rebecca Child
beccachild@gmail.com
I have to work on saturday. On Sunday we (my wife and kids) plan to visit the Windmill at Britzer Garten Berlin. Before or after I try to sqeeze in an 20k run.
No BBQ, but had one last Weekend with fresch Asparagus and the usual.
Thanks
Stefan
Not this, but next week an adventure race (running, mtb, canoeing, climbing) in the city center of Vilnius in Lithuania
woohoo!
Planning to hit 100 running miles for the month on a 12 mile long run on Sunday! This will be my first ever 100-mile month. I just started running last fall and am training for the Chicago Marathon which will be my first full marathon!
Will also be working and BBQing with a college friend that I haven’t seen for 5 years!
I’ll take a luxury cruise from Helsinki to Stockholm with other Finnish runners. After Stockholm Marathon on Saturday we celebrate and enjoy fine foods aboard, including BBQ!
Well it’s Comrades this weekend on Sunday, but unfortunately I’m not running this year. So I plan to get up, watch the start at 5:30, then head for a 20km run, and settle back on the couch and watch the rest.
I haven’t got so long weekend but I’m going to race in mtbo :) (mountain bike orientation)
I’ll racing this weekend!
Well it’s not a long we over here but since I took Friday off it’ll count I guess. So I’ll be enjoying Friday and swim in my new super flexible wetsuit. Do a swim workout Saturday am, bike workout with my club and catch up on my reading before the first Tri of the season on Sunday.
Ray thanks for your great blog of which I became a keen reader.
After 3 races last weekend i’m taking it easy, but will run on the mountain and since it Comrades (a silly 89km race here in SA) on Sunday I’ll be watching almost every step on TV.
Not sure which category I fit into. Live in New Zealand but landed in Canada today for a month and going to be in the USA on Monday. Plan for the weekend. Saturday running in the Norgh Vancouver hills. Sunday either more of the same or the Crud and Mud downhill at whistler. Monday possibly a road ride around lake Washington in Seattle. All with 310XT in tow. Still waiting for my new old style HR strap to arrive. Have given up on the stupid soft strap so will likely ware my Polar s625x as well and merge the HR data in SportTracks.
The neighbors are opening the pool this weekend! Swimming, BBQ, and a few drinks!
Oddly, I have the EXACT same plans as Jon. Except I’m not looking for Dook LaRue. I believe Fatz Geronimo is buried in my field.
Work travel and work. Do some grillin and chillin for me…
I’m Canadian, so my long weekend is in the past…
Plans for this weekend: Sprint Triathlon Team Trial Madrid Championship with my friends.
Thanks for the giveaway and the blog !!
Weekends here are Fri/Sat. I have a sprint triathlon coming up on Sat. It’s the very first one I ever did so I’m eager to see how (if?) my times have improved! Thanks for the opportunity!
Friday: dinner party
Saturday: dinner/birthday party
Sunday: sprint triatlon
I should work on my planning…
I plan to spend it indoors as the weather this time of year in New Zealand is far from ideal BBQ weather. :)
on friday i have a 6k friends race, and sunday a 10k. Saturday i hope i could rest :-)
i will be traveling to Singapore for a full marathon. and will be running in East Coast park, and sure will have smell of BBQ to push me on. :-)
I’m stoked about this weekend! Going away to the cabin for a few days, just good food, wine, hiking trips and the best company :) And thanks for the giveaway!
Friday : work
Saterday : doing a run in the morning
Sunday : Mtb in the morning and contract relax in the afternoon
Grtz from BELGIUM
Ok, this Memorial Day weekend is going to kick ass. My little guy is turning 2 on Monday and to commemorate the day, we’re actually spending the whole weekend…ready? POTTY TRAINING! Yes. Happy birthday to me. Hopefully, we’ll be phasing out the diapers, eating cake, and in true PNW style, lighting up the BBQ for some wild Alaskan salmon.
It’s anniversary weekend for me… 12 years.
Haven’t had any special plans till yet. But BBQ sounds like a good idea. Let’s see, where I can invite myself ;-)
Best regards from Germany!
15 mile run this weekend. Tapering for the Utah Valley Marathon in two weeks.
backpacking in Kings Canyon!!!
graduation parties and backyard bbq’s!
This weekend, the Grindelwald Challenge, 75km road race near Launceston, Tasmania
Hi! I will spend my 4 days working on Friday and Monday: Sms don’t stop (I work in a SMSC center). Saturday I will relaxing waiting for Sunday. Sunday I will play the final game of the soccer season: if we will win we will remain in 1 division. Otherwise, we will downgrade in 2nd division :( … Go Wolves (my team)!
we have a long weekend coming up ahead here in NZ – will be at the beach in the Coromandel of New Zealand. Too cold to swim or BBQ though this time of year but will be out on kayak and getting a few kms in somewhere along the line. All the best Ray!
thomash@talkingtech.com
Enjoying memorial day bbq. Friends just bought a rib smoker and we’ve made beer.
I was hoping to buy it when coming to the states but would not mind coming from the mighty DCrainmaker
This week end I will be doing a 215km team race in Norway. Team consists of 30+ riders pluss + supporting vehicles. Forecast is wind and rain.
So I live in South Africa, which means I don’t have a three day weekend this weekend, and with the weather the was it is, I’m not going to have a braai (our version of BBQ).
I will tell you about National Braai Day which we celebrate on the 24th September. Its a new thing, but it involved wood and a fire (the fire is used to burn off the left over stuff on the grid from the braai before). Then we throw some meat on it and eat it. The ladies normally make the salads.
We are trying to make a tradition of inviting friends over on braai day, but this year we have a wedding on that day, so we’ll have to see.
I will be supporting my girfriend at her second triathlon ever. TriStar 111 in Worms, Germany.
Cool new Garmin device…
I will be at the starting line of Woerthersee Triathlon in Corinthia (Austria) this weekend…
I’m going to test our new chariot Cougar with the kid in the weekend. Also some core training gonna bee involve in the weekend…not forget the family BBQ on sunday.
Running Stockholm Marathon on Saturday. As little as possible on Sunday :)
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Rain, Rain and Rain, so no BBQ. Indoors isn’t the best option….
Thanks for the giveaway!
Saturday will be 1h running including 4×7′ 10k pace. and sunday 1h low pace just before BBQ!
I plan on removing my bathroom this weekend so that I can have a new shiney one installed. Can’t wait.
This weekend I’m running the Stillwater Marathon before heading back to Milwaukee for the summer.
Hi Venice Italy here,
In the upcoming weekend i will
– Do a BBQ with friened (Like american boys :P)
– 10 km running race
– Get drunk
– 1,5 km swim
In a random order!
Hope this Garmin could fly to Paris ;)
I’ve got some home electrical repair ahead this weekend to finish a bathroom fan installation that’s been going on 3 months.
Going to a 10km hill running competition to test my new pair of Inov8 X-Talon 212-s. Other than that I’m hoping for a warm weekend here in Estonia and perhaps even some sunshine and grilling :) All the best!
Great Blog check it daily
doron from tel aviv
I am going to spend Saturday morning getting lost on my bike and Sunday morning getting lost on my run. Monday I plan on spending getting lost in food, provided I find my way back from my previous endeavours.
Great blog!
Stumbled on your blog while searching for GPS watch reviews. Bought a Garmin 210 based on your reviews. Now I’m a regular reader. Great work – thanks.
I’m in New Delhi and it’s a 111 degrees outside. So definitely no running outside this weekend and no BBQs either! The plan is to catch Hangover 2 in airconditioned comfort….
Cutting the grass and cooking outside!!!
No vacation in DK put planning on working the weekend anyway. Although spending Saturday evening with some bbq and then watching the champions league final. Go Barca.
My upcoming weekend will be pretty dull, with orchestra rehearsal on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. But …. the weekend after that will see me at the BBQ grill, preparing food for 6 adults and 4 kids. It’s going to be awesome.
Even more so if I can use the FR 610 to run off all the calories :)