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.
In preparation for the Vienna Halfmararthon (April 14, 2013), my plan has a nice “descent long run”:
Warmup:
30min easy, going progressivly from 6 to 7mph (9 to 10kph)
30min a bit faster @7.5 mph (12kph)
30min @ 8mph=21k Race pace (13kph, 85% max HR)
10min @8.5-9mph (14-14.5kph, 85-90% max HR)
10min very easy below 6-7mph (9-10kph), letting HR going below 75%.
Whatever 30 minutes of torture my fitness instructor can inflict in a circuit class!
Complete the Giro Strava Challenge – 31 hours 51 minutes in 16 days.
6 weeks post op from massive hip surgery. My goals for the weekend is a 30 min swim followed by 15 min on the elliptical machine. Small steps lead to bigger steps.
Run a circular uphill – downhill, elevation 400m distance 7 km, in less than 50 minutes.
4000 meters = 400 glide + 200 sprint + 200 slow (5 times)
Followed up with a 4×100 meter (4 times) relay with the lacrosse team I coach.
I get my weekly speed workout + get the kids in shape and have fun doing it!
Just trying to go back running after a long vacation…
Mine is pretty easy. In anticipation for Boston, I have a 20 mile run on Sunday. Most of the run will be at race pace, so I’m looking forward to seeing how I can handle it, especially on the hills of Central Park, which is harder than the actual Boston course.
I hope I win this
Start some Yoga after finding myself less and less flexible recently. Saturday is first day. I follow up with some mountain biking in the afternoon.
everyday 10km flat run in about 45 min and every sanday 40 km run with 1000 m positive elevation
Week 7’s hard workout of my 12 week running program.
Warm up 1 mile < 65% HR
Main Sets
1 mile Striders
4 x 400m @ 85% HR, w/200m recovery
Cool down < 65% HR
I have a 20 mile long run Sunday morning! Can’t wait.
Scheduled for a 5 mile group run this weekend and it usually ends up as an all out sprint!
Run 10km in at least 60min.
I have to increase km after 50 days stop because of an injury while I run an half marathon
2X20 minute criss cross intervals from low powers zone 3 to high zone 4. 10 minute cool down,
RUN:
20min Warm Up
4 x 5 mins 92-94% with 2 mins of recover
15min Warm Down
High intensity bike interval training
20mins warm up. Ride at a steady pace of 90-95rpm followed by:
5mins brisk (110rpm)
10mins easy (80rpm)
5mins brisk (110rpm)
10mins easy (80rpm)
5mins brisk (110rpm)
Warm down for 20mins at a steady pace.
2h touring skiing up and down on Krvavec skislope
I managed to sprain my ankle a week and a half ago so for me its just going to be an easy 1500m in the pool at quite a bit below race pace to try and ease back into things – I’m banned from running until it clears up and I’m getting figity!
I am training for my first half marathon. My goal is to simply finish and am training in a “light” way (I guess you could call it that).The very beginning of my training is starting out like this: Brisk warm up walk (about 5-10) minutes; Run 1 mile; walk 2 minutes; Run 1 miles; walk…etc. Followed by a cool down (about 5-10 minutes).
My plan is to run at least 150 km this month. I want to loose weight and I’m convinced that I can succeed through sport.
My currently weight is 94 kg and at the beginning of the year I was at 102 kg. My supreme goal is 80 kg by the end of the year.
Need to work in a little more distance this week – between 8 and 12 miles on Sunday (depending on where I turn).
Don’t know if my last comment posted, couldn’t find it.
Work out and run.
Saturday easy recovery ride. 2hrs, watts around 220-230 for entire ride.
Swim:
Choice with fins: 500m
Pull: 500m
Swim Free: 500m
This weekend, MTB ride with friends and 4x100m/10″ + 3x200m/15″ + 2x400m/25″ swim.
Planning some Alpine climbing on the trainer
Very short run this afternoon :)
5 mi run today. Z1-Z3 Heart rate, just keep it aerobic.
Unfortunately It’ll probably be on the treadmill :-(
Today is 8 miles at an 8:30 pace.
It will be easier as I’ll be imagining running this workout next time with some new fancy gadget.
Thanks Ray !!
Ugh – I am just trying to get back on the horse. Planning a few 30 minute runs at a medium pace to find my legs.
Workout of 2 x (8 x 250 meters with 1:30 min. active rest) 5 minutes rest between sets…. that’s rowing meters :-)
Complete rest… followed by complete rest… for the first time in months.
Official IM Lake Placid training starts a week from Monday.
1. Run into the woods.
2. Get lost in the woods.
3. Keep running until I find a way out.
2 hour running at nearly half-marathon pace. Cover at least 19 kilometres. If more, better :)
My workout plan will be nothing like most of your readers, but I will be doing another 3 mile run on Sunday.
I started getting into shape with swimming 4 months ago and I wanted to research swimming watches. After I found this site, I ended up reading just about every article here and you motivated me to start running and cycling!
10 mile run on Sunday. Hopefully not in a snowstorm like the past 3 weeks.
BT: Endurance brick.
Bike moderate to long in mostly heart rate 1-3 zones. Transition to a medium duration run in heart rate 2-3 zones.
Bike 90 minutes, Run 60 minutes.
Refuel as in race.
My running goal now depends upon my Dr. Since I’ve been hit with Achilles tendonitis I’m hoping in the next two weeks to run one mile pain free! It will be a sign of more running to come.
Training for Annecy half-marathon. Next work-out: 25′ warm up, 3000m, 2000m and 1000m on race pace, 2′ rest, 10′ cool down
12 reps of 3 x 3 min interval training… Pretty hard stuff!
Today 2 x 20min threshold and 45min tempo ride indoors. Hope to do it well!
Brick.
40min tempo ride on trainer, 4 mile run in the snow.
2:30 long run including 15 km at marathon pace at the end. The goal is to gauge if how I feel at my desired marathon pace and adjust it if necessary. I am signed up for a marathon end of March.
Week 1 of my 12 Week Garmin Triathlon training plan next week!
M – Easy Run 20
T – Easy Swim
W – Easy Bike 50
T – Tech Swim
F&S – 2x Day off
S – Bike to Run Brick – Easy Bike 40, Easy Run 20
And so it begins………
Sunday I’m going to do an 18 mile long run. Still lots of snow and stuff here, so the plan is just to get it done and not fall down.
Thanks!
Run: Interval training
2 km easy Warm Up
4 x 2 km @ 3:40 per KM, interval pause 2 min
2 km easy Cool Down
Warm up for 15 minutes then repeats at 5K pace for 1 mile then easy two minutes and repeat 5 times end with a 10 minute cool down
Next week i start my first half marathon training. 5km in 30 minutes.
25 kgs down to go. ultimate goal: >2:00:00 2nd sunday of October Eindhoven marathon, the Netherlands.
Before next weekend’s change from Daylight Savings time to Standard time I plan on running the commute to work which is approximately 18K.
2 hour swim tomorrow at 6 am
This Saturday will be running 12 miles (easy pace)
21 mile long run – April marathon training.
Run 15 miles on Monday… my furthest distance ever, in preparation for my first full marathon. Yikes! I’m slow so it’ll take me about 3 hours to do so…
Run 6 miles to the Saturday only bakery, with the best donuts in the world!
15′ warm-up, then 8 x 1k @ 4:00 per km and 10′ final cool down
Tomorrow: 8 minute sweet spot workout on Trainerroad, for 90 minutes duration.
3 event Triathlon training session – Sat 2nd March 2013 – (Geordie style)
session 1 AM: 10yd run from bed to shower across freezing cold bedroom.
session 2 lunchtime: 3hour marathon turbo bike session.
session 3 PM: 30min intensive CV work making love to girlfriend.
Intensities and physical systems trained through session.
10secs Neuromuscular power burst
3hours endurance below anaerobic threshold
30mins anaerobic capacity interval
Note: above intensities in no particular order and could apply to any of the three ‘events’.
;-)
Fartlek:
1′ fast + 1′ slow, 2’+2′ till 5′ to 5′ and then decrease back to 1′ + 1′
On this Sunday I will do a 45 minutes rowing session on the WaterRower (interval training).
Weekly Spinerval Rotation: Warrior Training (my favorite), Aero Base Builder, Hillacious (or The Pain Cave). On the weekend Have Mercy. On a monthly basis I throw in the Functional Threshold test for good measure. That hurts just typing it. :-)
90 minutes on the trainer on Saturday, then a 3 mile run.
Riding to my workplace (~26 miles) plus adding on about 14 more…but I’m not riding to go to work. Instead, my wife is performing in a musical show (song&dance), and I’ll be meeting her after the final show for a celebration dinner. I hope I don’t bonk or get lost on the “bonus” miles–especially after running 11.5 the day before.
27k long run at 5:15/km to tune up for an upcoming 30k race.
Improving Speed!
2% incline on treadmill. After warming up match speedy segments with equal recovery.
(E.g. one minute hard one minute recovery)
Do this for 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 minutes then cool down
The idea is to run your 10km pace in broken tempo format.
Long weekend run 2.5 hours, trying to reach two goals at the same time: keeping my heart rate under 140 and trying to cover as much distance as possible.
Running followed by weight training
Sufferfest — The Wretched with PerfPro Studio.
Ten mile training run with my wife in preparation for National Half Marathon
It has been all Maffetone for me the last month and a half. Planning to run on Sunday for a hour to hour and a half. Trying to keep my heart rate at 137 or below is hard to do. Really have to reign myself in and not run to hard, but I’m starting to get faster!
On Sunday, I will do the Angels Sufferfest video.
Sufferfest Hunted indoor cycling workout
25 km run with 2X12 minutes at marathon pace (3:40-3:45 min/km). I’ll be ready for Boston !!!
It’s offseason for me right now so tomorrow morning will be an easy 9 mile run around White Rock Lake.
Today
Morning: Run from home to work at relaxed morning speed
Lunchtime: Swim 50min (warm-up, 600m x 2, cool-down), have some lunch, enoy the rest of the day working.
Night: Kiss kids good-night, later my wife and sleep well.
– Warm up 10 min. at 90-95 cadence
– Short power burst pyramid with 1 min. recovery between efforts 5-10-15-10-5 seconds
– Easy spin 5 minutes in the small ring.
– 75 cadence in zone 2 for 6 min. Include several quick accelerations to 95 cadence. As soon as cadence hits 95 resume 75 cadence.
– Easy spin 3 minutes in the small ring.
– Power burst (cadence over 100 in a challenging gear) pyramid #2. Your recovery between efforts will be the same length as the proceeding effort. Stay in the same (big) gear and slow pedal between efforts so that you are accelerating from a big gear. 5-10-15-20-15-10-5 seconds.
– Recover 5 min.
– Power interval 1 x 2.5 min. all out
– 65 cadence in zone 3 for 5 minutes.
– Easy spin 5 minutes in the small ring
– Power burst (cadence over 100 in a challenging gear) pyramid #2. Your recovery between efforts will be the same length as the proceeding effort. Stay in the same (big) gear and slow pedal between efforts so that you are accelerating from a big gear. 5-10-15-20-30-20-15-10-5 seconds.
– Take your time cooling down
My skiing season is over after successfully finished my 6th Transjurasienne.
Now it’s time to begin serious things on bike. Hence my next workout : ride my season-first 100km this sunday morning. Bonus : weather forecast says it will be a sunny day, great !
One hour of spinning class being told to ‘step out of my box’, ‘do it for yourself’, and ‘asking myself what I am doing here’ by an instructor who fancies herself the next Jillian Michaels, immediately followed by 5K on the treadmill, leading to 800 quick yards in the pool, concluded with a giant bowl of maple walnut ice cream.
Trainer Workout:
10′ W/U
5’Single Leg Drill
2 x 6′ Z4 (w/ 1x 2′ Big Gear ), Recover 5′
W/D
I am working 20/24hrs today. I have 4 he’s between shifts in which I plan to swim 2k yards then run for an hour. Then..get dinner and go back to work
Well, I’m not home this weekend, so no bike ride. I’ll just do and easy 10k run – that must be enough…
Warmup then run 20 min and cool down. My first 20 min run with no walk in over a year.
I just ran my first marathon this past Sunday (Rock ‘n’ Roll NOLA) so tomorrow I am planning a short recovery run somewhere between 1.5-2 miles to ease back into my previous weekly mileage.
Easy 9 miler with perhaps a fartlek or two
I’m recovering from a running injury so I’m gradually integrating more running into my workout schedule. Today, I’m planning a 45 minute trainer ride followed by a 45 minute run at tempo pace. I’m hopeful that by next week, I’ll be able to run pain free for over an hour.
1500 swim focusing on form and balance
Long Bike w/ Tempo Work
30min @ Endurance RPE
3 x ( 20min @ Tempo RPE w/ 20min @ Endurance RPE)
15min @ Endurance RPE
Running 10 miles at an easy pace.
Workout this morning : easy run before breakfast, Warm Up, drills, and easy run back home. Then, shower, breakfast, and preparing my baby girl to go to the nanny ! What better to start a day ??
I’m doing an easy 50 minute jog (probably around 10.5 minutes/mile) when it warms up a little this afternoon. With my dad!
My goal is to ride 20 miles at a high cadence next week after doing a warm up and eating a healthy protein filled breakfast!
Shoulder rehab and, if feeling normal, a timed run with no watch, garmin, or timex coming along for the ride!
Downward Spiral on TrainerRoad
I will be running a 2:30 out and back through a local state park. My target heart rate will be 145 bpm and my target cadence around 90.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in the pool so I’m planning on tomorrow’s workout to get at least 1000 meters done, but to really be focusins on my technique.
Tuesday Night CLIMB RIde – 30 miles, 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Rolling hills. 15-16mph pace. Beautiful views of the Las Vegas strip at night makes it all worth the pain. ;)
Sadly I have pneumonia and don’t currently have clearance for exercise, but I was scheduled for six miles today.
On Sunday, easy 12km run (4min/km) with my two Border Collies. Easier for them though…
75 miles on the bike hitting as many hills as I can
Warm up 5 min, easy run for 45 min, 5 min cool down.