Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $449, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, 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.
My Easter’s schedule: 8am wake up time. Small breakfast while making a whip. “One of the most important Slavic symbols of Easter is a pomlázka, a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs.” After visiting and caroling at some friends (there will be a lot of choko bunnies and eggs, there will be Gym time :-). 75min havy weights and 2,5k swim in our 50m pool. In the evening stretching my legs and having good time at my home while snowing outside (Czech rep.)
After a week of Passover here in Israel (in English that means “7 straight days of carbo-loading”) at least 10k per day are required – a mix of long runs, hill training, a couple of tempo runs, and an easy recovery run or two.
Happy Easter!
Skiing at Kirkwood with my 8 yr old daughter.
Just a little 5km run to soothe my guilty conscience :)
90 min Fast Finish Long Run. Start at normal easy run pace. Gradually increase at goal marathon pace. Finish with a hard effort!
100 km group ride
AAAAAAAAAAWESOME!
Well I get all that much chocolate this easter but I will run a 5k this monday night. I’m coming back slow but my objective is to run a total 30k this week – which is pretty much given my college routine
A garmin gadget or even the new TRT will DEFINETELY be a great addition to my life! I can’t wait to see the results and hopefully I’ll get lucky this time!
No workouts planned for another week. I just missed Oceanside 70.3 on doctor’s orders. Nice family vacation to Legoland instead. Once cleared, normal training in preparation for Wildflower though. With a mix in of rock climbing to keep it interesting.
A bunch of 400m sprints in the rising middle-eastern heat!
one hours of D1 on my tacx to let my legs recover from the best cycling experience in history, Tour de Flanders 2013 on Saturday.
I will do a 30k run as part of my training to the Madrid marathon later this month. So I can burn the chocolate AND keep up with my schedule! Lucky me! :)
A 15km mountain run with about 650m D+. A good way to get rid of the extra calories eaten for eastern!!!
Did a quite tired 19km trail run yesterday at low pace/intensity, to reach my best month of running this far with 205km of running recorded.
Only Indoor Training with my wife. Cold rain all day, no spring in the Alps. :-(
I’ll be running 10 miles and will include some uphill, in preparation of the Antwerp 10 miles. Didn’t eat any chocolate eggs, but drank some fine Belgian beers while watching Ronde van Vlaanderen :)
I did this Sunday 28 km with 4500 D+ in 4 hrs, we got lost into the snow… in the mountain with my friends, I don’t feel the legs, but it was an amazing experience, here the photo! thanks! link to instagram.com
After a few bouts of hot tea, an Ambrosia apple, pizza, hot tamales and miscellaneous junk food (notice how progressively worse it gets) a good tempo run is needed. This briefs well, but there’s no telling what I actually may do. :)
I did a 2.5hrs stat bike ride, main set included 5x 7.5min efforts on 10mins. All while watching Judge Dredd. I find action movie help keep the tempo up. I am defenceless against chocolate covered marshmallow eggs.
i had a long and easy 145k bike ride
16k slow run on sunday. Burnt all the easter goodies away on friday with a new PR on an improvised half marathon… Celebrated with lots of chocolate bunnies and chickens!
Already done a 13 km run workout under the falling water before sitting at the Italian Easter dinner table with my family…
Today 40k xc-skiing in great weather!
haha I feel like carrying an extra kilo after easter. My next workout will be a 10k with a few sprints
45min interval session which would hopefully compensate for the chocolate&banana pancakes ;)
Today, we head out for a 90 km ride along the Flemish cobbles and ‘kuitenbijters’. Out to spot how the roads survived yesterday’s Easter-‘feast’!…
Yesterday, a 8 km trail run near Graus in the Ribagorza region, Aragón, Spain.
Huge amounts of mud and water on a beautiful sunny day. A very dirty training of moderate slope, considering the half marathon in Madrid next Sunday. Trying to burn huge amounts of Easter candy I ate over the past 4 days.
My next run will be an afternoon run after work, slow and far run.
Only way to compensate for chocolate is intervals. It’s worth it :)
Did three laps of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Sunday morning for 15km. One lap “egging” on my wife who was doing her first ever race, a 10km run. She really did earn the Swiss chocolate bunny that I gave her for Easter.
Chocolate breakfast & 35min run..
Legs still in shock from 6 hours continuous skiing on Saturday (Weardale NE England!)…so a few stretches and a gentle jog is about all I’ll do today. Show me the chocolate….
a half marathon don at wilsons promontory (south coast wilderness of Australia) to burn off the kilo of chocolate goodies that i found hidden all over the campsite :)
All according to the plan, tempo ride on Tuesday, 11 min in zone 4 + 49 min in zone 3, should consume all extra energy accumulated during the Easter.
Just completed a weekend at my first Mountain Running Camp. Fell over three times. Two minor. One dislocated my finger, which I pulled out and pushed back into position myself – we were 15km from civilisation on the Mt Ruapehu traverse.
just an easy 60k ride
Will go for a 20+ km run in the sunshine today :)
For me it’s not the chocolate, but the hot cross buns that need to be worked off!
Today’s long session was 28km in 2:03 comprising 5km warm up then 4 x 4km at marathon pace (4:10 min/km) with 1km recovery in 4:35 then 3km warm down.
warm up : 3 kms
15 x 300m intervals with 15s of rest
2 kms to finish
Intervals, 5x1km, 90 second jog recovery
It’s not the candy I’m worried but the alcohol :) Plan is for today to do Interval Step group exercise and after that our Monday 10k group run. Well see how it goes…
I plan on swimming, running and riding tomorrow. Too many Lindt Bunnies for me!
Not such a chocolate fan, but suspect I have eaten my own body weight in hot cross buns this weekend. ;)
Took in a 50 mile road ride yesterday to burn them off, but the GPS came off it’s 3rd party mount and down the road, so a chance to win a replacement would ease the pain..
Hello,
Nothing too hectic – it’s still early in the season. So I will only swimming tonight.
Take care
Jurgen
an easy 6k run… i need to get back into shape!
5K easy with the kid in the stroller
Peeps ! yellow chicks, all other are impostors
For me it’s not the chocolate, but the hot cross buns that need to be worked off!
Today’s long session was 28km in 2:03 comprising 5km warm up then 4 x 4km at marathon pace (4:10 min/km) with 1km recovery in 4:35 then 3km warm down.
10k run in Madrid….
I will be doing a race to burn off my Easter day binge eating. It is called the Vision Quest and has shown up on a few lists as one of the toughest one day mountain bike races with over 11,000ft of ascent in only 56 miles.
I missed it last year due to a broken collar bone and almost missed it this year with me just getting back on the back after requiring stitches and staples in my knee at the beginning of March. So I probably wont beat my previous best time, but I will burn off those Easter calories.
I also could really use a new GPS device right now. My mini USB connector and my Garmin doesn’t seem to like to work half the time anymore.
A nice easy four miles with my Sis Rhona D. by the river Lee. )
No chocolate so just did an easy bike ride :)
Treking 6 hours before eat “la mona” ( it’s how we call easter eggs in Catalonia )
Lindt chocolate required a (leisurely) run through the local forest. Only 6 km, but very relaxing….
Now back to serious matters – dessert!
A great Sunday breakfast followed by:
6K run + stregth training + walk with the dog.
I ate almost 1kg of jelly candies. But in the evening I had 20 km run to compensate that.
1h easy jogging, with only 7 × 100 m in intervals… Have to go easy with an half marathon on next Sunday :)
The chocolate was only afterwards, a few bits of a lovely dark chocolate little bear :)
Being that I ate my body weight in jelly beans, and fractured my foot trail running last week that means I’ll be doing plenty of pull-ups and sit-ups as they are the only thing I can do!
My first surf in 3 years – followed by Easter bunny eating on the couch.
I’ll go for a 30 min soft run
5km easy run around the estate that I live in to work off two of the small white chocolate eggs that I claimed from the kids this easter!!!
Screw a workout, give me more jellybeans!
Now the bunnies have been eaten head first it’s time to hit the streets and burn those little critters off. With this in mind it’s gonna be an easy 60 miler on the Spesh before hitting the pool for a blowout 1K. If that hasn’t tossed a field of mammals from the Withings I’m gonna be in serious trouble.
Just a 60 minutes easy run!
A nice 13k trail run on Saturday in the Waitaks, then some volcano trail tramps with the kids and a hill climb bike session on Monday. Had to eat a few chocolate eggs the Easter Bunny had left too :-)
I’m going to give TrainerRoad a try with the 20 minute test.
My Easter Sunday
Easter Egg hunt followed by Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, followed by church.
Then the 1st outdoor ride in shorts of the year. Got in 15 and my feet weren’t frozen at then end of the ride (another 1st of the year)
Ride completed, I was able to sneak some of the kids candy, and finished off the day with a large piece of bunny cake.
Did a 80 min L run (training after Jack Daniels) and 30 min. pool chill out session (living in Dubai with 30 degrees).
Cheers
I did an 8 mile run Sunday morning in an attempt to offset the extra calories. Then following my training schedule for the week.
Its only a few hours left until the end of Easter holidays where I am and I have resisted the urge to get in some exercise. Instead I went for a long ride through the hills last Thursday afternoon with a friend and then spent Easter with family. I will pay for all the chocolates however, planning more hill riding to use up all the extra energy consumed.
A 20 mile walk along the Cleveland Way – great weather for it too, finally!
Going on a business trip next week. I will be running miles not kilometres – that is 1,6 times longer. The Fazer Mignon eggs is what got to me. Happy Easter!
20k computrainer ride then a 5k run to get rid of the chocolate creamy eggs
Easter run: a 10k in my hometown.
26km easy run that felt tougher than the marathon but burned off a lot of needed calories!
Happy Easter!
18 mile run post church and pre Easter feast.
Getting in some trail runs (7 miles) to ward off the weekend guilt.
Just getting back into running outside so kicked off Tri season with a nice easy 7 mile run
2 hour bike ride at stone mountain
Rode around Nashville on my road bike with a friend
I had planned for an easy 8 mile run, but a hard, cold rain set it so i just ended at 6. Such are the joys of running in Michigan in March!
80km group ride on Sat and 28km pace run on Sun.
3 mile run on the treadmill and then it’s bunny eating time!
Adjusting pace for 10 mile run in Rio de Janeiro and burning all chocolate Havana brought from our neibourghs Argentinos.
10′ Warm up
10x (3′ Hard x 2′ Not so hard)
20′ Moderate pace
Wish I could do more running but injury of my foot is preventing it at this moment. So yesterday I did 6 km of slow running and 15 km of tempo cycling. Today’s plan is to do some wight lifting and another 6 km run. I really have to burn those extra calories because of eating to much cinnamon pull-apart bread.
Love the site…
75km ride enjoying the last of the Sydney sun before another winter in Australia. Hey, good intentions never hurt anyone right!
Will complete an easy bike ride later today. The extra calories acquired from bunnies will be well spent on my upcoming training camp on Mallorca later this week.
5 hrs on the bike over the weekend to compensate for reese’s peanut butter cup cupcakes.
15 km biking
5 mile run on the beach! Spring Break!
10 Miles Yesterday. 3 Miles Today plus strength. 12 x 400 Meters with 200 Meter Recovery Tomorrow. That should get me back to racing shape for this coming weekends race.
Peeps made me run 14. 12 easy with a 2 mile fast finish at HMP.
We will be running an 11mi Tempo run in prep for a local half marathon.
8 km @4.25, in my tapering week
Ok, so I did a 75 minute hill workout on the trainer on Saturday and an easy 7 mile run on Sunday, all because of those dastardly Cadbury Creme Eggs!
26k ran, at marathon race pace.
2750 swim, 1.5 hr bike at tempo, 35 min core, 45 min weight training – legs
3 hour bike ride and 40 min. swim. Fueled by yesterday’s Peeps, malted-milk eggs, and jelly beans.
I did 2 miles in the fresh spring air, and strength training.
Ran 5 miles to get ready for a 10K at the end of the month.
a 17 km interval run