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…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
You'll support the site, and get ad-free DCR! Plus, you'll be more awesome. Click above for all the details. Oh, and you can sign-up for the newsletter here!
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.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
-
5 Easy Steps To The Site
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
link to connect.garmin.com
0°C Celisus run, a little bit hot :)
This week some spinning training because of bad weather
My first ever run at below 0°C, it seems like I’ll get the chance sometime this week, the plan is for 10 km.
Swim practice tonight. Probably approximately 2.5km.
40km of XC Mountain Biking training. Starting with a 12km, 8% climb. Total ascent of 2400m, finishing with fast downhill singletrack and double espresso. (Tokai Mast and Silvermine in Cape Town, ZA)
I’ll go crosscountry skiing as soon as we have enough snow here in Switzerland! It’s the best endurance training ever during winter time =)
Did you ever give it a shot Ray?
Swim, 6x400m,even pace, each rep a little bit faster, scheduled for next week.
midnight trailrun next weekend
Indoor bike session (the gym has Wattbikes :) ) tomorrow morning
I have got the daily 12km bike ride commute to and from the office. It’s so much better than commuting via a car!
12k “Christmas run” in Vilnius: link to kaledinisbegimas.lt
31.12.14 Vienna Silvester Run, It will be cold but fun :) 5,4 km
I’m going to do some interval sessions on the trainer the coming weeks.
Start with some 2×20 “Sweetspot” and then some 4×10 “Upper treshold” intervals.
And after that 5×5 “VO2Max”.
Indoor bike sessions, riding Alpine Classics tacx videos
Race: Marathon @ Monterrey, México i will run 8 x ( 5km Running + 400m Walking )
Tuesday night. Intervals 4 minutes, 2 minutes rest. 1 hour total.
A 2 hours kitesurf session this Wednesday if the wind predictions remain as they are..
5K trail run this Sunday.
10*1 km run.
Getting ready for my first half-marathon mid january, time for speed work today 6x400m.
A nice GPS watch would come handy.
A 3 mile training tempo run on a 10 km tempo after a long warming up, relaxt form and listen to breathing.
Hill repeats on Wednesday
Pool sessions every other day this week working on technique. Around 1500 meters each session.
Accomplishing festive 500 with at least one 150k ride
Training swim getting into shape for my honeymoon. Beach bums at the ready!!
At the end of the month my first marathon, it would be great if I could use a gps watch for this.
Cross country race in Norway just before the holiday.
Have a 10K race on Saturday, looks like a rainy and windy day at +3 C. Not so nice, but I’ll do it.
A fun for everyone 10k christmas run just south of Amsterdam! Will try to beat last year’s 43:19
spin class workout on wednesday
4*2k at threshold pace wenesday. Can’t wait to do it, L love this workout ;), maybe I will go for 3k rather than two (and only 3reps).
Just winter base training for me, so I’m planning a 25km Run around Cork City next Sunday. Gotta get fit for my A-race in March!
getting closer and finally touching 10k@ 4:30 min/km pace
To clock 40km training run by end of the year.
Just yesterday, I did pretty cool mountain marathon (actually 24k) with ~1100m elevation gain in Deflous, Greece. link to movescount.com
I want to reach a level of 15 pull ups at a time to the end of 2014
Next Tuesday, 8*1K @ 4:05/km interval. I hope there will be no snow in the forest..
Complete my first 10km run in under an hour
FTP test on the turbo – not looking forward to it!
I’ve got the 10km Santa Run in Portsmouth,UK next weekend. A wet & windy run dressed as Santa – must be mad. I would pick the Garmin FR920XT as triathlon is my first love (after my wife & children of course!).
My knee is knackered so I’m hitting the gym…anything to keep me busy
Really warm weather in RSA, so an Edge 810 or Garmin Virb / GoPro Hero 4 would be awesome! Strava 500 is calling later this month – spring racing season ended 2 weekends ago :D
Winter would be a Wahoo KICKR ;)
Hey, the GCN HIIT – 40 Minute Intense Cycle Training Workout – Hill Intervals is a real killer. Planned in for this week
workout for the bike (if weather is good enough) +/- 40K with some interval sections
Kettler World Tour Etape 09.
Some hard work on trainer with bunch of other guys connected over internet :)
Today I plan a 10k run with my oldest boy.
-Per
A 12k trailrun in the morning with my dog. And the rest of the day he’s sleeping ;-).
13km this morning, checking out the 920 vs 910. Like most of the users I see the 920 even with GPS/Glonass not as accurate as the 910. Maybe you can dig into this subject a bit more.
Season premiere with my XC skis.
Easy one hour run today, trying to escape December dry but cold days.
Merry Christmas!
5 km run at lunch time today by the Rhine (French side) from the bac at Drusenheim.
2,5km out, 2,5km back; but return against the north wind – better wear a vest.
Evening easy run with my dog!
Back to back spinning classes at my local gym.
5km slow jogg on wednesday
1.5k swimming, on my first “serie” I thought I made 400m, the watch displayed 450m, damn watch !
Analyzing the activiti later, I finally considered I was the bug ;-)
10km run this evening to make up for a lazy couple of weeks – maybe a nice shiny 920xt would help motivate me?
winter swimming race – 750m in 5°C river.
25km easy run next saturday
12 km tomorrow at a moderate pace.
Blue mountains (near Sydney) 20km trail run over Xmas weekend!
45 minutes on the elliptical at the gym
Relocating on 16th December to Bogaz, North Cyprus for 21 days of Winter Training – speed, hill reps, tempo, P90X, doubles, triples, pretty much three weeks of base training for 2015
The goal is to reach a 15k run in the days before 1/1. Location: home area, music via my motoactv. Ambit2 to collect the data :-)
This sunday 5k Race to raise funds for Heart Disease
Strength training in the gym.
12 miles + 23 miles right before Christmas in Brazil in preparation for Goofy Challenge in January.
Planning a treadmill Sufferfest Revolver for this afternoon – 16 1-minute intervals with 1 minute rest in between. Top speed ~5:40mm, rest at 9:00mm, 5 minute warmup and cooldown, 1% incline.
Saturday Dec 27 (160 km hilly course over krete)
7.5k run in the forest on 26/12
Jailbreak Triathlon… 2.2km swim / 88 cycle / 22km run
31 december the “oliebollen” run in Weert
A 3.2k OWS. Looking for a 45′ split.
Battle with myself on the elliptical.
Easy 2 hour outdoor ride.
tonight 3×7 min. interval training run
Joy to the World 5k on December 20. This is a small local race to help send youth from a local church to Nicaragua next summer on a mission trip.
13 miles stand up paddle board race in Wrightsville Beach, NC against 100 of the worlds best, plus 100 average joes. Half in the ocean, half inter-coastal. In /out of two inlets!
10k race this weekend
Tomorrow morning I’ve got 20x200m scheduled. No races until March.
Goal is to get back in the pool and start swimming again. Goal is to get 1500m in under 28min so I don’t feel too bad about staying dry for the last three months.
A 26 km ride followed by a light run.
The Christmas Greenwich Park 10k!!
link to runthrough.co.uk
easy ride for 1 hour! Preparing my body for christmas food!
Christmas movie bike trainer marathon!
10+ km workout, running from work to home on Friday evening 12/12, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
90 minute swim workout
170km island hopping ride from Antwerp to Rotterdam to digest Christmas dinner
Simple: swim for 2 hours.
just completed SCMS Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore achieving a PB for this event by 30sec. although timing was way below what I’m aiming for but was happy with it as the weather was humid & hot at about 30°. just told myself that I started it, I’ll complete it; changing the “Impossible” to “I’m possible”. hurray to me!! :) I did it! yes!
Walk with my kid and dogs :)
10k running under heavy sun.
On 22nd of Dec, 1h50m run (approx. 22 km) in Central Park and around, in Cluj, Romania.
about 20k in one hour
next week a 100km TT for IM South Africa
5k pier to pier run on the beach in North Carolina as soon as I arrive on the day after Christmas.
Rehabbing an ACL reconstruction so have a nice 2k swim followed by a 20k bike ride lined up…
I completed my 5th marathon this year which was the SCMS 2014. It was the toughest marathon in a humid morning at 5am. i was running at 05:10 mins pace till 35km and dropped my pace of more than 06:00 mins pace due to a cramp on my right calf at 35km, having to see the 03:45 hrs pacers passed by me.
I have glad that i managed to clock a sub 4 in singapore. It was my Personal Best in this race in singapore. I am looking forward to train harder with my newly purchased Garmain 920XT in the new few months getting myself prepared for Tokyo and Berlin Marathon in 2015.
A 30-minute run in the city, today in the evening.
Using the decent amount of snow we have these days to work on my dismal XC skiing skills.
Indoors on the treadmill cause I don’t like the cold
Hopefully going to reunite with the indoor treadmill and bike trainer. We’ve lost touch!
Celctic Solstice in Baltimore December 13