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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.
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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.
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In Depth Product Reviews
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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.
On the 18th December, after cold winter in Germany, 4 hours training in Valencia with 20 degrees and some mountains.
Hey,
My tuesday workout:) – 20min of warmup and streching/5x1000m cca 3.20min/km with 2 min rest/15 min of cooldown
Christmas Themed 5k :) In full Santa suit.
Trying to get back in shape, so 2 mile run followed by some speedwork.
half ironman in rotovegas new zealand
BAC or Big A$$ Climb. 2 hour indoor climb.
I am running a in a 15k this weekend in St. Louis.
Christmas morning gentle turnover while back in the UK with family.
I will participate in the” in between 2 parties ” run. A 5K run to burn off the holiday kcal.
20k run on Christmas Day
Hope to get some work on the elliptical this week.
A new estimation of my FTP using the 20 Minute Test on Trainer Road
Doing/did the California International Marathon 12/7/2014 in Folsom/Sacramento, CA
Have a 21,1K on december 31
Brick training this weekend.
12/09/2014 AM Run:
30-50 minutes with 10x 30″ at 0:20 / mile faster than 5K pace.
Tire drag and tire flips immediately following.
Home for Christmas: (Central Coast California to cold mid-Iowa)
7 mile run gravel road and paved path to Grandpa’s house
Boston Marathon April 20th, PR or BLOW UP!!!!
Next week I have a week of training up in beautiful Hanmer Springs in New Zealand :)
3 x 7 km mountain trail with 3.5 km uphill start.
Long hike before christmas.
Do my first ever 5k run with the help from my husband!
10 k run with my father on the 31st of december
Doing a 12 wk coached indoor training program via workouts uploaded to TrainerRoad. Its made indoor training fun.
5k speed session.
Hit the 1,000 mark for the year — 40 more to go!
Extended Swim session the day after Chrismas dinner…
No races planned. But, winter is my favorite time of year to get off the road and do more trail running. I guess it helps that the road is often to icy to run on. But, there isn’t anything quite as beautiful or fun as running through a snow covered forest.
5K race on New Years Eve!
Hill repeats on the Shawnee Mission Park trails!
A 20 km Night-run somewhere between Christmas and New Years :-)
Ride to Mt Baldy Lifts. 60 miles with 7K feet of climbing.
A 24 hours race on a 239 meter track, indoor! “Many laps it will be” – Yoda
Planning to to ‘Everest’ (link to blog.strava.com http://www.everesting.cc) next year on this segment link to strava.com .
Should be about 20 laps of love!
Tonight I am going to be running 5 miles on the local trails in the dark. Should be cold and fun :D
4 mile run
next sunday I will run my first 10km race
Run around the great Disneyland on Christmas Day. Will be first workout back from injury for me.
Just started Base 1 – Week 1 this week, so rolling hill ride in the big chain ring in power zones 2-3. Avoid power above z3.
10K run in woods with wife and hound….
Happy Christmas Ray and girl.
Doing a 50 mile ride today with my new Garmin Vivofit that just arrived from Clever!
cross country skiing over christmas break
Winter solstice run in the dark on 21-Dec up the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland.
I’m starting running so just I’ll run for 5 km no stop
Ray,
Well, I will do a very unpleasant 20 min FTP test this Wednesday – that will count a very tough workout :-)
Take care
Jurgen
I’ll not run for at least 2 weeks because of a chirugical operation.
so my next run will be a simple run
Lots of intervals on my Kurt Kinetic.
No more CX races here :( so… Indoor pyramid intervals at the local cycling gym.
Total of 21km run and a 40km ride each week. :)
I’m running the Last Chance Half on New Year’s Eve Day in Bellingham, WA. First half in almost 2 years!
i’m working on a month of slow. Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 Plan has rung a bell for me. Instead of working on his recommended “week of slow”, I’m doing a “month of slow” thru the holidays. next race will be a new years’ eve 4-miler.
San Silvestre Vallecana race in Madrid, Spain, on the 31st of December.
A 10k race just before the last dinner of the year.
1 hour swim workouts today and Wed, about 2200 yards/workout.
Mountain biking Makhtesh Ramon, Israel (a unique geological crater-like formation).
I am coming back from injury PLUS I just moved to altitude, so if I get my runs up to 5k this month I’ll feel like a winner.
Looking forward to running a non-competitive 5k with daughter and son. Their first “races”.
Crooks peak christmas cake run
5K training run under 30mins
10k Saturdays + 8k Sundays trying to stay under 7min/km
You should give your giveaway to Sinko Blazic…he needed 10 years and 5km long run around lake Bled in Slovenia and your blog just, to tell me that he’s hoping me to become his girlfriend someday…. :) And he’s got birthday on 11th Deceber :)
Eagleman 2015!
Year-end 10k on 12/31
An easy Mistletoe 10k run for the weekend.
a 10k race in Madrid next sunday.
I am planning a 12k run next sunday as part of the build-up to the Paris marathon.
A 6 mile run with 2 miles easy pace, 3 miles increased pace and a 1 mile cool-down/jogging.
A long run at the weekend
Descending time intervals. Warm-up well and then do 2-1.5-1-0.5 minutes in zone 4-5 with the same amount of recovery time between reps (2:00 on, 2:00 recovery, 1:30 on, 1:30 recovery, etc.). Do 3 sets of these total. Recover 5 minutes between sets or long enough so that your HR drops into Zone 1-2. 100+ rpm. Cool down well.
Parkrun on Christmas Day. Aiming for a PB!
6 mile run this Saturday
Planning for a 3 mile run tomorrow and then hoping to get back to a longer run at the weekend
a century ride on a Indoor trainer with some short intervals.
2014 Naha Marathon.
Holiday Half Marathon in Pomona, CA. 13.1 miles.
I’m going to run a treadmill 10k this weekend. It’s too cold for outdoor running in Indiana. :( Ready for Spring!
Hi, my next workout will be interval training: 4x1km at 4.15 and 4×0.5 km at 4.0 .cheers
The Ugly Sweater 5K in Denver!
13 mile run next saturday 12/13 at 6:30am on Clearwater Beach
A 5k santa run in Victoria Park :)
A 10k the 31st of December
Running at least 4 miles with my brother Mike when he’s not working next week. :-)
I’m going to take the train to Carlsbad CA on Dec 14th and ride back along the coast to Mission Valley (San Diego). About 37 miles and 1300′ of elevation.
1hr run on the 24th with my new shoes. But as my girlfried left me lately I possibly will train a lot in the next time.
A 6k night orienteering run
I’m going to enjoy hours of pain and misery on the indoor trainer doing Sufferlandrian intervals until Spring arrives and I can ride outside all the time again.
A 10K run between two 60 hours work weeks.
Track session at Sutherland High School in North Vancouver, Canada this week doing a pyramid 400/800/1200/1200/800/400
My second road ride with my new garmin virb. Hoping not to come off on black ice this time round :-)
I’m running a 15km Trail run up and down Mount Oberon in Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria.
I don’t actually have anything in particular on the schedule, but I think that I might sign up for a Santa/Jingle Bell run.
Just more turbo trainer tedium throughout December!
Get through some ortho appointments (and hopefully rehab) so I can run again next year!
Two races before year’s end: 12 km run next Sunday going up and down in my hilly city and, obviously, the local “S. Silvestre”, two weeks later
6 mi run next Saturday.
Training has started in November / December for making 2015 a great year. Attempting to do the California Triple Crown. Three two hundred mile rides, over 45,000 ft climbing.
I just run the California International Marathon yesterday in Sacramento and got a PR and BQ to match it :-)
A nice recovery work out with my wife this weekend!
I’ve got my first ever competitive race coming up in February! So this Christmas time is going to be spent putting in the miles. On Sunday I’ve got my longest run to date of 9k!
5km on the treadmill tonight (31 runs in December is the goal)
8x1min steep hill repeats with 20min easy pace before and after.
Great action as always!
For me: The first 5k non-stop when I’ll finally complete a 10 week start running from nothing to 5k. Should be there between xmas and new years.
3 hour Ironman base ride this Saturday.