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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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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!
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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.
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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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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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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.
I go on exactly the same runs during winter, but I also add in some shivering….
Focus on swimming and spinning this winter and only going for shorter runs.
More. Clothes.
I just wear more clothes when I go out to run
Rollers for the road bike, and more clothes for the runs in the states. Here in OZ, nothing changes.
getting ready for indoor riding. packed away the car bike rack and unpacked the trainer. setting up the home pc for zwift
This year I plan to “work out” inside regularly (arms and core mainly), ride when it is warm and dry enough, and on the trainer when it is nasty out. Probably should just make it what I always do, but you got to start somewhere. I also want to try snowshoeing as an alternative.
Living in California has its benefits. I only alter my training by adding a handheld light, so blinking stobe lights and depending on the weather a long sleeve tech shirt or a jacket.
An extra layer usually does the trick. . . or a treadmill if it’s icy.
I am lucky, I live in San Francisco where there is swimming, biking, running all year round.
Let me IN!
Move into the gym or the cave of pain my my basement.
Playing in a couple basketball leagues for winter
I live in MN, and I adapt to winter by wearing LOTS of layers and investing in handwarmers (the disposable bags of chemicals that generate heat upon exposure to air). And when things get really cold (sub 0F), I become reacquainted with the treadmill.
Wahoo kicker and Trainerroad
Yaktrax and my treadmill help me get through the winter here in Colorado. Well, not at the same time.
I will be moving training indoors on my dcrainmaker recommend Wahoo Kickr!
I just change my gear and enjoy the season!
I put my bike away for the winter and use the eliptical in our basement. It’s boring, but better than freezing or doing nothing!
I dress warmer and continue on my training as scheduled
I personally switch to indoor training and strength training, instead of outdoor aerobic running or cycling workouts.
Live in the mountains, so switch to x-country skiing and time on the training. Which should be a lot better this year, with my new wahoo trainer!
No change. Suck it up and push harder. Albeit a little colder….
i live in singapore, so no problem!
Living in San Diego, California allows training outdoor bearable during winter months.
I just bought a wahoo kickr and intend to try out zwift.
Live in Michigan. Still run outside–hardens me for the trail running in spring. Change from biking to skiing, sledding, fat-bike riding in winter.
I mostly train outside, I love the rain
I would just skip the swim, and mainly on running
I live in the desert so it’s mainly the winds that kick up more and make my eyes water like crazy. Since I prefer to go out in the evenings to run I just grab some clear shooting glasses and problem solved.
Wool clothing.
No difference. I live in Hong Kong which is not cold at all in winter
Long walks outside and easy jogging in the morning
Put on more clothes and run!
I hate running in the cold but gotta scratch that itch.
In short, my bike lives on the Wahoo Kickr.
It’s -5°F outside and down to 8 hours of light now where I live. Have to run with a headlamp and layers.
Playing squash and doing treadmill running during the winter
I live in the north part of Sweden so instead of running on slippery roads I go x-country skiing, or before the snow comes, skating on frozen lakes.
I started running in the morning since it gets dark around 4:30 now.
Just ordered a wahoo kickr from REI to boost my winter training regimen, along with some running and lots of swimming in the pool. Looking forward to zwift/trainer road/sufferfest!
November and beyond means pool swims instead of open water, here in SoCal
Living in Austria will not stop me from keeping on running this winter and if it gets too cold I will head to the next fitness club and do some indoor workouts.
Workout at lunch and if needed… reflective gear for night/ morning workouts.
Mixing weight training and cycling trainer sessions during winter
Running on a treadmill and more time at the gym. When the sky is clear a nice layered run outdoors.
Put the bike away (well, maybe keep the cross bike out) and hit the nordic trails!
Here in tropical Australia, winter means being able to *finally* pull on those full length tights that have been hiding in the cupboard… And not much else changes! I’ll keep dreaming of one day being able to justify gloves and down vests ??
Yaktrax & TrainerRoad get me through the CO winters
It’s cold and wet here. I hibernate and switch to elliptical/treadmill.
I cross country ski mostly. I still run outside occasionally or ride the bike on the rollers if I can’t get out for a ski.
Layers, It doesn’t get super cold here in Australia, and I heat up once I am going. So I use layers and warmers so I can strip down as my body temp goes up.
I live in Dubai, winter is when I train outside. Summer I train inside.
Garage gym torture chamber!
Switch to mostly running mode and grow a beard when it gets really cold. Ride a trainer occasionally, but I can’t stand it.
In Seattle it gets dark early. For me, just pants and gloves when it dips into the thirties or below and lots of reflective gear. 120 lumen black diamond headlamp and 2 red flashers on the back of my hat and backpack. I rarely bike in winter and don’t use gyms. I just run 6 miles for one leg of my work commute.
While I am at sea it’s strechcordz, spinning bike and treadmill. On land it’s pool swimming, MTB + trainer and cross country running + treadmill.
With little kids my wife and I alternate training I do the 6 months overt summer and she does the winter months
I live in California, so I don’t transition at all. If anything, I will wear a long sleeve shirt when I run.
I’m one of those lucky ducks living in Finland. It’s kind of a crappy weather all around the year. So, when doing outside sports I put more layers on. Swimming in a pool and bike workouts on trainer.
Although not Hawaii, SoCal isn’t exactly cold and so the most I need to do is wear arm warmers and keep on trucking :)
Winter running with toque gloves and tights. All set up with the dumb trainer down in the basement. Fantastic.
Luckily the weather doesn’t change too
much in AZ. I can still run and cycle just
a little more bundled up! Just love the
Phoenix weather!!
Lucky enough to have favourable weather all year round!
It’s either gym and the usual or thermo clothing and a red nose running together :)
In Texas, Fall/Winter season rains more than Summer time.
I mix Insanity, P90X home workouts at home and go to YMCA(Swimming, Keiser M3+ available) or Planet Fitness.
Thank you DCR for introducing me many gadgets which motivates me to workout more than not knowing any heart rate or calories numbers. I visit this website every other day, love this blog.
Enjoying pool swiming on cold winter mornings
Indoor training weather is here
Not much winter running in the past. Will be signing up for a race on January to keep me motivated :)
Trail running
I’m in CA, no snow where I live, so I bundle up and run anyway. Mountains are about an hour away, also snowboard on most weekends.
In winter playing tennis with my friends
Jogging in local park in autumn
In Perth Australia, while it isn’t Hawaii, we don’t get much of a winter to be honest, so it’s business as normal (but sometimes with wet clothes in the afternoon)
Trainer miles when on a biz trip away from mild weather in Northern California – or when El Nino rears its ugly head and sends an atmospheric river our way ;)
I would love to have a Shiny Fenix3 with me to help tracking my progress throughout the winter, which will mostly be spent doing interval running, cardio in the gym along with my passion on the badmintoncourt. Thanks for great articles!
I’m a non-heat adapted Brit living in California, so the winter is when I finally venture outside to run. Love it this time of year.
Mixing cross-country skiing with running in cold weather
I focus quite a bit more on overall fitness – more indoor rowing, cycling, circuit training. Still try and squeeze in 2-3 runs a week to keep some mileage, speed work, and change of scenery. The lack of daylight really cuts into my outdoor training during the week.
Completely switching to running from bike in autumn and winter and doing some insanity workouts.
No change, I am running with spikes and gore tex
I’m one of those lucky ducks living in Hawaii.
Weight and crossfit training
Bike trainer
Sunny Queensland, Australia
Coming into our Summer, “Beautiful one day, perfect the next”
There is no cold weather – only wrong clothes :-)
Winter in southern sweden is mostly wet. My runs is depending on the weather. I change days and try to take advantage of the dry days. To much rain gets me to the gym more often.
Cold is an emotion, there is no bad temperature, there is however bad clothing ;-)
quack quack doin the same stuff the whole year round
5438 comments so far? Really? (sigh) I know I don’t stand a chance… but I’ll give it a try anyway. :-P
I really love to train in winter… I find that I can run longer and faster. I guess it’s a matter of heat exchange with the environment. :-)
I live in the North of Spain, really rainy, not so freezing (it’s unusual to have below 0ºC temperatures), but sometimes the temperature can go down to 5ºC. I just bought some thermal clothes and a good cap. A hot shower is all I need afterwards. So, not much of a change to my weekly routine…
It’s basically always warm where I live! :)
Swim: Pool
Bike: The doldrums (trainer)
Run: Anywhere and everywhere!
Bodyweight training in the gym with less outdoor running than in the summer.
Winter means less daylight hours so rather then working out at the ends of a day, doing so closer to midday.
No real changes to routine though.
Also living down under helps plenty, NO SNOW!
I’m in the PNW so winter isn’t too bad. Just have wet-weather gear.
If it gets too blustery you can always just do like a hundred burpees.
I love running in snow, so there’s not much of a difference to my training apart from maybe wearing shoes with carbide studs and occasional being forced to shift a workout from an ice covered track to the tread mill.
I’m a dog musher, so I cut back running me in winter and switch to running dogs more. They’re a bit faster than me :)
No matter if it summer or winter training must go on, so just get out there :-)
Swim in the pool
bike on my home trainer
running as usual, just more clothes :-)
I’m running. Whether it’s sunny, windy, freezing, snowing, or raining cats and dogs. I’m loving it :)