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.
Saturday rest – Sunday was a 3 mile run followed by 2 hours on the mountain bike.
Saturday: 45 min easy / recovery run with the dog. Running with my dog keeps the pace reasonable.
Sunday: 1 hour tempo run. It’s a loop that I can finish in < 1hr when I'm in good mid-season shape. I'm still a few months away from doing that regularly but getting close.
Austin Half Marathon on Sunday.
Super easy hike on saturday and 45 mins aerobic run on Sunday
Friday, 9km run
Saturday was my usual 3.5km walk with my two girls (10yrs & 7yrs), trying to get them into the exercise frame of mind
Sunday was a gentle 3.5km swim with the Mrs. and then home to spoil her.
Nothing. I did nothing at all; recovery weekend I suppose :) Although 3 hours of motorcycle driving in wet snow might be considered training?
Nothing! First full weekend off in 6 months. Took my wife and our 9 month old boy to the national zoo for the first time. Well worth missing some workouts!
I did a 3 hour run in the forest, preparing for a 55km trail within 3 weeks.
I was crosstraining spinning for a couple of hours to keep up with marathon training while taking down time due to an overuse injury
Back to the volume and speed after recovery period. I had 24K with easy, marathon pace and half-marathon pace splits.
7 miles around the lake :)
6 mile run on Friday. An awesome 3.5 mile run on Saturday with my daughter after she dominated in goal for her soccer game.
This is an awesome giveaway!
Sunday long run: 10Km warming up then 10Km marathon pace then 6km easy running.
Saturday hike and Sunday running and rowing.
LSD run very early Sunday morning to earn some of the grub I wolfed down in the afternoon.
Just getting back into running after a dodgy knee so a quick 30 minute run was on the cards
A ten km run around town and a mtb ride at lunch time…i miss swim for a strange tri.:-)
Two bike rides, both outside in the beautiful English countryside. One easy; one a little harder.
7K after deciding i was way too late for a uni class. oops :)
On sunday, à volleyball tournament.
(5 matches)
8 and 12 km pram pushing with my doughter inside)
I did some indoor climbing.
Trail half marathon on Saturday on Whidbey Island! Sunday swim.
Tour of sufferlandria!!
9k run with my 13yr old son. It was a milestone as it was our first run together since I got run over by a car in November (the car failed to notice I was on the roundabout).. Broke my collarbone and have a stainless steel plate and pins to prove it.
So it was a small distance, but a big event for me.
did a short recovery run, and some swimming on the beach.
I did pre Valentine Crosscountry Training with my belowed one on saturday – all together almost 30 km
I did a nice 31ish mile bike ride.
As part of my 1/2 marathon training plan I run 13 miles with 7x1min surges at 5k pace with 5 min jogging in between, starting at mile 8.
On saturday a light 40km ride on Zwift, Sundaymorning swim training (1hour) and after that a 15km test run, enough for me :)
I started again with a recovery plan after knee surgery, so a 20min run-walk was my valentine workout.
Did a 2 hour ride on my rusty old tacx trainer
Waited until it hit double digits (fahrenheit) to get a 4 mile run in on Saturday. Never got there on Sunday
Weekend in training camp – a lot of miles on bike around Calp in Spain!
An easy swim with an easy run.
Recovering from flu :(
Perfect weather(snow & sunny sky) 10k run.
Conservation loop – saw a bald eagle at sunset!
Running on Sat, bike on Sun
A nice three day weekend; Saturday chasing a pair of twin toddlers around the house; Sunday an interval set in the pool, and Monday a friendly International indoor soccer match against visiting military members from Central America (the Americans lost, obviously).
I must admit, I was too lazy to train this weekend :P
Spent Valentine’s Day weekend with the wife and 3 months old baby. Was hoping to go on a XC mountain bike ride but baby didn’t cooperate to make that happen!
45 min run – week 2 in training for my first 70.3.
strength training and swimming on Saturday, running and a Zwift session on Sunday
Cold 95 km solo ride with a nasty wind?
Didn’t make it to the parkrun as my bike decided I was no longer fit to ride it and threw me to the ground, smashing my knee, elbow, and my Garmin.
But the intent was there :)
Decorating my flat (countless trips up and down a ladder) and a 115 minute spin class.
A ride with very heavy winds, but with good company.
Swimming (as much as I can), because I have a Tri in 3 weeks and have not been in the pool in 4 months. I
P90X every day and walking/jogging 3-4 miles on the treadmill during (boring) conference calls!
Was planning on some pool swimming. But ended up working instead.
On Saturday I did a 8.5k run. On Sunday we travelled to Amsterdam to row on the river Amstel and familiarise ourselves with the bends and bridges for our race later this spring. 15k rowing training in wet, windy and cold weather. Great weekend.
It was very cold and dismal outside, so I had two boring 20 mile rides on the stationary bike watching people in warmer locations on television.
I did a 50K Bike ride. Half of the time it was raining. I also ran 11K.
I did a nice run to pick up my daughter from the kindergarden on Friday. 7km run to the kindergarden on my own and 5km run back with her on her bike right besides me. And she knows how to speed up for the last few meters… ;)
On Saturday I did a little homeworkout with pushups, squats and some good excersizes to stable my front- and back center for running.
I met my goal of walking over 10,000 steps each day of the weekend! I’m getting back to running after breaking my foot, so this was an important step in that process.
Trainload session that didn’t go too well.
Registered for a 21k race, but injured at the moment. So hopped on my bike to cheer on some teammates!
Currently fighting plantar fasciitis, so nothing fancy for me. Just the elliptical, 1h on Saturday, 2h on Sunday. Oh yeah, tried 10mins of running on the treadmill on Saturday as well, but my foot didn’t really like that. :(
Went for a 10k run at a slow pace
My first long jog for a really long time on saturday and some indoor climbing on sunday. Loved it <3
Saturday – fast bunch ride around the coast in Scotland, followed by a very hilly route home. Caught in the snow for the top 8 miles or so after convincing my friends the weather would be fine. 80 miles.
Sunday – faster reliability run to Moscow (in Scotland) and back. Bitterly cold, blinding sunshine with views across the snow capped mountains of the Isle of Arran and very snowy Ben Lomond. A beautiful 50 miles.
10km Wattbike race where only w/kg ratio was considered for final result.
Improved my 10k time and got higher avg power than last time :)
A 2000m swim on Saturday morning, followed by a 12km run. Sunday was a 30km run.
Treadmill Running and Zwift Biking with my Bushido
Long run 1,5h. Preparation for half marathon.
I’m a beginner, so for me my legs had a hard weekend. First a 5km run and after that some bodyweight exercises.
No special workout on last weekend, but I was outside all day with the boy scouts :)
Saturday: 20 minutes on the trainer and a 25k lap in the austrian alps
I took part in an indoor cycling competition (Wattbike), 10 km.
It was my first time on the bike again after five months.
Went cycling with my Valentine through mud and rain…true Love:)
gym and floorball
I had an easy 7 mile trail run Saturday and took Sunday off at the Mrs.’ request. On President’s Day I did a 56 mile bike.
During the weekend we went skiing. First day in Norway and second day in Sweden. Lovely weather with nice snow.
/Mikael
Swimleg on Saturday and some biking on Sunday
lunes mtb a mi aire, miercoles mtb llaneando 40km, viernes mtb buscando desnivel
Easy run for one hour on Saturday and a two hour long run on Sunday covering 24k.
I had an easy 5km Saturday run with my Run Club buddies
Went sailing for two days on the lovely lake macquarie… didnt track my soeed or distance though
10km run Monday, Wednesday and Friday
rest all the weekend only train during week
Spent it in bed with the man flu!
First long run for quite some time. Good to be back out there…
Did a 5k at the local parkrun. Traffic and parking was crazy for something that happens every week
long walk for photographs
Long run on sunday and a coopertest on tuesday, as part of an Endomondo 10K trainingplan.
Saturday and Sunday long rides. 4 hr ride with my team Saturday, Sunday was 5.5 hrs with some guys much faster than me. I haven’t ridden since still a bit crushed haha.
I squeezed in 2 runs – 10 mi mixed road/trail, 2.75 mi road and 2 short yoga sessions in sunny Rocklin CA!
Last week for me was a rest week:
11km run interval session
20k bike spin
1800m pool swim session
60km ride
7km run
1500m open water swim
Just a leisurely, short run on saturday.
I got nothing done. Straight out of physio.
tried usual 100′ on my 50km loop ended 108’….too bad!
I was just back from a week of ski and skimo, so just one workout and a 10k cross in a park on Sunday :)
Although I just recovered from Influenza, I ran a 10K race in The Netherlands. It was really tough, but because of the beauty of the surroundings, it was amazing!
1 mile swim mixed front crawl and breast stroke on Sat and Sun. Plus 5 mile walk sat (game of golf)
Did two runs for 5-6km each – just a regular run towards first ever 1000km goal this year.
Yoga and swiming for relax.
Had a nice long slow distance on saturday and a mild fartlek on sunday.
Sa: 15x 1min full speed run
Su: 21km easy running
A Valentine’s Day speed skating session (1hr) after Saterday’s preseason race (80 km, including warm up and cooling down) on our club circuit.
I went rock climbing.