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 was a 5 mile run & some quick circuit training.
Sunday was some HIIT cycling on the trainer.
Monday was a nap.
16k, which is supposed to be my long run… It needs to become longer distance-wise, but I’m slow (1:45) so I’m not exactly excited about 2+ hour workouts…
I did 3 weekly workouts: 1 gym session & steady bike ride (45minutes cross session), 1 swimming session (2kms), 1 cross treadmill session (6%-12%-15%). This is my usual week plan training until end of March.
I ran the Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon for Valentines Day
I managed a 3+ hour 40 km cross country ski.
My last weekend workout:
on saturday: 65km with MTB, playing in te woods and fields near my place
on sunday: 14km LSD running (<135 BPM), resulting in a runners knee injury :-(
have a great week!
2hr recovery ride at Sydney Olympic Park bringing the weekly total to just under 300km.
20K in the woods far away from phone reception :) In search of old burned village with geocache hidden near. Unfortunetly cementary was ruined by wind link to i.imgur.com :/ Instead i found beautyfull heathers :) link to i.imgur.com
Just around 40 min on the treadmill on sunday morning
Getting ready for a 5K, I ran 2 miles!
Unfortunately nothing – recovering from a mid-winter cold.
Nothing special. 10k of cross country ski day before a race.
But Valentine’s Day was more fun. I’ve done 50k cross-country marathon “Golden Domes”. And my girl feeds me during the race.
Last weekend was just a short 30-minute run and the rest of it was taking it easy, it was Valentine’s weekend after all….
The plan was for a 20km easy ride on Sat, and a 25km new route test ride on Sunday. Ended up both day 0km, down with flu.
I bought a mountain bike so I could put a bike seat on for my son. He’s only 7 months and too young for it so I just went for a 12km spin myself. First ride on a bike without clips in 6 years! So much fun
Zwift on the trainer Saturday and Monday. It was colder than the north pole this weekend here.
I ran my fastest 10k, also setting a record for 1 km and 1 mile. I think this was made possible because it was very cold and I had to warm up, as well as because of the Russian bear (just kidding). :-)))
Working through the suffering glory that was the Tour of Sufferlandria!
Very cold & wet road ride Saturday followed by a slightly less cold & wet mountain bike ride on Sunday. Enjoyed both though.
Struggling to get back on track. Ran 7 miles on Saturday morning using Maffetone Heart Formula maximum.
My workout radar included a lot of cycling inside while trying to avoid the frigid temperatures outside (-30 Celsius)!
Thanks for the giveaway Ray.
I run 12km under a refreshing rain and I did some rest while training a little my puppy ?
Saturday – 10 hour plane flight
Sunday – 2400m swim and 90 minute run to make up for Saturday
On Saturday I did an easy workout on the trainer on always sunny Zwift Island. As I say in Norwegian, I did a “visp”. That would be a “stir” or a “whisk” in english. In other words, an easy workout with low resistance, just to get those legs moving.
Sunday I did some cross country ski intervals. Beautiful weather, perfect conditions, perfect skiis. Simply perfect!
I rode 54kms getting dragged along by my father in law who is 30 kilograms lighter than me and constantly tells me to push harder and get lower in the aerobars.
I’m recovering from an injury so did an easy run (3k) with my daughter practising on her bike.
A good game of field hockey, with team one man short we still put up a fight. I even got Man of the Match for determined defence!
very easy 6K – recovering from yet another injury… :-/
I did a one hour bike ride followed by an hour and a half run.
My regular 54km group ride on Saturday and then into the hills of Adelaide on Sunday.
Saturday:
Swim 8x(50,100) tempo/hard
Bike 90′
Sunday:
Run 20k with 4k build steady to tempo
Wednesday after work 68 km night bike ride along the coastline of Athens with other Club members and Saturday morning 84 km ride, up on the surrounding mountains with the same bunch!
I did a long run around my hometown!
Came off my brompton commuting to work during the week and narrowly avoided being squashed by a bus. Left with bruised coccyx so no running, swimming, cycling or bending down for me :(
Sunday as long run day – and this one it was not even raining as it did the other weeks lately…
Hill repeats on the bike. Followed by a 30min brick!
I did a long intervals: 3x10mins, a little faster than 10k race pace. Got a PB for the session too.
I did volunteer at local winter triathlon and after I had a long run myself ;)
cycling, cycling and more cycling
Did my first canicross 5.4km run with my dog Laska
That was awesome!
Steph
Saterday Swim Training & Sunday Sufferfest TGTTOS
My first 20-miler. On the way to the marathon!
I did yoga on saturday and a mini triathlon at the local gym on sunday morning
Friday: Ride 60 km on roadbike
Saturday: 3 hours of psychological training in IKEA.
Sunday: 40 km on MTB
There was embarrassingly little on my training log last weekend, but the 20th is my birthday so maybe that’ll cancel out.
Also your website keeps “logging me out” as a supporter – any chance that interval can be upped to something much longer?
Rest! Made some poor decisions skiing friday that needed time to heal.
I spent last weekend cooking and running around like a mad woman!! My hubby celebrated his 40th birthday with an epic party. Danced all night!! Felt like a had run at least a half marathon.
Ran a marathon on Sunday in the warm Arizona weather.
I was out of town for 3 weeks for training (did manage to learn how to snowshoe with a rucksack though) so last week was just getting my sea legs again. Did some Zwift training and a few 2 mile sessions on the treadmill.
Was mainly lazy and pretended skiing was my workout on Saturday and Sunday.
spent my weekend With my girlfriend at gym. did some heavy squats to increase my power
Only some medical gymnastics on Sunday because I had 2 extra night shifts in the weekend.
In our single digit Connecticut weather, the dog and I got out for a 4 mile trail run on Saturday. I bundled up again on Sunday and completed an 8 mile road run.
Rest day Friday, 1:15 run in Z2 on Saturday in 15degree weather, 2hr Z2 bike on the turbo watching Kona 2011 and 2013.
Did some heavy deadlifts to be a powerful runner, and run.
Saturday was my day off but I headed out for 16k anyway. Sunday was a group ride with the local tri club!
Spent all Friday traveling back from Seattle to Brussels getting in Saturday the only exercise routine I had was with the kids and Disney on Ice.
Three hours on the trainer Saturday and a day off (at least from training) Sunday.
I see in my future… a 10k run and at least 2h30 of Zwift
A run with our little man in the stroller. He loves, I regretted taking the hilly route after the flu.
90 min muscle endurance with z2/z3 intervals on the KICKR.
10 mile z2 run.
1,000 meter form swim
Last week I clocked about 6hours, most of them out in the cold on my roadbike (I would love a powermeter, heart rate in the cold can be deceiving hehe ;) ). On Sunday I mixed it up a bit with a short run and some strength and core training afterwards with my crew.
A short run and an easy swim.
Still recovering from a marathon, but I’m doing a few 5k a week.
On Saturday I did a 90min Sweet Spot-Workout on Zwift followed by a nice relaxing walk/run combination with out dog.
Sat. – swim and short run
Sun. – medium run, short bike
Hill run was on my schedule
I was on holiday in Funasdalen Sweden, no running but lots of Cross-country skiing.
I’m still trying to manage longer distances of running but on the weekend I only did 4km
I’ve run 7k with running group
I played ice hockey for 1,5 hours with my friends early in the morning on Valentine’s day.
3 hour endurance ride with 1 hour break to fix a flat tire. I knew I should have replaced my damn air pump!
I’m in a recovery week, so was going pretty easy during the weekend. Some easy rides with not too much stress.
150K saturday and 80K sunday grouprides!
Last weekend was a Climbing Lock-In with my son’s Boy Scout troop, followed by a trainer ride on Sunday afternoon.
Nice cold and sunny road cycling on Saturday and cold rainy mountain bike journey on Sunday. Winter seems to have arrived, finally!
Last weekend was tough:
Drop, Cut, Split and Haul a facecord of firewood.
Think of it as cross-training!
Some swim drills with my new paddles.
first long-run (20km+) in 2016
I really thing that you get a lot of comment concerning that post ;-)
One suggestion: you shoul post a Survey regarding fiability of the products…
Last weekend was an off weekend where I did not do my long run, but instead did a little skiing.
Snow intervals on the fat bike. This was the first decent snow we’ve received this season so I had to take advantage of it!
Restarting my couch to 5k programme
Saturday: strength training, drills in the pool to improve my swimming technique which still kinda sucks.
Sunday: long 15 miles trailish run, with ice covering half the distance :)
Thanks for all you do for us, Ray!
Well between a fishing trip that got canceled because of high sea’s out here in the middle of the Pacific (Guam) and a few Presidente’s Margarita’s, I did manage a few 8 mile runs, in prep for the Guam Hafa Marathon (Hafa is kinda like aloha) this upcoming weekend. Hoping to break 1:30 on this mostly down hill, down trade wind course.
I tried out my new tacx vortex trainer based on your recommendation. It worked awesome but highlighted an issue I’ll ask now and on your podcast. For an iPhone to communicate with the trainer through trainer road I need a wahoo ant+. Is apple considering putting any+ into their phones and/or why can’t wahoo design an ant+ device that is compatible with the new iPhones to avoid the necessity of an apple 30 pin lightning adapter? With that, thanks for reading.
Traveling over the weekend, but there will be a lot of walking, running, and climbing as well.
6x500m/3 min rest on Rowing Machine + 10K run steady state.
First outdoor road run of the year having religiously stuck to my treadmill, I dared to pound the pavement, and did a not to shabby 4miles on Saturday, then tried out my new [albeit second hand from ebay] road bike, first experience with anything carbon on my bike!
A weekend of firsts [to a certain degree]
a mountainbike ride with 30km and 1000m elavation climb
Trainerroad Frissell session Saturday with an easy 5 mile run sunday.
I did a 21 km long run on Sunday.
Being in SF for business, unless you count stuffing myself with lots of burgers, my training consisted only of bodyweight exercises in my motel room. Back to it this week!
Last sunday was 3 weeks away from my next marathon and the workout was 30 km at marathon pace. Done under 127 mins.
Riding on the trainer on sunday as the weather wont allow to go outside here in switzerland.
Unfortunately I have nothing in my training log for last week as I was recovering from a cold. This week I hope to get to the pool for the first time in a month, and next week I hope to have my pain cave set up for a couple of turbo sessions, get down to the track for a run session, and also get in the pool again.
Well, I did an easy 15k Nordic ski on Saturday and 13k on a treadmill on Sunday. It was -35 in Ottawa, so warmed up with wine!
Last week-end was pretty cold -25 indoor training on the treadmill
We went skiing!
Did a easy HM-Run and 2 Trainerroad Session … (Please pick me http://www.random.org)