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.
Weekend, unfortunately travelling and giving some rest to my knee after a week of hard skiing. But on Monday I returned to my HM traning plan doing 12km incl 10x30sec fast.
Mostly running and upper body, getting ready for the Savage race in May.
Easy jog on Saturday.
Long run (21K) on Sunday.
1st 10k after a knee injury a few weeks back.
Simple, the Tour of Sufferlandria. A good way to spike your CTL after some time off in January.
A lazy 5K start after a long break. Happy to be back!
An hour at the gym on sunday with some group classes
3mi run and strength training
Saturday – Block – 10 mile bike – 3.5 mile run
Sunday – Long Run – Tempo 10 miles
Mountain bike ride on saturday and long rest on sunday
20 mile long run in 10 degree degree weather. Love the Midwest!
First run after the birth of my daughter. 6K
A nice Run in the sun
In my last week I Running 3 miles evelyn day.
There was a massive cold snap in Chicago (-20F with the wind chill.) Ended up doing a 12 mile run on a treadmill (painful.)
A combination of cold and schedule meant I had to forgo my normal Sunday run, which I swapped out for my Monday strength training day.
4 hr ride in Z2 followed by 45 min run also in Z2
Ran 16 easy on Saturday and 7 easy in the freezing cold on Sunday.
Some of the snow here cleared away and let me put in a few snow miles on my favorite trail to run. It’s nice to be outside more.
Working 12 hr midnight shift but took a break with my coworker to work on core strength. He is ex-military and worked it harder than a personal trainer. Pyramids of push ups, sit-ups, burpees, super mans… Wrapped it up with a 3 mile run/sprints in the office at 2 am. Loop around the floor is 1/10 mile. No one else on the floor but an occasional security guard. Then repeated the next night with pull up pyramids on jury rigged handles over an office door, followed up by 4 mile run. I was sore for a few days. Never thought I would be running at 2 am around the office floor a year ago, Helped keep me awake all night.
Two sweetspot sessions of about 1 hour.. one on Saturday and one on Sunday :)
Intervals of running and walking on my treadmill.
A run along the Hong Kong harbourfront on Saturday morning (before baking the worlds naughtiest chocolate and raspberry bread! – oops), and then on Sunday an hour on the turbo trying to work on cadence (avoiding a girly netflix series my girlfriend was watching in bed!)
On saturday I ran 9k in the snow and on sunday I did 3x2k in half marathon speed + 4k slow jog on the treadmill.
Did some skiing in the Alps.
Trainer rides since it didn’t get above freezing
Saturday: running 5x (400+800+400m) at track, with 20k bike ride warm-up/cool-down; Sunday 90min pool training: kick drills and intervals…
Started with a long swim and then bike intervals on Saturday. Continued with a 15K run and then long swim again on Sunday.
I did a Sufferfest video and a 5k run.
I did some interval running on Sunday, summing 12k with best 1k at 3’30 pace
Too cold to be outside in Vermont. Ride on the trainer instead.
19miles of stationary bike + 30mn of Core work for Saturday
15miles of biking on Sunday + 1hr sports massage to help my hamstring recovery
…waiting for the injury to heal before putting in big mileage for the summer ultra races.
Just did low impact elliptical due to a sore knee.
SAT: Power Ladders on the Trainer 60%, 80%, 95%, All OUT – 95%, 80%, 60% rest – do that 4 times and wipe away the tears… go for a transition run… run a little longer then you want to.
Sun: Hit the GYM and Pick up HEavy things, dont forget to put them down and do it over again….
Run – Run and Run and Run 8 min Z2, 8min Z3 rinse, wash repeat 4x don’t rest, Z2 is your rest… dont rest…
Running, running and more running. Saturday was a long cold 22 miler on bridle trails. Saturday was 8 miles of greenway.
I lost my puppy – Leto, who was my best friend and my trail running partner for years couple of weeks back. Its been hard to get back on the same trails but with out her. My wife suggested to make some copper/zink memorial plaques and install them on the route on one of our favorite trail around Clinton Lake in KS. So I’m doing that this weekend. Is warming up too, I think she would have loved to be out again, but I will be hitting the trail with out her this time :(
recovered from being ill so started to ramp up slowly with a long run of 7 miles and a sufferfest cycling video (hell hath no fury).
Ridden 21k on roads and park connectors. The usual route.
Skiing in Stowe, VT with my wife and 6 yo son. -38F with wind chill on Sunday.
I had a 10k race (3rd in age group!) and a recovery swim
I did a weights session on Saturday and a one hour FTP test on Sunday.
Last weekend: 12 miles with the last 6 at marathon pace in tough weather. Boston bound! (hopefully)
Completed planned training, including hill repeat, tempo and a self support half night marathon run.
On saturday a 2.5 hour d1/d2 easy ride. On sunday a 1 hour ride with a few d3 blocks, but due to snow i stayed in bed…
One final 2 mile run/walk combo, followed by 2 2 mile runs. Just got back to running after lengthy rehab from knee surgery. I could use some new stuff to get me back in the swing of things..
I zwifted a bit… ugly weather outside :) !
couple of short runs and a few very nice swims.
empty i’m afraid :(
#shutupknee
2 days of skiing in swiss alps combined with apres-ski.
5K Tempo run on Saturday and a long run on Sunday
Saturday = 32 mile / 2,664 ft chill road ride @ down to 14 degrees F
Sunday = Thaw & Defrost
Had a season opening race this weekend – duathlon. Surprisingly ran even faster than at the end of last season. Winter trainings paid dividends.
Trainerroad. Traditional Base, medium week III. “North Pack” and “Mount Alice” = 5,5h. Phew…
Having some (lack of) free time from work issues, so my schedule looked like a whole lot of NOT running, swimming, or biking – It did, however, include quite a bit of overeating and desk sitting… Both of which make me more ‘buoyant’, so I guess that counts towards my swimming goals.
7 days of flu
Did strength training followed by rollers ride on Saturday and hopped on bike again the day after.
A short and easy swim, as I am currently recovering from an ankle injury,
Lots of Zwifting as the temps here got down to -12F last weekend it was much safer to stay inside.
Finally started a proper training week after a muscle tear. Tuesday was threadmill day at the gym, Wednesday a nice MAF run at Lunch. Thursday evening was the swimming club finals, 100m medley at the best time in 20 years for me. Masters swimming is great fun! the week finished off with a run home from work Friday.
Bear Creek (TrainerRoad); 5 mile treadmill run; Deerhorn 30 (TrainerRoad); 3 mile treadmill run; Still 45 (TrainerRoad); 273 yard pool swim
How about 2:30 Bike Endurance and 45 Minutes run ?
The weekend is busy with running after the kids, as they older it’s getting more and more challenging.
On Saturday I was skiing and on Sunday I did an 60 minutes run, 1km of swimming and then the rest of the day relaxing in a sauna…
hill sessions on sunday 50 miles with 5,000 ft totally elevations, fun ish!
Poor weather kept me inside on the trainer.
ParkRun on Saturday then a more gentle long(ish) run on Sunday
40 mile bike ride with my brother in law.
Ran 5 km for 3 days in a week.
Short run (5 miles) called the Heart Attack….where I ran as fast I could for five miles while nearly collapsing…fun times!
1hr of Elliptical endurance to keep fitness up during stress fracture recovery, followed by weights/ strength workout on Sunday
Mercedes Half Marathon in Alabama
Ran my VERY FIRST MARATHON! The LA Marathon… and was able to stand on my feet for 6 hours the day prior watching the AMAZING athletes at the Olympic Marathon Trials. What an amazing weekend, especially while training over with winter in MinneSNOWta!
Shortened my long run to 8 miles since the windchill was around -10 Saturday and did a 90 minute trainerroad session with some teammates in a garage during a snowstorm while watching a replay of Kona.
Swim – Monday
Bike/Run – Tuesday
Rest – Wednesday
Bike/Run – Thursday
Swim – Friday
Long Bike – Saturday
Long Run – Sunday
Not much… I was in Russia for a business trip, cold weather and not much free time, so basically only eating and drinking beside work, not a very good training week!
Two 4,5 hrs rides. Basemiles.
I biked for 1.5 hours. Ran 4 miles. Swam a few grand. I’m clearly not in training mode.
I would have like to say that the last week of train was a 60 mile week. But work has been keeping me busy so it has been a week of zero miles. But I think times are changing and I am about to get back on the horse. And start the miles again. I have a few 100 mile races planed and would like to run them fast.
Start trainning with the Maffetone Method.
I did a hard intervals. I ran 6*4 minutes.
Crosstraing and skiing last weekend.
Did a couple 2 mile runs.
Home trainer and gym session
Monday & Friday in the gym for core and resistance training;
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday on the bike enjoying the unseasonably warm San Diego winter weather;
Typical workout week for me…though I could likely benefit from structuring my workout sequence better :-o
Appreciate the continued support to readers via Giveaways.
Had a great long run and afterwards an easy swim.
Swimming and shoveling snow.
Last weekends workouts were up in the Duck Mountains in central Canada. 3 sessions of backcountry cross country skiing breaking trails through summer mtn biking trails of 10 miles in duration. To balance it off we had the fatty along for some fat tire riding on loosely packed snow, which by the way is real hard. No internet or cell coverage up there. Perfect weekend
This past weekend was a bit frustrating as I injured my left calf on a hill workout the previous Thursday so I cannot run on it. I am using my bike on an old trainer. I really need to upgrade that to the 21st century! So I did an hour ride with some 90 second intervals on Sat and then a 2 hour ride on Sunday. Hoping to be running soon as Boston is fast approaching …..
just walking a lot… walking is also sport :) especially with a young daughter
Did 2 miles on a treadmill and 2 mile snowshoeing (~1k climb).
Also walked into town (10 miles) but don’t think that counts as training.
Last weekend’s workout was a 22miler, moderate pace for the first 17, and progression for the last 5 cutting down to HMP!
An hour of Trainerroad intervals on the Kickr last Saturday, and then spending the afternoon doing core work (juggling my two kids around while running errands :)). Sundaymorning was spent swimming with the kids, and running a half marathon for that Strava badge after they went to bed.
Cheers.
The weather was cold and miserable outside – so I did my Recovery and Long Run on the treadmill all at easy pace.
TR sessions as usual
Last week was hard – I was traveling for work (and thanks for your tips on work travel and working out) to a place where it was sub zero (and I’m a wimp about running in the cold) there was no bike, and the only public pool had weird hours. As a result, I only swam 2 miles, biked around 70 and ran 14. Which isn’t bad, but I was hoping to do more.
Stupid work travel.
5km run on the Saturday and a 30km mtb ride through the muddy local trails on the Sunday
I swam long intervals on Sunday. 4x800s w/ 1 min rest. A good way to kill an hour!
I did 20 rep HIIT training
Recovery run and swim due to ITB syndrome :)
Mountain biking for 4 hours Saturday and gym work on Sunday
Glad you asked about “what was on the plan” instead of “how did your training look like”. So the plan had me do 40 minute cross-training on Saturday and a 1h20 medium long run on Sunday to get back into things after a week of skiing. Alas, neither didn’t happen, since I messed up my back on Saturday morning and could hardly move all weekend. Cheers!