Sports Tech Summer Deals Still Live! A huge number of the Amazon deals are still going! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $459, and the Fenix 8 for $150 off. The Apple Watch Series 10 for $279, the GoPro Hero 13 Black for $329, smart trainers, drones, action cams, and plenty more! Go check out the full list here!
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.While I don't partner with many companies, there's a few that I love, and support the site. Full details!
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!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
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!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
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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 2024 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.
Dodge the terrible rain!
1st outdoor ride of the year on Saturday, Sufferfest on Sunday
Since it’s still winter here – 4 hours on the trainer!
Finally I am going to try these LIMITS power meter that I waited almost for 2 years.
riding4 hrs
TrainerRoad, Kickr, Netflix and chill
I recently got a trainer so my game plan is this weekend is to be a part of my first zwift race
Ride with pals
Gravel ride today, Mountain Bike tomorrow (Sunday) morning. All part of the plan for the Leadville 100 MTB race in August
Quick 45 min spin to recover from a long run
It’s raining, going to ride the trainer
Getting on the road bike for the first time in 12 months. Wish me luck!
Watopia flat route :)
No biking, but I did a 10k treadmill run, and probably a short run tomorrow.
Way too cold out. Hitting the spin bike.
Ski race.
Lots of running this weekend. The Brompton will get a good clean though in preparation for the coming weeks commuting
Saturday, 1 hour Masters swim class, 35 mile bike, & 3 mile run Practice Tri. & Sunday 35 mile bike/2 mile run brick.
Recovering from a torn calf muscle. Re start my. Ike training next week. Need to be able to monitor myself as to not overtrain and re injure
80km in the rain, plenty of time in coffee shop and inspiration watching strada bianche.
Learned to ride on rollers this week. Capped it off with a 110km ride this morning on the rollers in Zwift. A tough 3 hours! link to strava.com
Pretty simple two hour spin. Nothing tough this weekend.
club ride on Saturday followed by a chilled out coffee shop ride on Sunday
My weekend doesn’t start until Monday, but I’ll get at least 50 miles in! Warmer weather would be nice, but the miles will come regardless.
30km run och 2h on bike!
Another session on the turbo with trainerroad!
On childcare duty so turbo followed by turbo
30 km road today (sat.) maybe the gym tomorrow
30/15 (130%FTP) – 12×3 ERG Workouts on friday
20km XC Skiing on friday
Random Zwift race or ride on sunday
Ascending Mount Teide for the first tine
Going out for 30-40 mile on Sunday with the local bike club.
Turbo trainer on Saturday then 50 mile TAN on Sunday (hopefully).
As I’m writing this on Saturday evening half the weekend has passed and plans went down to drain, today’s plan was 3h with 3 15min efforts but after just 20min riding legs just felt like mushy stuff and pain even at zone 2 was unbelievable so I went back home and just spend the day switching between bed and sofa, so on Sunday I’ll just do 5k run and hope that Monday will be awesome
I went cross country skiing this weekend. A good break from cycling on the trainer.
Lovely little jaunt around the IMNZ bike course… brutal…
50K mountainbike ride at the sea side
Hopefully I’m manage Zwifting tomorrow…
Bad weather… I will push hard on my trainer on sunday.
Ride indoor at our gym on a Stages bike
It’s raining so indoor trainer rides!
Stuck inside at work all weekend. Able to get in a quick 30 min Zwift ride. Probably for the best. It’s 20 F outside. Brrr!
Threshold climb to Mt Lofty, recovery, then VO2max intervals
2hour bike rides enjoying the sunny days :)
I’ve done the BASE Endurance 2 hours Swift group ride on my Tacx Neo this morning. Will also ride tomorrow to complete my week,
Can’t wait for better weather to start riding outdoors, 40F and raining in Oregon. Gonna have to settle for a couple of hour long sessions indoors this weekend.
Riding the mountain motatapu mountain bike race in New Zealand!
Mendips mega the watching strade bianche & italian night!
Zwift on Saturday and on Sunday. Watopia 1200m climbing on Saturday and some OUs on Sunday
2 Trainerroad sessions and helping my sister and husband in their new house.
Hard trainer session on Sunday.
Well, given the lovely weather in Paris area, it’ll probably be turbo trainer…
I did my first ride of the year with some friends. A nice and easy ride close to 2 hours.
Rode 50 today through some beautiful southern Italian hills. Tomorrow morning will bomb through the streets of downtown Napoli on the MTB.
Nice and steady 100 km!
I’ll finally ride down that forest trail I’ve always passed.
I will participate in a 4 hour spin marathon on Sunday together with 40 other cyclists. We’ll watch a ski classic (the Vasaloppet – a 90 km cross-country ski race in Sweden) on a big screen and will go on until the winner of that race crosses the finishing line.
Too hot for a ride in Australia this weekend, so a long swim was substituted
Bike training, sa 90km, so 120km + 2x 1h Aquafit :-)
Just some Zwift for me, too cold outside!
This weekend is mostly about preparing the bikes and making some test drives on saturday and sunday.
Running st davids day 10k in Cardiff and trying to cope with my dad losing his battle with Parkinson’s disease
Today was a big 150 people Strade Bianche ride and tomorrow it’s going to be another century. The weather in Poland is so great this weekend.
Training and upgrading the groupset on my wife’s summer bike.
Some endurance / volume on mtb.
Waiting for a warmer Sunday, and two circles in Central Park
Windy today. Looking forward to arriving Las Vegas tonight and riding Sunday morning in Red Rock for my birthday!
No biking, traveling
Living in Ohio, it was over 70 degrees last week, snowed since them, and is currently 30 degrees… so my cycling has been crushing it without my friends at CycleBar.
Moving house this weekend, no cycling for me!
Club run on Sunday, hopefully with coffee and cake :)
Sadly none this weekend. Hopefully next weekend though. Too many kid activities this weekend.
I rode my bike (Giant TCR Advanced Pro 1) to work on Saturday. Unfortunately, I had to spend the day working rather than taking advantage of the weather for a long ride. Responsibility sucks.
An hour on the trainer on Sunday.
I’m ramping up my running mileage for my first ultramarathon this summer. My cycling plans are to supplement my running in order to give my legs a break from the continuous pounding.
Saturday was fun, we did a big lap of the city finding as many hills as possible, took my fixie 48/16 so it was a good workout. Sunday will be a coffee cruise & talk all things bikes
First long (2 hour) ride with intervals off the season
Gday from down under…..just took delivery of a Giant Propel Advanced Pro 0 and just about to buckle up and take this rocket on a flat 100k!!
I rode my mountain bike in the snow this morning. Tomorrow’s probably a Zwift day.
This morning was threshold intervals thanks to Trainerroad tomorrow is a rest day. The weather here in England isn’t great so hitting the numbers indoors is giving me my cycling buzz.
This weekend 3.5 km ergometer +5 km running each day.
Taking it easy
Chillin on my bike for about 2 hours in the cold Norwegian winter, need to get some more hours in my butt before attending to a couple of long races this summer.
Will bei heading Out just for a Long run tomorrow bike has been done on trainerroad already ?
Well, I’m gonna take my new carbon cross bike to a tour around Bucharest.
Alr easy biked quite often during the week. Now time to run ;) will do orientiring tomorrow.
Fine tuning my bike fit today and running a half marathon tomorrow . The hot tub +skiing is for next week .
40 mile ride on Sunday!
I’ll be going for a Zwift trainer ride on Sunday evening, as its way too cold to be cycling outside this weekend.
Working all weekend…hoping to get some roller time in after work.
10hour mountain bike race! 200km, 3500m vert. First race back since heart surgery last year so stoked to survive it!!
Cleaning the bike for the week ahead with my girls!
Run Saturday, run Sunday and ride to work on Monday…
The usual running, swimming, and getting a nap in sometime
A hilly 50k bike on Sunday to test out my new Wahoo bike sensors.
Some indoor trainer rides since it’s raining. Power meter would be great for moving that outside when it clears up!
Beautiful weather for a ride this weekend – but I took my son on a Scout camping adventure in a cave last night and working tomorrow. So it’s early morning TrainerRoad then off to work for me.
Riding with my daughter on Sunday.
Due to a wedding I can only sneak in a quick 2.5 hour mtb ride at the crack of dawn.
Did near 60km today hope to repeat the same tomorrow :)
Sufferfest vid with trainer road or a zwift session
Power Intervals without a power meter!!! Just HR
Bike 1:30 7×2 min PI