Heads up! Here’s your massive list of sports tech deals! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $449, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium for $735, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, 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.
Planned a 32k run, bailed after 7km due to an upset stomach :(
Well, this weekend we returned from our weeklong CA vacation to a blizzard in the upper midwest…so I shoveled 20″ of snow off our driveway (in three intervals, thankfully not all at once). Back to regularly scheduled training this week!
Two punctures on the same wheel, took the train home…
Cycled with a mate, unsupported, from London to Paris, arriving at the Eifell Tower on Sunday afternoon
I had slacked off on my Peloton rides. So it was back on the bike for me this weekend!
Awful weather, so it was the trainer for me. Maybe someday we will see spring here.
28km training run in preparation for the Cornwall marathon at the end of April.
My wife and I were going to run but instead … lifted weights
Did my local parkrun, then had a very lazy rest of the weekend.
I did a nice ride along the coast and finished at brewery
Went cycling on recumbent high racer, fell because of loose sand on asphalt.
Rode the Three Sisters on Zwift for the Tour of Watopia on Saturday, followed by brewing a beer, which is at least a little physical (not to mention ending up with five gallons of my favorite recovery drink). Sunday was more of a rest day, but still managed nearly 6 miles of walking around museums between a tattoo exhibit and King Tut in Los Angeles.
running 2h30 on treadmill watching hockey
Just a nice long run with marathon pace interval, just putting final touches before the first A race of the year!
I ran 45 minutes on friday. I did a long ride with 2 long climbs under a rainy weather on Saturday.
I did my normal sunday 10 mile run. It was even slower than usual this week. :)
Just a long walk with the dogs this weekend when I should have been getting some training in on the bike. Oh well…
I rode 40km along the river Enz with my wife and two kids. We had wondeful weather in this part of Germany
Solo metric century on the road bike after wrecking the mountain bike.
Got out on the bike for the first time in a while. Took my son to Junior Parkrun…does that count? :)
Refereed first soccer games of the year.
Stepping up training with a nice long run.
Early morning run across the river and through town. Before the rain came in.
Just a slow 5 mile run Sunday afternoon to avoid being totally lazy.
Tour of Watopia – Stage 5 on Saturday and 20 Km run race on Sunday Morning!
Ummmm, I watched people do sort of athletic things trying to sail in gale force winds … does that count?
Rode an easy 80 km with two Ironmen.
Ran the Ville to Ville Relay Race with all my buddies!
Went for a run during the noon heat on Saturday in preparation for the Mountain to Valley relay race next week.
My “athletic adventure” was a lazy 70km bike ride…
Was supposed to race our sailboat but it needs repairs so we did not race
Did a 20 mi ride on Saturday.
This weekend I “encouraged” my girlfriend round her first Park Run!
I ran some easy miles both Saturday and Sunday.
This weekend there was a an ice storm that kept us pretty home-bound and prevented outdoor running and biking. However, that didn’t stop me from putting in 1500m at the pool!
ran against my colleagues at our company’s 5K.
It was mostly a chill weekend, played ultimate with some friends, and then coached my kids’ hockey game – unfortunately, we lost in 2OT :(
Ran my longest training run to date, 24K!
First proper MTB ride to check if the forests already dried up, – well they almost did, 50 km of mountain biking done.
TrainerRoad and treadmill after drill
Th weather has improved in Blackpool, so I managed my 2nd decent bike ride of the year (only 50m but it is a start). Then on Sunday, I managed a 7m run after suffering from shin splints at the start of March.
If the weather holds out, I am hoping for a 60M ride this Friday then a half marathon Sunday!
A relaxing ride in the best weather yet this year.
Went on a ride with the local bike club.
Double 10k on sunday morning/evening to stay on target for april.
Did some mountain biking.
over-unders on Saturday and 4×20 sweet spot Sunday! Pick me random number generator!
I ran a (slow) 5k. Sickness, injury, and winter wimpyness have had me really lazy the last few months. Saturday was my first day off the treadmill and back outside for a run.
Great weather in DC…had a good run.
Did a couple quick runs in between the rain!
Reunited with my old Tri Crew for a 3000 yard swim workout Saturday morning – then got donuts!
Enjoyed a run during our April snow storm. Winter is still here in Wisconsin
Studio cycling, followed by clearing the absolute dumping of snow we got over the weekend.
I had hoped to do a long-ish run but Minnesota “spring” had other plans and I ended up shoveling snow all weekend. It’s surprisingly aerobic!
Did a MTB ride
I managed to drag myself out of bed on both Saturday and Sunday..
Jogged with my wife and played soccer in the street with my daughter. Nice, relaxing family weekend.
I ran a half on yesterday wearing a suit! Would recommend.
30 miles on the trainer Saturday morning while avoiding the sleet/freezing rain outside.
I guess 5000ft of climbing in Zwift counts as athletic? I mean, sure I was also watching some things, but I was definitely climbing at the same time.
It was also snowing, so there is my excuse :D
My “adventure” this weekend was road running in Ohio rather than trail running in my home state of Colorado. Variety is good!
Run on the beach on vacation in the Florida sunshine
Local “Bike Olympics” with fun competitions like jousting, tandem racing, furthest wheelie, longest track stand and huffy toss. That and a 2.5 hour ride.
Pre-birthday workout on Zwift followed by nursing a hangover! Not the most athletic weekend
Failed PR attempt at a 5k race… High humidity and wet pavement doesn’t translate to going fast… Maybe next time
Sunday I was scheduled for brick training. It was actually the hardest session in the plan and boy I can still feel it.
Starting to taper now so just a 2.5 hour long run for me.
Took part in two Central California Crit Races (kingsburg and Sequoia Cycling Classic) in preparation to race @ Sea Otter!
Downhill Skiing in April in Ottawa Canada, very rare for this time of year.
Rode 2 hours on trainer road app. Pretty epic while it was snowing almost a foot outside.
on the computrainer
Did a 105km U23 race here in the Basque Country, hard racing (5w/kg normalized for the first hour, and 4,7w/kg normalized for the whole race (3 hours)), with 2000 meters of climbing!
On Friday I ran 10 miles. Rode to happy hour. I did a kettlebell workout Sunday.
Took my son out for a walk….. post 16 mile long run. Work back after a hamstring pull.
Upper body workout (pulling weeds and gardening).
Got my newborn twins from western Germany to the beautiful north. That should suffice as Sport for the weekend ?
Saturday cycling before the rain (I’m a fairweather cyclist), and Sunday running. On Sunday, I tried to beat an old hill climb time on Strava from 2012 (something things I don’t do: beat Strava times, or run uphills), and my FR 935 gps didn’t match the Strava segment:( My $500 winnings would probably go towards the next Polar V800 replacement, but I will probably blow the money on something else before the watch comes out. Thanks Ray for being randomly awesome as usual.
A nice 50 mile training ride in the farmlands of NJ. Finally a beautiful day where I didn’t have to worry about the cold or the snow and rain.
Did my first 9 mile run working towards my first half-marathon next month.
This weekend, I joined my Team-in-Training cycling team on a 66-mile training ride up and down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, CA. We’re training for America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride in June — a century ride around Lake Tahoe, CA — to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I did a recovery ride the next day in Venice, CA and took in a lot of street art.
Complete the workout part of run 2018k in 2018 challenge.
The Mammoth Gravel Classic gravel ride was postponed because of epic April blizzard conditions. So a group of us hopped on our Fat Bikes and did the short ride anyhow. It is a crushed limestone rail trail that normally makes for a nice 2.5 hour ride up to the cafe and back. Instead it was a four hour tour with plenty of hike a bike through the snow drifts.
My friend and I took his 6 and 5 year old kids swimming for two hours on Saturday which, by the end of it, was far more exhausting than the strength training I did later, lol.
Rode bikes with the kids. It was great!
Saturday, 23 mile bike ride with my cycling group then an easy 2 mile run right after.
Hi
Coming weekend an easy walk of 20km to prepare summer hikes.
Given my calf issue, this weekend I imagined myself running a sub 54-minute 10k in Central Park.
Ran the Not So Normal Half over the weekend
This weekend I started running again, doing a little under 6 miles. And then biked over 35 miles the next day.
Separated my bike from Zwift and rode out.
I went for a 10k run!
Did a ZWIFT social ride had to dropout after 30 min back went out, now give me my prize pretty please
I rode 20+ miles on our local bike loop around Harrisburg PA
I did a solid run 20k near the river Prut in Ukraine.
After 30km against terrible wind I would like to know my total power.
I ran through Hamburg for 4 days.
Ok, maybe not really running, more a fast walking, or maybe not that fast, but I walked, at least the time I didn’t use bus or undergrund…
Tested the new ftp test (ramp…) in Trainerroad with good results.
rode 120 km of frozen gravel
Nothing insanely athletic:
* 3.5 miles run
* visited WWII ship (USS Slater) and had amazing BBQ Lunch
* Went to the pool, swam a couple of laps and then played with the kids.
Swim with a under-3yo kid and a under-28yo kid
Goin up and down the stairs on crutches.