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.
I plan a Zwift trainer ride on both Saturday and Sunday as the weather forecast is wet!
Riding, running and then some more riding. Thanks Ray!
Help a friend move furnature.
Going for a bike ride
Cycling and running in Singapore with my friends.
Plans for the weekend include a bike ride at the park near the beach and probably a swim to relax! Have a good day!
Hoping to get an easy 20 mile ride in on a trail near my house!
Put in another 60 mi on the bike
A trip up alps de zwift and mt ventoux to get the burn going.
oops, little late over the weekend. Maybe a Tuesday evening run.
I will be doing the Dam Loop in Austin Texas on Saturday morning. That will be 55 miles and 3800 ft of climb. It is finally cooling off here. So maybe it will be low 70’s at 8am. Then plan on watching some college football afterward. Cheers!
5km this afternoon!
ran 3km on Sunday evening
Just passed 4000 miles on the bike for the year, my goal, now let’s see if i can get some extra long weekend rides to hit 5k miles.
This coming weekend: Friday is Friday Nite Date Night at the pool. Saturday – Steady State Intervals and running with my run group. Sunday is a 2 hour recovery ride and yoga. Monday is rest and recovery!
Attaching my new kiddie seat to the bike and knocking out a coastal ride with the 2 year old
Intervals on the trainer (Zwift) while watching the Giro!
I wil tryyy to run 5km this evening. Squeak!
Netflix
Two hour indoor ride Saturday (its snowing here).
Was to be light spin Sunday or run but up in the middle of the night at work. Ah well
Ride in the Hincapie Gran Fondo Greenville
I’ll be cycling ?♀️ around the Raleigh Greenway here in North Carolina!
Saturdate ride to a breakfast place with my wife then movie indoor workout (trainer road sweet spot) on sunday!
My weekend workout is golf, biking, and post-wedding (my nephew’s) elbow bending…….pretty much in that order.
I plan to take a two day ride from Tokyo to Suwa City in Nagano.
5:30 hour bike to get me ready for IM Florida ;)
There’s snow on the ground now in Calgary, Canada so if I’m not on the fat bike, then I’ll be Zwifting indoors… Thanks Ray!
Gonna do a long run on the weekend. Around 22 km. It will include 1 serious incline and decline. I’m so looking forward to it.,
Getting back to somewhat longer runs, 9.5mi this time.
Packing boxes to move
Workout with my team, probably a quick brick on Saturday and easy ride on Sunday!
Cycling if i manage to wake up in time!
90 minute ride on Zwift. It’s already too cold for me to ride outside here in Colorado, USA.
Just moved into a new house and my weekend activity will be building new closet shelving modules. Then maybe I can unbox the bike and go fir a ride before the snow gets here!
I will be riding on my Tacx Neo 2T using Xert, which I really like.
Getting on my Wahoo trainer and Zwifting!
Commuting to/from work by bike on Saturday. Sleeping on Sunday.
Virtual marathon time!
211 strade bianchi veluwe edition and spennning time with the childern and boss
I’m hoping the weather will be good enough for outside riding, but will probably ride the wife’s Peloton if not.
Virtual triathlon.
60 miler on Saturday
Good luck with the new partneships
Weekend is over… did a boot camp on Saturday and a 5k run in an impromptu Tri with the GF
Ooops, almost missed it! Late entry but still an entry!
My weekend workout is gonna be an easy run an a hike with my dog.
Cheers DCR, thanks for doing that.
P.
Finishing up my bike this week so I’ll be testing that out this weekend!
long training run saturday morning. Probably 20-30 mile range. Workings towards first ultra (50). Keep up the great work reviewing gear!
Doing a double brick just because. Swim/Bike on Saturday and Bike/Run on Sunday.
Did a home with the Boy Scouts then a Zwift Academy group ride. Fun times
Climbing the Catskills!
MTB ride on the trails around Lake Tahoe.
Yay! I love Backcountry. Hiking :)
Getting out for a fire road hike
Moving things around the garage and house
My plans were to ride to Goodsprings, NV from Las Vegas, NV on Sunday. Try to hang onto as many wheels as needed and take a turn at a pull or two.
Run, bike, play with kids while waiting for it to snow.
Weekend..Getting my old kickr back up running correctly.Hope fully getting and outside ride in..And get back on Zwift…
I’ve taken on Zwifting with a vengeance. 2nd month in and am topping 900miles on the 30 day running total. (sorry, I need to brag here, my family is less then thrilled about he time spent. LOL) Whenever the family can’t find me, they put an ear to the floor to see if I’m biking in the basement.
Go for a trail run!
Trainer and netflix to start the transition from outdoor riding to the trainer as the wisconsin weather gets colder!
Playing hooky from work on Friday for a fall hike followed by a fall foliage bike ride on Saturday or Sunday depending on which day has be better weather.
A trip up Alpe du Zwift and a ten mile run.
Weekend goals are to hit up the versaclimber and then some much needed yoga to stretch out my quarantine long lazy-body back into healthy movements.
A quick run and some golf before it gets too cold to feel my hands.
Going biking and enjoying the fall colors.
Road ride with two buddies- probably 60ish miles, depending who has to be home at what time- and then some MTB with the kids.
Outdoor bike ride with a friend
recover run 5k
Celebrating my wife’s birthday camping, watching Ohio State football, and running.
Sleep as much as possible
Some Southern Californian weekend warrior cyclists and I have been competing in our self-created “Covid Century Series Challenge” that we launched in March to see who can ride at least 19 centuries during this “year of the Covid. So, this coming weekend I will be riding Covid Century #18.
Work out and see if I can actually configure my new Edge 1030!
Congrats on the new partnership. Backcountry.com is great. Easy run for Saturday. Long run booked Sunday.
Trail run followed by a little weight session and THEN the Netflix recovery.
30-50 mile leisurely ride and put off cleaning my drivetrain for another week
Bike Ride With Matt T on Saturday.
They say the best training is racing. I live in a part of the country where I’m fortunate to have a few races coming back. So I’ll be racing some cyclocross and doing my best not to get owned by the young and motivated.
Swimming in La Jolla Cove!
Whew! Just made the deadline, thanks to the newsletter! So glad to see it back!
Anyway, run on Sunday, swim and bike on Monday, getting back into the Zwift groove.
“Long” ride Saturday morning, then sleep in Sunday!
Riding some late season gravel miles…
I plan on doing my morning biking routine along a bike trail in our town and later a walk with family in the neighborhood.
This weekend will be a Saturday social group ride with some friends followed with some hiking in the mountains with my wife and daughter on Sunday as recovery (not so much recovery really!). Hoping for some good weather though as the current forecast could go either way!
2 hour bike ride on the trainer on Saturday and 90 min run on Sunday.
Running and spending time with my family.
I’d like to get back to fitness regime from couch after 6 months break. Would need some motivation, the giveaway would feed in :)
Bike ride on a rails to trails path and garden work.
Depends on the weather, but hopeful that I’ll get at least one long bike ride this weekend.
No plans yet. I’ll figure it out when I wake up!
Running with the Dad crew who push strollers!!!
I have 3 days off this weekend, so riding is on the agenda. At night I’ll be watching Carol Burnett with wifey. She’s so funny. :)
Nice 25mi ride to keep the legs ticking over
I will most likely be icing my knee that I tweaked tonight Zwifting.
Ride bikes
Run down the boardwalk!
Weekend! Saturday jumped on the trainer for an hour and Sunday outside ride for two and a half hours.
Going a for a quick ride with the colleagues before bringing the dog out for a walk
Plan to either do a 10 mile training run this weekend or a 50 mile bike ride!
My weekend workout plan for the weekend which is a long weekend in NewZealand is to cycle the five Mungas or hills in the Auckland city and then going for a hike on Sunday.
Hopefully our renovation project will be finished & the sun will shine & I can get back out on my bike. Otherwise it will be a ride on the wind trainer!
Staying home to recover from the crash last weekend, would be another week till i get on the bike again. Perfect time to do some maintenance
Planning to get back to triathlon training from November onwards
Cyclocross! We have to drive 3hours and fields are limited plus covid19 restrictions (masks and social distancing and no podiums) but great to get kids out of the neighborhood and back to autumn sport. Plus it is real cross weather now in the Midwest of USA
Spending some time cleaning up the yard before the snow start to fly here.
I’m currently on Garmin Coach so I’ve got a short run and a longer run.
It fits into my current run volume so it’s not too intense, and I wanted it to see how much more advanced is the training methodology compared to my “just run”.
I’m excited to see how much faster I’ll be after I’m done with this!
October is cross season so plan on a bit of fall cross bike riding in the rain and muck.
Two short runs on the treadmill to get back into shape!
Long run on Saturday morning, Cycle on Sunday. Spend time with my wife and daughter.
Getting mountain bike tuned up for winter riding in the PNW rain…
Overcome this ulcer and gallstones thing and ride at least 25 miles.
Planning nothing more than a nice long walk with our 3-month old strapped to me! It’s actually quite the workout, as he’s getting rather heavy!
I’m planning to do the last Sunday long last ride before the Winter comes! After that it will be Netflix for the rest of the day.
I plan on taking a rifle for a foray into the woods to fetch food to sustain my family through the winter.
ohhh! my weekend workout was setting up for my daugheter’s 7th bday party…. which was a tiring day indeed
I will be mountain biking on Saturday enjoying the fall colors and enjoying my new power meter on my road bike on Sunday! Purchased a new power meter based off the review on this site!
Hiking with my wife
Start to taper down for the winter and let the body rest and recover. Will do a Zwift Academy workout, and easy run.
Trying out my new Vivoactive 4 with a short run
My workout this weekend will likely be a Zwift Academy 2020 cycling workout or something like an Anaerobic Capacity to VO2 or Capacity Reloaded from prior ZA workouts. Might get a Zwift race in there too and/or SST workout. Would love to upgrade my trainer if possible!
Finishing up my First week training for the “Dopey Challenge”!!
Keep up the Great Work!
Plan to walk 10,000 steps a day until Xmas.
A wet and muddy trail run on the local mountain.
I’ll be riding. Inside if it rains, outside if not.
This weekend i have a charity bike ride on Saturday and a social ride on Sunday.
LSD and helping my partner prep her group fitness class!
Saturday’s and Sunday’s are go long rides!
A little double half marathon is in order this weekend!
Closing in on my goal to climb 1 million feet in 2020
An easy run and a pre-race workout according to Garmin Coach. Getting to the pointy end of the program. Yay!
Hiked and celebrated my wife’s birthday
Fal in Connecticut. Gotta go for a gravel ride!
Metric Century Gravel ride in central Massachusetts Saturday. Sunday, recovery ride near the coast.
Just dined up for the Tour De Roc which is a tour of Cyprus, 600km over 4 days with 6000m of climbing.. it will be tough for me.
A couple hours of Zwift.
I will probably get and use some snow sport thing or other.
Bike ride to celebrate a personal win.
Mountain biking some new (to me!) Prescott trails
Looks like I saw this in the nick of time.
I ran a virtual race this weekend.
My weekend workout is going to consist of 11 kids sporting events while trying to run some double digit trail miles. Oh and some recovery beer.
Hi Ray!
Quick run and then beach planned here!
Take care
My plans were just to ride my bike—and I did on Saturday—but Sunday was too busy and I ended up just doing some weights instead. It’s kinda my plan every weekend in the fall with no CX season, to be honest.
A 18 km run. Haven’t had one in a while.
Weekend plan…try to get a 6 mile run in. After that, bike work with my 7 year old who is learning to ride without training wheels.
KM
Weekend workout will be running hills and swimming laps.
Hit the trails.enjoy the last bit of warm weather
spend some time on the trainer with trainer road!
a couple of bike rides to put me over 6000 miles for the year.
Riding my bicycle at camp
Going for a long walk
Having a long swim
I shall ride my bike
Workout will be hike in local mountains
Long ride and also a run with a nice recovery in between.
Having a CrossFit workout on Saturday, and some easy spinning on the gravelbike on Sunday.
This weekend I’m hoping to head out to the lake with the kayaks and paddle boards to explore and spend time with my wife and 9 year old daughter.
Then again, I might just take you up on your Netflix suggestion since I’m 6 weeks post spine surgery for old injuries and I’m also recovering from a broken angle due to an unfortunate dog poop pickup accident.
Weekend plans depends on the weather and fires in Colorado. It could be bike ride(s), hike(s) or just chilling at home.
I plan to run 10-12 miles and get on the bike for some recovery miles. What actually happened is I ran just over 10 miles (pavement hurts) and didn’t get on the bike at all.
Train for the virtual half marathon in December
A MTB tour through the autumly woods
Starting holiday
A long run with friends
I’ll be 1/2 way through a 30 day plank challenge which are getting more challenging, so there’s that, along with a long turbo session on Zwift, a punchy running intervals workout, and swim session. Might be able to squeeze in some Netflix with Junior…
Competing in a 1/3 Ironman on Saturday and recovery ride & run on Sunday.
Hope to get outside and ride but I’ll be riding the trainer indoors if not!
Hi,
first ride with Wahoo kickr core due to lock down in Slovenia. Before playing with our new hiperactive dog. And most important to finish some maintenance work on a house.
BR, Gregor
We had a nice getaway to a little camping lodge!
Unfortunately, I just had surgery. Nothing major, but I am required to sit on my derriere for 2 weeks
Recovering from minor surgery and missing the long trail runs we normalläge would do in the wet autumn förresten.
Cycling with my daughter, yay!
Some easy training this weekend
Saturdays Bike followed be walk with family, then Sunday Long Run
Just a 12k run, point to point, near Paris.
Hey Ray,
For me weekend starts on friday afternoon with a swim workout (lovley intervalls) ?.
But my main goal in the wintertraining is to increase my Power from 3.1 to 4.0 W/kg. ?
So i will spend my time in Zwift with two workouts. Normally saturday is FTP training and sunday Endurace and making some km in Zwift.
The time in between (Recovery) is “of course” already packed with reading your reviews and watching your YouTube / Instagram Stories. ?
All the best dir your weekend,
Max
Going for a strength workout.
Autumn ride in local park
Setting up the trainer again
Long bike ride
Getting in a nice run, going to participate in a service opportunity.
Getting back to structured training pretending 2021 has already started… ;-)
A long and nice bike ride on Saturday and probably a long run on sunday
Riding to a new hill! Hooray for outside
I’ll be going to the track, doing 200s and 400s
If it doesn’t rain, another long ride is scheduled for the weekend!
8 mile run one day and 2-mile ocean swim the other
run alone at 5:00
Doing BRICK Training. Bike would be with TrainerRoad, Run will be with my older daughter following on bike
Hope It won’t rain
Hoping to get a last road ride in before the snow flies!
Running a wellness retreat so all sorts of yoga, trail running and swimming
Racing with my kids
Going for a ride and doing college stuff
Just lying on the sofa watching netflix
Planning to go running and put winter tires on my car. Winter is coming here in Switzerland…
A spinnig sessio, a S&C training and a weekend of fun with the kids.
I’ll go in a short trip to Andorra, they’re mountains are amazing
Sneaking a ride in
I plan to hike to local mountain peaks I’ve not summited before on Saturday. Sunday rest.
3 days on the bike is always a great idea!!!! MTB + ROAD!
Next Weekend? Brewing a new batch of beer!
Very pleasant autumn weather over the weekend, I did a 40k bikeride on saturday and a 10k easy run on sunday.
I normally have a long run of 13+miles, done a few 20mile ones recently and want to get past 26m miles solo but just can’t bring myself to do it outside an organised event.
I also often tackle one of the big hills in Zwift. With lockdown, my FTP has shot up from 280W to 350W so trying to push that further up.