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
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
Tag Archives: Running
Peloton Tread In-Depth Review
In general, I’m actually not a big treadmill-loving person – despite having way more experience running on treadmills week after week in hotels for years, than I ever want to remember. For the most part, unless it’s just above … Read More Here
Zwift’s Running Track Is Open: Here’s what a structured track workout is like
Yes, I just ran in Zwift. For real. On purpose. And somehow, someway…it didn’t suck this time. Earlier this week in an apparent New Year’s Eve ‘let’s do this’ moment, Zwift rolled out its last course edition of this year: … Read More Here
Back to running and riding in the rain and cold
My weekend was a bit shorter than most, as I spent the first 30 hours of it working my way home. I had left Sydney around 3PM on Friday, and with some delays in Hong Kong I didn’t end up … Read More Here
A flooded run and some brotherly love with new incoming gear
I arrived back from my US work trip into Paris on Friday evening. This would give me just about 15 hours until my brother landed here, following me across the pond. The two of us will be spending the next … Read More Here
Running past topless demonstrators–and other antics from my weekend
This weekend was a bit of a hodgepodge of things, everything from touristy sight-seeing, to running in new places, to writing lots (and I mean LOTS) of product review content for stuff coming up – much of which is tied … Read More Here
Point to point long runs and unpacking the LeMond Revolution Trainer
Sunday I had my weekly long run, which this week stood at 15 miles, though, by next week it’ll be up to 18 miles. I’m still trying to figure out how I got conned into my long run changing from … Read More Here
Fun with Fartleks
The last few weeks The Girl and I have been enjoying the unstructured yet structured offseason running. What do I mean by that? Well, we’ve got a slew of runs to do weekly, a healthy mix with a long run, … Read More Here
A 16-mile Wednesday night of loops in the rain
There are some nights and workouts where all you can do is just shake your head, tie up your shoes…and get on with it. Tonight was one of those nights. On the schedule was mile repeats…twelve of them. That’s in … Read More Here
How to effectively pace and route your running race
It’s September. Which means that all (ok, probably just many) of you are preparing to run some sort of race. Perhaps you’ve already run a shorter race this season on the way to that goal. For me, my main race … Read More Here
Running from the floodwaters
Over the course of the day I watched from my home office window as the river across the street delivered all manner of items downstream. Garbage, soccer balls, tree trunks the length of school busses, entire 10’ trees standing upright … Read More Here
Search for the Eastern Passage
Monday night when I stepped out of my door shortly after 5PM to start my long run, I simply stood there for probably a good 30 seconds…just trying to figure out which way I would run. Some days I’m feelin’ … Read More Here
The India Runaround
With my work completed yesterday (Thursday), I had the morning in Delhi to do as I saw fit before my flight later this afternoon. I initially thought I might go do some touristy stuff, but after it was found out … Read More Here
Running in the night
(Side note: Some really cool and interesting comments and ideas were posted yesterday onto the Boston Marathon analysis post that I put together – definitely a lot of great discussion about whether or not to solve the problem, and tons … Read More Here
An awesome training weekend here in DC
This past weekend has been both crazy busy – but also amazingly productive! While it’s not over here in the US (we get three days!), I’m going to recap two thirds of it, and save you from hearing about my … Read More Here
Averting disaster in the Dark Hills
Anytime you have 2-3 hours of workouts to do on a weeknight, you have to plan a bit. Most of that planning for me falls into two buckets – scheduling of the actual workout itself, and scheduling my caloric intake … Read More Here
101 Runs on the Wall
This weekend turned out to be pretty darn busy, lots of running, running around, and everything in between. It started early Saturday morning with a run with the Pacers group. The plan was 10 miles easy, but somewhere along the … Read More Here
A list of cool tri/running/cycling wallpapers
Back a bit ago I was stumbling around Garmin’s site trying to find something or other and I bumped into their nifty collection of wallpapers that you can download. From there I got curious and started poking around other companies … Read More Here
Someone left a floater
Due to a flip-flop in the weekly schedule of runs, both the Girl and I were in position to be able to enjoy a nice 10 mile run with our friends on Saturday morning. Normally the 10m run run occurs … Read More Here
A hill workout in the snow
Yesterday evening, with yet another impending snowstorm I had a decision to make – try and drive to an open treadmill, or tough it out on the snow covered hills for my weekly hill repeats. On one hand I have … Read More Here
A snowy food filled weekend
Let’s just get right into the action, by starting where I left off on Friday evening as nightfall fell (hmm…does that mean it fell twice?) – it looked like this: While the snow was starting to fall, the Girl got … Read More Here
Me and the clock…and cupcakes.
Let’s be honest, for any competitor, it’s all about the clock – even when racing against others, you’re still racing against the clock. But, over the past few months the clock has played a new role in my workouts – … Read More Here
Tuesday Tidbits
Lacking the time or thought capabilities to put together a solid and lengthy post, I present you many little tidbits… Garmin FR-60: I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but Garmin sent me out a FR-60 running/cycling watch … Read More Here
Friday Mail Call
I got all sorts of interesting things in the mail this week. Both physical mail, as well as e-mail. And I’m not just talking about the coupons either – we’re talking high quality stuff. First up was a little Christmas … Read More Here
Tidal Basin 3K Race Report: Things that hurt…a lot.
It seemed like a good idea yesterday. It did not seem like a good idea at mile 1. But first…let’s rewind to last year. Last December DC runner/blogger Peter was taunting me to show up at the monthly Tidal Basin … Read More Here
Jingle All the Way & Massive Cupcakes
This weekend was a hodgepodge of stuff. Because I’m super-swamped in getting the final touches on the Garmin 500 review out (currently standing at 38 pages…), I’m gonna keep this weekend recap post nice and short with lots of pictures. … Read More Here