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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
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Ray Elsewhere
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Check out my Product/Electronics posts in Ray’s Sports Electronics Mailbag - they are packed full of 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 GPS Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent gadget recommendations guide (2012) – covering almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day to day? I also just put together my complete 2012 ‘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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Understand technology and sport in the How-To Guides.
I enjoy explaining new things to folks – especially showing people how to get the most from their gadgets. Here’s an ongoing list of “How to” guides.
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Read my Top 25 most useful posts.
It turns our I’ve written a fair bit of stuff over the past few years – and after it disappears from my front page, a lot of it never really sees the light of day again without Google’ing skillz. Or a photographic memory…which I don’t have. I’ve taken a look back and found stuff that…continues to find a trickle of readers via web searches or forum links.
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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.
Author Archives: Rainmaker
You Win You Choose – Giveaway Winner!
It’s time to draw the winners of last week’s ‘You win, you choose!’ giveaway. This was the first time I let you pick your own prize, whereby you got to raid the pantry for whichever device you want. The name … Read More Here
Wahoo Fitness KICKR Trainer In-Depth Review
The Wahoo KICKR is probably the most anticipated trainer to hit the market in quite a while, if not one of the most anticipated sports technology products for endurance athletes to hit the market. But, how does it live up … Read More Here
Paris Half-Marathon 2013 Race Report
You know what I appreciate about the Paris Half-Marathon? It started at 10AM. Yes, 10AM! That means that we woke up around…ohh…8:15AM, walked a few hundred meters to the Metro, and took a short 11 minute Metro ride to the … Read More Here
Week in Review–March 2nd, 2013
The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered … Read More Here
You Win–You Choose DC Rainmaker Giveaway!
Because it’s the end of February (already!), and because this month got shorted 2-3 days. And because I found two cake stands while The Girl was out today and they made pretty holders. No, I didn’t tie those bows. Or … Read More Here
The Great DC Rainmaker 2013 Survey Results!
It’s been about a month since the sorta-annual DC Rainmaker survey opened up. And quite frankly, I was BLOWN AWAY by the response this year. 3,143 of you finished the survey. And as I promised, I’m going to give you … Read More Here
Tacx Genius Trainer In-Depth Review
The Tacx Genius Trainer is the latest trainer to work it’s way through my ‘lab’ (aka living room). The high-end trainer is designed to let you simulate just about anything you can think of while on a trainer – including … Read More Here
Week in Review–February 23rd, 2013
The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered … Read More Here
Paris Blog: A look at the one and the only Parisian Chipotle
When we were living in the US, we didn’t eat at fast food places too frequently. And when we did, it generally trended more towards ‘healthier’ fast food variants (i.e. Subway, Quiznos, etc…). And then there was Chipotle. Chipotle was … Read More Here
Garmin adds new Fenix Skiing mode (in beta)
Following in the footsteps of continuing to add features to the Fenix watch (and likewise, what Suunto has done with the Ambit), Garmin quietly posted to their forums a beta version of the Fenix firmware which adds skiing to the … Read More Here
Garmin gives updated Vector power meter schedule (February 2013)
Today, on Garmin’s quarterly earnings call (for Q4FY12), they provided an update on the state of $1,500US Garmin Vector power meter, along with a few minor updates on other health and fitness initiatives. For those just joining this long-running (and … Read More Here
Reminding myself about the nutrition wall…the hard way.
It seems to happen each year around early spring time. Usually early spring because that’s roughly when my workouts get long enough that I cross over the invisible barrier where I can get away with going low on nutrition. Typically, … Read More Here
A weekend cycling around the city multiple times
With my brother still in town after our ski trip, we continued to explore the city a bit. Of course, no better way than to get him into the kick of the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday market near our place. He now fully … Read More Here
Week in Review–February 17th, 2013
The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered … Read More Here
An epic week skiing in the French Alps
This past week my brother and I have been down in Alpe d’Huez enjoying the fresh powder. Of course, most folks reading this will recognize Alpe d’Huez as the famous mountain stage in the Tour de France. That cultural history … Read More Here
Paris Blog: Friday night date night…at the restaurant supply store
While many couples may go out on the town on Friday night in Paris (or anywhere else for that matter), we’ve gone and created a bit of a twist on the traditional Friday night date night. In our case, we … Read More Here
Mio Alpha Optical Heart Rate Monitor In-Depth Review (Bluetooth Smart/ANT+)
The Mio Alpha unit may represent the longest I’ve ever actually tested something before writing a review. I initially got the chance to use a unit back in July for a quick test run as they were in the midst … 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
Week in Review–February 9th, 2013
The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered … Read More Here
CycleOps Virtual Training In-Depth Review
While the CycleOps PowerBeam Pro has been around a while, their entertainment and training software – Virtual Training – just came out late last year. I’ve been using beta versions on and off since last spring, and with the final … Read More Here
A weekend building a (cardboard) boat before the Super Bowl
I’ve got meetings this week in Seattle, so Saturday mid-day I packed things up in Paris, connected to a flight in London and flew 9 hours to Seattle. I love these flights – the early-mid afternoon departures from Europe where … Read More Here
Week in Review–February 2nd, 2013
The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I found interesting – generally endurance sports related. I’ve often wondered … Read More Here
A Stockholm (Sweden) Runaround
I’ve been in Stockholm for work meetings since very late Sunday night (actually, technically, Monday morning). My schedule had a 2hr 20min run on the docket, with the flexibility to place that either on Monday or Tuesday, depending on what … Read More Here
Because it’s cold FR910XT Giveaway Winner!
Yes, it’s still cold. And, some 2,500 of you over the weekend shared your running/cycling/swimming/something activities in the cold. Quite a few entertaining reads in there – I definitely encourage you to scroll through some of them. Think of it … Read More Here
Stages Power Meter In-Depth Review
Since its announcement at Interbike this past year, no power meter has caused as much Internet discussion and debate than the Stages power meter. It was previously named “StageOne”, but has since simply been renamed to Stages Power. The unit … Read More Here
