Heads up! There’s some pretty substantial sales that just started. For watches, the Garmin Epix is down to $499, and the Fenix 7 to $449, with the Pro editions also $200 off! Meanwhile the top-end Edge 1040 cycling GPS is down to $499, and both the Edge 540 & Edge 840 are also on sale. As is Varia radar for $149. Some incredible deals, and ll the deals are 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:
With TPC (The Pro's Closet), you'll save $40 on purchases over $200 with coupon code DCRAIN40 for tech and non-tech purchases!
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 and Equipment 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! 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 workout – 11 mile race simulation 6 easy then 5 at pace +30 seconds. AWWW YYEEEEAHHH
I’m tapering down for the Providence marathon on 5/1, so this weekend is just an easy 8 mile run and a couple hours on the bike.
I’ll be eating lamb and chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday and then trying to work it all off in the “Corsa dei Vovi”, an 11 km race at Treviso on Monday morning – let’s hope I can keep everything down!
Darren
dbexon@iol.it
70 mile ride on Saturday and a 14 mile run on Sunday with lots of visiting family in between.
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My Easter will have a lot of training and not much chocolate. I am preparing myself for the Rio de Janeiro Half Marathon, in July.
Really appreciate your blog.
Regards,
Sergio
Don’t have any funny stories, since I haven’t looked for easter eggs since I was 9, so I will give you my saturday workout. Plan is a 20 mile bike ride followed by a open water swim in the chesapeake bay. Gotta love cold water!
My planned workout is to spread 8 yards of river sand over the backyard. Should take a good 2 days.
Planned workout: Regeneration after Vienna City Marathon and start of the cycling season: 2 rides 50 to 100k each with small hills.
I plan to start (shall I say restart) p90x Sunday. Yikes!
I’ve got an easy run and the last long run in my half marathon training cycle to get out of the way before Easter festivities at the in-laws on Sunday…
When I was little, I was a fierce Easter Egg hunter. With elbows blazing, I knocked all those other little girls and boys away!!!
Happy Easter. :)
Planned workout: eat traditional Finnish mämmi – which looks and tastes horrible. This (luckily) seems to be disappearing tradition…
Also maybe 10K run and testing the new bicycle just to compensate the “mämmi” eating.
Stretch, Rumble Roller aka Rumblr, more stretch, more Rumblr and lots of jelly beans.
Planned workout-5 mile barefoot run on Sunday.
Wow! Awesome giveaway. I plan to ride 50 miles on Saturday, and run 10 and perhaps swim (if I can find a pool open) 3,500 yards on Sunday.
Happy Easter.
–Richard
I plan to do some jiu jitsu on Sunday, and then relax the remainder of the day.
Don’t have any funny Easter stories but I’m doing a 70 mile bike ride and 10 mile run this weekend.
Plan is for a 25 mile run on Saturday, then a nice relaxing Easter Sunday with my daughter.
One year I waited until 2 weeks after Easter to get my chocolate. It was 90% off! Scary how many chocolate bunnies I got for ten bucks. This year I’ll try a “course” that I created and downloaded for my new Edge 800. And I want to find out how far I walk when I cut my grass.
I’m in! Easter in Cape Cod, long runs by the ocean and swims in full wetsuit in pond!
Cool! Of course my husband would steal it from me and then I’d be relegated to using the 310 but whatever – still cool!
I’ve got a brick workout planned in-between brunch with The Wife’s family and dinner with my own. Weeeee!
A long run & lots of food!
Planning on get over this cold soon to go running again
Planning to do my first outdoor ride on my new Felt B14 TT bike :)
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when I was very young i placed a whole bunch of peeps in the microwave to make one big happy peep,but all i got was a gooey mess that mom made me clean up.
The easter bunny always brings candy, but the easter pig used to bring me superhero underwear!
Well just finished my first Boston and plan to spend Easter this year in sunny Florida. Yet, the only funny Easter moment I can think of right off, is the family showing up at the annual Easter Country Club Buffet…problem was it was a week early, so there wasn’t anything set up.
I saw the new Garmin at the Boston Marathon. It’s slick. I think the interface will need another firmware update – but overall its a beautiful training watch.
Ironically, I’m headed to Boston for Easter. Two easy runs on tap.
I plan to do a short group run this weekend (5-7 miles) and some weight training. Also have to dye a bunch of eggs for my kids first Easter egg hunt. I’m sure I will have some funny stories after this weekend. Have a good weekend, Ray!
I’m having knee pain from IT Band issues right now, so it hurts to run at any speed BUT full speed. With my first Tri of the year coming up in a few weeks,I’m not comfortable not running at all, so I plan on doing really hard intervals, followed by lots and lots of ice, and maybe a little chocolate for desert after Easter Ham with Family.
This weekend I’m biking for 3hrs then a short transition run for Saturday. Sunday is another 1hr bike ride then a long 90min run. A Garmin 610 would be so useful for my long runs. Thanks,
This weekend I plan to do a 12 mile run.
Tried to make one big happy peep when I was younger by putting a bunch in the microwave, all i got was a big gooey mess that mom made me clean up
I grew up in England, so the big thing over there was to see how many huge chocolate eggs you received. Then you would go back to school and compare number of eggs with your friends.
When I was a kid in the 70’s our family decided to take a family picture. My Dad, Brother and myself are all in leisure suits. What a hidous site!
What a guy!…you stoke my gear lust with your excellent review, then a giveaway :) I celebrate the bunny, whether cute and fuzzy, chocolate or peep variety, but have no funny stories. So, this weekend – debating an evening 5k on Friday (bike/run short brik in am), Sat just a short easy run (usual long run day) b/c I have to be at an all day event. Sunday, looking to do 7miles or more as it’s sort of a cutback week in my plan.
Long run for Sunday. Ride on Saturday. I’m Jewish, but all of my reglious holidays are spent “atoning” or “doing penance” in seeking spiritual or physical bliss. Either with wheels or on foot. The endorphin rapture will take me soon…
Last year for the kids easter egg hunt we put the plastic eggs with chocolate in them out too early. While we ate lunch they roasted in the sun and by the time the hunt happened, the chocolate was very squishy and messy. No chocolate for the kiddos!
great running weather these days. hopefully it doesn’t get too hot too soon
Thanks for the 610 Giveaway. I Plan to do a long trail run at the Jefferson Memorial Forest following family activities.
plan to run 50-60 miles fri-sun!
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Will be working on completing a brick workout of swim/run
When I was seven, we (my family) had an Easter egg hunt indoors on account of the weather. My sister and I ran all over finding the eggs hidden in some very strange places. While in the garage a spied an egg resting atop a handle that was propped against the wall. Little did I know that the handle was part of a hoe! Needless to say I ran as quickly as I could to get the egg. However, just before reaching it I stepped on the base of the hoe and it was thrust towards me in an instant! It made contact with my forehead, subsequently knocking me out cold! When I came too, my mother, father and sister were all standing over me starring at my forehead with concern. Of course my sister was kind of laughing, but what kid wouldn’t laugh; I now had a huge black and blue Easter egg shaped bump on my forehead! Happy Easter!
I remain convinced to this day that, at 4 years old, I saw the Easter Bunny’s shadow outside my room. You can never tell me different.
Thanks for the giveaway.
Drew
I found a chocolate egg in my pocket after it went through the laundry. That kinda sucked
Well I’ve just had a tooth out so no chocolate for me over Easter – def not funny for me but everyone here is laughing :-(
big bucks, big bucks…no whammies…
STOP!
Sweet!
no funny stories and no training plans this weekend either.. do i still qualify??
This weekend will be a long ride with my dad on Friday and Saturday -and a run on Sunday!
CarlosG
With an amazing weather forecast for the following days(Netherlands) 25C (77F)will be going out for my 1st open water swim, 1500m, of the year in Zaanvoort aan Zee, not looking forward to the “fight” with the wetsuit though.
Planning a 90k ride on Saturday followed by a 15k run on Sunday.
I will be doing an 8 mile run this Saturday morning, pool time afterwards & enjoying Easter services with the family on Sunday.
PS – Awesome blog site, thanks for sharing your expertise.
I’m SGT Marcano currently deployed to Afghanistan, just been trying to run 4 to 5 mile around the FOB whenever possible.
No Easter for me, but I do plan to do a nice easy long run this weekend. Just coming back from a running injury and I’ve been able to run for a week without pain!
Biggest Easter shenanigans were when I had a Significant Birthday fall on the Saturday of the weekend. Less said the better. I’ll tell you my training plan instead: now the legs are recovering from last weekend’s marathon, get out and see how many miles they’ll handle!
No funny stories. Would love to win this watch!! thanks…Denise N
Not a funny story, but one year (before triathlon) my dad and I went out golfing the day before Easter and I got a hole-in-one.
I was scared to death of the easter bunny at the mall and would never ever ever get my picture taken with him. That thing is scary!!
16 miles this weekend.
No funny Easter stories. Long ride planned for Saturday. Medium ride planned for Sunday before hosting Easter dinner of crab cakes. Local strawberries are in so angle food cake to show them off for dessert.
I am recovering from SLC marathon, so probably a nice easy 13 miler this weekend.
When I was little I sat on the Easter Bunny’s lap and he smelled like beer and passed out.
No super funny Easter story, but planning on a brick ride/run this weekend prep for my first Tri in May! Thanks for the contest! Awesome!
Chillin at the Beach – run when I want – how much I feel – lots of sleeping
Weekend workout will be one last “long” run before my 1/2 on May 1st. Nice and slow 10-12 miler on Sunday.
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I don’t know if this is funny, but one Easter when I was like 6 I was doing an Easter egg hunt in my grandparents’ backyard, and a nail pierced my leg. OUCH! I probably should have gotten stitches, but didn’t, and now the scar is still there 20 years later. But, it reminds me of Easter at my grandparents’, which were good memories, so in a way it’s special :)
I have a lazy uncle who was in charge of bringing the chocolates to stuff into the plastic eggs one year. Completely forgot to do so and instead stuffed them with dollar bills. Had one with a 20 dollar bill as the grand prize. To make things short… no one ever found the 20 until a couple of years later, doing some yard work, I unearthed the egg from under a rock… That went towards a nice tri top!
When I was a kid I painted eggs all by myself and hide them around the house. The only thing I forgot to do is boil them. Some of them broke, big mess.
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We’ll go for a nice run and eat some Cadbury mini eggs.
Working – running
My mom used to make scavenger hunts for us to find our baskets. She tried to make the clues rhyme, and they were ALWAYS hilariously awful.
-Elaine
I will be completing my 479th consecutive run, enjoying family, and filling up on jelly beans.
My planned workout is to ride 100 km on friday and another 60 km on sunday. Hopefully find some eastereggs.
My Mom hid an egg of candy in the dryer on one of the side things. We never found it, she forgot about it and we ended up with some chocolately clothes that needed rewashing afterwards.
10 mile run on Saturday. One week away from running the Kentucky Derby Festival marathon. Can’t wait. Love the blog.
No funny Easter, or Easter Bunny story, and the forecast rains this weekend are trying to dash my outdoor training plans, but with a brand new Garmin 610 on my wrist, I wouldn’t let a bit of rain stop me!
FR610 highly required to find my way back after easter hunt next sunday !
Plan to do a longue distance duathlon in north of France 10K/80K/10K on sunday.
No workouts plans, just a 5K race -the “Bunny Hop” on Saturday. The rest of the weekend will be spent working on the house! I’d rather be riding my bike!
When you’re an entrepreneur you tend to forget that holidays are approaching since “vacation days” don’t really exist in your world. So I didn’t quite realize that Easter was upon us until I read this post. :-P I never lose track of my training schedule, though, and this Saturday calls for a timed 5k training run followed by Sunday’s hour-long aerobic (heart rate zone 1) recovery jog. Happy Easter, everyone!
One year when I was a young kid, my sister & I went to my grandma’s house for easter weekend. The saturday before easter service, we got into my grandma’s makeup and somehow decided to use her lipstick as indian face paint….which somehow morphed into painting both of our ENTIRE faces solid red with lipstick. We thought it was pretty…. neat until we realized we could not get the lipstick to come off our faces! I remember my grandma scrubbed our faces for a long time trying to get it off. Alas, we still had a sort of odd, bright red glow in that year’s easter sunday pictures.
Taking it easy this weekend with a long slow run on Sunday. Probably 10 miles.
A few years back my mother in law lost all the Easter Candy. She has a mild case of hording, so losing it is understandable. After 6 months she found it and we got peanut butter eggs and marshmallow peeps for Halloween.
Will it make me run faster?!
18 mile run – my longest run ever!
Thanks for the running the contest! I’ve been wanting to upgrade my Garmin and winning won would be perfect.
My plan is to enjoy a Peep S’more and head out for a nice 10 mile run on Saturday and hopefully a nice 20 mi bike on Sunday morning.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
Don’t celebrate the bunny, just the peeps. As for workouts, I have an 8 mile long run planned. It will be the end of my two-week recovery from a calf injury that sidelined me for two weeks. After this run I can finally start full on training for my next race, which is coming up soon!
Headed to Seattle for Easter to see my 6mo. nephew. Won’t have bike so will just be running doing hill training that’s typically only possible on a treadmill in flat Eastern ND! Can’t wait!
Another giveaway? … Santa? Is it you??
WOW what a great offer. Would love to win!
No funny Easter stories, just a 3 HR ride/20min transition run on Sat and short 40 min run on Sunday.
I’m visiting my grandparents this weekend in sunny Florida! I plan to bike 90 miles on Easter Sunday -Naples to Captiva Island and back.