Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $699, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals 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.
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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 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.
oooh those chocolates. and those macaroons! one of each please!!!
have fun!
Glad you enjoyed the Velib, I use it almost everyday to go to work, it’s great :D
And running at the Champs de Mars is always a pleasure !!!
It is pity that you didn’t announce your intention of coming in Paris; we have a community of runner & blogger here in Paris that have loved to meet with you.
You should come to Brittany, just two hours by train and visit StMalo and Mont St Michel. If you come, please tell me. I’ll invite you a beer, or a galette saucisse (the our very local hot dog-ish fast food! ;-))
Some days I dream of being you on all your travels. Love all the pics and tips of things to do if I ever make it there.
I am glad you loved my city! Beautiful and full of secrets that take a lifetime to discover.
merci from a fellow Parisian triathlete
Hi Ray,
I am headed to Paris for a week in June. Any recommendations on places to swim, or the best way to locate places to swim?
Richard
hey Ray, good times. Paris is a fun city. I wrote a blog about running the monumets there (link to cointossforum.blogspot.com)
and another about cycling in the pyrenees(link to cointossforum.blogspot.com). Thought you might find these posts interesting.
That trip looks amazing! Love the bike share program!
Sarah
http://www.thinfluenced.com
Step counts are poorly correlated to energy consumption. If you are running you use much more energy per step than walking. If you go faster most of the increase in speed comes from increase in stride length for both walking and running so the pedometer doesn’t notice. Pedometers also do not measure grade. Step counters can be had for a few dollars but the information they provide is not very useful.
If you are mostly sedentary they are useful in quantifying an increase in walking effort and they can be useful after calibration for runners as runners mostly go at about the same speed with about the same stride length but you need more than just step count. If you want to measure energy burned you can do better measuring body accelerations which correlates well for most activities. Effort associated with grades is missed using body accelerations and effort doing things where your body is stationary but your arms or legs are working like bicycling is missed. There is an Android app that uses accelerometers to identify activities and estimate energy consumption at link to play.google.com
Hi Ken-
Note that all of the above mentioned units have 3D accellerometers in them, so a bit more sophisticated than typical step counters. Each unit handles speed a bit differently – some are better at tracking it, others, not as much.
Ultimately, many phone batteries won’t give the type of battery life that these devices can go for (some upwards of 1-2 weeks with constant on).
It’ll be interesting to read how the products you are testing do their estimates and how accurate they are. Step counts are intuitively a proxy for distance, energy consumption and speed but step counts need additional information for reasonable accuracy e.g. person is jogging and jogging stride length is x.
Foot falls produce greater body accelerations than almost anything else. Ultra low battery consumption devices exploit this by using the accelerometer to wake up the processor on high accelerations rather than sampling continuously and analysing the signal. Phones could do this also. For example, the Xperia Active uses the BMA250 accelerometer which consumes negligible power and provides “motion-triggered interrupt-signal generation”. The Active doesn’t use this functionality but if it did the included Walkmate pedometer app could remove the battery use warning.
However, if you only process high accelerations you can count steps but you limit the sophistication of the processing algorithm and therefore potential accuracy. We sample at 20Hz for 6 seconds out of every 30 in a smart phone app and calculate features from analysing the signal to provide activity classification and energy estimates without whacking the battery too much.