Heads up! The big Garmin annual spring sale has started, with $200 off the Fenix 8 (first sale to date!), $100 off the Edge 1050, Forerunner 965 at $499, the Forerunner 265, the new Instinct 3, and countless other Garmin products including inReach Mini 2. Plus the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium is on sale, and some Suunto & Wahoo product deals too. Full list & thoughts 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 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.
5x1mile moderately hard workout on the bike – on the trainer, in the garage. Not to work off any easter excesses just not to lose too much form over a broken ankle sustained 4 weeks ago. Still can’t walk without crutches, much less run, and not allowed to swim either
45 min run to compensate my wife “creme au beurre” cake.
I ran 2 miles to miles to catch up on the calories consumed this past week. My mother loves to buy candy for my husband and myself whenever she gets a chance.
Anything I can do in a hotel as I’m visiting my mom in California.
Did a halfmarthon with 600 meter ascend before eating “Reindling” an south austrian sweet speziality traditional on easter. You can eat it with ham and horseradish.
Did a series of 55-60km rides daily – about 50% more than my usual !
10 mile run at sub-threshold pace before brunch and 1hr at threshold on the trainer tonight (2×20, to celebrate opening day, of course). Ate wayyyy too many whoppers and peeps!
I went on a wet muddy run. it was fun
Swim 3k and run 50 min…then eat more chocolate!
10k easy run.
10k trail run for the Lindt bunnies, the Peeps I eat every year and immediately regret, and assorted jelly beans. I guess the cheesecake gets off scot-free.
2 hour ride on the Computrainer
A fast 10k run at 90% max to burn off some of the Green gelatinous frogs I’ve had :)
20 mile run that takes me through Old Town Alexandria and up to DC….then back.
Easter was a series of 2 hour plus road bike rides daily and some chocolates afterwards.
training for my first half marathon and had 7 miles planned for this weekend.
I think a 40 minute easy run is on tap. I just murdered peep after peep after peep. It got ugly.
Did a Pre-Easter 75 mile ride and then a post-Easter 51 mile commute to work which ought to balance out the bag of Reeses Peanut Butter eggs I ate on Easter.
1 hour ride to work off the Reese’s peanut butter eggs.
10K morning run – afternoon bike ride.
I wasn’t able to train becuase my back is hurting me….
Taper for Texas 70.3…. 3000 swim and 45 minute easy run with some pick ups built in.
2 hour tacx session, with a replay of the tour of flanders on the screen. For sure Cancellara didn’t have much chocolats before the start !
A long run of 32 miles was my training during the weekend……..April fool’s
40 min easy run to get ready for a 10 miler tomorrow.
After eating all the kids tootsie rolls I did 3 miles on Easter and 11.3 miles today. Enough?
I didn’t have egg hunting this time….my kids are growing….
Reese’s eggs are the devils work. So that means 7 mi. run tonight and 20 mil. cycling in the morning.
I’ve been eating anything lindt related. Attacking one large egg right now. Easy\slow 15k should be next on the list.
90 min ride on the trainer and something good on PC
10k out and back run. Disperse chocolate eggs on the way out, pick up and eat on the way back
10 mile semi-tempo run. Followed by more candy…ugh…
1.5 hr run, that might burn half if I’m lucky.
No candy for me this year while training for my first Tri as a member of the CNN Fit Nation. Instead, my Easter was an hour on the bike followed by a 30 min run. It’s a beautiful time of year to train in the Vegas desert!
Frist workout was to scroll paste a gasillion of comments (my fingers hurt, for real!!). Well more seriously I’m gonna git 300km all-mountain / enduro during April. Happy paste-Easter.
2 mile run to break in my new Newtons.
Frist workout was to scroll paste a gasillion of comments (my fingers hurt, for real!!). Well more seriously I’m gonna git 300km all-mountain during April. Happy paste-Easter.
86 km bike ride on a challenging course to burn all those easter eggs and chocolates I ate!
Well more seriously I’m gonna git 300km all-mountain during April. Happy paste-Easter.
Well more seriously I’m gonna get 300km all-mountain during April.
I ate around 15 home-made family-recipe cookies within 10mins. Felt remorse later. So today I swam 30mins non-stop at a decent speed. Perhaps also tonight I’ll be riding for a little bit the bike to make sure I got enough calories left… :O)
I will be doing V02Max and Threshold test. Lets hope it will burn enough calories!
Had an easy ride yesterday in Mallorca. 145 km of basic conditioning with two peaks on the way: Cura and San Salvador. Perfect weather, beautiful sights and, oh my, the cheesecake at San Salvador was excellent and well deserved ;)
For everybody else here in Mallorca, ride safe and enjoy easter.
And thanx to you Ray for good reviews, especially for the one of Edge 810. Bought mine for this vacation and it has already proved it’s worth. I’m loving the gadget.
To overcome my severe addiction to Cadbury Cream Eggs, I hopped on my trainer at 3:24 AM and did the entire Wildflower HIM course (link above), for which I’m training for the race, then followed that with a 5K brick run. Bonus points should be included for the ungodly time that was required in order to fit this in due the family responsibilities associated with the holiday!
Yoga early in the morning and then jogging during lunch… not much but that’s what I can do
90min Z2 ride outside yesterday. 60min Z2 with 2x10min Tempo on the trainer today. Ankle still sore so still no running.
4.5 m run!
Hi,
I did a MTB ride on the veluwezoom in the netherlands of 97,8 km. average of 19.92km/h. took me about 6.25 hours, with 3 stops that took 1 hour 12 minutes total. i made 842 metres altitude. It was a great drive and the wheather was about 7 degrees celsius with a nice sun. I had enough when i came home and after a few hours a felt alive again…..
i am going to do this again sometime. There are three routes to connect that make about the same km, only i then start in the forrest and not at home as i did today.
grtz, wilfred from the netherlands
ps i added a picture from mapsourse to back it up.
Just ate a chocolate bunny for lunch… but I ran 20 miles this weekend in anticipation of it so it’s not a huge deal :)
My next workout is going to be an easy swim workout, this is the week before my first tri of the season so I will be taking it easy and just keeping the blood flowing so to speak, only had one kit kat bar from easter so I feel pretty good about that haha.
17k easy run
2.5 hour hill and cadence session on my road bike (done today) after gorging on cream and peach pavlova and chocolate eggs yesterday :D
60 minute tempo run.
A moderately fast 10k to help burn off those yellow peeps!
On Sat. I did a 25-mile long run, so I banked the workout before devouring several Reese’s Peanut Butter eggs on Sunday.
I did a 16 mile run as I’m tapering for my first Boston Marathon!
40k bike (undulated terrain) @ 200W
A few friends and I, from our residence at Varsity, finished a 10 day 1380km cycling trip to raise awareness for mental health this Easter. Wish I had some candy…
Just got back from a hardcore Easter orienteering running camp where I ate 2.5 kilos of Nutella :)
Easy 10K.
Easy 2.5 hour bike ride
100KM ride @DFW airport…
Hitting the treadmill again (albeit for a much shorter time post-injury docs orders). The Easter bunny keeps hiding those Cadbury creme eggs all over the house… you know who you are.
30 mile road ride… on my new birthday bike!!! :)
3 hour cross ride in the cold!
262 km by bike per week to commute to work.
A fast 10k run at 90% to burn off some of those gelatinous green frogs :)
40 mile bike ride to wear off those peanut butter chocolate eggs!
10K running in my favourite forest
A quick hour spin class followed by a 5 K run.
Watch out those peeps are catching up and passing you!
No candies for me as Orthodox Easter is one month later. Candies will come after yet another month of swimming and cycling workouts.
3000 yard swim to work off those Peeps!!
Snowing here, so hitting the trainer.
Well after the fact but yesterday I jogged 11k, my farthest ever!!, very happy with that.
Im gonna ride 25 miles today on the bike to get rid of the half a dozen cadbury eggs ive eating the past week
Sunday afternoon ride. 50 miles up canyon roads. First warm ride of the season here in Utah.
6K fast run
i am going to run a steady 10K tomorrow morning, and hopefully I’ll finish without knee pains…
BootCamp pre-sunrise 1 hour followed by 2 mile run and 75 min of Power Yoga… Bunnies both fluffy and chocolate were avoided ; )
Easter Sunday was too full of family and church fellowship to attempt a workout. But, with the coming of Spring the urge to up the weekly mileage and come out of hibernation indoors is coming into play. I need to plan my ‘season’ and register for some races in the coming year to give me something to train towards.
5 to 6 mi in gross cloudy weather in NYC to work off too many Easter beers…:-).
Just-in-time comment?
I ran 9 strava – k’s, but ate no chocolate this weekend…
Training for the 20k-race in brussels on may 26!
I ran 8 miles on Saturday in anticipation of the upcoming Peep-fest, and am doing an hour of fitness boot camp on Monday – which will hardly make a dent in the number of Reese’s eggs I ate.
First workout was to scroll trough the sick amount of comments (really got my finger screaming in pain)… Well back to reality.. During the Easter we have chocolate dipped marzipan rolls with tutty frutty topping. They are so God D*** good! And one contain about 400kCal and I ate like three/four each day during Easter. So salad and at least 300km of all-mountain / enduro for me the next month. Godspeed!
10k run after eating 3 Easter eggs!
Alternating my shoulder rehab with a modest 3 miler.
before Easter, 17km long run in order to eat everything I want :-)
Interval workout: 7x1200m
maybe now I can eat another choco egg :-D
Quick 10k, good but not enough to burn all chocolates i already eat :)
running a 10K tomorrow morning…
I rode Stage 1 of the ATofCA, 100 miles and 10,000+ ft of elevation hanging on….ok falling off the back of three faster riders on every hill/mountain….chase, chase, chase. Ben and Jerry Ice Cream with a bunny sticker on the pint of Brownie Batter was the soon to have calories that needed to burned off first.
50k ride to test out road tubeless tires on the cx bike… need to ward off pinch flats post-Easter chocolate consumption??
Did a nice BRICK session; 2 hours on the bike, and then a 10k run.
Didn’t eat candy. But will go swimming.
Normally a “slow-carber” – I had enough candy this weekend to make insulin leak from my eyelids… Ugh.
Swam 2000m this morning, and since I’m having plantar fascia problems, my run was replaced with a 5 1/2 walk. (still makes the foot hurt, but not as badly…)
2.5 mile “dog running” intervals every morning this week to offset home made pies, cakes and of course the ubiquitous easter egg
I have a newborn, so my Sunday workout involved carrying him around the house while I cleaned, and handing him to the grandparents. I can’t wait to get on the trail again!
Hi, i was out on a 1hour 10min cross country skiing here in norway.
Sadly i discovered that all of my exersising this easter has been corrupted on my old Forerunner.
Looking forward to hopefully win a new gadget:)
running a 10K, more or less ….
I will run slowly this week to be prepared for a 16km race on Sunday, in Ville d’Avray (near Paris): this one will definitely override all the Easter chocolates!!