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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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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!
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.
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!
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.
Heyyyyy…. one of those pics is definitely at least a PG-13 ;)
Since I get vicarious thrills from your jet setting lifestyle, I was a bit depressed to see you lodging at a Hampton Inn. :)
As long as it has fast internet, I’m happy! This hotel is actually brand new, fast and free wifi, and free breakfast. A funny breakfast note from this morning was I saw that a kid had managed to make a sprinkle-sandwhich. Had somehow covered an entire piece of white bread in chocolate sprinkles, and was preparing to add the second layer of bread.
chocolate sprinkles are common in the netherlands… you can get them in the supermarket under the name Hagelslag. Hagelslag is one of the things you should put on your grocery list, next to stroopwafels and drop (though you gonna wonder why someone is ever gonna like that :D )
Also dont forget the hollandse nieuwe :D
Almost all Dutch butter their sandwiches. That is what’s keeping those sprinkles in place.
Was in Amsterdam 16 years ago, and ended up running the marathon, so I haven’t done any of my our run-a-rounds, next time, but I just head out and run… hoping for the best.
Love the way you planned your route.
Cool, seems you were in the neighbourhood :-) (I live in Utrecht, 20K from Amsterdam)
Doesn’t FR610 like DR410 allow you to upload courses?
Nope, no courses support.
Welcome in Amsterdam! Nice story again. Funny to see you ran just about 50m from my home. For the next time (I guess the chances are pretty slim): during the middle part where you ran along the Wibautstraat I suggest you run along the river slightly to the west. Prettier sights, no traffic lights at all and plenty other people running.
Your post reminded me of a website of an American I somehow found years ago with pictures of all the weird (to him) bikes he saw in a short period of time. Managed to find it back: link to ski-epic.com. Most funny to me is the how he is so utterly surprised, to me it’s all perfectly normal, daily stuff. He doesn’t seem to grasp cycling is an extremely efficient method of transportation in Amsterdam, as long as your bike doesn’t get stolen.
Love to see you like Amsterdam. I travel every day from Deventer to Amsterdam by train using the long and comfortable intercity trains. My work is located a bit more towards the airport next to the big park with the rowing track (bosbaan) this is really the most ideal place for running in a big city, a nearly empty park with nice asphalt paving.The Netherlands got the huge cycling network during the 60s and 70s of the last century, and as a Dutch you get born with a bike, I currently own 5 bikes each for a different purpose, comuting (brompton folding bike), a MTB, road touring and racing and city bike at my parents.
Those little cars on the bike paths used to be Granny cars, for elderly who lost their driving licence due to age (failing the medical test). You can drive them with a simple driving licence from the age of 16, but I never want to drive one. Going by bike is faster and easier.
I like your note that your running pace is equal to the speed of cyclists, I have noticed that as well. Actually the main reason that I cycle with a helmet is not because of the cars (bikes have their on roads) but because other people are slow (between 12 and 16 km/h) while I do usually 22 to 30 km/h but most of them simply don’t look. When you ring the bell to announce you are approaching fast, they first look backwards and only then decide where to go.
Thanks for this nice story, (and in holland it is rated PG6 most likely :), nothing special to see )
Fun to read! My working place is a 100 meters from your hotel :) Doing a lunchwalk everyday passing your hotel to the shopping center.
That bike parking is crazy. When I saw the initial picture in the post I thought it was a picture of a transition area.
I agree with Jan, you should have run left of the Wibautstraat, parallel to the river Amstel. Much more pretty and perfect for runners. To bad I didn’t see you running past my house, I would have given you directions.
Covering your bread with chocolate sprinkles is as normal in the Netherlands as mac and cheese in the US …..
That’s officially brilliant. If cycling wasn’t already a strong reason to move here, that most certainly is!
I agree that Strava should go back to the previous run setup. It was so much better!
Great post, reminds me of when I travel to Copenhagen to our home office. Next trip I will give this type of adventure a try!
Nice to see you enjoyed your run/visit. As it is all flat here we have excellent places for running. Also the bike lanes make good running lanes. From your hotel it is also quite easy to run throughout country side if you would prefer that next time.
US newspaper also write articles on biking in NL or Amsterdam in specific.
Below a recent link of an article on nytimes.com:
link to nytimes.com
Hagelslag sandwiches are only tasty to the dutch. To create: buy the cheapest, most sugary white bread you can find (wonderbread), the cheapest most spreadable butter you can find, the cheapest most sugary chocolate sprinkles you can find, then spread a ton of butter on one slice of untoasted bread, pour half the container of chocolate sprinkles on it, butter another slice of untoasted bread, mash together and eat. If you can make it past two bites you must be dutch.
HI Ray! Ahhhh Cant believe you were here in Amsterdam! Had I known you were in town, I would have guided you rather than your little post it, and I would have used the FR910XT that I GOT FROM YOU from your October 2012 Give Away!! Thks Again BTW I love it!
Have you considered having a section on your Blog were you post the places you’ll be visiting in the near future?.. I’m sure lots of your followers would be thrilled to know in advance you’ll be in their home towns and for sure people would love to meet up with you for a Swim/Bike/Run/eat Cookies/IceCream marathons etc etc :-) I know you do tweet sometimes when you are in places but probably you’ve got more people following your blog than with twitter acc.
Cheers!
Sorry Carlos!
Yeah, the challenge I have is my schedule tends to be really fluid. Sometimes when it’s more concrete I’ll make posts to the blog. But for last-minute trips or lack of any stability, I tweet instead since it tends to be more instant. I wish I had more stability!
When you passed the rowing team on the river, did you instantly think of this Geico commercial?
Wow, I’ve never seen that. That’s pure awesome!
Imagine if those bike parks were triathlon transition areas! What a nightmare!
I had no idea that you couldn’t upload courses to the FR610. I was upset when I found out my FR410 only lets you upload one course into it from Garmin Connect (you can upload multiple from the now defunct Garmin Training Center, but GTC doesn’t play well with Connect), but I guess one course is better than no course!
I am gonna beat those CR’s as soon as possible, welcome in my home town!
Love the blog Ray, just brilliant and so damn good to read.
Oh and for all you Amsterdam people training for triathlons, I have recently started a meetup.com group: link to meetup.com
All be welcome, as long as you train HARD!
yep – those strava run pages are rubbish – see several hundred complaints here :
link to strava.zendesk.com
Indeed, I’ve been watching it for a long while. Really wish they’d just roll it back. It takes away any enjoyment in using Strava for runs.
I just wish that somebody would step up to the plate and launch a decent alternative.
How do you run with the camera? Holding it in your hand or … ?
Yup, just hand-holding. Sometimes I also stick it in a Spibelt as well (longer runs), or a Camelbak (really long runs).
It’s great to see Amsterdam from your point of view. The little things you notice that we see almost every day. Nice story, as always!
Nice splits.
Just got the forerunner on sale because I broke 7 min split myself.
You da man bra.
Cool planned route Ray ! And what about changing the numbers steps with the km or miles ? And peharps made a workout with each of these distances on the 601 (and when the clock vibrate having a look at the new direction) ?
It was mostly a time-based workout, so the steps were based on time chunks – and I roughly figured out how many miles I’d need to complete that. I figured if the route was a bit long it’d be fine, as I’d just walk/jog the rest and enjoy wandering.
Occasionally I do create workouts in the watch using that function, but mostly that just takes time. It’s a pretty simple workout, and I’ve long since memorized my HR zones – so this was a bit quicker.
If you ran with your phone you could have used a map. MapMyRun (or whatever), and then use a watch for higher precision recording.
Yeah, I neglected to remember my phone armband unfortunately. Not sure why it wasn’t in this suitcase, but it wasn’t. :-/
Speaking of arm bands. Do you listen to music while you run? I like to, but the phone on my arm with pandora is so annoying.
Its part of the reason I got the forerunner. Is there some type of blue tooth wireless radio set up, so you dont have to run with a phone?
No, I don’t tend to use music while running. Not sure why, just don’t.
Next time pack your Ambit2, as the nav features are pretty cool for a watch in m.o. Last week I had setup a bike tour and just follow the route, so I could see the surroundings more.
Nice to see you running through Amsterdam though, you were also very close to my work (near the Canal). How do you even make pictures running in that pace?
Lots and lots of practice running while shooting. :) Lots.
I was really interested to see what Amsterdam looks like from a runner or cyclists perspective, the facilities look amazing. My late father was Dutch and he used to tell me about all the bikes, I myself have never been there so it was fascinating to see your photos.