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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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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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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.
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!
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.
Amazing fitness level! I look at those paces and go wow… then I look at the Zones for those paces … Can I ask – what heart rates were you running for the Zone2s and 3s? Thanks heaps – I always look forward to your posts.
My Z2 is 153-161, and my Z3 is up to 168. I didn’t use any Z3 in this case though, it was all set to Z2 (first 10-miles), and then let-it-be-HR for the hard-set 6:45/mile for the last 5 miles. The pace fluctuated a bit +/- on those last 5 miles because of the rolling hills.
Ray have you done testing to figure out your zones or do you use one of the est methods? If est what method do you use? Your zone 2 is basically my zone 3. Guess I should also ask, since I’m assuming, 5 zones?
My coach established the zones, mostly based on specific efforts – not quite tests, but close enough to it. We used tests initially (VO2Max test), but have modified it since. In fact, my running zones were just modified a month ago (first time in a few years), shifting them slightly higher (my Z2 cap used to be 157, now it’s 162).
The total zones are:
Z1 (not really ever used)
Z2
Z3
Z4A/B
Z5A/B
Is that a white 220 with a purple band?
I’m reasonably sure companies send me purple units just to make me wear them out in public. I solved that by running at night.
Hey Ray, I’m surprised you don’t make your own teriyaki! Have you tried before? Do you have any good recipes?
I’ve made it once, but never quite got it right with the BBQ-like aspect of it.
Ah! So you are coming to Florence for the Marathon :)
See you on the course.
:) Yup, all signed up!
Well, remember this word :”Fiorentina”. It’s a special steak tipical of that area. Well worthy let me assure you.
Drop an email may you need any help for the logistic.
yeah! hope to see you there, even if i’ll start in a grid very very far from yours :D
Good luck in the Florence marathon! I ran it last year and my one tip would be to make sure you start as near to the front as possible. The course is great but there are so many bottlenecks in the narrow streets at the start that you can end up walking for the first 15 minutes, even if you start in the 2 1/2 – 3 hour pen.
Also, after the race you should go for a meal at Ora D’Aria, it’s the best restaurant I’ve ever been to and is worth booking in advance.
Great read. Thank you & my ifttt is working like a charm. ;)
Will you run Florence marathon? i will too!
what pace will you try to keep?
I will run 4:20-4:25 per km, maybe we can run togheter
I honestly don’t know on paces yet, but I suspect it’ll be a little bit faster than that.
In april a ran London marathon in 2:59:31 but now I’m not in great shape…
Anyway, good luck and enjoy the city
Wow, I ran that course earlier this year!
I was staying next to the future of flight and found the foot trail you ran on, but unfortunately couldn’t find a good route around the airport. Some of the roads have no shoulders.
And BTW, the new 747 is the -8, not -800 (sorry for being pedantic about it)
Doh, good catch. It’s funny, I was looking at that trying to figure out why it felt funny when I typed it. There ya have it…
As for roads, it’s really getting that chunk along the Boeing Freeway that’s less than ideal. After that, you can wander through most of the roads around the airport perimeter. There’s a few Boeing Private Access roads, but they’re well marked.
Ray, will you go to Firenze marathon in november? Have I understood?
Yes, that’s correct, I’ll be running it.
Ops, it’s so, now I read all other comments!
Wow, Seattle has to be the most depressing city to live in. Every picture I ever see seems to be either rainy or grey skies. Terrible…
Most of my past Seattle posts tend to be sunnier: link to dcrainmaker.com
Well, as long as the post occurred between the start of June and mid-August.
Yes, that’s the Seattle experience I recall. Go to work in the dark and come home in same nine months out of the year. Only wished they had good trainers back then as it would have saved me from flat damp hair and road rash from mossy roads. But oh, Summers are awesome 16 hours of sunlight!
4×30” sprints I did, with 90-seconds of recovery in between.
Wow, long recovery for such short sprints ;)
While the Strava pace analysis isn’t available when not-logged, you can see it when logged in (not sure if having a premium subscription makes a difference).
This may be good for the week in review (followup to previous link of mine you posted on a week in review) Best -Jack
link to gizmodo.com
Nice catch. That reminds me, I’ve gotta figure out why my Gizmodo RSS feed seems to have broken. Hmmm…
Ray, the biggest building by volume is the assembly building up at Everett Field, not the one at Paine field. Boeing does not actually assemble any aircraft at Paine, all the assembly is out in Renton (narrow bodies) and Everett (wide bodies).
You do realize that Paine Field is the name of the airport that the assembly plant is at right? Everett is simply the name of the city that the property sits on. All widebody aircraft for Boeing are assembled at Paine Field, save the handful of 787’s now additionally being assembled in Charleston.
There’s no such thing as Everett Field.
You are correct, for some reason I had it in my head you ran around Boeing Field (King Co.).
Don’t know if you’ve been around your parents’ place when Paul Allen has his collection cranked up, but when he says “Flying Heritage,” he means it. Sometimes it’s like a WWII air show around here. Or you see three biplanes flying in formation above you.
Every once in a while, I believe this summer when I was there they swung by at one point. Crazy loud.
I grew up getting used to everything else, but there’s a pretty substantial noise difference between a 747 and a Mustang (and not in the Mustang’s favor).
Ray,
Just a quick hello and thanks for all the great reviews and advice. Looks like you had an awesome run around Paine Field. Nice work! This is about a mile away from my neighborhood but in all my years of running I never considered running around Boeing. Tend to gravitate down through Lowell and down along the river toward Snohomish, much more scenic. Not running much lately… sore knee. A loooong time ago I posted a 2:49 marathon, I have slowed considerably.
Jay
My bet is that the ANA 787s are in for an overhaul. They cannot be unfinished planes because they’re already painted. I can’t think of any other reason why those planes are dismantled that much.
Awesome work, btw.
Nope, they’ve never left. They are part of the early line numbers (first 30 aircraft roughly) that needed significant re-work in the internal fuel-tank/wing area after an early issue was found with fasteners. This whole mess is commonly known as ‘Change Incorporation’. Most of these aircraft have literally been sitting there for years. The priority was shifted to getting new aircraft out (with the fixes already completed as part of build). And then these would be gone back and dealt with. The challenge is that the process to do this work required going into the fuel tank area and removing a bunch of paneling at the wing joint that also required being undercover for about a month. So hanger space was the limiter. They actually even setup temporary hangers for a while to get through some of it.
You can use the data sheet here to look at the aircraft numbers and current state here: link to nyc787.blogspot.com
All the red and dark green ones are still hanging out at Paine and never left.
Since Boeing bought that facility, you likely won’t see any non-brand-new aircraft coming in there for service like in the old BF days.
(Minor point of note: I’m sorta an aviation geek…)