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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!
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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 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.
This is a warm winter here in Italy, though in my city (Trieste) the Bora wind guarantees a good windchill when it blows. My coldest workout was a 16km run with a windchill of -1°C.
Relatively warm and wet so far in the UK this year. I haven’t had to run below zero degrees yet – coldest for me so far was around 3. Bound to happen soon though.
In South Africa, our winters don’t really hit the charts when compared to the US and Europe. Coldest bike ride was in an area called the cradle where it was early in the morning (dark), the ice cold wind was blowing and I left arm warmers and jacket @ home. Man that cup of tea afterwards was the best thing ever.
Hasn’t been too cold here in Munich this year. 1C running outside
New Year’s Eve bike ride at -2° C in pretty dense fog. Shoe heating worked very well but did not feel my hands afterwards!
It was on local mountains with an autumn surprise rain shower combined with inadequate clothing. Freezing!
Coldest was an OD triathlon last year. The water was 18 degrees C according to the race organization, but it was actually way colder. They shortende the course from 2 750 mtr laps to 3 500 mtr laps because of the rescue boats. 1 guy, in wetsuit, got pulled out because of hypothermia.
Besides this, the coldest was a run with -17 degrees Celcius, Good way to keep running to stay warm!
9 c swim for an early season tri. According to regulations, the swim leg shouldn’t have happened. The water felt like a punch to the forehead!
Thursday this week in London. I went for a bike session at 9 in the evening, pouring with rain and 0’c. Feet got very wet and cold…. theywere nicely blue by the time I got home!
I’ve had lower temp runs with the Polar Vortex hitting us this year, but the dun that felt the coldest was still in the teens with a driving wind and snow all thru it. Just not much for treadmills.
does every run count? say from December on? Living in New Hampshire, we have had wayyy too many cold days. Lots of “feels like -2” runs. We ran the other day and it was 17*F and it felt warm. But we’ll still complain in July when it’s too hot.
One morning last winter my Garmin 800 said the temperature was 9 degrees Celsius – yes that’s single digit territory. I didn’t think it was possible for the temperature to reach single digits. Obviously Australians don’t really understand what cold weather is.
Well the coldest ever would be would be January 2009 when i made a picture in a mankini in the snow.
link to postimg.org
I know picture or it didn’t happen
Winters are Mostly warm here in Kuwait. Sometimes it’s perfectly fine to start a long run in a vest and shorts. Then it rains plenty enough to offset the summer droughts, and there is no place to hide from the winds in the flat desert landscape.
My most “frozen” experience was riding in Oulu in -5 celcium.
I feel happy now living in Greek +9 celcium ;-)
Last weekend. Long ride along the windy coast. My hands got so numb that I had to turn around and finish on the trainer at home.
I ran 24km in -5’C and a freezing rain. It was quite good actually, besides the buff on my face. It was like a wet compress in the middle and frozen in it’s lower ends.
link to endomondo.com
I rode my MTB last weekend for nearly 3 hours. Temperatures were lower than -10°C (14 °F) all the time. My Edge 800 told me -15,8° (3,5°F) down in the shadows of the woods. link to strava.com
Only a few days ago since winter didn’t hit until now (germany) mountainbiking through the snow to an old castle :-) was about -5°C and the snow was still fresh so plenty of grip :-) Now there’s just compacted ice due to melting and freezing :-(
Cheers!
Virginia Beach normally doesn’t get snow, but after 12″ my run and ocean swim became very cold, especially when my wetsuit developed a tear in the armpit half way through my swim. Outside temp was 12 degree with a wind chill of 0 and water temp was a warm 44 degrees.
A 20 degree trot up the incline in Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Since the americans stole our winter, the only mildly cold one was this morning when I was running to work.
While waiting at the red light (sometimes it is better for your health to really wait:)) I was stretching my legs a little, and asked myself why does my gloves are getting wet. Only then I saw that the light poles were completely covered in a tiny layer of frost.
still waiting to run in the snow like last winter though.
A run at -25C (-13F), live about 200km below the polar circle in northern Sweden so yeah..
It’s all about having the right gear though, and once you’re underway for a few minutes it gets more doable.
I’m in Singapore and we got no winter. LoL.
But these last 3 weeks the sky is cloudy most of the day and the wind is a bit cold especially when you swim and you get out of the water.
A lot of people DO NOT swim just because of this. It’s very funny for me as if they really want to know how cold it is swimming in winter, they would appreciate this ‘warm’ weather.
But I got a few cold one in my standard when I first tried cycling in the cold Montreal in 2011. I was not brave enough to swim at the time.
Brass Monkeys half-marathon in York (UK) on Sunday 19th January. 6 degrees Celsius with a very cold wind. Bracing stuff.
Last Tuesday in Madrid. It was not super cold but it was really windy.
The problem was that I wasn’t protected enough because I saw the temperature, but I suffer a lot because of the unexpected wind.
Cheers!
actually the lowest temp i did a run this year was 30 °C as i live in brazil and ee are in summer…
marc steingrand
My coldest swim this winter was three weeks ago in Sicily (Italy) with the water temperature at 14 degrees Celsius! ….freezing…
Yesterday: 6 a.m. running in the woods at -2ºC and under the rain – alone- is the best proof of commitment I can offer you, but of course it doesn’t beat surfing for 2 hours in the Atlantic, with lots of neoprene of course!
6 degrees with a -3 degree wind chill and 7 inches of snow, kind of unusual for the mid Atlantic! Just did this January 29th.
A run at -13C (9F). Greetings from Finland!
Running -8°C (18°F)
I did a 10k run in Fontainebleau (not too far from where you live) few years ago. -14 degrees ceilcius.
Cold enough to need overshoes on when on turbo trainer in the garage :S
Cycling for two hours in 2 degrees celcius : Strava report. When back home, I was just in time to see Wawrinka winning the Australian gram slam tennis tournament.
Wilmot Wander on the previous Sunday. Only at 0°C or so, but raining solidly from the start and two hours into a very boggy 34 miles of the event I was more than tempted to call it a day due to being completely unable to retain any warmth.
swim in 16 degree water in Dubai…. not that cold i know..
I was skiing with temps at -21(celcius), wind chill included. But when I walked my dog next day it was -26.
About 67F on the trainer in front of the TV. What can I say, I’m a wuss. GO HAWKS!!
Last sunday in KRK – 20 km at around -15 celsius and in fresh snow; worst part was my eyelids trying to freeze themselves shut.
The 20th of Jan I did a run on my skiing trip to Feldberg, Germany at 5°C. It was also raining so it felt colder than 5°C. :)
Greetings from Brussels, Belgium!
It’s not been too cold in Edinburgh so my coldest run would have been my first parkrun on January 11th – only frosty/icey morning of the year so far which made underfoot conditions a bit interesting by the sea front.
Mediterranean coast of Spain here, so the worst day has been 3º C, and that being at early morning. I hope to best it if I can get up on monday after watching de Broncos beat the Seahawks, although I wouldn’t mind watching R. Willson win. I like how this guy moves on the field.
Hey, it is warm winter here in Slovakia. Coldest run I did was about -4C. This might be considered warm comparing to other guys here :).
Rather warm winter in south east England.
Ride at -2C was rather nice, but slippery (fell twice at low speed).
Running is rather dull as most Thames tow paths are flooded.
Cold winter? Wet winter!
Mountain hiking in knee deep snow at approximately -5°C.
Coldest ride this winter was about +12 deg C indoors in our cellar, or about 5 deg C outside. But that’s only because cross country skiing and downhill skiing is more fun when it’s cold. The coldest so far was between -15 and -20 deg C at the top of Engelberg. With the right ski clothes on it’s fun to be out and about in bad weather. Best bit is that the slopes are deserted as the Swiss tend not postpone skiing until it’s bright and sunny.
The coldest run I’ve done this year in France was during the SaintéLyon. Maybe around -5°C or more. I was running only 23 km, compared to the 75 km full length race, so I didn’t really have time to suffer from the temperature
My coldest run was at -1 C in Germany, where the seasons seem to become all the same… :(
Running part of the GR11 trail around Benasque (Spain): 18 km at -3ºC. The trail had some patches that were really icy, it was a mix of running and ice skating in running shoes ;-) On a mountain river bank, some meters above the river bed…
40k MTB ride at 5AM and -12 C to a former volcano in Eastern Slovakia to see a sunrise – hilarious!
Well I don’t like to be cold so not really been training outdoor this winter.
But was in Barcelona, Spain recently and on a nice sunny day sightseeing (link to fattirebiketours.com) I could’nt help but loose the clothes and dive in. Water was arround 13.5°C according to link to seatemperature.org but felt a bit warmer – was in for just a short swim. Didn’t even have a towel with me and would have needed my swimsuit for a longer one.
I’ve also been out on MTB but not really cold. Event if the thermometer show belows 5°C it is easy co keep warm as long as it not raining. One of the best ride was with the big kid on a new local marked mtb route. link to endomondo.com Temperature close to freezing but not much wind and the sun came out and made for a pretty nice morning.
This winter is extremly hot here in czech, only last week ski mountaineering in -15C. I remeber riding bike in -25C few years ago, big fun :)
8ºC at Tijucas/SC/Brasil during a 30K mtb riding. It is very cold for us. :)
maybe you can’t call it winter time yet; was on a bike ride in the french alps around end october; ± 2 or 3°C with an nice view on a snow landscape
link to mapmyfitness.com
Ran 18 km (11.2 miles) in -5 C (23 F), but with 10 m/s of wind at 9 pm in Denmark. It was REALLY cold but after about 5 km I felt warm again. Great stuff!
The coldest run this winter has been around 3º C, it’s not getting much colder in Madrid this time… so nothing to complain about!
The coldest run I had this winter was -8 C or 18 F in Hamburg, Germany last week. So good for the lungs! :-)
-3 °C (27 °F) on Dec. 1st, 14 km in the countryside near Brescia (northern Italy). -3 °C again on an 8 km recovery run on Dec. 13th.
My coldest run is everyday this month I ran to the treadmill at the gym!
I did a 21km run a few weeks ago(in the west of Ireland), with the temp. approaching 0 C and some very cold rain. Despite wearing gloves, my hands were too numb to untie my laces at the end! not fun!
32 Degrees, 6,000 feet of climbing. Rain on one side of mountain. Snow and sleet on the other side. It was a cold decent!
So hard to pick a winner for the ‘coldest run of the winter award’ – so many worthy contenders! :-(
This winter is not very cold here in Italy, my coldest run was an half marathon at 5°C (41° F)
To Enter: Give me the lowdown on the coldest swim/ride/run you’ve had this winter – simple as that!
No real winter yet in Germany. Lowest temperature for a three our bike ride this year was -1°C = 30.2°F.
39° F morning ride in south Texas. Trust me, that’s cold for us.
12th January, just outside of Oslo, Norway. -10 degrees C average temp.
See the ride here
Nice ride, if a little cold at the top, lots of loose snow though with ice under and I ended up falling off 5 times even with spiked tires on …. ouch. My iPhone packed up at the top because of the cold so I could not take any pics of the winter wonderland :o(
-10 C, but very windy. Last Saturday.
I haven’t really had a cold run this year yet. Up until around 2 weeks ago the weather was quite warm for Winter in Poland – around 2-3 C, no ice, no snow.
Then I’ve twisted my ankle while training in a forest and had to take a break for it to heal. The temperatures got a lot lower in the last fortnight (-10 C) but I haven’t gotten back to running yet and I hope it will get warmer before I do :-D
-12° C (according to Accuweather RealFeel -27° C), only 3,5 km, 2 days ago, Warsaw, Poland. It was too windy and really cold…
Being from NewcastIe Australia, I have never run in anything cooler than abut 6 C and when I do, I dress in even more clothes than the French runner run you recently featured.
any of my runs last two weeks where the temps have been all below -30 C (if you add in the windchill we were getting below -40C but when it is that cold it doesn’t matter the actual number!)
Nothing too crazy here for me… Been out a
Bunch of times in the single digits.
18 deg F this year on the Bike.
-5 deg F on the MTB in NJ back in my youth (17yo)
It wasn’t this winter but a couple of winters ago, I had just started running, had a couple of weeks experience. Went for a run around the lake behind my house but was badly underdressed. As a result I started out much too fast, in order to stay warm.
When I was at the other side of the lake, I couldn’t run anymore because of my still lacking running fitness. But walking wasn’t an option either because I would freeze. I ran-walked my way home, and was so very glad to take a hot shower, which hurt a lot actually because I was really frozen to the bone.
Don’t think its been below 10C for any of my runs so far this winter, plenty of rain to make up for that though
Running the U.M Blåfrusen 70km race. Its cold outside, but the spirit of the race makes it warm inside for the racers..
A month ago, running again the storm, rain and cold (2°C) for 2 hours 30 minutes.
Hi Ray,
3°C @ boulogne-billancourt’s semi marathon.
Regards.
1 degrees Celsius along the Rhine in Basel, Switzerland.
On Jan 1, 2014 in Newcastle England. I did a 2 mile run in 36f followed by a swim in the North Sea at 42f, and finished with a 2 mile run to warm up right after the swim
Started my half marathon training on January in Indiana. My coldest run has been when it was -5F. The ground was slick!
As winter is just starting in Belgium, no real chilly runs/bike rides so far. But the evening runs are getting colder every day now!
Well, as I live in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), we are currently at summer with temperatures above 40C (104F). So I will describe, instead, my hottest run. Last sunday I went for a long run at 7am around Maracana stadium, however it was so hot that my heart rate was always above 85% and I had to abbreviate it after 1h10′. I am making most of my runs, except for the long run, at the treadmill.
Up until now this winter is no real cold winter in Belgium.
I remember a few years back a run in the evening. Snowing and freezing around -7°C. It took me some k’s to get my breathing climatised :)
The coldest open water swim I’ve ever done is around 10C. Deeply unpleasant.
-15F, -30+ with wind chill here in Chicago. One of the few times I had to choose treadmill over roads. :(
Few days ago in Zagreb on -9C with light snow, ice rain and lots of slush!!
-20 C cross country skiing in Sweden
On Dec 20th I ran under the rain and wind.
2° C but according to my chin it felt like -260° C…
I grow a beard since then…
Coldest run was at 32 degrees Fahrenheit with about a 20 mph wind.
Mild Winter in the UK so far, but have had a few 0C night runs with a cutting wind. Not had to ditch the shorts for leggings yet.
Rode to work about 2 years ago in 2 degrees (C), took me an hour and a half with a slightly numb face.
Ridden about 30km at -8 Celsius in the woods up here in Bratislava
-5C on the Tongariro Crossing last month. Had all the gear on and loved it!
-16 BackCountry Ski in Italy
Has to be yesterday (30th) the plan said to do an hour in z2 90+rpm however it was the first dry day in weeks and although very cold I just felt like riding without watching numbers. So with this in mind I head out my street the opposite direction and just followed sign posts to towns and villages I like or not been through before. Ended up doing a couple of hours just getting lost in the cold.
Eventually my feet got to numb to carry on. I was wearing 2 pairs of socks + overshoes and I still couldn’t feel them by the end. Next time I’ll have to wrap them in some foil
I think last year i ran at -25C, but yesterday was really cold wind and i made 20km at -19C and garmin connect says it felt like -29C. I think it was a bit colder ;)
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