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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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I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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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.
Impressive… Did you ever plan to post your Strava heatmap? It’d be interesting!!!
So glad you got a chance to run in our beautiful country again; even if not in the most scenic of areas. In the week we run in Sunninghill a suburb of Joburg and I must say we normally giggle slightly at what you call “elevation profiles” on some of your runs.
One of your more entertaining runaround posts. Yeah, yeah, you do great reviews, but I don’t think people give you enough credit for how well you write. Keep it coming. Also, very jealous of your man cave!
Hello Ray,
great blog!
I noticed you were using the data field “grade” on your 920XT.
Did the values make sense? I tried “grade” and “30s avg vertical speed” during my last bike ride.
“30s avg vertical speed” never showed any values, only “—.-” and “grade” was jumping around even when going uphill for a long time.
Yeah, it was pretty bad on mine during running. Grade jumping around 2%…8%…44%..16%..etc, every second. I’ll be sending a note over to the beta e-mail address that was included within the release notes on it. I’d encourage you to do the same.
Thanks for that confirmation Ray.
My eMail is on it’s way.
I would be careful running around Johannesburg especially roodeport
Although crime, robbery and murder are a harsh reality in South Africa, I honestly doubt that there are many incidents where male runners become a crime statistics. The risk is higher for women and for people running with flashy gadgets (that iPhone 6+ on a sportsband).
I honestly would be more worried about being run over than being mugged.
the high fences with sharpen spikes are not to keep scorpions out seriously be careful running around these suburbs if you want to see the girl again :)
“kloofendal” => “fissure and valley” or “cliff and valley”. Now you know to expect elevation changes :)
Ignore Dennis, run happily in Roodepoort. But the fences are indeed not for the scorpions.
Great post Ray! I especially liked the Plane Man updates!
Did the course you plotted, and the route you actually ran have the same elevation gain/loss figures and it was just the profile that didn’t match
Fenix2 beside crappy GPS chip, has the best navigation support…
Well you did say you needed some Hill repeats after the Santa run, guess you have them now! Great Blog btw very entertaining
So nice reading your travelling posts. It’s very interesting reading from a athlete perspective. Seems like I was running with you.
Okay, I admit it, I didn’t really read the run-around part. I just skipped through and read all of the “Plane Man” updates. Brilliant!
thanks for the post. I see you’ve had activité for a few days now – how goes it? When will we see a review? I’m curious to see how well the idea has been implemented. Thanks.
Looked like a great place to run, remember hills just make you stronger!
Grade is all over the place riding bike…
But you wish you had the vuvuzela to prank Plane Man!
That was a great read. Surprised the loud guy didn’t get tackled by the mothers of the sleeping children.
As a parent that’s brought a baby on board a long flight, nothing is worse than just getting your baby to fall asleep and someone makes an outburst. It’s like “do you want to put him back to sleep?” And then they look at you like you need to shut your baby up. YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!!
Really great post. If you ever want to do some hills in South Africa, you have to come and do the ‘up-run’ of the Comrades Marathon, regarded as the world’s oldest and largest ultra marathon run over a distance of approximately 90 km | 56.1 miles.
Fun fact: the highest point in peninsular Florida (the state in the USA) is atop Sugarloaf Mountain near Clermont, at 312 ft. above sea level with 245 ft. of prominence.
For good or bad a learn a lot from the blogs. Looked like a nice enough run despite the terrain variation. Yet awkward that everything, including old equipment in the park, requires wicked fences from being accosted.
Good thing Plane Man didn’t purchase one of those vuvuzelas….
We want more plane man stories!!
@Ray: Do you typically run with your phone on a armband and doesn’t this bug you? Also what type of armband do you use to protect your device from rain/snow?
I remember reading about the type of camera you use, but do you hold it in your hand when running or where do you store it?
I often do if I’m testing something requiring an internet connect, or, if in cases like this where I think the chance of getting lost is high. I just use a simple/cheap Wahoo Fitness armband. It’s simple, but I’ve been using it for years without any issues with rain/snow/etc…
For the camera, I just hand-hold it most of the time. Sometimes on long runs I’ll stash it in my Camelbak.
We do have rather large scorpions that can climb fences……….great review as usual and just goes to prove Jhb is not flat!
Hi Ray
Time to schedule some clients in Cape Town and see what real climbs are :)
Do you think that if enough people ask for Zoom to be fitted to the 920XT that Garmin will do it?
I’ve submitted “my” idea here after a customer care specialist couldn’t give me an idea of whether it would be added in future. He said that it would be added if there is more demand for the feature:
link to www8.garmin.com
Yup, I do. They’ve said they’re very open to feedback on this particular issue.
Haha – this is a brilliant post… so funny to see your perspective of running in Roodepoort… enjoyed plane man too.
Awesome post. You were basically in my backyard :-) I live less than 2 kilometres from where you stayed. If you are at those customers again, get in contact with me. It would be a pleasure to show you around and perhaps offer a “less gradient” running option.
Next time try Botanical gardens. You wont be disappointed