Heads up! The big Garmin spring sale has started, with $200 off the Fenix 8, $100 off the Edge 1050, Forerunner 965, Forerunner 265, and countless other Garmin products. 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.
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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.
No races this month anymore. Just plain old base building.
A 12k workout run with friends, dirt roads, heavy climbs, and tons of fog in the higher hills of my homeland Island of Faial, Azores.
I’ve got a sprint triathlon this very Sunday in a nearby vineyard!
Christmas Day 10k with my sis back home in the Cotswolds – it’s tradition to prepare for all the food
30min on rowing machine each day.
Lots to do but a 5k parkrun on saturday followed by a christmas mountain bike extravaganza on sunday , all morning mountain biking followed by an afternoon of christmas dinner and beer. Ho Ho Ho
A 10k run with 600m ascent, at least two times before Christmas
Within the next couple of weeks I’ll grab my bike and do 170 Km of mountainous terrain through the beautiful landscapes of northern Portugal.
I am going to run everyday to continue my streak which is at 396 days without a miss. I am gearing yup my base mileage for the Sugarloaf Marathon (Maine, USA) on May 17th. I also will be starting an on-line event that tracks the 100 day running streak from Jan. 1-Apr. 1 through my running club, Crow Athletics (Bar Harbor, Maine and the world, http://www.crowathletics.com ).
Knackered knee, so just swimming at the moment – but lots of it!
Still need to run 22 km till 500 km this year and bike about 70 km for reaching 2500 km. Beside that, I’m starting a swimming routine through the winter :]
The 10km new year’s eve run in Forcheim.
Just some running in the woods
Couple of km run this weekend to get back on the horse after another injury layoff.
Daily cycle commutes in the snow, and new trainer arriving any day now for some indoor sessions on the road bike.
Looking forward to a slow 5km run after 4 days of international flights and travelling.
6th: Sinterklaas a.k.a. Chocolate Fest
19th: visit Winterland with some friends a.k.a. Jenever Fest
24th: Christmas evening dinner with my parents, brothers, aunt, uncle, cousins and their children a.k.a. Very Good Food and Wine Fest
25th: Christmas dinner with my parents, my uncles, my aunt and my cousins a.k.a. Very Much Fun Fest
28th: Another (late) Christmas dinner with my parents, my uncles, my aunts, my cousins and their siblings a.k.a. Turkey and Sweetbread Fest.
31th: New Years Eve with some friends.
I admit, not a sportive challenge, but the annual “eat as much croquettes as you can” competition is quite fierce. And I always try to squeeze in some running in between these culinary activities.
Sunday, 200km audax.
Midnight half-marathon in Bangalore (India) on 20th December.
Escalade race in Geneva : 06/12.
Hope I will run Cyprus marathon at March!
san silvestre de vallecas /Madrid 10K run on dec 31st evening
Southwick Parkrun 27th December
Spinervals 13 – Tough Love as a part of The Spinervals Cycling 4th Annual December Challenge 2014.
Rapha festive 500. In the snow.
No races for me, so a workout will do.
It will be one of Trainer Roads sweet spot base workouts. I have worked on some base fitness, will start Trainer Road plans in some days.
Only race left this year will probably be a xc ski marathon on december 21st. Assuming of course we finally get some decent snowfalls over the next two weeks…
Run-bike-run on the beach next sunday!
21 km Half-Marathon in Freiburg (Germany) in March 2015
3km Swim in the local outdoor lido, luckily its heated.
5 easy miles later today in Brussels!
1 hour workout of full gas at the Siena’s Velodrome.
Looking forwart to the Aoshima Taiheiyou Marathon on the 14th
Every year, on the final day of the year, the largest runners club in the country is hosting a new years run. You either run 5K, 10K or half marathon. I will be participating in the half marathon, as i have done the previous two years.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.
master swim in the new 50 m Pan Am Pool in Markham, Ontario, Canada
My next race is a 13km trail run at Ansteys Hill, South Australia as part of the Yumigo trail series.
It’s all about workouts untill next year, no races.
Mainly LSD to get my riding up to speed.
Ottawa Canada Resolution run 10k, December 31st
I’ve got a 10km run planned tomorrow with 10second sprints every 10minutes.
Training for 10k this Sunday.
The “Santas on the Run” event in Bristol on 14 December – a modest version of your Paris Santa run.
My most memorable workout this year was a ride in the november rain, where I made it home without getting soaked!
Threshold workout on monday with iMobileIntervals and my KICKR:
10 minutes of Warmup with heart rate endurance [ERG watts = 60% of FTP]
10 minutes of Work [ERG watts = 100% of FTP]
5 minutes of Rest [ERG watts = 40% of FTP]
10 minutes of Work [ERG watts = 100% of FTP]
5 minutes of Rest [ERG watts = 40% of FTP]
10 minutes of Work [ERG watts = 100% of FTP]
5 minutes of Rest [ERG watts = 40% of FTP]
10 minutes of Work [ERG watts = 100% of FTP]
5 minutes of Rest [ERG watts = 40% of FTP]
5 minutes of Spindown at zone recovery [ERG watts = 30% of FTP]
Starting my training for the Paris Marathon — with the first Quality workout in Daniel’s book — 15 Miles!
Im in the middle of my half marathon training plan… So I have a lot of runs ahead..
Hakunilan Uudenvuodenjuoksu
Just a casual run this weekend to get going again after a marathon in October. Got a bit sloppy since ;)
Tomorrow! Winterlaufseries in Munich, a 10km around Olympia Park.
The lunch-run today with my colleague – between 7 and 8 km in a cold Gothenburg
Parkrun in Brisbane, Australia. Saturday morning at 7am.
First cross-country skiing session next weekend. Hopefully 20-30 km.
A 45 minutes run with 5*5mins at 3:45min/km next monday
next week sprit distance triathlon in dubai.
Day after an aqualathon. Eeek.
My current 10k PR is 47:55 but where I live is very hot and very hilly. I’m visiting my folks this month. Their city is flat as a pancake and about 20º C colder right now, so I’m definitely hoping for new 5k and 10k PRs.
I got an Ambit2 S, based on your review, a few months back. Great training tool!
Even though I didn’t get the DCRainmaker discount on it, Clever Training still had the best pricing.
I’ve planned a night 10K run for Christmas-Day. :-)
This saturday:
110 Min. T 2 with 5 x 5 min. T 4
The Gutbuster 10 miler on 28th December!! Time to shake off those mince pies!
The next “race” will be in a Dutch themepark running 5k on the 20th of December. Everybody will be dressed as Santa Claus. It will be awesome! An impression of the start of last year (different location): link to static1.q-music.vmmacdn.be
On Monday there is a public holiday here in Austria. The city will be packed with Christmas shoppers, so I’d rather go on a bike trip on my home trail – only about 500 meters elevation gain but full of challenging technical single-track. :-)
5 good days at the Gym, gotta get back into it!!
Planning to run a nice backroads 10 miler workout this weekend since the temp is going to be half way decent.
Challenge Roth on July 12th!
50 km bike/run in mixed pairs – guy and a girl race together and have one MTB in common, they can switch as many times as they want or not at all but all the time they need to maintain visible distance. Half of that is on mud tracks, half is on a concrete.
Scheduled for tomorrow..
31st December 14km Champagne run at Lake Velencei
1000 x 6 intervals Dec 17
The first bike ride in the winter time with my new gloves and long tights this weekend.
Will be for at least 1 hour but maybe more if I’m warm enough :-)
By the way. Thanks for this great web site !!
156 km amateur cycling race in spring, hopefully with my new Garmin 920xt won in this giveaway.
Starting the training routine for a spring marathon with a combination of strength workout and a 7M run this morning in complete darkness and cold weather…
Will be spending Christmas in Cornwall so will be doing the Lanhydrock Parkrun
Short run on saturday, set of indoor sprints 15x 100meters on monday.
A New Year’s Eve 10K race in my hometown. Looking to improve my finish time from last year (51min).
No races before the end of the year – but simple workout will be an 18km easy.
I’m going for the Santas’ 10 km Night Run in Krakow, PL tomorrow.
I’m training for a Half Marathon on January 18 (next year) and am starting on my intense part. The toughest one is Interval 3 x 10 (4) T100% planned for December 26, so right after the holiday meals …
Tomorrow I have my long run 18k, it’s already part of my preparation for the Marathon of Paris.
Progression Run on 16. December, consisting of 5km easy running and 15 minutes at 5k race pace at the end.
Pednor 10 Road race. Raising money Entries still available at link to entrycentral.com
Raising money for link to arctic1.co.uk
10K run in Buenos Aires, followed by a 10K run in Rio de Janeiro a week later!
train for the New Year’s Eve run in Innsbruck, Austria.
Regards from Norway :-)
spinning (Pyramid – 1-5 – 1 min) at Ula platform Offshore North Sea
Planning a 24 mile run home from the office on one of the days we finish early closer to Christmas!
Race season is over for this year so a lot of indoor cycling and treadmill work when the weather is crappy and outdoor training when it’s nice.
“The giveaway entry period will run through Monday, December 8th, 2014 until 11:59PM US Eastern Time.”
So all the entries bellow are useless?
Next Thursday, plan to ride intervals on my regular 500m Thursday climb. Probably 1,2,4,4,2,1 minute (with 50% recovery time).
No race in sight until Dec 31, but plenty of scheduled workouts in the pool, road and track!
My plan for today is a a 2,6k swim (200m warmup, 1k drills, 500m light aerobic, 700m intensity and 200m recovery), followed by a run workout (6k at 5:00 and 8*100m. sprints, with 100m recovery walks in between)
If I was the lucky duck, my choice is obvious, a 920xt in my wrist would be grrrreeeaaaat!! Fingers crossed!!
Ironman 2015 – Austria (Klagenfurt)
I’m on crossfit regiment! Thanks Ray :)
Ride in front of the big fan on the trainer until the pain is too much, then repeat. 4 times a week.
5.20 miles run 26 Nov 2014, 5.28 miles run 1 Dec 2014,
22 Yards Pool x 4o laps Swim 3 Dec 2014. Doing at Myeik, Myanmar
take the newborn kid for a run in the stroller
Riding as much as possible to get bike time in prep for the Otway Odyssey next year!
Cursa dels Nassos. 10k in Barcelona.
Hi Santa Ray,
Tomorrow, a 11km interval session is planned… next race is for next year!
Thx for all Ray.
Simple I just have to go out and start ride again. Prolonged vacation killed my fitness.
No races on the agenda, so just a 15 km training run on build to a half marathon next year.
Christmas day, pre-emptive, 15km with the bro-in-law before food induced coma.
Greetings from Portugal!
I will run in the S. Silvestre 10k race in Porto on the 28th of December =D
Hopefully in less than 45 minutes!
Just a simple race around the town (5-6k)
Valencia (Spain) Saint Silvester Run on 30th. 5.3k. Everyone run dressed like santa or in underwear
I am indulging my off-season trail running fetish by racing my favourite local trail race, the CTS Dorset Coastal Trail Run. I’m doing the half-marathon: a 16.3 mile off road run with 3559ft of climbing. For the brave/insane they do a full and an ultra too! Stunning views and a challenging course.