Heads up! The big Garmin annual spring sale has started, with $200 off the Fenix 8 (first sale to date!), $100 off the Edge 1050, Forerunner 965 at $499, the Forerunner 265, the new Instinct 3, and countless other Garmin products including inReach Mini 2. Plus the Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium is on sale, and some Suunto & Wahoo product deals too. 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.
4
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!
5
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.
Saturday will be catching up on much needed sleep, Sunday will be mostly stretching and light weights. PT is boring
This time I am a little ill so I am planning only going for walks with dogs and eat a lot:)
I ran a half marathon today so I might just take tomorrow off.
I will be running some easy miles in the morning to try and offset the ensuing chocolates and candies.
After a long break for family skiing I will return to my beloved pain cave and Sufferfest vids. Might do an indoor race simulation tomorrow
Will eat chocolate bunnies and run forever
Riding with a friend a state away on the new Pretzel course in Zwift using my Kickr.
5K Trail race Saturday, Run/Bike brick Sunday
İ am a crossfit athlete, Going to run 6-10k for my endurance training
5 mile run at my father-in-laws place, followed by a 40 mile and 5000 ft climb on the bike the next day up to the local ski resort, and finally finishing off a three day trip with a 2000yd pool swim!
Run chocolate spin chocolate swim
A Half Marathon in The Hilly South Downs, Englang.
planning for some Indoor bike training.
Interval run workout, full body circuit strength session, 2hr indoor ride on my kickr, 2,800yd time trial swim, and an 18 mile training-pace run….just a nice, causal weekend :)
Back to back long runs.
Probably going to the climbing gym for a couple of hours.
2.5 hr ride & 20 min brick on Sat, 1:45 run on Sunday, pig out after!
Saturday and Sunday are brick events, 30 miles on the bike followed by 7.5 mile runs.
Targeting 9 mile run. Longest since October. Injuries suck.
16 Mile group run (lots of hills) on Saturday and longish shake out run on Sunday.
• Run in Z2, easy, conversational pace, 80 minutes.
• Cool down, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Stretch.
Long run in the snow on Saturday. Rest on Sunday.
Recovery day on Sunday and then strength work and a run in the evening on Monday
60 minutes cross training / rucking, bear crawls and lots of lunges
Mountain bike ride and run brick on sunday.
5K sat morning with a log run sat night (1/2 marathon training
Long ride sunday
2 days of SOS, 90′ pool workout with 25m kicks and 25m speedups at the end.
800 yds of swimming today. (Don’t judge, in January it would have been 200)
25-30 minutes running tomorrow
70k ride with my mates. Mandatory coffee stop along the way!
I’m going for a nice run on Sunday.
My weekend fitness will involve chasing my two year old around. I would love to get in a ride (quick 30-miler would do) but that probably won’t happen.
20 mile training run Sat, easy recovery run Sun with some Easter chocolate for sure!
LOL. I went (and will go) snowboarding. Much more fun than slogging around in the fresh snirt from our most recent winter storm in my part of the world.
10K run on the first day followed by intervals and then a day at the beach
Long slow run, around 2 hr, with crappy old Polar hrm (why I’d like to win this!).
Sat 2 hr MTB at Paradise Valley … Sunday local 10 mile Run :)
Seemed like a good idea to move the PowerPod (and thanks for the review that helped me decide to purchase one…) from the CX bike to the roadie and see how well similar efforts match up in terms of watts. Today’s ride confirmed what you wrote: it’s pretty damn good most of the time, though cattle guards rattled it a bit :) If it doesn’t snow tomorrow I’ll get out again and test myself instead.
A 12 mile trail run
15 to 20 Km x-country ski on sat and sun
Still with the trainer, so probably one or two sessions with Zwift.
Going for a long run this weekend
My training will be consisting of the strenuous task of letting a cracked rib heal whilst not letting my mouth get carried away in the Easter shenanigans.
WU 15 minutes
30 seconds out of saddle 200% LT
2:20 Z4
10 seconds out of saddle 200% LT
Repeat that 5 times
20 minute Z2 with big ring 50 rpm every 5 minutes
4×12 minutes Z4
20 minutes Z2
Sweet spot the rest of the way home.
This Saturday I swam 1800 meters and did 50 minutes of strength. Sunday I have an hour on the bike. Bring on the easter eggs!
The Easter holiday exercise plans are:
Friday 10-15Km forest run at Chalet a Gobet
Saturday: Nordic Skiing at Villars
Sunday: Weather permitting 40-80Km road cycle
Monday: Morning Run (10Km) and Evening Run (6Km) and evening Bootcamp fitness session
Keep up the great work.
Strength and Flexibility followed by an Easter Day hike in the Texas Hill Country with my wife and oldest son.
Hill repeats + 1.5k swim on saturday
Long ride + brick on sunday
Sat did a tandem-tandem ride with my daughter plus my folks — might do that again Sunday. Had tamales at the farmer’s market, and some chocolate-covered Peeps at home.
Local race to be used as training.
Saturday is a 17k run, followed by a 50k ride… Another little ride on Sunday, weather permitting!
Rode 27mi outside this morning with my fastest average to date, guess all of the time in the pain cave paid off! Also, plan to ride Sufferfest “To Get To The Other Side” using Trainerroad and my Kurt kinetic Road machine Easter.
After a tortoise-like run this weekend along the Boston marathon course Sundays plans are to undo all the good work and overcompensate for any calorie deficit achieved with gifts from the easter bunny.
The age old story if the tortoise and the hare – but we both win.
Cheers!
3 hours long slow ride
No plans for training this weekend, but 4:30 am workouts start Monday!
Quiet Easter weekend celebrating son’s 21st birthday and Easter with family. Time to end the sedentary spiral and get back on the bike!
Saturday will be stretching/weight training
Sunday: CVT ride up to Caesar’s Head
Continuing my IM70. 3 training – long ride followed by a long run.
Week 5 run of my couch to 5k plan with the Dog easter day, followed by an hour on the trainer on Monday. Happy Easter!
I’ll be doing 5k MONDAY, 200m X 15 TUESDAY, 1hr slow pace run THURSDAY, then 5k FRIDAY, and lastly 7 miles on SATURDAY. All with my high school kids. Go Eagles!!
Stormy weather outside, so some easy indoor Zwifting for me this weekend.
Rebaseline my 60min FTP Sat on my favorite TT route, easy run Sun.
7 mile run on Saturday
1:45 minute easy run on Sunday
30 km ride this (Sunday) afternoon. Probably along the coastal suburbs of Adelaide.
Going for a long run outside!
no training this holiday only eating chocolate eggs :)
Two rides on Saturday to make up for the eating Sunday.
I am going to try to get in a few miles before or Easter feast!
I went out for a 30 mile ride this morning It was great !
Two 8-mile trail run loops of the Apoxee trail in West Palm Beach, FL. Benefits attempts to deal with invasive species in South Florida protected areas.
I’m driving 16 hours then celebrating my arrival with a 30 minute easy run on the beach.
Ride today and enjoyed the amazing weather. Taking Easter off but swimming on Monday
Starting to train for Ironman Arizona, short bike, short run, short swim, one after the other… I’ll leave Easter Sunday free to spend time with family
3 days of 4hrs each on the bike. Lots of TSS, and associated candy.
saturday will be a 2.5 hr bike ride with a 30min easy run off the bike. sunday will be a 1.5 hr easy run. weather does not look good for the weekend but will fight it out.
Lots of riding
Indoor rowing intervals
Bik ride
Slowly trying to get into shape again
I hope to walk a 10k or so! Walking, injured. :(
Enjoying a rare weekend off and have had the opportunity to get in two runs at a new location…all flat terrain, for a change of pace.
Running 2-3 miles 2-3 times. Bouldering 2 times. Lastly, doing calisthenics everyday.
Five mile run Saturday; 2-8-2 Duathlon Sunday.
Easy 5k saturday morning with 10-15 k planned for today.
and a lot of rest
This weekend will be two 5 mile runs. Hopefully I will get a bike ride as well.
Thanks for doining this.
Two hours of sufferfest videos followed by 48 hours of chocolate
ran a marathon today. walking the dog tomorrow
10k indoor cycle and then 10k outdoor run. First of the spring!
Interval biking, that lovely thing that just makes you wanna die.
Just came back from a swim as warmup to egg-hunting and cake-demolishing ;-)
Sat:
Swim
* 10 min pre-race warm-up
* 50 min straight swim
Bike
* 25 mile ride
Run
* 3.2 mile run
Sun:
Bike
* 56 mile ride
Long rides on Saturday and Sunday, then some hard runs during the week.
This weekend is a lower mileage week for me and I’ll just be doing a 2 mile run on Saturday and 4 mile run on Sunday in preparation for my first half marathon in 1 month. I’ve been still using my old Garmin 310xt. I really hope I win the giveaway so I can get a Fenix3 HR or 235!
Only 6 mi this weekend because next weekend is Run The Bluegrass Half Marathon (no bunny, but lots of spring gardening)
Going to find some new routes by my parents place. Some nice long outside rides should do it.
Easy 5K before family easter fun.
Coming down with a cold unfortunately, so it would be time for me to rest to recuperate.
Time trial threshold intervals between periods of heavy rain. Either that or drink beer.
Ran 22 miles on the C&O canal towpath today. Going to run a 4-6 mile shakeout run tomorrow at Hains Point and enjoy the cherry blossoms (obviously, I’m in DC – training for a spring marathon).
I am getting back into swimming! yay!
Do a complete tri-cycle this weekend, Friday night road race (run) and saw some bunnies, Saturday work + 1.5h swimming without those lovely fluffy animals (luckily, would be strange at an indoor pool…), Sunday is going to be a long bike ride through the dunes and woods, hope to see lots of wild bunnies over there :) Sounds like a good Easter weekend to me
A quick brick for tomorrow. 2hr steady bike and 30 sloooow run.
Next week I’ll run south beach tri a this is the slow pace week.
I had a half marathon today, and tomorrow a recovery run.