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.
Hide from the cold front hitting Eastern Canada and do a couple of under/over sessions on the turbo.
I will be doing a 2 hour ride in hilly central Kentucky on Saturday. Hopefully the weather holds up so I don’t have to make that a Trainer Ride.
I will do an MTB ride on sunday… unfortunatly it will probably be under water…
Trainer Ride…nothing fancy, but it works.
Getting in a frosty 21F ride on Sunday morning.
I’ll be riding in watopia. Probably a couple hours each day.
Long trainer ride on Saturday-thanks Ray!
My final cross-country skiing of the season this weekend.
No cycling plans this weekend. Summer starts with running events for me this year, so I’ll be doing some runs.
Cycling plans arnt huge though are power focused as I get a turbo session in and then spend most the weekend focusing on running as continue to marathon train!
Tom
Some indoor sessions
Getting back on my bike after a week off.
Nice and easy slow ride with my girlfriend.
I will ride 2.5 hour trying to avoid the rain!
Probably i won’t ride, bad weather forecast
Got two endurance workouts on TrainerRoad to do, for a grand total of 5h30 on the trainer! What shall I watch?
A lot of rain here in the basque country, so I’ll cycle indoor this weekend.
Trainer Road workout on Saturday, Zwift race on Sunday.
on the trainer both days
2 hour ride in the basement :-(((
(relatively tough training with increasing intensities in 4 cycles)
One or 2 half hour trainer rides.
Probably hitting the trainer again this weekend, since I hate riding in the cold.
Hilly group ride on Saturday, or our nth attempt to pick the alpha male in our tri club…
Sunday is for recovery, as you can imagine!
I’ll Be riding outside for the first time of the season
I have a 3h45 zone 2 ride on the trainer scheduled for Saturday.
No cycling plans for me, just my last longish run before next weekends half marathon.
I hope to actually get my bike put back together. It’s been sitting in the box it was shipped home in for a couple of weeks now.
On Saturday plan is to visit Pilis Mountain, on Sunday skiing in Jasna
Eh, I have to move so I will probably be riding to a few house inspections – Less strenuous, but also less fun :)
Riding the Eden Valley Epic sportive in Cumbria UK with my partner. Her very first sportive and a warm up the to Etape Caledonia in May!
Time trial bike gets an outing for the first time this year – short training run at high intensity…feel the burn…….
I will strip the bike to parts, clean and lube and build it up again. Nothing beats smell of fresh lube on saturday morning. If weather is reasonable, I might hit some trails!
2-3 hours on trainer. calm and easy weekend..
And wine offcourse… No cycling without wine on the weekends..
Off for a long ride on Sunday training for my 1st half ironman triathlon.
Hills tomorrow and a steady ride on sunday on my new cleats
Doing the Eden Valley Epic spotive event on Sunday
Going to prepare my MTB for a vicious first ride after recovery of hamstring injury
Rolling on some crisp crust on the fatty in a frosty -16 tomorrow
Saturday: Stokesville Strade gravel/road race outside of Harrisonburg, VA
Sunday: Shop coffee ride to recover from the race the previous day.
Just go for a bike if the weather is good!
Mainly running this weekend – only cycling for transport
Some snowboarding on the Saturday and a MTB ride on the Sunday. Hopefully it stays sunny
I’ll be repairing my bike after long winter. I really looking forward to my first ride this year.
Friday evening I’ll be Zwifting and plan to take part in a race for the first time. Then on Sunday I’ll be out for a Sunday social ride for the first Spring ride. Roll on Spring!
Hi
On Sunday Me and some friends will do a Zwift session while watching Vasaloppet on TV.
We start 8AM and will pedel untill first man and women reach the goal in Mora.
planning to a 100k+ & 1000m+ elevation ride.. i’ll try to suffer as much as i can so that i can watch Strade Bianche in a good mood.
Joined a hill climbing training class for indoor workouts. Super intense!
I plan on riding past six flags on my bike. The bike is more fun.
A nice recovery ride after a long run in preparation for a marathon.
Long rides for the weekend with some focused attacking and sprinting efforts thrown in. Crit season is just around the corner.
On sunday I will be watching swedens longest endurance skiing race (90km) and at the same time do an endurance ride on Zwift until the winners of the skiing race finishes, usually this is about a 4 hour race.
The weather’s not great, I’ll be zwifting and runnning!
Just a short 30 mile ride to break off the dust.
On the couch recovering from the flu.
Club run, looks like it’ll be a wet one
this weekend, if it ever stops raining we will be running about 60 miles around the hills of Hertfordshire, to be honest it’s likely a flapjack in Wheathamstead will be the highlight of the trip
Having spent the week in Copenhagen with the family, bikeless, watching an entire city zoom by – I’ll be out on Sunday morning with my local club giving the fastest group a try for the first time. The week away has certainly improved my ambition if not my form!
It will depend on the Dutch weather gods.
If it’s dry on sunday I’ll most likely go for a 80k ride, otherwise it will be an hour long trainersession.
Planning a Friday night happy hour zwift session where drinking and biking is encouraged. Lets hope I don’t fall off the trainer again.
hope to be able to go out for my first ride of the year this weekend. weather has been s#@t in england so far
Fever and sick, so first day in months with no training :\
Planning to fix a flat and hopefully get out for a ride on Saturday. Sunday is a long run, so no cycling then (despite your insistence that spinning for a while afterward is great).
I hope for nice weather so I can do a nice 60k lap
It’s raining again… So I will stay another weekend on Watopia!
Hill interval sessions on Zwift
Since it’s early March, I would usually be headed up to Vermont for some skiing. However, my parents are sick and need some help around the house. I’m going to head down to where they live, on Martha’s Vineyard. I’ll bring my mountain bike, and do some mid winter biking. It will be cold, so the ground will probably be frozen. On Saturday, I’ll do an easy ride by myself. On Sunday, I’ll probably ride with the local off road biking group. Other than biking and helping Mom and Dad, I’m going to fly a practice kite, on the road to learning how to kite surf.
My bike’s in another country this weekend so I’ll be suffering through a few Sufferfest videos on the stationary bike in the hotel gym this weekend.
Planning on getting in a few night rides,
Biking 100 miles on Saturday followed by 60 on Sunday.
I’ll be out enjoying the South African sunshine (or rather rain this weekend!) on a long ride, 5 weeks out from my first full IRONMAN!
I’ll climb the “col de la Madone” (from Menton) in the south of France. I know I’m lucky!.. ;-)
Still wet, dark & windy – zwifting indoors this weekend!
I am going to spend whole Saturday and Sunday riding my bicycle in Tatra mountains. !
I hope to get out on the fat bike this weekend with the temps around -15 C it will be an adventure….
Bad weather so cyclling on my indoor trainer.
65 mile group ride on Sat. if no rain, otherwise zwift.
I’m going to be doing some workouts on Zwift focusing on Sweet Spot Training.
Training indoors on Sunday with Joe and Endurance Company
Zwift. 1 hour minimum.
Looks like the 1st day of spring tomorrow back in Lithuania so planning a 100km chain-gang. I have missed riding above 0°C!
I’ll be biking for a cool down after my long run.
no riding this weekend. a half marathon race on foot though :-D Aiming for new PB under 1:30’…
I must pause this weekend. Have a muscle distortion from last weekend :(
I’m limited to about 20 minutes on the bike due to IT band issues, so if you have any suggestions for recovery I’m all ears! If only this were a medical blog also.
Going to neighboring Arkansas for some mountain biking at the fabulous Back 40 trails!
I probably won’t do any cycling but I’m planning to get my bike up and running after winter ;-) Some cleaning, oiling and adjusting…
Still more or less snowed in here, so I’ll be doing some frozen beach running instead!
Pain cave training all weekend
Unfortunately, none outside :( It is going to be very cold this weekend, so Saturday skiiing, Sunday long scheduled road race.
Getting back work after a good vacation, so its time to get back on my weekly zwift
Either riding 100 km on Saturday or 100 km over two days, with few intervals thrown along the way.
Have some fun trainer rides planned as it is still cold here…
Turbo structured workouts tonight, Z2 outside tomorrow!
Dusting off the old spinervals dvds to get back into shape for the spring.
A long sweet spot trainer session on Saturday and an easy spin on Sunday with the wife!
Travelling back to the cold north after a month in the warm south. So I’ve had my fill of outdoor cycling and will be back on the trainer….Yuck!
Ride with my dog running along until it is tired and then pick him up in my backpack.
I will be trying to pull out a 100k bike – 20k run brick workout in the beautiful plains and lakes of Bayern
100km ride in Zwift! If there is still something left, maybe I’ll go and try to achieve the 100miles ride… we’ll see how it goes…
I’ll be doing my hours in the saddle indoors – plus some random kilometers outside for groceries~