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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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You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.While I don't partner with many companies, there's a few that I love, and support the site. Full details!
Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
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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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
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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 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.
9k run in Spain along the water – when it did not rain!…
Did a 10K race on Saturday evening, and then a 16Km easy run on Sunday morning
First bike ride of spring! 42 miles on Saturday to the Wymonham windmill (we have them here in the UK too) for a tea.
Lovely weather for a change… appears the global warming hasn’t been going that well in the uk recently.
I did a recovery ride after my training camp in Mallorca
I took my dog for a run
Took my daughters to the rock climbing jim, and did some climbing. Then had a 5k run in the evening
Totally a recovery weekend – been in bed all weekend, being ill. But I had planned a 100 mile cycle event!
Monday started with a run in Central Berlin (8 km through the Tiergarten), kept going with brunch at Zurich Airport and concluded with 10km along the Cote in Monte Carlo. A great way to. Combine touristing and training while travelling for work.
Bike to run transition training for the upcoming sprint triathlon in Neckarsulm, Germany.
I am in the middle of Autumn training for a mid year Half Marathon ( Gold Coast Australia )
Aikido on Friday, bike training Saturday for my kid (so run for me, after him… ), swimming pool on Sunday (the recreational ones we have in Germany, so not much swimming) and bike again with the kid, but with a bike as well, so not much of an effort this time.
I took the Fat Bike out for a spin & came back covered in mud but grinning from ear to ear.
On Saturday I did a recovery day, just an long walk in the sun. On Sunday I did a long bike ride.
Did some ski tours with perfect weather.
Cycling from Amsterdam to the Keukenhof and back : flowers everywhere!
I thought my back pain would be a dead end, but I felt much better in the end, 10k soft running on soft grass :-)
Took marathon naps after some easy biking on the trainer
55 miles in prep for Tour de Yorkshire… ay up lad!
Spring ride with my road bike.
Fundraising for the American Cancer Society so that my friends and I can run the Hood to Coast race in August.
90 min Direto trainer ride. (TrainerRoad SS Base II)
Race directed two collegiate triathlons for our conference, a draft legal sprint, and an olympic distance conference championship!
Nice 3h group ride with two clims (Castelmonte) in Italy
A 2.5 hour ride with tempos followed by a brick run of 1:05 hours, 90 degrees with 85% humidity!!! All fun and sweaty!!!
Red and blue runs at cannock chase mtb park in UK in the sunshine.
I was doing a paragliding safety training, where you train to deal with situations that you hope you will never face…
Ski touring in northern Norway. Fab group, and fab weather!
120 km group ride in National Park. Nice!
Changed the battery in my Suunto Core and thinking if i need to upgrade…but to what?
Building a house, the end is near, will have time for sports soon
Went on a trekking with friends. Practicing my orienteering skills after a long time. :)
Did a fast ride with some colleagues on the dike!
A small ride from the Netherlands to Belgium and back
Did a 2:30 long run with 8 miles at M pace
I did some gardening this weekend.
Just an easy family 10 km bike ride with my 7-year-old :-)
The most athletic thing I did was get my car to parkrun after the clutch went on the way there, being run director with all the gear didn’t help!
Garmin edge 1030, come to papa, c’mon!
walked up the mountain with my two kids
Couple of recovery runs after Manchester marathon the previous weekend
Sa Calobra ride with the flu. Had better ideas.
Getting back on the wagon. Track workout on Saturday and 1.5 hours on Zwift.
Went saturday for a 44K mtb tour and sunday for a 70k mtb tour in the wonderfull vincinity of Rillaar (B) :)
On call for work so did a couple hours on Zwift Saturday and Sunday. Thinking about a 360 camera…
I did a nice 14k run around the local lakes.
Went for a long run and did some Zwift
Had the first 22 km ride with my new bike, hopefully the first of a looooooong serie
Maurizio
I ran 15 miles on Sunday, in training for my first marathon in 6 weeks.
1.5 hours of hiking in the woods
On Saturday I had a recovery swim and on Sunday I drove for about an hour to Bardolino (lake Garda, northern Italy) to have a brick workout with some hills 2x (bike+run).
So much fun!
BTW, I look forward to race the olympic triathlon in Bardolino, it’s a wonderful location
Did an early-Sunday morning 100k ride; Fell off the bike, had a flat tire and was body-checked by a headphone wearing hung-over dude doing a sudden left turn on his bike. Spent the rest of the day on the couch drinking beer and watching the AGR.
Had a very nice gravel ride on saturday and a bad race on sunday. Maybe next time I will switch the order.
I had a recovery ‘injured hand so can’t ride so I’ll run’ session that ended up with my pulling a hamstring! ?
Well, I went to a wedding and danced crazily enough that my quads are still sore a couple days later..
This weekend we had a time trial competion by our tri local club.
All out for each discipline :)
…only short recovery walk after two week illness :/ – soon results will be better ;)
Hiked around a nature sanctuary with the kids (Girl 6yo & Boy 4yo); lots of kms and many hours spotting rare and endangered species.
Did a 10km with my wife, 1 minute run, two minutes walk, as part of her plan to get to 21km
Did 3 MTB downhill descents with my friends, a very good weekend!!
Turbo trainer, it’s raining outside.
Trail running in Kalamunda National Park, Perth, Western Australia. :-)
A bit of father and son time, washed the mountain bikes and went for a ride.
A 40km loop of Surrey Hills off-road. 1st long offroad with PowerTap.
Finished the first block of trainerroad build this weekend
a few to a fro the garden by bicycle on saturday and on sunday a 50k recovery ride…
Uhm… not really an adventure, but dodging ducks (it’s spring!) did spice up my morning run this weekend.
66 mile ride out with my local bike club, joined the faster paced group and not only managed to keep up but scored lots of PBs and an FTP increase too.
I’ve got to get into shape for the Classico Boretti in May! Running & indoorsports have messed up my cycling condition :). Aiming for a nice 80km bikeride this Sunday.
14 month old granddaughter here for the day, she is not walking yet so my knees and shoulders got a workout chasing her at her level.
Did a 15k sightseeing run through stockholms djurgården. Great way of getting to know the city.
Spring came to Stockholm this weekend
Planned a long brisk walk but ended up just spending 3 hours in the sun, the first possible spot by the lake….
acting as rolling aid station for my wife doing 32km trail run… that counts as ‘training’ right
had a long run on Saturday, followed by a bike trial on Sunday
I rode my bike in the local mountains.
I did a 4 hour bike ride.
SUP outing at very leisurely pace :-)
Rode an easy 80 km before working on fitting new Omega X brakes onto my tri bike.
Snow shoeing in the north Cascades during a late season snow fall… and its still snowing so maybe another this weekend.
Run Vivicita in Budapest
New PB for me : 1:26:06 :)
Should be the rock and roll Madrid marathon but not this year :(
Great gravel ride on Saturday, enjoying the first real days of Spring in Switzerland!
I did my first half marathon in less then 2h (1h58m). This may sound quite boring for the pros, but I am super happy.
My athletic adventure for this week end: make the baby sleep in her bed :D
3 morning runs to visit a capital!
Run 10km easy + 2km barefoot on golf course:)
Finally a 15km Spring run on trails with no ice and snow!
22km run and first long outside cycle of the year!
Pushed a trolley in grocery strore for my grandma for two hours.
I ran pretty hard to the fridge to get some icecream
Did crossfit training on Saturday and hiking on Sunday. :)
After a sleepin, I paid the price of midday heat while ticking of this weeks long run while looping around a local park. It appeared as though many others had made a similar misstep!
50km on the roadbike ob saturday an a family ride on sunday
Went for a 40km urban road cycle with a friend and finished with a cup of coffee
Attended triathlete friend wedding :)
I moved up one lane at masters!
Rode 84mi with 5400ft climbed to cap off a 230mi week and warm up for some bigger rides during Sea Otter. I would probably buy an Edge 1030 with the giveaway voucher since my 520’s battery only lasts about 8 hours after 3 years.
Running Half Marathon in Budapest
Surprisingly high wattage ride on Friday afternoon before something a bit tamer on Sunday.
I thought it would be wise idea to take part of a 78km long kayaking from Türi to Tori without any specific preparations. 9.45h of extreme pain fun.
Did a spring ride of about 80 K. 3 punctures..!