Heads up – Massive Sports Tech Holiday Deals List is Live!!! The Garmin Fenix 8 is $250 off (even the Fenix 8 Pro is $100 off!), the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on sale, the Garmin inReach Mini 2 is $249, the GoPro Hero 13 Black, DJI NEO, and a ton of other brands/deals, including Wahoo, Oura, Whoop, Polar, Samsung, Google, and more than 100 sports tech deals 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.
Went for a nice MTB ride in my local area.
Went for a short MTB Ride on Saturday using my Forerunner 645 M. As usual on Sunday I played football(soccer) for my local team. Used my Polar OH1 for it. :-)
I ran my first half marathon this weekend.
Only a leisure bike ride….
Did a relaxed run with my arm in a cast, so have to keep it calm :-)
Ran the first 10 miles of the Boston course Friday, stood out in the downpour cheering Monday
I did a 120 minute workout on Zwift on Saturday (including 2×30 min@240 W) and ran 12 km on Sunday.
Looking forward to this week as it looks like the bike will come off of the trainer and finally hit the trails outside…whew…long winter!
I did swim and run after a whole week of cycling.
I swam for the first time in two years since a bad car crash, 500m of pain.
Enjoyed the sun in a looong recovery ride, best ever.
13k race around Lednice chateau
Half Marathon distance run through the city, prep for Marathon.
Did a 21 mile run as part of my marathon training – plenty of time to think about what gadget is next!
I won the Dover Duathlon!
Rode mountain bikes with my best friend and his boss on the home trails.
Went for a spindle with the wife and son at the new bike park. Great times!
Did my last long run (25K) before the Dusseldorf Marathon (in two weeks) and got a lot of confidence out of that.
Went real smooth, and also I was able to get used to slightly wamer temperature.
Improved my time on Col de la Madone by nearly 13 minutes
I got my running shoes ready for the new season and kicked it off with a 10k run.
Did a 22k run with my Tri-club, 2k swimming, skipped the planned 50k biking because of laziness, but added in a lot of gardening.
Saturday Swim squad, park run, long ride.
Sunday long indoor bike run watching IM SA
Last weekend was 12km uphill running…nice and simple!
50 mile bike plus swim/run the day before
The Weekends Ride was my local (Dorset Purbecks) bike shop’s point 2 point. 30 pictures needed to be taken of local landmarks in any given order, 2/3 on the road (mainly lower points, but the harder to reach ones had higher points) and 1/3 off road. A mix of roadie/gravel and mtb riders took part. We road in a team on three cross bikes and one hard tail. 5 hours to complete and the rain started about an hour in.
Absolutely loved it. got to about 60 miles in that time and free espressos and a bite at the end!
i managed a long run of 4km pain free
progress :)
Cracking ride in the Peak District, England this weekend. 100 miles and nearly 11,000 feet climbed. Plus Summer’s on the way! :-)
Did some hiking this last weekend. It was very nice.
After reading your blog and reviews for a couple of weeks I finally bought my first race road bike. Done my first ride this weekend & loved it. Now I could use a good bike GPS so I won’t ge lost on my upcoming adventures.
Long endurance Session in my roadbike, spring is wonderful!
I signed up to do a marathon that I hadn’t really been planning on, so I have just started training again. First, I’m concentrating on getting some speed back over shorter distances – fast miles in 5 mile runs etc.
It really was a recovery weekend, so walked a lot and jogged some.
Thanks, Ray!
10/13 K run… spring is coming and the temperature is raising
Finally did 2 long swims last weekend :)
Still dealing with winter in Montreal I went to the gym to work on running form and overspeed intervals on the treadmill while looking at an ice storm outside.
Nice group ride, 92k
Ran 10k on a 1k loop. Too fast. 2 days off
Cold and windy tempo ride.
Biking, cleaning, tennis, and definitely more biking!
I was running around after my toddler this weekend…
Went for a 40km bike ride and gave the bike a good service
Plan was a 200km brevet ride on Saturday followed by a +- 100km ride on Sunday morning, but as I did not feel right on Friday, I canceled plans and intended to do ‘just’ some rides. Finally it turned out to a rest weekend, with an increased amount of sleep, I must have had a slight flu/cold/whatever sickness. Better now, did a 110km ride on Monday :)
I did a chill 5k on Saturday, but probably walked twice that at DC’s Sakura Matsuri.
Ran a half marathon in my local park, 18 loops around!
After a summer of riding Inside due to a bike vs car incident. I went out for my first MTB ride. Turned out to be Pourinv rain and gale force winds. Made it through the one hour ride, then finished it off with a parkrun.
Early morning bike ride followed by 6 mile run. Looking ahead toward warmer weather and upcoming duathlons.
Sat at 200W for 60 mins on Zwift. Using a Wattbike Pro but wishing it was a Wattbike Atom
Ran 4x2k with 3′ rest preparing for Helsinki City Marathon.
For me it was working weekend and I believe that digging whole garden can count as athletic adventure. Too bad that there are no power meters for the spades.
Did some bag work, jump rope and running. Yard maintenance counts too, right??
Running the Madrid half marathon. Fingers crossed for a PR.
I did a nice group ride saturday, and helped at our club’s swim-run sunday.
Two+ hours of trail running. Ouch.
Tapered for backwards London Marathon. parkrun cancelled due to river flooding course :(
10km run on the first day of the weekend, followed by an 8km bike (each way) ride to the beach and a short swim on the second. Got to love the spring!
Ran a halfmarathon
Rode Tour of Watopia Stage 5 – 50km, 901m elevation. Also slow flat recovery ride on Zwift.
Ran 30 km with my girlfriend at the Lidingö loppet track in Stockholm, Sweden that has a 30 km race in august. My girlfriends previous pb was 13 km and I’m so proud!
Better weather meant a blast on my Canyon Aeroroad, forgotten how fast it was!
I went out on Sunday for the first atempt on the couse of a Hillclib-Race witch takes place nearby my hometown for the 12th time this jear in July.
As every jear we decidet to try about 2 Weeks too soon and ended up in 80cm of snow near the summit.
You can´t go back, right? it will be on Strava, we had to finish the track.
You can see some Pics on Strava (link to strava.com)
and a short Video on Instagram @andr_sta
Final day of skiing for the season. A little sad actually, but time to get the bike out now and start hitting the roads!
This weekend marked the 1st Triathlon of the season. I still hate running..
Rediscover again the fun of trail run with his climbs and quickly downhills
Riding – trying to get over shoulder injury. Maybe jump on the trainer.
Hours of Zwift in the basement hiding from the kids. Spring is not working out very well so far.
Steamrolled a few PRs on a 115k ride to recover from a night out dancing
Enjoyed a run in the strange and beautiful Melbourne weather. I.e. pooring rain and wind turning into lovely sunny running weather over ten minutes time!
Hard 1500yd swim session.
Did the Rotterdam Marathon a week ago so I did a recovery weekend! So I hiked a bit in the beautiful Dutch woods.
A long ride with my new cyclocross bike, in perfect conditions – almost summer!
Completed a 3-hour brick. Indoor cycled but ran in the weather like what was in Boston yesterday.
2nd outdoor road ride (30 miles) with a nice chicken pot pie lunch stop…second thought the chicken pot pie wasn’t the best option.
Weather was crappy, so I did my 100k ride on Zwift
Missed the regular ride so did a session on Zwift instead
Beautiful long run on a (finally!) warm day in Western PA.
Total knee replacement soon. Every ride is an athletic achievement until then.
A run and a walk were completed over the weekend. Plus an indoor bouldering session. Run in a new location, pretty flat but beautiful.
Some hiking to and from the sugar shack, that counts right?
Night orienteering along with adventure games.
Does thinking about an upcoming race count :-)
So wet and windy in Melbourne, we chucked the run and did a Les Mills Sprint class; followed by 150 squats with a 30kg bar. Not the smartest thing in the world after crippling your quads on a bike…
I didn’t run at all this weekend, which is very rare for me. But I think I’m allowed a weekend off, as I ran 2:45 at the Manchester Marathon the week before!
Performed a 3 hours TT ride and reached 106km
I walked the dog, injured my ankle last week. Hoping for a fast recovery so I can race 100 mile MTB this weekend
A nice ride outside and a terrible ride on zwift
Recovery ride with my son in City Beach and Cottesloe
Did a short 1 hour ride just after breakfast and before going to the park to relax :)
A hard trail run followed by a recovery swim in the very cold sea
Pushed a wheelchair for Ainsley’s Angels in a 5K and took 1st in my age group anyhow.
I planned on doing a long ride, but ended up just riding around the neighborhood with my wife.
I want to head out from couch for next 10K preparation. As I will be pacing for the first time
A looong trainer ride and nice easy run.
Biking and trail running.
Last hard workouts before Xterra Myrtle Beach. 1st time doing an off road Tri.
12k run on Sat and 1h30min on my Turbo Trainer on Sunday. Just ticking over at the moment with first Tri not until the end of July. Still, I’ve upped my VO2 max by over 10% over winter by regular Sufferfestering.
pushing the bob for some hilly runs!
Building on the training post car accident last November. Getting ready to go out on the road for the first time.
A long run for my Marathon training
A 60 minute tempo run in Saturday followed by a 2 hour endurance ride on Sunday. Unfortunately both inside since we’re having a beautiful spring in the Midwest this year.
I finally dusted off the MTB and rode on some fun single track with my son.