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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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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!
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In Depth Product Reviews
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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 2023 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.
Hey Ray,
Not sure where to put this one so here it is – have you ever done (can you do) a post on how you manage uploads from multiple Garmin devices? And, whether there is a “better” file to keep or not?
I have a 945 and an Edge 830 (had a 935 and an 800 before that) and when I’m riding I run both as backup just in case one crashes. However, that means I usually get both activities uploading to Garmin Connect, Strava and Training Peaks. I can delete the duplicates manually but that’s annoying and I’m also never sure whether to delete the 945 file or the 830 file (does either have more data etc.).
Cheers for all you do!
The Edge should give you more data. In my case (945 vs 530) I got MTB metrics, some advanced powermeter data, nutrition data (if you care about) extra only in the edge fit file. Also the temperature coming from the Edge should be better if you don’t use a Tempe.
If this data moves on to third parties like TP is a whole different story.
Also the watch can only add and store data from 2 iq datafields while on the edge you can use 10, I think, which also gives you (theoretically) more data
Yeah, for me I just tend to keep all the duplicates on Garmin Connect, but then weed out the duplicates on Strava, and ideally also on TrainingPeaks when I remember.
Unfortunately, it’s all manual. Like MDus24 said, in theory you’d want to keep the Edge data assuming all else equal.
I didn’t think Strava allowed for multiple uploads of the same activity. Meaning I thought it would fail if there is already an activity up there. Maybe it’s just the manual process that has this limit as I never have files automatically uploaded to Strava. And I’m with Ray for GC, just keep all the files there.
I use Garmin Connect as the “Truth” for my training logs (allows for editing of distance for occasional times when I forget to start the watch after a break on a known route), which I think is not available on Strava without creating new manual activities.
By deleting duplicates, I can easily track total mileage by sport for any time period and for specific gear tagged to the activities (I.e. uploading two identical runs would attribute twice as much mileage to the default running shoes and I’d be replacing them twice as fast…). And if you use MyFitnessPal calorie integrations, your activity/sport calories aren’t doubled, and I think may also affect the TrueUp and training load metrics.
To avoid duplicates, I usually upload from one device after pausing both at the end of an activity, and then discard the backup device without saving after I can see that the primary device uploaded successfully. (When comparing new devices, I will sometimes upload both to make sure they capture data similarly and then delete the duplicate…)
Nice to see Garmin include some useful notes on their firmware updates. I have some friends that have been wondered if they should use BLE or ANT+ connections and Garmin gives concrete and simple guidance on this. Kudos from me.
Agree, I thought it was the most useful descriptor I’ve seen in a long time in their release notes. I mean, usually they’re pretty good about listing the core changes, but this was a super concise description.
And also one I absolutely agree with. I always recommend using the ANT+ side of things over BLE, unless there’s some specific issue someone has. But that’s especially true for power meters because folks just won’t get all the (extra) data their power meter is sending over BLE.
Still waiting for the 1030 firmware update to add the 530/830 features. ?
Yeah, no idea on when/what that date looks like.
Yeah me too…
Also Wahoo has some new updates
link to support.wahoofitness.com
Apparently, a recent Garmin Connect for Android update broke the very useful gexporter/gimporter connection. The biggest news for me this week.
FULGAZ does not matter until they push out to Windows. Great program but I only have troubles with BT. I have a year subscription but I have not been able to connect all my sensors….When they get ANT+ on Windows I am in for the long-term…
Right now I only keep the subscription only for my wife on the ATV4.
Ray–
Clever Training advertised the Humon muscle oxygen sensor. Interesting sounding tech. Planning a review?