Heads up! The big Garmin spring sale has started, with $200 off the Fenix 8, $100 off the Edge 1050, Forerunner 965, Forerunner 265, and countless other Garmin products. 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.
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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!
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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.
Biked 1 hour on trainer
Biked outside for 2 hours
1hr tempo workout
Pre-empted the lockdown the other week. So, cleared out the garage allowing me to move the trainer from my office. I used only to use it once or twice a week, but now more like 5+ and things would have gotten smelly indoors.
Managed a fast and short order ride on Wednesday, solo ride keeping my distance, so Thursday was an easy one on the Greater London Flat.
According to Garmin, since social isolation started, I have never been fitter
TrainerRoad – Goddard. Like everyone, no idea how long anything will take, so moving away from anything too structured and back to some basics.
60min jog at a 5:25min/km pace in Singapore’s midday heat in the East Coast Park. The heat itself ensures that I keep the right distance to other people who spend this time of day at home or at least in the shade.
I did an Insanity workout in my living room while wearing a neoprene suit. The 58 minute workout included a 3 minute jog in place warm up & a 3 minute deep breathing cool down. Overall I burnt over 800 calories according to my Polar Vantage V. So-called distancing at its finest. :-)
I did a half an hour trail run this morning. Hardly seen anyone else there. Freezing cold.
Pick me please. I’ve been a loyal reader for as long as I can remember and I am dying for an indoor trainer
7 mile hiking with steep climbs before breakfast and my horrible Homeoffice isolation!
I’m now home educating my 5 year old daughter after her school closed last Friday. Determined to make sure she moves we are doing PE with Joe (Wicks) each morning from the comfort of the living room, and then more exercise after lunch. Yesterday she did 10 minutes on a cross trainer, and today we’re going ‘fast walking’ (her choice) in the local wood.
It’s currently 5am, and I’m now off to do 1 hr on the turbo in the garage ?
Jumping rope in my garage and push ups :D
Wahoo training ride
Indoor trainer: BigRingVR – Colorado River
Did a 1 hour indoor cycling workout last night.
I went running Very early in the Woods.
Due to work moved from my hometown (1’200’000 people) to small town (around 4000). And there is no one walking at 6am, so I’m yesterday I ran without seeing a person on a street.
Hi, only 30 min in the loft trying to add powerpod to very old-schol non-ant+ non-pow.meter but quite comfortable exercise bike. With success :)!
Stairs at home, up and down. That’s why I need a watch with a barometric altimeter :)
Some dort of smartwatch
Did 1 hour yoga indoors
I’ve been doing jump rope training at home. The spinning rope really helps with distancing.
train with gcn hiit
I ran today at lunch, hopefully a bike ride to the office tomorrow
I did an indoor ride in the garage!
Just a simple 55km bike loop that I have done many times already.
I’ll be honest I haven’t managed a proper workout recently my kickr is broken and I live alone motivation is put the window. So my last social correct work out was a mtb ride with a mate up a local mountain the day before lockdown
My last workout was the final stage of tour de zwift
I did my last Zwift run at a social distance from the gym by doning it outdoors on a very lonely run.
A nice 45km ride outdoors through the fields. :)
Bike trainer x 30 minutes
I just rolled around in Zwift at 50 watts, while beeing sports director for my team during KALAS Cup. Easy peasy…..for me.
Build me up Exemplar on Zwift… This is a great workout while watching Arrow! I’m training my body to go underground.
I did an hour and a half MTB ride around my local hills.
A solo gravel ride through the forest.
Hi great idea
I did a 2 k run with my 7 year old daughter on her bike and me running
love this special family time
Easy 5k morning run.
I went for a sub 1 hour jog while staying at less than 1km from home as required here.
Then I did a zwift session where I compared the power data between my tacx Neo2 and Verve Infocrank PM Result : the tacx underreads by 5 to 10%. Pretty surprising since I trust my Infocrank. Next time I’ll add the assiomas in the test, and probably my good old power2max later.
it was a slow run in the sun without seeing just one other person. Nice but a little spooky.
Strength training in my messy basement. Is it ok that he family cat was with me?
7 minute workout with the kids :)
1h run with Vo2max Intervalls
Gravel ride solo, turkeys everywhere and California Poppies!
Return to Zwift (I’m always outside). I believe they new that and started me on a one hour, 8-10 degree incline ;-)
Not my last workout, but today is 10 x 1-mile progressive with each mile faster than the previous one. I will do this on a treadmill in a room that is 82 degrees F with no fan. It’s going to hurt. The room setup is not by choice.
Went for a nice four-mile run this morning, at the proper social distance of course!
First light interval since my injury!
My last workout was a kettlebell workout. Could defenetly feel that I’ve been skipping strength-training for a while!
Indoor Trainer ride while watching the Movie Tremors.
Social Distancing in the Year 1990!
Morning trail run with myself ;)
Easy run with my dog around empty grounds of the national stadium in Warsaw,PL.
3-2-1k threshold run on a empty gravel road nearby my house.
TrainerRoad Bluebell
I drove some 85 km (50+ miles) there and back to another town last Monday evening to do my last swim just a couple of hours before the local authorities closed all gyms/pools there aswell. It was at my friend’s gym and by the time I got there, I was the only person swimming there.
We are now allowed only to go as far as 100 meteres from home. So I did 4 runs of 20 minutes each circling around the house every few hours yesterday
Been inside and done another Zwift route in order to complete all routes and catch all badges while staying at home!
A sweet 10k run in the local forest. Saw three dogs and two humans (2m apart).
Did my first zwift crit. Doesn’t get much more socially distant!
Trainerroad indoor sweetspot workout.
Tx
I did Mary Austin on TrainerRoad – stepping up to and over threshold over 10 minutes and it nearly did me in. I was glad of the social isolation of my basement because no-one needs to see me in that state!
I went to an empty park to run some uphill steps.
Very happy that I completed a 10 min ride, as part of my recovery from broken knee strap.
Happyly I have a direct drive trainer. Im in the middle of a Sufferfest training plan… just finished the Elements of Style workout!
Hopefully we will hit the road soon! With a brand new power meter from this giveaway!! Yeahhh!
30min run followed by strength training, at home … gyms were closed a week ago.
8x 5min hills power interval
The final stage of Tour of Watopia on Zwift. In the bedroom.
I ran for an hour on the National Mall in DC. It was a beautiful day today!
Becouse of action stayathome I buy treadmil and I can not buy annything else becouse my wife will kill me minimum twice? for minimum one year and I’m Like you have positive addiction to sports gadgets.How to live without new updateds for next year od there will be I Hope new Garmin Fenix 7 coming ? Maybe they will changes payment system for new ? then I can buy something.
A solitary 15k run in wonderful weather (No lockdown here in Sweden).
Spin on the trainer
Early bird run outside the city.
A 7Km / 7km Intervall Run outside Through fields and woods keeping my distance.
Turbo
I did a bike ride yesterday.
3hr solo ride on Wednesday afternoon. Because as long as I’m alone… ?
I had a LSD session on my bike on the trainer at home on Zwift. Both physical social distancing and well as virtudal social distancing (zwift indicationg of distance to rider in front proves very useful in this asoect! ??)
I went for a road bike trip with my brother. Nearly three hours of joy and cool spring wearher!
Went for an early run and just either picked up the pace of slowed down whenever I came across someone else #novelinterval
I did a short gravel ride around the nearby forest with hill with a 7.5% incline over roots and stones. I loved it but it’s tough. While keeping proper distance from everyone, of course.
Indoor spinningbike training. Watching John Wick killing all the baddies
A 47km ride through the dutch countryside..ehile the roads were not 100% clear of people I made it my priority yo ride as fast as possible to minimize my time in close procimity to others
What I just bought a smart trainer! Guess I’ll have to hold out for some power meter pedals!!!
Tour of watopia stage 5 on zwift. Long course ?
8 kms on the treadmill.
21 mile ride yesterday. Lots of space for snot rockets
Home crosstrainer
An early morning run through the woods.
In a reversal of normal roles my son (age nearly 11) led me around his 5km run route that has become his usual since he’s had to stop swim training 4 times a week.
Bridge repeats (running up a down a bridge) with the baby jogger.
The only indoor training for me at this time is a Waterrower.
So I definitely need a smart trainer for my bike to do some Zwift’ing :)
A run around the local park
A short ride around the peninsula in some (finally) warmer weather
1,5 hour on my bkool
I just started on week 1 of Zwift’s Build Me Up plan.
The Sufferfest Full Frontal test
Participated in tour of watopia! Hard to pace myself and not push it
I try to stay as active from home as possible so I start the day with some planking, push-ups and stretching in the bedroom, during the day find a bit of time to play some soccer, jumping on the trampoline and running around, all in our not-so-big but nice backyard and finish the day on Zwift riding up some hills or doing FTP workouts.
Zwifting
A Zwift ride on my trainer bike in the garage.
A quick 30 km solo ride through countryside, no contacts with anyone.