New US Partnership + $500 Gadget Giveaway: Backcountry.com & Competitive Cyclist!

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I’m excited to announce a new partnership for US readers, with Backcountry.com & CompetitiveCyclist.com! This new partnership helps support the site here, while also getting you a discount on applicable items as well using the DCR Coupon Code. And, atop that, they’re sponsoring giveaways like this very one right here. Win-win!

Both Backcountry.com & CompetitiveCyclist.com are owned by the same entity, and thus you’ll largely see most of the sports tech items I tend to review on both platforms. Eagle-eyed readers have noticed a slow transition of links over to Backcountry.com & CompetitiveCyclist.com over the last few weeks – and I’ve already seen a number of you taking advantage of that. Using the links here on the site (always on the sidebar), or in the review posts directly, helps support what I do here. It’s much appreciated!

Atop that, I’ve been working with the folks at both companies to increase inventory and stocking in the sports tech product areas you care about most, something you’ll probably start to see the benefits of over the next little while (and in some cases, already).

For those readers that have been around the site a long time, you’ll know previously my main partner in the US was Clever Training, for some 8 years in fact! And they’ve been a great partner over that timeframe not just for the site, but for thousands of you as well. Links to Clever Training will continue to support the site through the end of October, but not beyond that. Your existing Clever Training VIP memberships will remain valid beyond that, as do any points you’ve accrued.

Now to get this party kicked off, I’m doing a $500 gadget giveaway. It’s been a while! The winner gets a $500 gift certificate to Backcountry or Competitive Cyclist for the gear of their choice. It could be a watch, a bike computer, or heck, even just a whole lot of gels. Or a hoodie. Whatever floats your boat. Now, while the Backcountry/Competitive Cyclist site is mostly blocked in Europe and some other places, fear not – you’re still good! You can continue using Wiggle or Amazon to support this site (they are always on the sidebar). And, if you are a non-American winner, you’ll still get up to a $500 gadget of your choice that’s from their inventory. See, I have you covered!

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Use Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first-time users saving 15% on applicable products. And both Backcountry & Competitive Cyclist offer free 2-day shipping!

How to enter the giveaway:

Simply leave a short description below in the comments with what your weekend workout plans are. Even if that ‘workout’ includes spending time with Netflix. Recovery is important!

Note that simply putting the word ‘Run’ in the box is likely to get caught up in my SPAM filters.  And nobody wants to be sandwiched between two pieces of SPAM.  So, adding a few extra explanatory words helps! Got all that?

Good luck!

The giveaway entry period will run through Monday, October 19th, 2020 until 11:59PM US Eastern Time. Winner will be selected randomly. One entry per person.  The selected product will then be ordered immediately and shipped immediately, assuming it’s in stock. If the winner is outside the US, I’ll work with you directly to get you all sorted out. Note that your information above stays entirely within the dcrainmaker.com site and is not given to any entities, except the winner of course, as to be able to place their order.

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4,807 Comments

  1. Brian Miller

    I plan a Zwift trainer ride on both Saturday and Sunday as the weather forecast is wet!

  2. Chris Kennedy

    Riding, running and then some more riding. Thanks Ray!

  3. James Briggs

    Help a friend move furnature.

  4. Chris Hastings

    Going for a bike ride

  5. Phoon Kin Kei

    Cycling and running in Singapore with my friends.

  6. Kwek

    Plans for the weekend include a bike ride at the park near the beach and probably a swim to relax! Have a good day!

  7. Jonathan

    Hoping to get an easy 20 mile ride in on a trail near my house!

  8. Carlos A Pacheco

    Put in another 60 mi on the bike

  9. Trevor

    A trip up alps de zwift and mt ventoux to get the burn going.

  10. Goh

    oops, little late over the weekend. Maybe a Tuesday evening run.

  11. Kevin Lincoln

    I will be doing the Dam Loop in Austin Texas on Saturday morning. That will be 55 miles and 3800 ft of climb. It is finally cooling off here. So maybe it will be low 70’s at 8am. Then plan on watching some college football afterward. Cheers!

  12. Deborah Goh

    5km this afternoon!

  13. Deborah Goh

    ran 3km on Sunday evening

  14. Carter Hanson

    Just passed 4000 miles on the bike for the year, my goal, now let’s see if i can get some extra long weekend rides to hit 5k miles.

  15. Elizabeth Lulich

    This coming weekend: Friday is Friday Nite Date Night at the pool. Saturday – Steady State Intervals and running with my run group. Sunday is a 2 hour recovery ride and yoga. Monday is rest and recovery!

  16. Nick Bateup

    Attaching my new kiddie seat to the bike and knocking out a coastal ride with the 2 year old

  17. Helen Burton

    Intervals on the trainer (Zwift) while watching the Giro!

  18. Deborah Goh

    I wil tryyy to run 5km this evening. Squeak!

  19. Rob Boler

    Netflix

  20. Gary Gelfand

    Two hour indoor ride Saturday (its snowing here).
    Was to be light spin Sunday or run but up in the middle of the night at work. Ah well

  21. Joe G

    Ride in the Hincapie Gran Fondo Greenville

  22. Jim

    I’ll be cycling ?‍♀️ around the Raleigh Greenway here in North Carolina!

  23. Jorge Garcia

    Saturdate ride to a breakfast place with my wife then movie indoor workout (trainer road sweet spot) on sunday!

  24. ted white

    My weekend workout is golf, biking, and post-wedding (my nephew’s) elbow bending…….pretty much in that order.

  25. Paul Brown

    I plan to take a two day ride from Tokyo to Suwa City in Nagano.

  26. Eric

    5:30 hour bike to get me ready for IM Florida 😉

  27. Ben Tsui

    There’s snow on the ground now in Calgary, Canada so if I’m not on the fat bike, then I’ll be Zwifting indoors… Thanks Ray!

  28. Savio Alvares

    Gonna do a long run on the weekend. Around 22 km. It will include 1 serious incline and decline. I’m so looking forward to it.,

  29. Laci

    Getting back to somewhat longer runs, 9.5mi this time.

  30. Andrew

    Packing boxes to move

  31. Ricardo

    Workout with my team, probably a quick brick on Saturday and easy ride on Sunday!

  32. Ninad W

    Cycling if i manage to wake up in time!

  33. Michael Hoppes

    90 minute ride on Zwift. It’s already too cold for me to ride outside here in Colorado, USA.

  34. Jim Lane

    Just moved into a new house and my weekend activity will be building new closet shelving modules. Then maybe I can unbox the bike and go fir a ride before the snow gets here!

  35. Steve Switzky

    I will be riding on my Tacx Neo 2T using Xert, which I really like.

  36. Tom Kannemann

    Getting on my Wahoo trainer and Zwifting!

  37. S

    Commuting to/from work by bike on Saturday. Sleeping on Sunday.

  38. Jason

    Virtual marathon time!

  39. kc rodenburg

    211 strade bianchi veluwe edition and spennning time with the childern and boss

  40. Brian L

    I’m hoping the weather will be good enough for outside riding, but will probably ride the wife’s Peloton if not.

  41. Ryan Forbess

    Virtual triathlon.

  42. Cesar Vence

    60 miler on Saturday

  43. zmlick

    Good luck with the new partneships

  44. Brett

    Weekend is over… did a boot camp on Saturday and a 5k run in an impromptu Tri with the GF

  45. Paul

    Ooops, almost missed it! Late entry but still an entry!
    My weekend workout is gonna be an easy run an a hike with my dog.

    Cheers DCR, thanks for doing that.

    P.

  46. Alan Mohr

    Finishing up my bike this week so I’ll be testing that out this weekend!

  47. Bret Walsh

    long training run saturday morning. Probably 20-30 mile range. Workings towards first ultra (50). Keep up the great work reviewing gear!

  48. D May

    Doing a double brick just because. Swim/Bike on Saturday and Bike/Run on Sunday.

  49. Aaron Tornow

    Did a home with the Boy Scouts then a Zwift Academy group ride. Fun times

  50. Michael Walsh

    Climbing the Catskills!

  51. BT

    MTB ride on the trails around Lake Tahoe.

  52. Katrina Jannen

    Yay! I love Backcountry. Hiking 🙂

  53. Shane

    Getting out for a fire road hike

  54. Rob Beuthling

    Moving things around the garage and house

  55. Stuart Ho

    My plans were to ride to Goodsprings, NV from Las Vegas, NV on Sunday. Try to hang onto as many wheels as needed and take a turn at a pull or two.

  56. Jason Workman

    Run, bike, play with kids while waiting for it to snow.

  57. 6ft8incyclist

    Weekend..Getting my old kickr back up running correctly.Hope fully getting and outside ride in..And get back on Zwift…

  58. Chris Mccombs

    I’ve taken on Zwifting with a vengeance. 2nd month in and am topping 900miles on the 30 day running total. (sorry, I need to brag here, my family is less then thrilled about he time spent. LOL) Whenever the family can’t find me, they put an ear to the floor to see if I’m biking in the basement.

  59. Michelle W Sherfy

    Go for a trail run!

  60. Daniel

    Trainer and netflix to start the transition from outdoor riding to the trainer as the wisconsin weather gets colder!

  61. TrackSmart

    Playing hooky from work on Friday for a fall hike followed by a fall foliage bike ride on Saturday or Sunday depending on which day has be better weather.

  62. David East

    A trip up Alpe du Zwift and a ten mile run.

  63. Mariah Ellis

    Weekend goals are to hit up the versaclimber and then some much needed yoga to stretch out my quarantine long lazy-body back into healthy movements.

  64. Andrew Flynn

    A quick run and some golf before it gets too cold to feel my hands.

  65. Jacob vincent

    Going biking and enjoying the fall colors.

  66. Allan

    Road ride with two buddies- probably 60ish miles, depending who has to be home at what time- and then some MTB with the kids.

  67. Dan Jones

    Outdoor bike ride with a friend

  68. Scott White

    recover run 5k

  69. Matt Briggs

    Celebrating my wife’s birthday camping, watching Ohio State football, and running.

  70. Eduardo Soares Filho

    Sleep as much as possible

  71. Les McElhaney

    Some Southern Californian weekend warrior cyclists and I have been competing in our self-created “Covid Century Series Challenge” that we launched in March to see who can ride at least 19 centuries during this “year of the Covid. So, this coming weekend I will be riding Covid Century #18.

  72. Chris W.

    Work out and see if I can actually configure my new Edge 1030!

  73. Brandon

    Congrats on the new partnership. Backcountry.com is great. Easy run for Saturday. Long run booked Sunday.

  74. Justin Nunez

    Trail run followed by a little weight session and THEN the Netflix recovery.

  75. Albert

    30-50 mile leisurely ride and put off cleaning my drivetrain for another week

  76. Judah dal Cais

    Bike Ride With Matt T on Saturday.

  77. Mark Saroni

    They say the best training is racing. I live in a part of the country where I’m fortunate to have a few races coming back. So I’ll be racing some cyclocross and doing my best not to get owned by the young and motivated.

  78. Melissa Strong

    Swimming in La Jolla Cove!

  79. Norma

    Whew! Just made the deadline, thanks to the newsletter! So glad to see it back!
    Anyway, run on Sunday, swim and bike on Monday, getting back into the Zwift groove.

  80. Allen Kuo

    “Long” ride Saturday morning, then sleep in Sunday!

  81. Scott Shannon

    Riding some late season gravel miles…

  82. Michael Woods

    I plan on doing my morning biking routine along a bike trail in our town and later a walk with family in the neighborhood.

  83. Andrew Speck

    This weekend will be a Saturday social group ride with some friends followed with some hiking in the mountains with my wife and daughter on Sunday as recovery (not so much recovery really!). Hoping for some good weather though as the current forecast could go either way!

  84. Prajakt

    2 hour bike ride on the trainer on Saturday and 90 min run on Sunday.

  85. TJ

    Running and spending time with my family.

  86. Vikram

    I’d like to get back to fitness regime from couch after 6 months break. Would need some motivation, the giveaway would feed in 🙂

  87. K Galius

    Bike ride on a rails to trails path and garden work.

  88. Diego de los Rios

    Depends on the weather, but hopeful that I’ll get at least one long bike ride this weekend.

  89. Omar A

    No plans yet. I’ll figure it out when I wake up!

  90. Courtney Bottoms

    Running with the Dad crew who push strollers!!!

  91. brian gonzales

    I have 3 days off this weekend, so riding is on the agenda. At night I’ll be watching Carol Burnett with wifey. She’s so funny. 🙂

  92. John Boyle

    Nice 25mi ride to keep the legs ticking over

  93. Bill

    I will most likely be icing my knee that I tweaked tonight Zwifting.

  94. Jack

    Ride bikes

  95. Chris Nelson

    Run down the boardwalk!

  96. Fabian Uribe

    Weekend! Saturday jumped on the trainer for an hour and Sunday outside ride for two and a half hours.

  97. JJ

    Going a for a quick ride with the colleagues before bringing the dog out for a walk

  98. Arthur Scott

    Plan to either do a 10 mile training run this weekend or a 50 mile bike ride!

  99. David Ramirez

    My weekend workout plan for the weekend which is a long weekend in NewZealand is to cycle the five Mungas or hills in the Auckland city and then going for a hike on Sunday.

  100. Louise Meldgard

    Hopefully our renovation project will be finished & the sun will shine & I can get back out on my bike. Otherwise it will be a ride on the wind trainer!

  101. Lee

    Staying home to recover from the crash last weekend, would be another week till i get on the bike again. Perfect time to do some maintenance

  102. Shailendra Madhukar Bhide

    Planning to get back to triathlon training from November onwards

  103. Andrew

    Cyclocross! We have to drive 3hours and fields are limited plus covid19 restrictions (masks and social distancing and no podiums) but great to get kids out of the neighborhood and back to autumn sport. Plus it is real cross weather now in the Midwest of USA

  104. Chris

    Spending some time cleaning up the yard before the snow start to fly here.

  105. Tan Yee Hou

    I’m currently on Garmin Coach so I’ve got a short run and a longer run.

    It fits into my current run volume so it’s not too intense, and I wanted it to see how much more advanced is the training methodology compared to my “just run”.

    I’m excited to see how much faster I’ll be after I’m done with this!

  106. henric meldgard

    October is cross season so plan on a bit of fall cross bike riding in the rain and muck.

  107. Steve Walker

    Two short runs on the treadmill to get back into shape!

  108. Wes pierpont

    Long run on Saturday morning, Cycle on Sunday. Spend time with my wife and daughter.

  109. MikeInEverwet

    Getting mountain bike tuned up for winter riding in the PNW rain…

  110. Chris Weis

    Overcome this ulcer and gallstones thing and ride at least 25 miles.

  111. Danny

    Planning nothing more than a nice long walk with our 3-month old strapped to me! It’s actually quite the workout, as he’s getting rather heavy!

  112. Ivan Higuera

    I’m planning to do the last Sunday long last ride before the Winter comes! After that it will be Netflix for the rest of the day.

  113. Christopher

    I plan on taking a rifle for a foray into the woods to fetch food to sustain my family through the winter.

  114. tadaka

    ohhh! my weekend workout was setting up for my daugheter’s 7th bday party…. which was a tiring day indeed

  115. Jake Mohoric

    I will be mountain biking on Saturday enjoying the fall colors and enjoying my new power meter on my road bike on Sunday! Purchased a new power meter based off the review on this site!

  116. Dan

    Hiking with my wife

  117. P. Chan

    Start to taper down for the winter and let the body rest and recover. Will do a Zwift Academy workout, and easy run.

  118. Mike Dillon

    Trying out my new Vivoactive 4 with a short run

  119. Ben

    My workout this weekend will likely be a Zwift Academy 2020 cycling workout or something like an Anaerobic Capacity to VO2 or Capacity Reloaded from prior ZA workouts. Might get a Zwift race in there too and/or SST workout. Would love to upgrade my trainer if possible!

  120. Mike B

    Finishing up my First week training for the “Dopey Challenge”!!

    Keep up the Great Work!

  121. Rupesh Shah

    Plan to walk 10,000 steps a day until Xmas.

  122. Dan johnson

    A wet and muddy trail run on the local mountain.

  123. I’ll be riding. Inside if it rains, outside if not.

  124. Shannon D

    This weekend i have a charity bike ride on Saturday and a social ride on Sunday.

  125. Layne Papenfuss

    LSD and helping my partner prep her group fitness class!

  126. Ryan Faer

    Saturday’s and Sunday’s are go long rides!

  127. A little double half marathon is in order this weekend!

  128. Pamela Blalock

    Closing in on my goal to climb 1 million feet in 2020

  129. Dave Woodmore

    An easy run and a pre-race workout according to Garmin Coach. Getting to the pointy end of the program. Yay!

  130. LJ Kyser

    Hiked and celebrated my wife’s birthday

  131. Jonathan Sainsbury

    Fal in Connecticut. Gotta go for a gravel ride!

  132. Joe Seip

    Metric Century Gravel ride in central Massachusetts Saturday. Sunday, recovery ride near the coast.

  133. Wayne Riggott

    Just dined up for the Tour De Roc which is a tour of Cyprus, 600km over 4 days with 6000m of climbing.. it will be tough for me.

  134. Sean Benjamin

    A couple hours of Zwift.

  135. Rob Jarvis

    I will probably get and use some snow sport thing or other.

  136. Gonzalo Gonzales

    Bike ride to celebrate a personal win.

  137. Jonathan Atkins

    Mountain biking some new (to me!) Prescott trails

  138. bemjb

    Looks like I saw this in the nick of time.

    I ran a virtual race this weekend.

  139. John Shepard

    My weekend workout is going to consist of 11 kids sporting events while trying to run some double digit trail miles. Oh and some recovery beer.

  140. Devin

    Hi Ray!
    Quick run and then beach planned here!
    Take care

  141. Jan Goh

    My plans were just to ride my bike—and I did on Saturday—but Sunday was too busy and I ended up just doing some weights instead. It’s kinda my plan every weekend in the fall with no CX season, to be honest.

  142. Yong Wen Chua

    A 18 km run. Haven’t had one in a while.

  143. Kevin McCrary

    Weekend plan…try to get a 6 mile run in. After that, bike work with my 7 year old who is learning to ride without training wheels.

    KM

  144. Anrea Levario

    Weekend workout will be running hills and swimming laps.

  145. Juanita

    Hit the trails.enjoy the last bit of warm weather

  146. Justin Jones

    spend some time on the trainer with trainer road!

  147. Don Gulotta

    a couple of bike rides to put me over 6000 miles for the year.

  148. DAN

    Riding my bicycle at camp

  149. DANNY

    Going for a long walk

  150. RINA

    Having a long swim

  151. DANIEL

    I shall ride my bike

  152. Peter Vernon Gibson

    Workout will be hike in local mountains

  153. Pedro

    Long ride and also a run with a nice recovery in between.

  154. Jim Koppelaar

    Having a CrossFit workout on Saturday, and some easy spinning on the gravelbike on Sunday.

  155. Neil Leventhal

    This weekend I’m hoping to head out to the lake with the kayaks and paddle boards to explore and spend time with my wife and 9 year old daughter.
    Then again, I might just take you up on your Netflix suggestion since I’m 6 weeks post spine surgery for old injuries and I’m also recovering from a broken angle due to an unfortunate dog poop pickup accident.

  156. Aubrey Whitley

    Weekend plans depends on the weather and fires in Colorado. It could be bike ride(s), hike(s) or just chilling at home.

  157. Eric Thomas

    I plan to run 10-12 miles and get on the bike for some recovery miles. What actually happened is I ran just over 10 miles (pavement hurts) and didn’t get on the bike at all.

  158. Roland

    Train for the virtual half marathon in December

  159. Adrian

    A MTB tour through the autumly woods

  160. Peter

    Starting holiday

  161. Eva

    A long run with friends

  162. James Tebbs

    I’ll be 1/2 way through a 30 day plank challenge which are getting more challenging, so there’s that, along with a long turbo session on Zwift, a punchy running intervals workout, and swim session. Might be able to squeeze in some Netflix with Junior…

  163. Frans de Calonne

    Competing in a 1/3 Ironman on Saturday and recovery ride & run on Sunday.

  164. Neil

    Hope to get outside and ride but I’ll be riding the trainer indoors if not!

  165. Gregor

    Hi,
    first ride with Wahoo kickr core due to lock down in Slovenia. Before playing with our new hiperactive dog. And most important to finish some maintenance work on a house.
    BR, Gregor

  166. Hessel

    We had a nice getaway to a little camping lodge!

  167. Roger Hamby

    Unfortunately, I just had surgery. Nothing major, but I am required to sit on my derriere for 2 weeks

  168. Carl-Anton Manns

    Recovering from minor surgery and missing the long trail runs we normalläge would do in the wet autumn förresten.

  169. abryl

    Cycling with my daughter, yay!

  170. Paul

    Some easy training this weekend

  171. Paul Allen

    Saturdays Bike followed be walk with family, then Sunday Long Run

  172. PascalDG

    Just a 12k run, point to point, near Paris.

  173. Max

    Hey Ray,

    For me weekend starts on friday afternoon with a swim workout (lovley intervalls) ?.

    But my main goal in the wintertraining is to increase my Power from 3.1 to 4.0 W/kg. ?
    So i will spend my time in Zwift with two workouts. Normally saturday is FTP training and sunday Endurace and making some km in Zwift.

    The time in between (Recovery) is “of course” already packed with reading your reviews and watching your YouTube / Instagram Stories. ?

    All the best dir your weekend,
    Max

  174. Walton

    Going for a strength workout.

  175. Maksim

    Autumn ride in local park

  176. Florian

    Setting up the trainer again

  177. Long bike ride

  178. Owen

    Getting in a nice run, going to participate in a service opportunity.

  179. Jan Dankerl

    Getting back to structured training pretending 2021 has already started… 😉

  180. Julien Staskiewicz

    A long and nice bike ride on Saturday and probably a long run on sunday

  181. Geoffrey Pyatt

    Riding to a new hill! Hooray for outside

  182. Eduardo

    I’ll be going to the track, doing 200s and 400s

  183. Jet Pacapac

    If it doesn’t rain, another long ride is scheduled for the weekend!

  184. Niko

    8 mile run one day and 2-mile ocean swim the other

  185. Davide

    run alone at 5:00

  186. Antoine Chiffre

    Doing BRICK Training. Bike would be with TrainerRoad, Run will be with my older daughter following on bike
    Hope It won’t rain

  187. Jakob Claffey

    Hoping to get a last road ride in before the snow flies!

  188. Running a wellness retreat so all sorts of yoga, trail running and swimming

  189. MS

    Racing with my kids

  190. Adria

    Going for a ride and doing college stuff

  191. Roser

    Just lying on the sofa watching netflix

  192. Ridehardfox

    Planning to go running and put winter tires on my car. Winter is coming here in Switzerland…

  193. Raymond

    A spinnig sessio, a S&C training and a weekend of fun with the kids.

  194. Adria

    I’ll go in a short trip to Andorra, they’re mountains are amazing

  195. Mark

    Sneaking a ride in

  196. James Sloan

    I plan to hike to local mountain peaks I’ve not summited before on Saturday. Sunday rest.

  197. Alvaro

    3 days on the bike is always a great idea!!!! MTB + ROAD!

  198. Maurice

    Next Weekend? Brewing a new batch of beer!

  199. Martijn

    Very pleasant autumn weather over the weekend, I did a 40k bikeride on saturday and a 10k easy run on sunday.

  200. I normally have a long run of 13+miles, done a few 20mile ones recently and want to get past 26m miles solo but just can’t bring myself to do it outside an organised event.

    I also often tackle one of the big hills in Zwift. With lockdown, my FTP has shot up from 280W to 350W so trying to push that further up.