Heads up!!! Here’s your massive holiday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Epix for just $419, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $699, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $249, (or the brand new Hero 13 or $299!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ 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!
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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 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.
Running a 10K
Love it! Looking forward to watching the video like always.
Great presentation. I ran the video at 1.25x to save some time as you speak so clearly, it was easy to follow even at a faster speed.
1.25!?! Dang, that’s unheard of! Usually people drop to the .75 club!
So you are aware you speak quickly. :-)
Perhaps an article on your heart rate comparing your slow and fast speech? ?
Great job as usual, your insights are always invaluable Ray!
I know you are not a “ring” wearer, but would love to see a review of the Oura ring. While I find the data presentation is excellent (especially compared to what I’ve [not] gotten from wearing a garmin watch 24/7 for almost 10 years), it would be reassuring if the analysis is based on something at least close to accurate. I will say the readiness and sleep trends do seem to match well with my activity (including training, a late dinner, or one too many bourbons). As a healthcare front liner, my hope is it may also provide a heads up that something is brewing before a fever sets in. Perhaps wishful thinking…
A Ray Oura Ring review might even tempt Garmin to come out with their own ring. ?
Oura doesn’t continuously monitor HR like the whoop band does, AFAIK, so it’d be harder to do a review on. If he tracked his HRV/RHR and feedback on it compared to the Whoop and the Garmin wearables, that’d be a different story. However, it’d be hard to know which one was right.
Considering the new workout recommendations on the Garmin Fenix 6: does anyone have the problem that when you do a prescribed workout on your trainer and finish it according to plan, the predicted training benefit is much higher than the measured training benefit after the fact? For example today I did a recommended “sprint” workout which should yield something like 3.2 aerob and 3 anerob and it turned out as a “base” workout with 2.8 aerob and 0.8 anerob. I did hit all the powerlevels on the Kickr. I’m a little lost, but I’m also new to Garmin.
Nice! While I would indeed like better graphics (indoor cycling), I’m also fine just doing my TrainerRoad workouts.
I suppose that’s two different (but overlapping) areas though.. Indoor cycling for fun (and races) vs Workouts.
Also, yes.. I suspect we’ll see a new PM from major players next year – like Shimano (I’d like to call them ‘major’ now that they’ve bought Pioneer’s cycling division ;)).
Ray, regarding Aero Sensors, no indication that Garmin is still planning to launch Vector Air Soon? Wasn’t ANT+ working to release an aero sensor profile for some time? Seems like your comments are valid. Garmin is probably also looking at the consumer market and that their product is no different/better than the other aero sensors out there. So much potential for this technology, IMO.
For some reason your recent videos have the autocraptions turned off. If you know what’s causing it, can you turn them back on? Even with their silly goofs, I’m usually able to at least follow what you are saying. Otherwise it’s just watching your lips move, and I’m not a proficient lip reader.
Yeah, it’s driving me nuts too, and it’s been escalated within YouTube’s Partner level support. It’s been sporadic, but it sucks.
Historically the captions show up almost instantly. Then this summer they started taking 24hrs to show up. Which, was annoying, but I could deal with it. Now, it’s just given up on life in some cases.
For the videos I expect to be most popular I’ll actually do captions for them, using the YT ones as the baseline. Like you said, it’s not great, but it’s a starting point – and I can move pretty quickly through a video that way.
I’ll poke again, because up until this week it was only the 24hr delay. But now I’ve got videos from last week that still don’t have captions. In fact, this State of Sports Tech one I uploaded over the weekend (since it took 15hrs to process a test upload I did last week).
Thanks! Very much appreciated!
I agree on the point about screens, but I think it’s more than that. Early Apple Watches really lacked on sport specific features, so it was an easy choice to stick with a Garmin. But now that Apple Watches have good GPS, HR, vo2max, and a solid app ecosystem, the biggest downside for non-ultra/ironman athletes is really just a lack of physical buttons. I feel like I keep my Garmin because it’s better during workouts. But that delta is decreasing, and an Apple Watch is getting more and more tempting.
I disagree with you on battery life, Ray.
I need a massive battery life. Why? Not because I do ultra’s. I run for max 4 hours at a time or ride my bike for max 7 hours. I don’t even combine that in a triathlon.
But I do run/bike 5 days a week. And I don’t want to first charge by watch before I go out.
When I go for a 2 hour run, with a 20 hour battery life watch, there is a 90% change my battery is full enough. With a 5 hour battery life watch, it’s almost 50/50 I first have to charge.
Seconds, there is battery degeneration.
My 3.5 your old forerunner 935 started life with 24 hour battery life. Now I get about 10 hours out of it (either garmin uses lousy batteries or they messed something up in the firmware). 10 hours still covers all my activities, I only have to charge more often.
Imagine what would happen when my watch started with 6 hours battery life? I couldn’t finish a marathon (with my limited talent) when battery is down to 50% capacity.
But I might fall in your .5%
Very good points! These watches are not priced to be replaced every year to reset battery life.
Also, AMOLED is very pretty, but not so much when it switches itself off or to low power mode to save battery life.
Very good video on the state of sport tech and where it’s heading. Thanks Ray. I would love to have a device that reliably tells me my CDA on the fly but it seems we’re a long way away from that.
Hi Ray,
In The State of Sports Tech keynote you mentioned a track mode for Garmin Forerunner 745 (I think). I have a Fenix 5s Plus. Can I get that?
Thanks,
Evin Kaless
Sadly not coming to the Fenix 5/Plus series. :(
Ray,
Are you aware of any companies or programs/watches etc that take a holistic approach to training at all? For example, let’s say I go for a run on a particular day for 10klms at a certain heart rate in hot and humid conditions, keeping say under say 133bpm with an avg pace of 5m15s per kilometre. Let’s say the next day is cooler and less humid – the 10klm run is now at an avg pace of 5m per klm (on the same track for arguments sake).
Can the modern training watches/data interpretation factor in weather conditions,the nature of the course etc in providing feedback, or are we not quite there yet? One would think with GPS watches, the data can be “looked at” eg the location and time of a run/swim/bike ride etc and then the program factors in weather based on location, wind conditions, ascent/descent etc in providing feedback.