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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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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.
They really need to get some older athletes on their testing programme – there’s no way I could read that text without my reading glasses on! And I can see fine for running, so don’t plan to take the glasses with me, it’s just I’ve run out of arm length when it comes to reading smaller text :)
I was just thinking the same thing, JimC. Much as I love Suunto product, as I’ve aged, my eyes have failed to keep up with the increasingly smaller text on Suunto displays.
I’ve found a solution of sorts.
I created a custom screen in the Sport Mode I have been using this with and added just three fields with big numbers:
Lap Duration, Pace and Lap number.
The TP workout seems to treat each step and interval as a ‘Lap’, so Lap number increments each transition and you still get the segment intro message when it transitions. I thought they might use the ‘Interval’ metrics from the watch fields, it doesn’t appear to. You can scroll to the Workout screen if you still want to – say for more info on recovery step.
Also, advance step on Lap button press seems to work if selected in the workout setup, but only as a means of shortening the step. When it gets to the end of the step it doesn’t seem to pause and wait for button press, but just continues to the next step.
If you select ‘Always available on watch’ when you sync it, the Workout seems to remain on the watch and is usable even after the scheduled date – you just don’t get a prompt when you go to the Sport mode.
Do you get audio and/or vibration alerts when outwith the zones? I don’t mind the small text as I always know what the plan is but like to know without looking if I’m in the specified power or pace range.
It didn’t seem to alert me any, but perhaps I did something wrong in my workout creation.
No Audible target range limits for me that I could hear; that seems to be more about Training Peaks not having the option. It shouldn’t be too hard so I’ll give them the feedback.
I did get a decent chirp to alert for next segment.
I checked the button on TP workout builder for ‘Press Lap Button to Advance’, wanting to pause after the warmup segment but it just went on to the next stage without waiting for me. It might kick it forward if I pressed it during the warmup – didn’t try that.
It would be nice to have the option for range boundary alerts and something graphic, like the old Ambit bar graph so you can see at a glance both duration progress and target tracking without having to read numbers.
does it work also for pool swim workouts?
could you please hide my e-mail from previous comment?
It has been years of suffering for Suunto changing platforms, leaving users abandoned along the way (I think users of Ambit and others) to end up returning to a web environment … if they already had that with Movescount !!! OMG
hi ray
i did an interval running program..but it didnt show any numbers, just what i wrote on the Enter Notes (Z2, Z5, etc)on the screen just appeared Z2, Z5 on the interval change, but no numbers at all, am i doing something wrong?
on your pic i see theres a (Repeat 4 times) didnt found where this option is..as well as Cadence..is there a way to forward an interval? (if you suddenly in a hurry), thanx
It adds an additional watch screen with the numbers on, you need to scroll on over to it using the Center button.
When you build your workout in training peaks you can choose an interval block from the list and drag it down into your workout. (I used the bottom left one ‘Two Step repeats’) then you should have options on the right in the Workout Details editor for setting the number of repeats and the targets for each step.
There is a selector for ‘End Step on Lap Button’ but it didn’t seem to work for me
OK, just discovered another thing about TP workouts.
When using the Suunto 9 with Running Activity types, you normally get coloured sectors around the watch bezel representing Zones 1-5 and a marker arrow to show current status. It shows HR by default, but you can select Pace or Power targets instead at the start of an activity.
If you look at Ray’s example above of the Workout screen for the ‘Hard’ step you’ll see that the sectors are a little different, with 4 segments representing visually your workout target. Under, lower bound, upper bound and Over.
When the indicator is pointing straight up you’re right in the middle of your target range. The under and over sectors show red if you are in those sectors and the range indicators show green when you are in-band.
Saves reading numbers.
I was reading the interesting news on Karoo 2 and Suunto, which led me to this question. Does Training Peaks integration support syncing of your planned running with power structured workouts? Suunto supports Stryd much like Polar. But was curious if this TP integration will send running with power structured workouts to your Suunto as well.
Some interesting findings based on my earlier query:
* TP syncing of power based structured workouts to Suunto work in addition to pace/HR based ones according to users of TP + Stryd for power.
* Intervals.icu now supports uploading workouts to Suunto devices using the new SuuntoPlus Guides feature.
I don´t get it, do I need premuim in TP?
You need either Training Peaks Premium to create your own structured workouts, or with TP free it will still work if you buy training plans with workouts, or you have a coach who assigns workouts.
Not sure that’s correct.
I have free TP account and just created a simple workout to see how this worked, saved it and it synched to my Garmin Connect account in seconds. There was no option to synch it, it just happened while I was trying to work out how to do it. Note the little Garmin Connect icon with a green tick in the screen shot and the workout had transferred to my phone ready to synch with my watch if I wanted to.
I don’t have a Suunto device but I’d be surprised if it didn’t do the same for them after you do the updates needed.
Interesting. I don’t remember being able to create my own workouts on TP Free, but have been on Premium for a few years now.
The official blurb seems to say you need Premium.
link to help.trainingpeaks.com
Are you a recent signup? I think maybe new Training Peaks Accounts get free premium trial automatically for a while?
I had some cadence work on my link to gas-stationsnearme.com!
training plan all in Z2. You do the workout, sync it to RunGap, then Share to Training Peaks.