Heads up!!! Here’s your massive Cyber Monday sports tech deals list! This includes the Garmin Forerunner 965 for just $499, Garmin Epix for $429, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for just $619, the GoPro Hero 12 Black for $299, (or Hero 13 bundle for $339!) and plenty more! Go check out the full list of 100+ deals here!
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.
You'll support the site, and get ad-free DCR! Plus, you'll be more awesome. Click above for all the details. Oh, and you can sign-up for the newsletter here!
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.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
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.
-
Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
-
5 Easy Steps To The Site
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.
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.
Where I think a lot of companies screw this up is the size of the increase creates a huge sense of sticker shock, even if the math makes sense (eg – there hasn’t been a price change in 8 years) A $5/year increase? I couldn’t care less.
One issue I take with the wording of the announcement:
> Our teams have been hard at work bringing you great new Premium features
Have they though? Are they terrible about communicating them, or are these features things I don’t use? I’ve had a paid subscription for 6 years (by me, not through a coach), and, other than the occasional UI tweaks, I don’t see any major changes/additions in that time. I would have loved a list of them if that’s not the case.
They have a blog for new features: link to trainingpeaks.com and one aspect of TP I really like is that they have a customer feedback site you can submit bug/feature requests to and vote on them: link to peaksware.uservoice.com I wish Garmin and all others would make a similar site.
It seems TrainingPeaks is running on minimalistic development steam – only just enough to keep it running smoothly, nothing for new features, updates or god forbid a more modern design :). There is no real competition, and that is why TrainingPeaks can afford to do it like this. Selling training plans and subscriptions is a huge money cow at this point, as it requires almost no investment from TP side.
Is there any reason the e-sports platforms couldn’t just allow connections to multiple power sources in their software (perhaps unlocked in advanced settings)?
Let Zewift/myWhoosh connect to both my Tacx Neo for Power, Control and Cadence as well as my Garmin Vector 3 pedals for Power and Cadence?
Seems like it would be a lot easier than having to provide a second source.
Seems to be unfair that the winning team gets a reward in pound instead of dollars…
Kidding, you got a typo there Ray.
Somewhat off topic, but I wonder Ray why you have a coach? Surely all of your product testing of various devices at various times makes any sort of planning somewhat challenging? What benefit do you get out of it unless you’ve got an event you’re working towards?
This is spot on – how many people “need” a coach?
Yeah, the key wording there is under a coaches account…
I’m not actively coached by him anymore, but we’re friends and he finds all the tech bits I do entertaining enough, so the account stays linked under his plan. 😃
At the moment, I’m trying out a TrainerRoad coaching plan. It’s definitely not the same as a real coach. Better in some ways, worse in others.
My wife though is actively under a coach for her stuff though. Just depends on what you’re training for, and how complex all the moving parts are (life, your time to devote to figuring out how to optimize it, etc…).
Will you be publishing a review of the TrainerRoad plan?
Yup, I’ll likely do so at some point.
Based on the number of “self-coached” athletes you see to coming into middle and long distances races after periods of lengthy injuries having interrupted their training, I’d say a lot more people than have one.
And I suspect one of the the least formally coached groups is probably runners and, as the saying goes, if you can’t remember a runners name, you just politely distract them by asking how their niggle is healing up!
Yeah, I suspect it’s easier for cyclists to get away with automated coaching plans than triathletes or runners. Generally speaking, it’s just a heck of a lot easier to get injured running (aside from crashes) – and not talking tripping or such, but simply shoes/fit issues and over-use/etc. Also generally, for the same time and intensity durations, running tends to beat up the body more.
Point being, having a coach as a sounding board is more helpful there. For example, this morning I woke up, with a relatively easy 3hr ride slated, and then a 1hr interval run after (and tomorrow a nearly 2hr base run). My legs felt shot from yesterday’s tempo run. They shoudln’t have though, which is actually because I realized I haven’t changed my shoes in a (very long) while, and now there’s no padding left. Thus, I decided to pull it back a bit today, jump on The Girl’s 90-minute outdoor ride (roughly same easy intensity for me I would have ridden 3hrs at). I’m TBD on run still, I suspect though I’ll skip tonight’s run and get back in it for tomorrow’s 2hr run. Albeit the first time I’ve missed a run/ride since starting the plan (I skip/consolidate swims all the time, as I think that’s a better use of time).
Anyways, point being in a real coached scenario, you’d have texted the coach and been like ‘Here’s how I’m feeling, what should I do?”. In my case, I’ve got 15+ years of history in this, so I know roughly what to do. In someone else’s case that’s newer, they might not. That’s where injuries come from.
(Also, I re-arranged the schedule a bit on TR to shift long rides to weekdays, etc… and obviously dorked up some ordering. I haven’t had a moment to go back and fix that up a bit so that I don’t have three hardish run workouts in a row with a long-bike in there too).
This is super fascinating Ray. I would legit pay for premium content that pulled back the curtain on your and Mrs.Maker’s training schedules, routines, plans. (I don’t train nearly as hard but I bet I’d learn a lot seeing how you manage that kind of volume)
I look forward to seeing your thoughts on this. Are you trying Plan Builder, or one of their template plans?
If MyWhoosh invest that million dollars in bug fixing their app, they probably wouldn’t come with much spare
After using intervals.icu for awhile TrainingPeaks hasn’t been that useful for me other than an extra data source to delete when I do Zwift + TrainerRoad workouts simultaneously. I know I could just disable the integration, but there are days where I just to TR and not Zwift. I’d be more likely to stay if they let me use Strava as a source of truth, but unfortunately we are left with a tedious manual process.
Hi all, I’m considering Training Peaks to sync all my data , but my question is if I use my own workout plan with Apple Watch and Garmin for strength and cycling would all that data load to TP ? my goal here is to find a system that would collect all my data from my devices in one spot .
It would. The workouts on the Apple Watch would just need to be completed using Apples Workout App.