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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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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.
Have you noticed that AWU 2 always shows a shorter distance than Epix Pro? I have both and it happens every time. Which do you think shows better?
Yep! I have these two same watches. Before that, I had an AWU1 and and Enduro 2. Apple Watch is consistently 0.02-0.05 miles shorter than the Epix on 5-10 mile runs.
Interesting, I’ll go back and look at some runs. Most days I have the Ultra 2 with me for runs. Yet, I don’t tend to look at the end-state exact distances much, mainly because it’s a misleading metric when comparing accuracy. But certainly, if it’s course-cutting or such, then that’s different.
My guess here is that some of the ‘aligning’ that Apple is doing to Apple Maps data might be removing a bit of the wobble out. Likewise, we’ve long-seen Apple have more smoothing in their tracks (it used to be really bad, but now it’s more reasonable), which also removes some of the slight wobble on a street.
Same here – i also have the AWU 2 and the Epix 2 pro, and Apple is always behind. My wife also has an Epix, and when we run together, our Garmins are almost identical, but my Apple is off by several hundred meters.
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Hi Ray,
I’m curious – can Apple Watch Ultra (and regular Apple Watch with LTE for that matter) leverage its LTE connectivity for better accuracy?
Yup, it can pull Apple Maps data, which Apple has confirmed repeatedly they use.
I don’t watch your videos because it takes too long and prefer your written posts, which I can read and understand better. But I did look at the analyzer info. For a real test, go to lower Manhattan or run throughout midtown. Central Park is too easy of a GPS test, and it shows on the map with pretty good accuracy, because it is so open. Also, would’ve been nid for more watches like 965 and/or Fenix.
I’ve actually done that before – and ultimately, the section from Central Park to Times Square is honestly as hard as it gets in NYC, save a random alley or such.
In this case, I did two major building sections (from the water to Central Park), and then from Central Park to Times Square.
Last year, I did an even longer segment from the tip of Manhatten, along the water under the viaduct for a fair chunk along those tall buildings, then cutting in through midtown hell for a while: link to dcrainmaker.com
As you can see there, the silly-long section of buildings I ran, didn’t show any different than the section I normally do in terms of accuracy. The only thing it did was drive me crazy with all the stop/go/car avoidance. :)
The good question is, why would you voluntarily run among the traffic in one of those urban canyons? 😉
Not sure I understand. On the first main section, I was on the sidewalks.
And the second section, I was in a no-mans land of dead space between the bike lane and parking areas and then roadway lanes. All of which is a heck of a lot better than trying to run on the sidewalk with tons of pedestrians.
My remark was not to be taken too seriously and urban canyons are an interesting environment for GNSS accuracy testing. It is however very difficult to determine the main cause of the problems experienced, between signal attenuation, shading, reflections or interferences.
Another interesting environment which could be more relevant for runners is a forest with a thick tree cover (not the right season I know). It would also mainly test receivers’ sensitivity.
Thanks for linking your Concorde adventure, flipping nice!
Would love to see Coros and Polar too in this test.
When did you do this? You posted it today but everyone is in shorts and teeshirts. I live here and the weather isn’t that good for shorts and tees.
Have you tried a Stryd for distance and pace on the same route?
Just a general overall question, with constantly changing devices for testing, how do you keep track of all your metics in one place? Do you run / bike / swim with two devices? One for testing and the other your go to? If so, what is your go to device?
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