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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UK based here! Canada! Germany! France! Spain! Italy!Check out my weekly podcast - with TRS Triathlon, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
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!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- 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?
- What are your least favorite countries/places?
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 gadget recommendations guide (Winter 2017-2018 edition) and trainers here (2017-2018) – covering 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!
Understand technology and sport in the How-To Guides.
I enjoy explaining new things to folks – especially showing people how to get the most from their gadgets. Here’s an ongoing list of “How to” guides.
Read my Top 25 most useful posts.
It turns out I’ve written a fair bit of stuff over the past few years – and after it disappears from my front page, a lot of it never really sees the light of day again without Google’ing skillz. Or a photographic memory…which I don’t have. I’ve taken a look back and found stuff that…continues to find a trickle of readers via web searches or forum links.
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.
Tag Archives: Random
Classic Rainmaker posts: This week in years past
I’m often told that when new readers arrive here they end up going on a prolonged post to post journey, sometimes diverting untold hours of their day to simply reading a portion of the more then 1,000 posts that I’ve … Read More Here
The blogs I read every day –a compilation of awesomeness
I read a lot out on the web, well, I try to read a lot anyway. Sometimes I fail, and sometimes things slip through – but my general goal is to consume as much goodness as possible and pass it … Read More Here
Ballgames, Bags and Boxes
The last few days have been a bit of a blur – hence the reason why things have been somewhat quiet on the rainmaker front. On Wednesday night I had a surprise bachelor party thrown for me when my brother … Read More Here
This day in…the past three years.
Think of this as a mini-time capsule. Like a buried treasure map leading to an infinite amount of knowledge. Each of the items I linked to has either plenty of entertainment or totally useful information (or even both!). And while … Read More Here
The lost photos archive
Over the last few weeks my cell phone has been acting a wee bit slow when I go to take photos. After a bit of searching I found that it may be because I have too many photos on it. … Read More Here
Friday Tidbits: Spring’s gonna be busy for new toys!
(Side Note: I have no idea what on earth this clipart image is depicting. I was searching for random images to use for this post using the Microsoft Word clipart selection and out of curiosity entered ‘triathlon’ – and got … Read More Here
The Russian DCRainmaker brother from another mother?
Given it’s a snowy Thursday here in the nation’s capital – I figured this would be the perfect time to unleash a post that’s been sitting in my drafts for months…from one snowy place to another. A while ago a … Read More Here
Have a Merry Christmas!
To all those that celebrate Christmas, have a Merry Christmas tomorrow! And remember, it’s not all about training. One or two days a year you can enjoy it and just relax. (Photo from when the Christmas Tree fell over into … Read More Here
Quick Administrative Notes and Updates
Just a quick note to let folks know I had a bit of time on my most recent 13 hour flight earlier this morning (this evening? this afternoon? Honestly, I have no idea, it sorta crossed all three). I took … Read More Here
Turf Wars
Given how many fitness related devices I have floating around the house, one would think there would pretty much never be any issue when it came to sharing toys in the sandbox. After all, I have enough of the different … Read More Here
Whisky Foxtrot…Part II
If you’ve been following my blog long enough – at least two years – then you may remember the comical story locker room story of Whisky Foxtrot (if you haven’t, then you must click.that.link). Now while he’s seemingly disappeared from … Read More Here
Friday Tidbits
Just a bunch of little updates for the week going into the long weekend here in the states. I do however want to say thanks for the huge response on the Withings Scale review. It was by far the biggest … Read More Here
Can you name details about this picture?
For Tuesday I’m going to go with something a little bit different than a normal post. Last week The Girl and I participated in a bit of an experiment…with our bikes. This experiment took quite a bit of time actually … Read More Here
Pushing the envelope
It finally happened, almost 6 years to the day from when it first started. What happened you ask? Well, first, some history. I moved from Seattle to Washington DC on May 1st, 2004 (6 years ago tomorrow) – and when … Read More Here
Free National Park Access for a week, starting Saturday! Wootage!
As many of you know, over the past few years I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time up on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, which…is part of the National Park System. Not only is it probably the best cycling … Read More Here
A list of cool tri/running/cycling wallpapers
Back a bit ago I was stumbling around Garmin’s site trying to find something or other and I bumped into their nifty collection of wallpapers that you can download. From there I got curious and started poking around other companies … Read More Here
Applying Toilet Water
As I mentioned on Sunday, I had a small collection of boxes arrive last week while I was out. I generally buy everything online, so me and the FedEx man and the UPS women have a special relationship. Though, from … Read More Here
Coned
Earlier in the week I had finished up my bike and run and was delegated to go to the grocery store to search out options for dinner. Meanwhile, the Girl was just leaving for a short run. Given I had … Read More Here
Friday Tidbits
Food Tidbits: It’s time for some food around here – so let’s start off Friday Morning with Thursday Morning’s breakfast: I stumbled on the super-simple recipe the night before on SLB’s blog, and was on the way to the grocery … Read More Here
Weekend Tidbits
This weekend was full of all sorts of stuff – to start off with, The Girl was busy making Valentines cookies…and I was busy eating them: Of course, post-cookies there was some brief running to do – in the Cupid’s … Read More Here
Funny things that float my way
We have finally made it to Friday, on a week that has been the longest…week…ever. For a week where everyone has been buried in the DC area, it’s time for some humor (actually, to be fair, even though I had … Read More Here
Polar Bear Plunge…sort of.
Both Rob and I had our respective workouts to finish in the morning before heading up to the Polar Bear Plunge. I had an hour run and an hour swim, and he had a 16-18 mile run. So by time … Read More Here
Pants on the ground
Earlier this week I had an early morning swim technique session. By ‘early morning’, I mean 6:30AM – or as soon as the pool opened to non-high school swimmers. Which for me…is dang early. As I’ve mentioned in the past, … Read More Here
Tuesday Tidbits
Lacking the time or thought capabilities to put together a solid and lengthy post, I present you many little tidbits… Garmin FR-60: I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but Garmin sent me out a FR-60 running/cycling watch … Read More Here
Friday Mail Call
I got all sorts of interesting things in the mail this week. Both physical mail, as well as e-mail. And I’m not just talking about the coupons either – we’re talking high quality stuff. First up was a little Christmas … Read More Here