DC Rainmaker

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Hey Hey!

Happy weekend! How is everyone holding up?? I know everyone is looking to read something right now that might take their mind off “you know what”. Or, the daunting thought that we are all going to be homeschooling for the next 5-6 weeks! So I’ll take you straight to the tech! Sound good?

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we took a week off back in February to hit up the slopes with the kiddos and get some fresh air on our faces. If that sounds like fun to you, Ray posted a light hearted piece on the “family ski meets ski tech mash up” about our trip. Check out “Tidbits and Tech from a week in the Alps”.

Then we have two different posts for Strava updates. If you didn’t know, now you know, Strava brought back chronological ordering and athlete favoriting. As well Strava made everyone’s life easier by just offering a single tier membership option.

Next up is the Saris MP1 Nfinity Platform In-Depth Review. I have to say, at first glance of the name my brain processed “Nifty Platform”, and since it does rock side to side AND go back and forth, that makes it pretty nifty, so that’s what I’ve been calling it for a while now! Sorry not sorry.

As always the dynamic duo of blog posts are up. The Week in Review and the 5 Random Things posts are a buzzing. I used to be harsh on the Week in Review posts, as I figured it was just an excuse for Ray to browse the interwebs, but each week he does find some pretty interesting articles to re-share; you could say it’s growing on me. And of course, 5 Random Things continue to be a favorite. Some day these posts will be a pretty neat web diary for our family to look back on. 

Maybe you have seen that I picked up a new E-Bike?? I’m super pumped about it, however… I think Ray will be casually sneaking it out for testing as more and more products support E-biking. Speaking of which… the Wahoo’s new Stealth-Black BOLT did just that, and you know who can tell you all about it.

Next, there's a pile of deals for sports tech goodness, all of which are listed here, but here's some of the most popular ones:

CycleOps Hammer for $599 ($200 off)
Garmin Edge 130 for $149 ($50 off)
Garmin Edge 1030 for $399 ($200 off)
Garmin Varia Radar for $129 ($70 off)
Polar Ignite for $279 ($50 off)

Plus on that deals page there's sales on Elite smart trainers, Kinetic smart trainers, the Tacx NEO, Wahoo trainers, and Pioneer power meters.Phew!

Last but not least, we have an ultra quick post (in comparison to most Ray posts) on a GoPro accessory. This charging door accessory was really a game changer for Ray as the charging port situation on the Hero 8 Black was a really a thorn in his side. Now he’s a happy camper. Check it out.

Last- Last but not least (this newsletter was ready to roll on Friday but was held up for this post… smh), the Elite Sterzo Steering / Riser Block Accessory In Depth Review. Check it out to take a look at this cool addition to the continuously growing market for “real road feel”, or incase you just want to ew and ah over my photography skillz. Yes, for real, I took the photos, and b-roll for the video!

With that, we are at the end of tech catch up for this week. Next up we have Podcast updates and YouTube-y goodness, and hopefully health is on our side this coming week so I can get another “You’ve Got Mail” message in your inbox again shortly!

The FIT File with DC Rainmaker and GPLAMA:

The boys have been practicing safe Pod Casting lately. With their social distancing reaching far above and beyond recommended WHO standards, these two meet up each week from opposite hemispheres to keep us all better informed as tech savvy athletes.

Check out the FIT File Page for the latest two episodes since the last newsletter. Episode 101 and 102!

As always, for your streaming convenience, if you’re not at your computer you can pick your fancy of streaming platforms via iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify to tune in.

YouTube

Speaking of subscribing, are you a subscriber for Ray’s YouTube Channel? It’s a big help to the channel if you subscribe or simply “like” the video while watching! Thanks for your support.

·       Strava Brings Back Chronological Feed: Quick Set Up Guide and Analysis

·       Saris MP1 Nfinity Motion Platform Review and Detailed Testing

·       GoPro Hero 8 Charging Port Battery Door: Test and Review!

·       Elite Sterzo Steering Riser Block Accessory: MTB and Road Bike Testing

image Elite Sterzo Steering/Riser Block Accessory In-Depth Review
image GoPro Hero 8 Black Charging Door Accessory: Video Review Posted
image Strava Eliminates Multiple Summit Tiers, Simplifies Back to Single Option
image Wahoo’s New ‘Stealth’-Black BOLT, Price Drop, Plus Adds E-Bike Support, ANGi GPS connectivity
image 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend

In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl

Hi hi hi,

Thanks for reading and making it way down here to the bottom. As hinted at last week, I thought I would give you a little insight to my current running and strength training progress.

I started back into my goal of being an athlete again in early January. And I say “athlete” because 5 years ago if you had met me, I likely would have described myself as just that, an athlete. Someone who lived and breathed running, fitness, and nutrition. Not business owner, or “wife of Ray”, or “mother of the Peanut factory”. 5 years ago, I could NEVER have imagined how the next half decade would play out. And while I am likely the happiest person on the planet most days, there have been some extremely hard moments for me since my last marathon (Boston 2014, gasp!) and since the birth of our first daughter.

As many of you have likely already read, I made some poor decisions leading into the Boston Marathon. I was injured, kept that tidbit from my coach, and thus created a pretty bad pelvic and hip instability injury. Quite painful I might add, and long lasting. Fast forwarding to the birth of 3 daughters in less than 4 years. As is par for the course with postpartum things, you might imagine that core instability, Diastasis Recti (DR) recovery, and in general energy levels were are all kinda $h*+ for the last while. Obviously, I’ve glossed over a lot of things there. But you “get it”. I went from the top of my game to, on some days, “Everybody’s fed, nobody’s dead, survival” standard. Now it’s time for me to crawl out of the darkness again and figure out how to balance my wants, needs, and expectations of what it is to be an “Athlete” again AND be a mom of 3 tiny hoomans & dog, a wife, partner in business, COO of the Maker family “stuff”… the list goes on.

So first and foremost, I MUST stay healthy, injury free, and get sleep wherever I can find it. To do this I didn’t just wake up 6 weeks after our last baby and say “okay, I’m cleared to start physical activity”. I have consulted with pelvic floor physical therapists. Purchased online trainings and had video calls with experts in diastasis recti / core stability recovery. Taken run technique courses. And only then, after all of that, did I start incorporating running into the picture again.

I’m about 6 weeks into running again. I have “graduated” my DR training program, though there is still an abdominal gap. And now I’ve taken the extra leap into signing up for a next level strength training program- geared towards core stability and functional movements, built out my strength training section of the cave, AND… AND… oh and this makes me so nervous. I joined a local running/track club here in Amsterdam. Had my first workout with the group earlier this week and had my ass (pleasantly) handed to me in the workout. It hurt so good!

So that’s it. That’s where I’m at. Slow crawl back into it. I would love to give you some more details, but I think that was already a long enough post for most of you on a Sunday morning! Next week if the world hasn’t ended, I’ll see if I can’t get some shots of the track workouts and of my newly minted gym!

I would be amiss not to give Ray a shout out for covering his eyes when I went online shopping to set up the strength area I wanted, AND for making 2 nights a week possible for me to sneak out just before bedtime stories to hit the track. Here’s to team work makes the dream work!

Until next week, thanks for reading! Have a great weekend, stay healthy,

~The Girl

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