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Bloop

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Is It Still Called A Bloop?

mattw

Entry posted by mattw ·

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I'm sitting in my garage hoping someone will stop and buy the stuff I have in my driveway. It's one of those neighborhood wide garage sales or else we wouldn't have bothered.

It was supposed to start at 7am, but the creepers were out at 6:15. I was too, running my 3.1 mile loop while trying to stay in heart rate zone 3. I downloaded some workouts from Garmin Connect that are based on heart rate to see how that feels. Today was 45 minutes of hills in zone 3. The tough part of this is having to practically sprint downhill and almost walk uphill.

A Nintendo DS with a slightly scratched screen sold for $5. Nice Hispanic guy picked that up for a kid I'm sure. A grandfather was doing some Christmas gift shopping and bought the Rapunzel tower for $4.

Usually I only have to watch out for the paper delivery guy on my early morning runs, but the folks hoping to be the first at the sales were creeping around while I tried to obey my Garmin's 'be be be boo' (HR too low) or 'be be be beep' (too high) warnings. I was careful because I knew the driver's eyes were looking at driveways and not for ninja runners.

A lady bought two lap trays for her first grade class. I feel bad taking even a quarter each from a school teacher. Two X-Box games went for one dollar each. We found those at a college dorm when helping my sister-in-law move out.

The zone 3 workout translated into a 7:30 pace for 6 miles. My run ended with an easy cool down mile. Then I started getting the stuff out to sell. 

My wife says I sell things too cheaply. I feel like most garage sale shoppers are not rolling in the dough and are out for a bargain. I don't want to disappoint.

 

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meowmom

You are very kind, sir. I live in a kind of affluent town (I guess) - there are some yard sales I can't even afford!! :o  The consignment shops are decent, but you have to be an eagle-eyed shopper and I never got the girl-gene when it comes to liking or being good at it, haha. 

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DrWhiskers

Our neighborhood has a yearly garage sale as well. I use it as a chance to save a trip to Goodwill and practically give things away for free. Plus we never think to get enough cash for change.

I miss hearing about your running! What's your next race? 

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mattw
1 hour ago, gdionelli said:

Congrats on posting the first bloop in the new Loop!

Ha. Guess I should have been more poetic or maybe prophetic somehow.

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mattw
1 hour ago, DrWhiskers said:

Our neighborhood has a yearly garage sale as well. I use it as a chance to save a trip to Goodwill and practically give things away for free. Plus we never think to get enough cash for change.

I miss hearing about your running! What's your next race? 

No races scheduled. Just been doing about 30mpw lately. Only a few workouts here and there.

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Gonzo Runner

I've always been a little skeptical of the Garmin HR workouts. Think you'll keep them up?

Any time I stop at a garage sale I always hope I discover some old lady selling a stack of '50s baseball cards for a nickel each and pick up a couple Mickey Mantle rookies or something. And yeah, I know what you're thinking, ripping off an old lady is terrible. But it's payback for my mom using my Derek Jeter rookie card to scoop up and throw out a dead bug. So there. 

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mattw
8 hours ago, Gonzo Runner said:

I've always been a little skeptical of the Garmin HR workouts. Think you'll keep them up?

It's called the "Improve Your Fitness" plan. It at least gives me a couple of workouts per week to try.  I could always ignore the HR too low/high part and get the workout in.

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tinkbot

We've gotten a few things from neighborhood sales. The best score for me was a small deep perfectly seasoned cast iron pan for like $10. I use that thing almost every day.

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atombuddy

Our best garage sale score came when we were first married.  It was an old wooden high chair, sold by the woman who'd been a baby in it.  Since Mrs. AB wasn't pregnant yet, it was a leap of faith, and it worked.  I refinished it, our son flung baby food from it, and we still use it as a charging station for our phones.  I'm pretty sure we'll have it forever.

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StinaQ

Where I'm at, I don't put prices on things because some people haggle. You can spot them as they come up and you just know that if you tell them it's $5 they will offer you $2.  Others, usually the ones who don't understand why you haven't priced anything won't haggle so I give them the price I want for the stuff I just want to go away anyway.  
I don't like having garage sales... and your pace is ninja.  

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RunSplendidly

I love cheap garage sales. And I agree on your statement regarding that teacher. It's commendable that they spend some of their own money for their students, isn't it?

I'm debating if I should invest in a heart rate monitor. Still undecided.

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