Surviving Winter Triathlon Training! (My Social Experiment)

Kris: So I'm sitting here at work and can't help but think about how lately I haven't been training nearly enough and feeling like a TOTAL slug.   I know I've been coming up with a number of excuses including lack of time and $$ but the things that seem to keep me from wanting to go out to the pool or spin or run (outdoors or at the club) are:

• Snow
• Cold Mornings
• Icy Trails
• Cold Afternoons
• Shorter Days
• Lack of Sunlight
• Layers and Layers of Running Clothing

So as an active member or the social media community, I've decided I want to reach out and see if you would all be willing to help me put together a list of Your Best Ways to Stay Motivated!

So no matter what your outdoor sport, please post your best "kick in the butt" reason or saying or whatever so we can all have a place to come back to and read when we are feeling like sitting on the couch and not getting out to train.  If I get enough feedback, I'll compile them into a separate blog post for you all.    Please send this to all your athlete friends who are also trying to survive this winter and ask them to post! 

Thanks in advance, you are all awesome :)

Mini Golf and Golden Statues!!

Mark: We managed to keep busy this last weekend attending not one but two unique events.

On Friday night Kris and I along with our friends Steve and Bobbi took part in the Skyway Open, a mini golf event setup in the downtown Minneapolis skyways. The course features 18 one of a kind miniature golf holes created by local architecture firms. Steve and I have done this event in the past and we wanted to share the fun with our significant others this year. 

All in all in was a very fun evening! Our tee time was 6:30pm starting at Hole #1 in City Center, and I have to say the first 5 holes were my favorite, there were still plenty of people around and that added to the fun. Some of the later holes it was a bit sparse and then once the 19th Hole party started, a lot of the volunteers abandoned the holes they were "managing" and it was just the four of us at times.  Kris: It was a lot of fun for the 4 of us to hang out but I definitely was expecting it to be busier on a Friday night.

Kris: I managed to throw together a quick video of our outing.   Unfortunately I don't have the greatest editing software and video card so I'll likely say this every time I put up a video....excuse the cheap editing :-P

We were definitely not going to contend for lowest score, not even if we were playing best score for each hole. I think we even mentioned that we hoped they were randomly drawing prizes and then we might stand a chance. By the time we reached the 18th hole it was about 8:30 and the skyways were getting a bit chilly, so we turned in our scorecard and headed to the 19th Hole party in the LaSalle Plaza for the free beer and wine and free appetizers!! They even had a vodka company there making Bloody Marys with Horseradish Vodka. At first we thought that we might have missed out on the appetizers because all there was left was fruit (Kris: Which was great for me as I got a severe filling of mango slices!  Then came the cookies.....) but as we stood around chatting the table was replenished and then waiters appeared passing various hors d'oeuvres. For the very first time I got to try Steak Tartar, not bad!! Kris however was not a fan. I think we finally called it a night around 11pm, funny how that seems late to me nowdays.

On Sunday Evening Kris and I attended the Aegis Oscar Night Watching Party at the Ivy Hotel, an opportunity for us to really dress to the 9's and hit the town. A few weeks ago Crowd Cut had a 50% off ticket price for the Oscar party and we decided why not, lets try something new. So after spending the late morning early/afternoon getting in our workout we went home and spent some timing thinking about what to wear. Kris tried on several different dress options and I picked my favorite, I had a good idea what I was going to wear it just came down to picking the right tie.

So after "Puttin on the Ritz", we headed down to the Ivy and walked the red carpet, got our picture taken on the red carpet in front of a "Step 'n' Repeat" (Charlie and Mike will be proud) and headed upstairs to the party.



A geocaching friend of ours Josh (who also took over as Minneapolis Geocaching Examiner and writes great articles so check it out!) and his wife Tammy were also attending along with their friends Dave and Kim so we grabbed a table together near the front and started working on our Oscar predictions. You could buy a ballot card for $10 and try to win prizes based how many predictions you got right. Unfortunately we were making some of our predictions in the blind and we ended up getting about half of them right.

Besides the some basic appetizers, popcorn, Rum and Surly specials they had a huge table full of candy for everyone to munch on during the show. They had so much candy in fact that most people (including us) went home with plenty of candy.

Another one of my friends, Colin was at the party as well and I saw him and his wife Kelly briefly when they were at the appetizer table but by the time I got over to that side of the room they disappeared. He sent me a Facebook message at one point during the evening but we never hooked up.

We had so much fun that we would do this again in a heartbeat and I highly recommend that anyone else attend as well. And on a personal note, I got to see just how BEAUTIFUL my new bride really is!! Don't get me wrong, she is always beautiful to me but all dolled up she looks AMAZING!!! Kris:  Mark is incredible at earning bonus points ;) I think part of why I looked so good was because I got my super handsome husband by my side all night.  You looked hot too, honey ----<{@ Love you Handsome!!!