One practice field outside of Winter Park has been shoveled out since Sunday night's snowfall. It continues to be covered from goalpost to goalpost with tarp. And industrial-sized heaters have been blowing hot air under those tarps for a couple of days now.

Yet the two practice fields outside of the facility still have not thawed out enough for coach Mike Zimmer to feel comfortable allowing his players to practice on them. So once again, the Vikings were inside the practice facility today preparing for what should be a chilly Sunday afternoon in Chicago.

The Vikings in the past very rarely practiced outside when winter weather rolled around, even when preparing to play at venues such as Soldier Field and Lambeau Field. But Zimmer, who showed how impervious he was to the weather when he had the Vikings practice in a steady rain during training camp, wanted to change that this year, especially with the Vikings playing their home games outside at TCF Bank Stadium this season and next.

"I'd just like to get outside. We're going to play in it and I haven't really seen this team in the cold weather before so I'd just like to get out," Zimmer said yesterday. "I don't think it's going to be that bad out in Chicago. Thirty degrees and a little bit of wind, but that's not terrible. I guess it's more for my mindset than anybody else. I've got to make sure I can stay warm."

The Wilfs signed off on the purchase of on a heating system and protective "bubble" for one of the outside fields. But the team did not expect the weather to turn this quickly. So while the Vikings practice inside today, the new equipment is still floating across the Atlantic Ocean. The boat carrying it is expected to arrive from England next week and then installation will begin.

So will the fact that the Vikings are practicing indoors be a factor this week? Perhaps. After all, if Zimmer thinks the Vikings, who haven't won at Soldier Field since 2007, need to practice outside to get acclimated to the cold so they are tough enough to block it out on game day, there is probably something to it.

But some of his players, especially ones from the south, don't mind another week of being warm.

"We always practiced inside. I seen Coach heating the fields up earlier trying to get us outside," wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson said. "But [some of the guys] in the locker room, we don't want to be out there unless we have to be out there on Sundays."