After a summer of "playing hard" and attending "training" camps, I've found myself in Colorado, "training" with the US Snowboard Team. Usually, early season training is tough. While we all want to be on snow and we're excited to ride, the terrain conditions are usually man-made, rocky-grassy mix, peppered with snow. And then, of course, you need to add the chairlift rides through the snowgun spray that makes for a great icy goggle coat and, finally, the icing on the pre-season training cake is the massive amounts of people trying to ride or ski on just one run.

While this season we have the crowds and blizzard-like chairlift rides, we don't have the lame snow conditions. The snow gods have blessed Colorado. In fact, I can't remember the last time it was this good in November. Hopefully, it's a sign of what's to come.

Fall training is also a time to do the final tune-up on your gear. This includes, nights on end dialing in bindings, boots, getting boards ground and, of course, calling your sponsors for any last-minute needs. Jay Cooper is our team tech. During the two weeks of fall training we all have Coop red-lined with equipment work. Of course, Anton Pogue is the best at redlining Coop, but we can all take some of the credit.

Our bodies are getting final tune-ups, too. Our team is really lucky to have an athletic trainer, seeing as most teams don't have one. Kyle Wilkins hooks us up with ultrasound, massage, and serious pressure point work. I crashed on my motorcycle a week before training started, so Kyle has been digging his thumb into my quad every night. It's a fabulous experience and I do everything to contain myself not to kick him when he does it.

For now, the team has been training at Copper Mountain and we wrap up with a Continental Cup race at Breckenridge, Colorado. For those of you who, like myself, didn't come from a ski racing background, a Continental Cup is basically a points race. Everyone gets together to race and hopefully earn points to move up in the standings and earn a spot to race on the World Cup. These are no glory races — there is no prize money, no media, no crowds...just racers and the clock, but for some this could be the most important race of the season. If you don't do well, you don't go to Europe and Canada for the first World Cup races.

I'm optimistic about our team this year — everyone is riding really well. We've been training a lot of duals and everyone is close, even the people who don't like to dual. We're all hungry and excited to start the racing season. Hopefully, all will go well and the whole team will be getting on the plane and heading to Europe for the beginning of the World Cup season.

I'll keep you posted from the road...

— Lisa Kosglow, MountainZone.com Correspondent