Training for group ride?

I did something today I never thought about.  I went out to try to train for a ride.  I don't do that, I ride for pleasure and transportation not to get in shape, and certainly not to train for my recreation.  I did something different this time.  I signed up for the Michigan Mountain Mayhem.  It's a charity bike ride held in the mountains of upper lower Michigan.  The weather promises to be perfect in the 70 or 80's depending on the weather report you see.   What?  Oh, I know you think this is a medication problem, after all anybody who doesn't live in Michigan knows there can't be mountains, it always snows here so it can't be 70 degrees either, and of course you know there is no upper lower nothing--I just relapsed.
Truth is I broke out for the weekend and there really are mountains in Michigan, and we ride bikes on them because there's nothing else to do with them when the ski lodges close in the summer (refer to the four season thing your grade school told you about).  The thing is that I  haven't actually ridden in mountains since I lived in South Carolina or visited Colorado, so I have a weekend promising lots of this

ahead of me.  I still think it is ridiculous to train for your recreation, but I did go out on the hills around the nearby river valley to find the steepest and practice to get a strategy together to attack these hills like I cared.
I developed my strategy around the Hunqapillar, because it's the most comfortable bike I have and not just because of the very formidable granny gear.  I developed  a strategy which I predict will reel in the spandex hamsters and conquer all but the vaguely competent.
I'm looking forward to it, but probably won't post anything else until I return on Sunday.  With over 1000 riders and multiple celebrations scheduled for 3 days, I expect to have a great time and rely on serious self-medication for my survival. See you Sunday.