Shoulder Training

I watched a video of the P2A and got a little intimidated by what I saw.  I've never really done anything like this before - lots of racing but never, ever off-road.  I think my ride is up to it, but am I?

My reaction was to create a 20km training loop.  The loop is in the countryside (where my house is) and so all the shoulders of the highway are soft - anything from heavy gravel, to grass, to packed dirt.  I decided to do the loop entirely on the shoulders.  Thus, "shoulder training."

Seems to work.

I've only got 23 or 24 days to get "up" for this.  I had been counting on my latent commuting fitness, but my reaction after watching the video was that that would not be sufficient.

Really not certain what my goals are - in my head they range from ultimate glory to, just finish.

I think something in between, like, don't lose to anyone riding a tandem might be reasonable.

I'd push that to, don't lose to anyone riding a single speed but I truly have my doubts.  There are several Olympic class athletes in this thing (that's why ultimate glory really isn't an option outside of my head).