@mzapf28 totally epic plan! Not sure how many pearls of wisdom I can share but here goes… In my mid 50s I started road cycling in Dec 2015 and completed the 7 month zero-to-hero DeathRide 2016. I’m a bigger guy at 200+lbs and was at maybe 2.8 W/kg by the big event. Here’s the deal:
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absolutely critical that you do some longer rides months in advance and nail your nutrition and hydration needs/strategy. Eat and drink at every stop. You can see my bigger rides leading up to DR here: Ride with GPS | Bike Route Planner and Cycling Navigation App
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figure out your “climb all day pace” which for me was 135-140bpm HR and stick to it, even when some dude in his 70s passes you on several climbs
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if you are sub 3 W/kg make sure your training prepares you mentally and physically for long climbs, these are my moving times for each of the 5 climbs: Monitor West 1:20 (1 hour 20 minutes); Monitor East 1:45; Ebbetts East 1:53; Ebbetts West 0:57; Carson 2:11
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be prepared for changing conditions (gloves!), I started riding at 4:40am and temp was low 40F. There were an unbelievable number of people already riding, my wife dropped me off at group start and she said it was like watching Animal Planet and seeing a migration of wild animals! In the afternoon it was 93F in Markleeville, and 52F at the top of Carson around 6pm.
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I mostly trained on flat ground by doing longer and longer intervals into the wind (riding on hoods). Several guys from my club bet against me because I didn’t have time to drive to the foothills and do more training rides with climbing.
I finished with a smile on my face 
You can do it, enjoy the ice cream at the top of Carson!