Brent to be honest the hills around where I am thinking are pretty much ever present so I would think that you should be riding pretty regularly before hand.
There will be at least one ascent of Caesar's Head (12km of 5.8%) and I would also like to drive to Ashville one day and do Mt. Mitchell. I would also like to do the US Nationals loop including Paris mountain. That said I'm sure we can work out some more moderate routes over 1 or 2 days. At the beginning maybe to get the juices flowing.
I was thinking something like this for the "epic" day: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3810785