Remember one thing also...the load does slow you down. I learnt that last year unplanned on. I was in good shape riding 100-225 miles day all the time. July 15-17 each day I rode an average of 160 miles with tons of daylight left to spare. On the last day I felt great. I had ridden over 2000 miles in the first 17 days of July. I figured I had 160 miles a day easy on the first leg of my trip last year. Yes, I was doing most all the riding in July last year, with nothing more than a laptop computer on me. I left for my trip in August and was shocked that I was struggling/pushing it to do 120 miles a day. I finally come to realize just how much the gear does slow you down and how much of a difference the climbing makes to help make the gear slow you down that much more. By the end of the 2800 mile trip I was easily doing 120 mile days without trying even with big climbing. The one thing I saw happen but had never heard until this year was about the two days of touring. Day 3 and day 14. Day 14 is incredible. The only problem I had...I didn't know to expect it to occur. It pleasantly shocked me when it happened but I didn't know it was coming so I couldn't work with it the way I could now.