How many of you did a practice, or shakedown tour before you set off on your first long tour?

If you did, did you find it beneficial?

If you did not, did you wish you had?

Did you have some experience of some sort which would apply to cycle touring before you set off on a cycling tour ... such as:
... you and your family went camping every summer so you had a pretty good idea about setting up a campsite, etc.
... or you had done a lot of cycling before you decided to tour with your bicycle
... or you were a generally outdoors sort of person
... or ... ?


'Tis the season for the cycletourists to start hitting the road again, and we're already starting to get questions about the long/long-ish tours people have planned, so I thought it might be beneficial for the new cycletourists to hear from those who have been there and done that.