Looks like your on the right track fitness wise you should be fine so many guys in whitetail country THINK they are in shape but quickly realize they are not anywhere near where they want to be which would really suck to figure out on a trip you looked foward to all year. I live in Indiana which is as flat maybe even flatter than a pancake and I seem to do ok always can improve but the workout routine will greatly increase your odds of success and just make for a better hunting experience. Sounds like you probably have a basic amount of backpacking eqp which should make this year a little cheaper for you

. It was an investment for me optically to just transition from Elk to Mule deer. I could get by with just some 10x42s for Elk but not Mule deer hunting. Not sure what kind of optics you have but a tripod of some sort with some 12x, 15x, or spotter would come in mighty handy. I just got a suiri tripod with a benro s2 head this year I think came out to like 170 bucks total not to bad seems like a good set up will find out this oct on a rifle deer hunt. I had a thread started a while back in the optics section on recommended backpacking tripods. I got a pair of 10x, and 16-48x65 spotter and plan on getting a pair of 15x56s this year which go anywhere from like 400-2200 bones. The optics will be the biggest investment if you don't already have them you just don't want to go out with only a 8x or 10x for most mule deer hunts unless your maybe still hunting timber. Some guys are going the 12x bino route instead of carrying 10x and 15x, I think it depends on what you feel like carrying your budget and uses. I know I got off topic of areas to hunt but I just figured I'd give some insight as to what your getting into beyond the hunting unit. Theres a lot to take in hunting out of state for new species, mature whitetails are difficult to kill just like any other mature big game animal they are just generally different hunts that req different skills.