Riding hills is a great way to get stronger. You should try doing repeats on the hill. Ride up hard, recover on the way down and repeat. Start off just doing 2 or 3 repeats and work your way up. Not only will you get stronger, but you will train your body to recover quickly from hard efforts. It's best to use a climb that takes around 10 minutes or so, Newport Coast Drive is a popular repeat hill, along with Vista Ridge and Ridge Park up at the top. You're not going to get stronger by the 4th, in fact if you start pushing it hard now, you'll probably do more harm than good, as it takes your body a couple of weeks to fully recover from hard work outs. I'm not saying don't do them, just don't expect results by the 4th. If you start doing hill repeat/intervals, only do them once or twice a week and get a good recovery inbetween, otherwise you're going to trash yourself. Good luck...
