I'm definitely improving. I did a route in December that I was calling "very hilly" and it almost killed me. Now I don't even consider that ride "really riding", it's just the route home I take. There was another hill last year that I was deep into my granny gear to make it up. I rode up it last week in my middle cog. Still a tough hill, but I never thought of dropping down to the granny gear.

The biggest change is now I look for hills whereas last year I was looking to avoid hills.

Now I just need to lose weight