take heart in knowing that your hill training will make you a much stronger rider than one who is limited to (or limits themselves to) flat-land rides. I live near a lake here in the Tx Panhandle and all of my routes involve considerable hill climbing with the exception of passing through the ~4 miles of town. I can typically ride twice as far on flat terrain as I can on the hills and the normal winds here seem insignificant when I am on flat ground compared to riding that same wind on the hills at home. Back on May 1st I drove over to a buddy's house just 35 miles away but into flat terrain. Even though my longest ride this year on hills was 17 miles, I was able to keep up with him on a 40 mile ride that day. Now that I have trained on my hills all summer, I can easily out run him on any of his "flat-landers" rides while he is whinning about the headwinds. But I don't; because I drive that distance to ride WITH him not against him.