I've just put together a custom cassette with a 30 T cog because I want to do some touring in the mountains of New Hampshire. I did not want wider spacing in the higher gears. So it may be you can just change out one cog of your existing cassette to achieve the low gear you need and are otherwise satisfied with the other gears.
I am also mightily influenced by how smooth and effortless the best athletes make their sports appear. My experience is with skiing and tennis. It is a pleasure to just watch good athletes perform. Along this line of thinking, I enjoy watching this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRFNK...eature=channel. The man in the video is very fit obviously but he is also very smooth - no wasted energy. My knees are on fire climbing but I'm getting better. Like Bluesdawg suggests, I'm paying attention to the pedal stroke and trying to look like the guy in the video although I'll never be that young again.