ks1g

What #2 and #3 said. Also, evaluate your pedaling style - do you prefer mashing (higher gearing/lower cadence) or spinning (lower gearing/faster cadence)? Relatively minor equipment changes may help some, although the above recommened improvemants in the "motor" will help more.

I'm a spinner, and I do better (relatively speaking - I think I climb well until a real climber shows up) using a cassette with larger cogs for hillier events. I used an 11-28 for a moderately hilly century recently and a 12-32 on a very hilly one last weekend. 34x32 is a pretty low gear. I have SRAM 10-speed, and install a longer-cage Apex rear derailluer to accomodate the 32-tooth cog. And a longer chain - while you can tell yourself you'll never shift into big-big, unless you are obsessive about checking the cog you're in, one day you will click one time too many and lock up the drive train (and if you are really lucky, be able to un-jam it without bending/breaking anything and without a lot of cuss words). I also did this with 9-speed Shimano Ultegra (the long-cage rear derailluer they sold for 53/42/30 road triples worked well enough, although way outside of Shimano's specs) and I've read where people doing hill climbs and touring have done similar using an MTB derailluer and cogs. Could I have done last weekend's ride with a 34x28 low gear? I think so, but it was much more comfortable and I seem to climb faster when I can spin, event if it's only a 12.5% higher cadence.

After that, find climbs typical of what you expect to encounter and incorporate hill repeats into your event preparation. Try different styles (sit/spin, stand, combo) and see what gets you up faster or easier. If you are numbers-oriented or obsessive, track your best times and see how it improves (it will) over a season. If you have a GPS-enabled bike computer or phone, use Strava to create a private segment and it will keep track for you.