Thank you all for some good advice and some interesting comments. Here's a bit more detail, but I think I've got what I need to work on.

"Kid" : Some kind person keeps referring to the 'kid'. I'm 44 and most of the people I ride with are in their 40s and 50s. The only difference is they have been riding for many moons and I'm just a rookie.

"Fit" : Bike fit is something that has been constantly evolving for me as my strength, technique and ability improves. Every few weeks I tinker around with the seat position and am now working on lowering the handlebar in small steps. Some of this tinkering is based on advice from the people I ride with who notice little things and from my body responses to the changes I make. I even maintain a log of changes I make.

The Group : the group that I ride with is AMAZINGLY helpful and are constantly giving me good advice on fit, technique, gearing etc. I used to get dropped in the 1st mile when I started and now I can stay on for 10-15 miles and sometime even finish the 25-30 mile rides with the group.

Drafting : yes, I'm good at drafting and typically can stay with the group easier in a double paceline and rotate off the lead quickly. While in a single paceline, I need to rotate off very quickly from the lead, else I can't catch the tail after 3-4 rotations. While riding in a large group at 20-25 mph, I make sure I'm somewhere in the middle of the pack and thus limit wind turbulence from the back as well. Clearly I need to work harder and draft less to be able to get stronger.

Gearing: I don't ride in one gear as someone suggested. I use at least 15 of the 20 gears -- all the cogs on the rear sprocket with the big crank wheel and 5 bigger cogs (lower gears) with the smaller crank wheel. Optimal timing of gearing changes based on road gradient changes is something I'm working on.

Climbing : To get faster on climbs I need to get into higher gears, but my legs get tired and so I drop into a lower gear and start spinning with a high cadence and then I can't get enough speed. Climbing hills that are more that 1/2 mile result in alternation of low gear spin and high gear off the saddle pedaling.

Guess I just need more time, more mileage, keep working on technique and get stronger, but I was hoping at least someone would say I need a lighter full carbon frame bike ;-)

Thanks, V