Hills is good.
Hills is wunnerful.
Hills hurt so fooking much we had to make a thread about the sodding things which I think was linked to earlier,

Mate, there are three secrets to hills.
The first is gearing and we can not guide you on that because we don't wear your body. In my case, my hills wear lots of cogs.
The second is technique. I'm not going to argue the bulldust of clipless pedals and stupid shoes but others will so rather than confuse you, make your own choice (clipless do not help, they only fool you into thinking they do but heck, billions of roadies disagree).
The third is stubborness. Actually, it's mental attitude which is a different critter. If you have the (genuine) mental issues I have, that's a real problem, if you're just normal and lazy, it's different. Within a certain envelope though, sometimes it IS just a matter of refusing to give up ... anyone who claims it's always just a matter of refusing to give up is an idiot there's no point arguing because they don't know it yet.

Hills. Get the gearing that makes the most sense to you, going up AND down - this will vary with time. Make sure you've got a good technique which means you're not pulling or tugging or stressing or anything other than just spinning the pedals. Remember that for every hill for every rider, eventually, the 24 inch gear (two feet) makes the most sense.