What's to know? It's all about strength to weight. If you want to go up faster (or at all in some cases), increase your strength, decrease your weight or both. The cheap weight to lose is the adipose on your body. Another source of weight loss is all the extra stuff you are bringing along out of habit. Do you really need everything you're carrying?

Some cycling adages retain their relevance no matter what type of rider one is. As Eddy said, "Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades." This is the way to become a stronger cyclist.

A word of caution: Your muscles will get stronger faster than the connective tissue. If you increase your workload too fast, those tendons will let you know. Unfortunately, by the time they start talking to you, you're in for a bit of a backwards journey as you heal.