Originally Posted by Clmason

i had the exact same experience as you. I learned though experience the trick to climbing while standing. The problem i experienced with being zapped right away when standing is because I (& likely you) are in too high of a gear and was not benifiting from gravity pulling me down. So try instead of standing while in the highest or near highest gear (1 in the front and 1-3 in the back) stand and climb in a middle gear. (For me that is a more typical gear for cruising, 2 in the front and 5-6 in the back. ) when you do this each pedal cycle is much more productive and has a lot more resistance. This is good because you can hold your weight on the handle bars and then release your weight on the downstroke, using gravity to do a lot of the work.

as far as my hills, they are legit( I think). My ride last weekend had 2,000' of ascent over 30 miles. The big hill on my route is about 500' on a 1.8% grade.

let me know if this gearing strategy works for your hill climbs. Good luck and enjoy!