Mojp Slim: Very cool accomplishment. Any time you can improve your climbing, it's good news.

If you continue with the "Big Ring" at least one day per week. You should see your power go up pretty quickly. Are you doing your climbing seated or standing? If your knees are able to deal with the bigger gears while seated, it's a good idea to mix this up too. I'm not surprised that your speed was a bit faster. My experience has been that many riders could actually ride hills much more effectively if they didn't gear down quite so low. Recently, I've been attacking several of the moderate hills in my area my moving two or three steps toward a higher gear at the start of the hill. I try to keep from going lower than the gear I was in when I got to the base of the hill for as long as possible. It's made a tremendous difference in how much energy I have when I crest the hill.

Conversely, even during the middle of the season, I ride a fix gear ride about once every ten days in a modertely low gear. This helps keep my stroke smooth and often helps my legs recover from harder rides.