So, ultimately, my goal is to take a little off the low end with this bike.

I have trouble pushing anything harder than say, 53- 16 or so. The only time I ever use anything harder than that is if I'm pushing hard downhill. Is that normal?

I suppose I could run compact cranks with 50-36 or 39, instead of the standard compact 34 to make shifting a little smoother. Is that an option?