I'm about 2 years now riding a bike. Gary in NJ I didn't have the advantage of prior fitness you have but I wasn't overweight at the start and I'm short. At my heaviest I was 159 pounds 5'6", normal weight for me is 148 pounds and I'm now 62 years old. Right now my weight is about 138 pounds.
This time last year, even with the ability to ride a flat half century or more, I couldn't climb my way out of a shoe box, I mean this literally. A granny gear was no help. I sucked at the hills no matter how you look at it. Over last winter I started working on my climbing the best I could, using a fluid trainer and Zwift. I'm located right over in NE PA (Carbon County) and have local hills galore.
Gary I would describe my method of climbing as quite similar to yours in most details. All I can say is it works, I ride with a fairly large club, usually at least once a week and my climbing ability while not at honcho levels, still usually puts me at the top of a hill kinda, sorta one of the first in the group C+/B- riders. I have gone from being a hill climbing embarrassment to getting an occasional at-a-boy from other riders.
I find that on a 12% +/- long grade I will start to lose momentum just going by the way I feel rather than my actual cadence and it is at that point that I stand, usually for about a minute maybe less. This is how I generally survive a long climb, doing this over and over a few times but not to excess. Over this winter I want to work on extending the amount of time I can stand. My cadence is probably less than most experienced riders, I struggle with 90 rpm for more than short periods of time. 70 rpm is more my style. I have better luck by trying to keep my HR in the 165-170 range. I don't know if this is normal or not but when first start a ride it generally takes me about 10 miles to get my legs to stop complaining and working for me. My bike has a triple CR, 52-42-30, a 11-26 freehub. I do my best to avoid using the 30 CR, most climbs i use the 42 and I try to use the 52 on moderate hills as I think I'm more of a masher not a spinner.
If what you are doing works my vote is to run with it.
Last edited by Thomas15; 09-24-20 at 07:18 AM.