JHawk, regarding
#3 . hills
make peace with the hill at the bottom, you set the pace, not the hill. Go the same speed at the bottom as you would at the top. Not the speed you can no longer maintain because you pushed hard the moment the incline increased. Pushing at the bottom then being forced to a lower gear as you slow down simply loads up your muscles with lactic acid that has to be metabolized as you ride. It's a great way to get stronger but it requires recovery. If you don't budget for recovery your body will force it on you through exhaustion or injury.
Going boringly slow at the bottom of a hill will do a few things, it'll leave you less tired at the top of the hill and at the end of the day, on average your total mileage will be the same. The other thing is that it will give you a learning opportunity for developing better hill climbing technique.
Think of it this way, you ride along a flat road at a fairly steady effort of 60% and when a hill approaches that takes 30min. to climb you charge into it pushing the same gear until the effort hits 90% and you're forced into downshifting until you're finally down to a manageable 75% effort. When you get to the top you coast recovering from an effort that is greater than your flatland cruising. Next time you come to the hill downshift way early, maybe even raising your cadence from your flatland cadence. Instead of pushing hard to 90% until you are forced by your physical limits to a lower gear spin a bit faster to a 75% effort. Eventually you'll discover that riding up a hill at a consistent effort without bursts of effort will leave you with energy to enjoy the view and ride a few more miles.
If you want to jam up hills do it with an unloaded bike. Think of your loaded bike like a loaded truck, there's nothing to be gained pushing limits except an overheated engine and using lots of fuel. The idea is to get over the hill, not break the engine or watching billowing black smoke pour out the exhaust. Keep it cool.