I have some questions for you. When you are doing hill intervals on your slower hill, are you trying to push as long as you can for periods of time. It is hard for me to give you advice without knowing how long your short hill is?

How long does it take you to climb your short hill? If it is say 10 minutes, do this or a variation. Go easy, i.e. in a smaller gear breathing as easily and you can and relax for 1 minute. Then, click up a gear or two, and go as hard as you think you can without blowing and getting off your bike for 1 minute; keep repeating this till you get to the top of the hill.

You can vary this type of workout, i.e. go for 2 minutes, easy for 2; go for 3 easy for 3; or once you start to recover faster, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy; etc. Also, as it seems to get easier, you can click up to a harder gear to change the work out. Just make sure you don't bog down too much; you want to spin a certain amount to be efficient. Try for 55-60 rpms as a newbie on hills, unless it is so steep you just can't do it!

After you do these workouts as described above, your body will be able to sustain your output to the top. What you will have done is train your body to go harder for periods of time;then when you try that long hill for the second time, you just go as if you were on one of the easy parts of your interval training. Your body has been trained to go faster and harder, so you should be able to sustain your lower effort to the top. This is the first step, then you work on longer, faster, etc., etc. Remember, longer, sustained climbing is also in the head. It takes determination and willpower that when you start hurting (we all do), you just keep slogging away at it!

Good Luck!