Is there a Hill Slope Preference?

[OakLeaf]

IMO it was definitely physical when I experienced it last fall. The hills were too shallow to stand up and push. But when I stayed in the saddle, my bike - and therefore my body - was at a completely different angle than it is on the hills I'm used to. So yes, I was using different muscles. Plus, they were too steep to spin, but too shallow to power up, so I was left with a cadence of 75-80 rpm, which my legs just didn't know how to do.

Actually, they felt more like wind than like hills, in that downshifting to a shorter gear just seemed to make me go slower without making the effort noticeably easier.

The frustration with going 13-14 mph, on something that hardly looked like a hill, was all mental, though.