I'm not enjoying the hill thing at all this summer, and I don't think I know what "spinning" actually is. I tend to ride at whatever gear allows me to cruise along pretty easily and quickly; I like speed with reasonable effort. But I was wondering about my approach a couple months ago when I happened alongside a woman going about my pace, but her pedals were going around a lot faster than mine. This was on roughly a flat bit for maybe 10 seconds total where we kept abreast (until the urge came over me and I pulled ahead ). My question is, am I doing it "wrong"? Should I be aiming for more spinning in a lower (easier, whatever) gear than pushing my muscles harder force-wise against the pedals? What IS spinning?

Which gets me back to the hills thing; I'm wondering if I aim for more spinning, if it might help me with hills somehow? I have a commute to work that's less than a mile and a half, but on the way home it's almost entirely uphill, and a fairly steep hill at that. I was slogging my way home in the lowest gear the other day when some guy on a road bike (mine's a flat-bar road bike) CRUISED past me up the hill and away. I'd have thrown my pannier at him if he'd not been in the next county by that time. Am I just so out of shape? I mean, I'm not exactly lean and mean right now, but...really? What am I doing wrong?