Building a bigger engine

This is a critical time of year for training. Rides are to be done in the "endurance zone." I am told that it gets your heart, lungs, and muscles prepared to do harder efforts that come later down the line. Where I am at now, there is an up and downside to it. The upside is that, being that I was essentially off the bike for three months and living on beer and frites, I don't have much more than an endurance pace in my body. The downside is that when I am in a group, and they are also doing endurance zone, I am at the very upper end of my zone, when they have just entered theirs. It is kind of making training with others a bit more difficult. I do have to say that I am feeling a lot better than I did just three weeks ago when I started my season. I also found out that I have a rather large descrepancy between my left and right leg. I am left leg dominant, (which can lead to a much larger conversation about what body part does what better than the other in my life) but when pedalling a bike, I have a big hole in the pedal stroke on my left leg. My right can, on its own, produce a reasonable facsimilie of a circle. My left has a rather large deadspot between the ten and two o'clock position. That is something that needs to be worked on more sooner than later. The last thing is that I have to de-fat myself a bit prior to what is going to be my season opener.
Well, the football team that I am a fan of lost yesterday to the team that I hate the most. The Eagles knocked off the Giants. So, quite honestly my football watching season is now over. It has become more and more difficult for me to watch the game. Between the criminals playing widout, the showboating of the running backs and the awful dances performed by the defensive lineman after a tackle or a sack. Each year it gets easier for me to get up during a game, to do something completely different. Though I have to say, I still enjoy watching offensive lineplay. It is a position I held for twelve years growing up, and I like watching the front five (or six if you have a good tight end) do work. The thing is, I have no back up team. It is all hockey and cycling now. The hockey season is half way over and the road season starts next week.
The weather is looking pretty good for the forseeable future. I just need some more sunlight at the end of the day. I can join a night mountain bike ride on Tuesday, the issue is that right now I have neither lights nor a mountain bike. Since I have been back a bit over a week, I needed a new rear wheel to be built and now then my fork took the proverbial dump on me. Thankfully the head wrench at the shop has a clinic covering rebuilding suspension forks today and tomorrow. That means I should be good to go this coming weekend. I am also having a remote lockout put on the handlebars, I just don't have it in me to reach those eight or so inches to the top of the fork to lock it out.
Hope ya'll had a good weekend. Respect each other