Willing head but broken body.

Here is the message I send while tucked up in bed at Masakala. 

"If you accept that fitness is not the absence of exhaustion but rather the presence of recovery you will understand why I am broken. I entered that space yesterday before  Allendale and there has been no bounce back. As I sat at Allendale yesterday I was certain I was going to vomit and pass out. I have never felt so physically drained. Sitting here I am a further 160km's down the road and we have ridden through snow and into the teeth of an icy headwind for 18 hours. It hasn't been fun but we are over the half way mark to Rhodes. But now I am completely drained. Hopefully a good nights sleep will get me back on track and enable me to finish this thing. No records going to broken this year, just me!  Bedtime."

What stands out for me in this message is the juxtaposition of mind and body. I was physically drained yet cognitively aware of my depleted physical state. I was, as it were, an expert witness and commentator on my ongoing physical challenge. 

Charles Darwin said "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - the genesis of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Without couching it with careful phrasing it means dumb people are spared the ignominy of their stupidity because they can't see it. I on the other hand was spared nothing. I was fully aware of how pathetic my efforts were and at some level I was intrigued to see how this was going to pan out.