My Cauliflower Nightmare

I've eaten cauliflower before, mainly if it was part of an entree, but I've never actually purposefully sought out to cook and eat a cauliflower. I know cauliflower is a super gassy veggie (like way worse than beans) which has always been a major turn off for me.

Recently, I've seen lots of recipes that use cauliflower as a substitute for carbs and people seem to love it and in the back of my head I keep thinking, "Don't they get gassy?... maybe its not as bad as I thought it was."

I made a recipe for cauliflower & lentil soup

And here's where the nightmare begins..

I had 2 bowls for lunch, I was so bloated and gassy for the entire day. My stomach kept cramping up. I was hungry but I couldn't eat anything because my stomach was so bloated. Then my blood sugar was getting low, so I was shaking and getting the sweats, but I couldn't eat anything. My stomach was so expanded I looked like I was going on my 3rd trimester of a cauliflower-baby-monstrosity.
I had a  4 mile trail run planned that I had to cut short because I felt like I was either going to vomit, or shart myself. In pain I went home and tried to have dinner and sleep it off.

Around 1 am, my stomach pains violently woke me up. Then around 2-3 am I was regurgitating my days meals. I felt much better after that, but now here's the Worse part (what it gets worse? YES!)

The vomiting caused the blood vessels around my eyes and face to burst. It looks like I have black eyes.
I'm trying every remedy I can find online to reduce the blotchy-redness. 

Its safe to say, I'm not eating cauliflower again. It actually looks Better in the picture. In person its waaay worse

I Don't Taper

I do understand there are benefits to tapering, but its not for me.. I tried it and I didn't like it.. and thus

I Don't Taper

First things first: what is tapering? In a nut-shell, greatly reducing mileage and training 2-3 weeks prior or a race.

-Training doesn't stop after the race/event

I feel when a person tapers 2-3 weeks before their race, it makes the race the "end goal", the finale. So what happens after the race, do you continue to train, take a break or find another race?
The normal taper timeline is 2-3 week taper, race, then 1-2 weeks off  (still enjoying the race high), then after another 1-2 weeks later you start considering another race. By that time, its 2-3 months out since you last really "trained" so then you need start from square 1 again with another 16 week training program.

-Loss of Endurance

I lose endurance so fast I should be a science experiment. I'm fit and healthy and I have a blood pressure score of 106/60 on a bad day, but I believe biology is not to my benefit and my circulation is weaker. I always feel I have a circualation issue which doesn't see to go away no matter how many miles I run or weights I lift. 1-2 weeks of not running or a reduce mileage is not going to work for me. There are some people who can keep their endurance for months.. for me 1 week of not running and its GONE.

-Itchy legs

This goes hand and hand with the loss of endurance. You know that 'itchy' feeling you get when you start working out after being sedentary for a while? (That itchy feeling is actually capillaries expanding to provide more blood to the muscles). If I reduce mileage for a week, by race day, my legs are itching like crazy. Told ya, I have bad circulation.

-Poor Performance
Tapering is supposed to get you body rested up so you can kick ass on race day. Instead, it makes me have the worse race possible. My legs are itchy, my lungs burn (loss of endurance) and I'm just M I S E R A B L E!

Alternative:
Instead, I do take it a easier the week leading up the race, mainly to avoid injury and not do something stupid like to try rock climbing for the first time, but I still run high mileage and do my cross training. I treat the race just like a normal training weekend, except its harder with more people, and I have to wake up earlier.
I take a normal rest day following the race and training resumes back to my normal schedule.

Now just cus tapering doesn't work for me, I'm not saying it wont work for you. I believe you know your body best and you know what it needs. Listen to what your body is saying and flow with it. If you hate the taper schedule, don't taper just cus someone or some training plan told you so. Experiment and see what works for you. :)

Happy Racing,
Lily