Giving Blood

Pro

4612

MA

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

My experience is that 24 hrs is good. Make sure you eat and drink enough. Take it easy on the first workout.
Next time you might want to schedule you blood-giving on a day of your workout. Do it after the exercising, and schedule the following day as the read day.

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Champion

5117

Brandon, MS

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

Just don't do any long stuff on the weekend just to be safe. I'd take it easy no matter how far you go, but that's me. When I was donating regularly, it would be a 4-5 days before I felt "right" again during any work out. I certainly didn't take any long rides away from the house. I passed out on mile 15 of a July 4th ride two days after giving blood. Learned my lesson.

Edited by sesh 2009-07-30 9:26 PM

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Member

29

New York, NY

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

Everyone feels differently giving blood. I can usually do moderate workouts within a day of giving blood, sometimes I even do an easy swim later that day. Just be sure to drink lots of water!

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Master

1478

Horseheads, NY

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

D.K. - 2009-07-30 9:45 PM My experience is that 24 hrs is good. Make sure you eat and drink enough. Take it easy on the first workout.
Next time you might want to schedule you blood-giving on a day of your workout. Do it after the exercising, and schedule the following day as the read day.

X2 - I usually schedule my appointment in the afternoon, do my workout at lunch time and either plan a rest day or light day the day after donating. I rarely have an issue during the next days workout but sometimes I feel more tired after the workout.

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Elite

3371

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

I used to give blood within an hour of a track workout. Didn't really notice anything...not that I'd recommend it. Like an above poster said, everyone is different.

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Master

2426

Central Indiana

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

As long as you rehydrate well you should be good to go in a few hours for moderate workout. Only thing is your max oxygen delivery will be down slightly since your body takes a week or so to rebuild your red blood cell mass (reverse blood doping effect).

Edited by Oldteen 2009-07-31 8:04 AM

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Member

239

Apex, NC

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

I've only noticed slight reductions in capacity when running the day after donating. Never noticed anything outside of that.

I do, however, schedule donations either in the week after a race or no less than 10 days prior to a race. No need to chance anything even though I'm not going for podiums or Kona slots.

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Master

2277

Lake Norman, NC

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

I donate blood all the time and can have a moderate workout the next day and then I'm back to full speed within 48 hours. No big deal. Although I think I'm big enough that I have quite a bit more than just 10 pints of blood in me!

Extreme Veteran

682

Canton, MI. via Detroit

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

Thanks for the tips. My next race (sprint) is Aug. 19th so I will have plenty of time to recover. Right now my legs are trashed from to many bricks, so a few days rest will fit right in with my weekend.

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Veteran

112

Columbus, OH

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

I used to be a regular blood giver, but stopped when started tri training last fall because I was worried about the affect on training, so I have no experience recovering after giving blood.

I donated today and they asked me to give 'double red blood cells' where they take out twice the amount of red blood cells as normal and put back everything else - plasma, platelets, etc. I agreed to do this because the Red Cross said it helps them more than a regular pint.    The nurses told me it would actually help my workouts the rest of the week after resting today because my body will replace the "old/tired" red blood cells they take with new cells which are more efficient at carrying oxygen when first created.

My question - is that a load of crap and will I faint during my run tomorrow? It would seem that taking twice the red blood cells would kill my workouts.  Anyone have any experience working out after this type of donation?

thanks,
cliff

Veteran

441

Clearwater, FL

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

cscottjr - 2009-08-03 11:27 AM My question - is that a load of crap and will I faint during my run tomorrow? It would seem that taking twice the red blood cells would kill my workouts.

I think of it like clearcutting a forest. You clear out a significant number of trees and reduce the forest's ability to process air. The forest will be able to function pretty well, but won't be up to snuff until it replaces the trees - period. If you double up on the tree chopping, you reduce the forest's capacity even further and increase the length of time to recovery. You can't circumvent chemistry.

Extreme Veteran

682

Canton, MI. via Detroit

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

I don't know about double red cell. 24 hours after my regular donation I ran for an hour and 20 minutes. No problem.

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Champion

8936

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

Detroit Dan - 2009-08-03 11:59 AM I don't know about double red cell. 24 hours after my regular donation I ran for an hour and 20 minutes. No problem.

Big difference between training comfortably and racing.

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Expert

937

Traverse Cityish

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

Detroit Dan - 2009-07-31 11:00 AM

Thanks for the tips. My next race (sprint) is Aug. 19th so I will have plenty of time to recover. Right now my legs are trashed from to many bricks, so a few days rest will fit right in with my weekend.

That should be enough recovery time to race at max potential. I'll never give blood within two weeks of a race. In fact I'm stingy and will only give in the off season.

175

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

I'm kind of stingy with my blood now too. I used to give regularly, but after a few years of that it would take me maybe a month after donating before I was back to my regular long workouts. Turns out I was anemic. Doctor told me no more donating whole blood.

They won't take my platelets or plasma either, since something is off with my counts. So now I donate maybe once a year because my body won't let me donate more.

So now my blood is MINE!!! ALL MINE!!!!!

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, Texas

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

cscottjr - 2009-08-03 10:27 AM I used to be a regular blood giver, but stopped when started tri training last fall because I was worried about the affect on training, so I have no experience recovering after giving blood.

I donated today and they asked me to give 'double red blood cells' where they take out twice the amount of red blood cells as normal and put back everything else - plasma, platelets, etc. I agreed to do this because the Red Cross said it helps them more than a regular pint.    The nurses told me it would actually help my workouts the rest of the week after resting today because my body will replace the "old/tired" red blood cells they take with new cells which are more efficient at carrying oxygen when first created.

My question - is that a load of crap and will I faint during my run tomorrow? It would seem that taking twice the red blood cells would kill my workouts.  Anyone have any experience working out after this type of donation?

thanks,
cliff

I think that's a load of crap. After giving a double-red for the first time in June, I'll never do that again. I just started donating blood regularly this year and had zero problems after my normal whole blood donation in Feb. After my double-red in June, I felt more out of shape than I have in a long time, mostly just an exhausted feeling. I rode my bike to work the next day and could not hold 15mph on flat road where I normally am at 20+ mph. It took me a week or so to feel decent running/biking and about a full month until my swimming was back to where it was just prior to the donation. I did a little digging around and found that it takes 4-6 weeks for your body to replenish your red blood cells. I also found alot on blood doping, but that's the other way around (pumping your blood with extra RBCs).

I'm going to continue to donate, but will go the whole blood route from now on.

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Veteran

112

Columbus, OH

Subject: double red donation follow up

camy - 2009-08-03 3:14 PM

cscottjr - 2009-08-03 10:27 AM I used to be a regular blood giver, but stopped when started tri training last fall because I was worried about the affect on training, so I have no experience recovering after giving blood.

I donated today and they asked me to give 'double red blood cells' where they take out twice the amount of red blood cells as normal and put back everything else - plasma, platelets, etc. I agreed to do this because the Red Cross said it helps them more than a regular pint.    The nurses told me it would actually help my workouts the rest of the week after resting today because my body will replace the "old/tired" red blood cells they take with new cells which are more efficient at carrying oxygen when first created.

My question - is that a load of crap and will I faint during my run tomorrow? It would seem that taking twice the red blood cells would kill my workouts.  Anyone have any experience working out after this type of donation?

thanks,
cliff

I think that's a load of crap. After giving a double-red for the first time in June, I'll never do that again. I just started donating blood regularly this year and had zero problems after my normal whole blood donation in Feb. After my double-red in June, I felt more out of shape than I have in a long time, mostly just an exhausted feeling. I rode my bike to work the next day and could not hold 15mph on flat road where I normally am at 20+ mph. It took me a week or so to feel decent running/biking and about a full month until my swimming was back to where it was just prior to the donation. I did a little digging around and found that it takes 4-6 weeks for your body to replenish your red blood cells. I also found alot on blood doping, but that's the other way around (pumping your blood with extra RBCs).

I'm going to continue to donate, but will go the whole blood route from now on.

I went for a run 24 hrs after my "double red" donation and it did significantly impact my workout. I did about 3 miles, which is half the distance of my normal long run. I know that's not long for most people, but I'm new to tri's and I'm not much of a runner.

Anyway, my pace for the 3 miles was about 1 min/mile slower than my normal long run pace and about 2 min/mile slower than my normal pace for a 3 mile run. My legs felt the same fatigue at the end of the run as if I had done the run at my normal 3 mile pace. I will see how it affects my swim tomorrow, but I may lay off the double-red donations for the future as well.

Elite

4048

Gilbert, Az.

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

cscottjr - 2009-08-03 8:27 AM The nurses told me it would actually help my workouts the rest of the week after resting today because my body will replace the "old/tired" red blood cells they take with new cells which are more efficient at carrying oxygen when first created.

That's a load of crap. I hope they were using that as a line to convince you rather than really believing it. A blood cell doesn't "lose" carrying capacity. A RBC has a life span of about 120 days. It doesn't "diminish" in capacity. The only thing that will do that is less iron in the blood, and that's a dietary thing. "Tired" blood is a horrible term, it's actually anemia, not "tired".

John

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Champion

7495

Schwamalamadingdong!

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

THANK YOU for donating blood.

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Expert

1067

Douglaston, NY

Subject: RE: Giving Blood

camy - 2009-08-03 3:14 PM

cscottjr - 2009-08-03 10:27 AM I used to be a regular blood giver, but stopped when started tri training last fall because I was worried about the affect on training, so I have no experience recovering after giving blood.

I donated today and they asked me to give 'double red blood cells' where they take out twice the amount of red blood cells as normal and put back everything else - plasma, platelets, etc. I agreed to do this because the Red Cross said it helps them more than a regular pint.    The nurses told me it would actually help my workouts the rest of the week after resting today because my body will replace the "old/tired" red blood cells they take with new cells which are more efficient at carrying oxygen when first created.

My question - is that a load of crap and will I faint during my run tomorrow? It would seem that taking twice the red blood cells would kill my workouts.  Anyone have any experience working out after this type of donation?

thanks,
cliff

I think that's a load of crap. After giving a double-red for the first time in June, I'll never do that again. I just started donating blood regularly this year and had zero problems after my normal whole blood donation in Feb. After my double-red in June, I felt more out of shape than I have in a long time, mostly just an exhausted feeling. I rode my bike to work the next day and could not hold 15mph on flat road where I normally am at 20+ mph. It took me a week or so to feel decent running/biking and about a full month until my swimming was back to where it was just prior to the donation. I did a little digging around and found that it takes 4-6 weeks for your body to replenish your red blood cells. I also found alot on blood doping, but that's the other way around (pumping your blood with extra RBCs).

I'm going to continue to donate, but will go the whole blood route from now on.

I had the exact same experience after donating double reds and vowed never to do it again as well. Donating blood is a wonderful thing to do and I am happy to do it but not if it knocks me for a huge loop in the process.

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Giving Blood

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