Being a blood donor and a runner.

[Steve_L]

I've been thinking for quite some time that I ought to get organised and start donating blood again. Last week I registered online, and on Monday, I donated.

It didn't enter my head until afterwards to connect giving blood with my running, other than to have planned to do the deed on my Monday rest day. My scheduled run yesterday was a 40 minute easy paced run, which I absolutely loved; it felt effortless, and I coasted around my route, going on for 43 minutes and 7km or so. Then some of the information I'd read about giving blood started to nag at me. You give just under a pint; an average of 13% of the body's capacity. The plasma regenerates in about 24 hours. The white blood cells and platelets are replaced in a few days. The red blood cells, however, take maybe six to eight weeks to be fully replaced. On the face of it, that means that by giving blood, your aerobic capacity must be impaired by more than 10%, no?

Today's run was intervals. Ten minute warm up at easy pace, then three repeats of eight minutes at threshold pace and two minute recovery (then I jogged home in about ten minutes. Total run just over 7km.

I feel ok now, but the run was very hard work, and looking at the stats, the threshold pace sections were quite a bit slower than the last time I did intervals. Googling a bit on the subject, it looks like it takes maybe 2-4 weeks to recover the pre-donation pace.

Anyone else had experience of giving blood as a runner?

[Megzig Graduate]

I'm not a regular blood donor but gave blood about 3 weeks ago now. I can't say I have noticed any lasting side effects but I did take it easy on my first few runs after donating.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate]

I can't comment on giving blood as I have issues with aneamia (hence why I can't give blood) and when my levels are at the low end I get very breathless when I run. It's starts about 10 mins in which for me is apparently when I go to use the reserves. I suppose with anything we are a well oiled machine and the body is very capable of adjusting but just because it can it dosent always mean it is happy too. I think your right to just take it a little easier after giving blood for a couple of days.

[gary_bart]

I've donated about 4 times since I started to exercise sometime in the new year. At the level of capacity I started at, it was hard to tell if donating was having an impact, because everything was difficult, anyway.

I've just now recently donated, and went spinning the next day. It felt OK. If there's an effect I don't think it's something any healthy person who's not depending on hitting maximum performance as an athlete would need to worry about. That's one of the keys, I think. I'm guessing that some percentage of your oxygen capacity is just in reserve for being chased by hungry wolves, hungrily pushing a bit harder to keep up with that ibex you're trying to run into the ground, or for that last little bit of something you need to max out your marathon time. (For sprinting, apparently you just go anaerobic all the way, and breath away the lactic acid later). If this is the nature of the last 10%, then maybe you don't miss it much? (Crude model, I know).

We were actually discussing the effects of donation at the clinic. The nurse reckoned that someone my weight could easily donate a litre instead of a pint. I weigh more than 100 kg, so have something like 8L of blood. I think someone who weighs 50 kg might have more than 4L of blood, but would have significantly less. The 50 kg donor can safely donate a pint, so I should be able to donate a litre. And actually he reckoned I could probably donate 1.5L without problems. They're very conservative in what they take from you. I think Indhran (the nurse - had to write that name down eventually to remember it) is kind of half a doctor (by self-education) because he always knows the details of any medical complaint of anyone there (nothing makes him happier than getting someone in who has some medical problem to interrogate them about, and discuss it in quite some depth). So because I think he knows what he's talking about, I think I'd be fine with donating more blood, or donating more frequently. Obviously you have no basis upon which to trust or mistrust my source, so you'd have to do some further research to satisfy your curiosity.

I suppose (retracting some of that speculation and contradicting myself a bit) you could probably treat the blood donation as just a kind of hill as long as you didn't have some competitive event coming up in which you wouldn't want to have to climb an extra hill the others could just bypass. It might offer the benefit of introducing some resistance into your training, and help you to work your heart a bit harder.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Along with changes to the arrangements of the visiting donor unit, but largely due to the long recovery period after giving blood, my wife has ceased being a donor after about 20 years. She felt her performance was impaired for a good week and would feel faint in the first few days running after donation.

[AnnieW55]

I am a regular donor and never had any problems. Donation day is Friday and I don't run on that day but do run slowly on the Sunday after. After that I'm good to go and carry on as normal. I did run a half the week after one donation (bad timing) and managed ok although it was hard.

[Michael_W Graduate]

I concur. Takes about a month after donating till my running to feel back to normal. Doesn't stop me though, and if anything if anything it eases the mental pressure to run at a particular level because I know my energy levels are down. All I do is have a break for a few days afterwards while the fluids restore.

[catchmeifucan]

Hi Steve, I donated on tuesday evening and having donated at least two or three times before since starting running know that I'll probably feel the effect for a week or two. It doesn't stop me running, or at least I'll leave it at least a couple of days before doing so, but I just know that it'll just make it more of a 'slog' than it might normally be over the following first few runs.

[Steve_L Graduate in reply to catchmeifucan]

That's certainly what I've found in my three runs since Monday - though bizzarely, Tuesday was the least difficult!

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

I donate twice a year (when I am in UK the French won't take English blood....) I've not found it makes a noticeable difference to my running, but I'm not at your level. I would just schedule a couple of shorter, easier runs for the first week, then I forget all about it...