bigskymacadam

How much time does one need after donating blood to resume centuries, racing, hard riding? I imagine lower impact rides can be done the next morning, but what about more strenuous exercise?

mscycler

I used to donate blood on a regular basis...then, travel (thanks to the Army) to a Western African country made my donating all but stop. With that said however, I remember running 3-5 miles the mornings after donating. Centuries the morning after, not real sure...my gut feeling would be that you would be ok, just not at your top form...just a guess though.

mscycler

'nother

24 hrs minimum for strenuous exercise, preferably 48 or more. Lots of people "can" do hard rides, runs, whatever even immediately after donating, but the risk of passing out or otherwise injuring yourself is drastically increased with lower blood volume. To me that risk is not worth the reward.

XC99TF00

Couldn't put it better myself. I had a teammate in high school on my cross-country team, and when he showed up to practice after giving blood the previous night, our coach wouldn't even let him do the workout with us. Better safe than sorry, last thing you want to do is injure yourself or those around you because you are not up to your normal standard, as good as you may feel. My coach's rule ended up being a 36 hours rule, so the kid had to run the workout by himself the next morning at 6 AM...

caloso

Agree with what's been said above. And I'd like to add that if your blood center offers it, ask about platelet donation. It takes longer (90-120 min v. 20-30 min.) but you keep most of your RBCs and you get to watch a movie (at least at Sacto Bloodsource). Since you keep all but a few m.l.s of red blood, you can train hard the next day.

mscycler

20-30 min...I must leak fast...I usually am done in 10 mins...

mscycler

caloso

You know, you're right. But it's been so long since I gave whole blood that I guess I forgot. Still, make sure to eat all the cookies you're offered. And don't be shy about asking for more (you know, to keep in the backpack or jersey pockets).

waterrockets 

When I was young enough to have really poor judgement, I did a tough 2-hour MTB ride with friends the day of the donation. I felt like I was riding at 20,000 feet. My alertness was fine, but my performance was really lacking. It was a VERY tough ride.

Six days later, I blew my personal record out of the water on a local climb (beat a 20 minute climb by a full minute). Coincidence? Who knows.

I, umm don't do that any more. I gave blood 5 days before a 24-hour race, and wished I hadn't.

Give yourself 2 or 3 weeks before you expect to really be back in full force.

johnny99

You should be able to resume training the next day. Don't expect to return to your same racing performance level for a couple of weeks, though. Donating lowers your red blood cell count, which has the opposite effect to EPO.

pathdoc

You'll need 24 or so to regain your blood volume and several day to restore you rbc's. Thanks for donating.

huffman 

I'm usually good a few days after giving whole blood BUT the last time the Red Cross asked me to do a double donation. They hook you up to a machine and they take out plasma & red cells then return saline. Two weeks later I've got guys that have never kept up with me riding ahead of me, even on short 12~15 mile rides. I'll never do that again, I don't feel bad but don't have the oomph I had.

SpongeDad

I agree re blood volume, but I think it takes longer than a few days to replace the RBC, more like a few weeks. Still you're only donating 1 pint out of approx 10, so you don't need to recover to 100% to be pretty close.

Az B

For me, about 3 days before I feel like anything strenous. Recovery and fun rides are fine. 10-14 days to top form.

I can't give blood in the US anymore. I lived in England and there's this Mad Cow paranoia right now.

Az

Bontrager

Granted this is not necess. the age group that ride in this forum, it is relevant nonetheless.

https://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB...name=30951.pdf

Background: International regulations for blood donation recommend a maximum donor age of 65 years. As the average population age is steadily rising in western societies, a considerable group of volunteers is lost to the donor base. Study Design and Methods: In a prospective study we investigated the effect of a 450-ml whole blood donation on the physical fitness and hemorheology of regular elderly allogeneic blood donors (n = 24, aged 63-69 years, mean = 65). Results were compared with a younger group of regular donors (n = 23, aged 55-62 years, mean = 58) and a group of elderly subjects (n = 7, aged 63-66 years, mean = 65), who did not donate blood for this study. Assessing the physical fitness, we determined the submaximal physical working capacity at a heart rate of 130 min-1 (PWC 130) and the maximal working capacity (MWC) by treadmill exercise testing the day before (day -1) and after donation (day +1). The impact of the blood loss on hemorheology was examined by analyzing the plasma viscosity before, during and after donation. Results: We found an increase of mean values of PWC 130 and MWC on day +1 in all study groups, but increases were only significant in the younger group (PWC 130 p = 0.03; MWC p = 0.04). Values did not differ significantly between the three groups. Plasma viscosity decreased significantly directly after donation in both groups of donors. Conclusion: A single blood donation did not alter the physical fitness of otherwise healthy elderly people. The older blood donors and the younger controls showed a similar compensation mechanism to blood loss. We found no general reason for disqualifying blood donors aged 65 years from donating.

littleredhorse

Need to have more warm up and cool down slowly, I have a experience that I stop quickly after riding for an hour in evening after blood donation at the morning, feel dizzy.... Need to sit down at once...

gurana

I asked this about 9 months ago or so. From what I remember, the general feeling was that you should give it at least 24 hours, which I believe is the Red Cross' suggestion. Although, there were a few responses from people saying that they rode their bikes to the donation center, and were fine for the ride back... not something I would personally attempt or suggest, but to each their own I suppose.

Since that time, I've just scheduled donations for days that I do not plan on riding.

cycle17

I also follow the three day rule. I find it's fine to do a moderate training ride the very next day. Just no high mileage or heavy intesity. I try to pay attention to the weather also, as far as heat and humidity. I with several others on this...better to be safe than sorry.

slowandsteady

Within 24 hours the blood volume(liquid component) is back to normal. However, the red blood cell componenent takes closer to three to five weeks to get back to normal! Years ago in college I gave blood and in 24 hours went to my track practice(sprinter). After about 20 minutes I had to lie down on a bench. I felt like I was going to die. Never again.

Just keep in mind that you will not have the same aerobic capacity that you did previously. You can accelerate the RBC replacement by eating lots of carbs and iron rich foods, but it will still take about three weeks to get back to normal if you do everything right.

Note: my experience may have been extreme for a couple of reasons
1. That time of the month
2. At the low end of the hematocrit cut off for the Red Cross prior to blood donation

ken cummings

Mscycler, try re-reading the post you respomded to. He was talking about PLASMA donation, not whole blood. 90 minutes was the standard time for all the times I donated plasma. 120 minutes the few times I donated white blood cells for a specific cancer victim. If we want to talk Guiness Records here I was a volunteer at an African blood bank back in the vaccuum bottle days and timed a man at 2'40". Very big man, very big veins.

scarlr

I donate blood regularly and have no problem riding the next day. I donated last Thursday and yesterday morning I broke my personal record for the 26 mile ride I do every morning. I think that the larger you are the less effect is probably has on you. At 6' 3" and 220 pounds a unit of blood taken out of me is a much smaller percentage of my total blood than for someone who is say 5' 9" and 140 pounds.

Keith99

I've never made any adjustments relative to donating. However most of the time I would donate after work and that woulkd rule out any really huge ride right away.

Of course I'm also about 230 lbs. I think that makes a big difference. After all I'm giving only about half as much as a percentage of body weight compared to a minimum size donor.

Of course it will have a negative impact on performance so I would not recommend donating before any competition.

merlinextraligh

this is why transfusing with your own stored blood desn't give you much of a benefit. The loss of fitness , lost ability to train at your peak tends to offset the advantage you get when you put it back in.