Today, I went to the blood donation center and gave a couple of pints. I used to give every 8 weeks, but I cut back after a doctor told me I shouldn’t. Now, I give blood only
twice a year.
My stats from today’s donation.
Blood Pressure : 108 / 74
Body Temp: 97.9 F
Pulse : 58
Considering that I’m going to continue my running streak (up to 15 days already!) I wondered what other runners had to say about donating blood and running. I stumbled across this article from runnersweb and found some interesting info. Looks like I should’ve waited ’til after the Tampa Bay Marathon. Oh well, maybe I saved a life.
Here area couple of things every joggler should know about…
Donating Blood and Running
1. Blood volumes. You typically donate a pint of blood (450 g) and it takes your body 2 to 3 days to recover the volume. It takes about 2 months to recover the lost red blood cells.
2. Drop in performance. When you have less blood, your body can carry less oxygen. Expect to lose about 10% of your typical performance ability. This will be most noticeable to long distance jogglers. Note some experts say it can take up to 3 months to regain total aerobic capacity. Yikes!
3. Recovering from donation. To get back in top-notch joggling form, be sure to drink extra fluids immediately after the donation and the next day. Also, make sure you are eating things with protein and iron in them to help replenish. The experts say think of a blood donation as a day of rest.
4. It’s not all bad. While you may have an initial reduction in performance, there is at least one theory that says donating may have the benefit of actually increasing the amount of red blood cell count when your body recovers. This would happen because your body might overshooting the target level. Just a theory though.
Most coaches will tell you not to do it. The loss of performance is too great a sacrifice. On the other hand, you could also be saving someone’s life. Isn’t missing your PR worth that?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Be carefull on your run today. Once in college, I donated blood in the early afternoon, and then played racquetball in the evening. About 15 min into the racquetball, I suddenly got tunnelvision, with everything except a small portion of my field of view going black. I was smart enough to call it quits at that point, and probably avoided totally passing out by a very little margin.
For those who want to give blood, but feel every 8 weeks is a bit too often for your schedule, look into an apheresis donation where they take out two units of redblood cells at once. You can only do this every 16wks. http://www.lifesource.org/donatingALYX.asp
Thanks for the tip Brian. I feel fine today but I will take it easy on the treadmill tonight. Maybe just 6 miles or so at a 7:30 pace. I’ll watch for the tunnel vision.
And thanks for the blood information. Saving a life seems good.
Wow! I did not know that about donating blood.
In 2002, at age 62, I was diagnosed with polycythemia vera (PV), a disease that causes my system to produce too many red blood cells (my hematocrit, or volume percentage of red cells in whole blood, was 56; normal for women is about 42). At the time of diagnosis, I was jogging 5-6 kilometers (about 4 miles) several times a week, down from 10-12 km a couple of years previously.
The treatment for uncomplicated PV is drawing lots of blood within a short time, far more than the equivalent of donating blood. Once my hematocrit fell to normal, I was hardly able to jog at all, getting exhausted after only 1 km, despite feeling better generally! I guess I had been doped for several years with all those excess red blood cells
Pola,
Thanks for the story. I hope your running is better now.
Very cool design! Useful information. Go on!n
You helped me more than my doctor, I accidentally ended up donating 1.4pint of blood a week after my blood tests X_X.. On the average I would jog about 5-6miles feeling light… and maintaining a HR of 50rested. But now I have a rested of 69 and can barely run 2miles… the doctor said it was all in my head, W/e this wont stop me I’m coming back Stronger!
Thank you so Much!,
Anthony Q.
Thanks for the kind words Anthony. Good luck on your upcoming workouts. I’ve found that doctors are often smart about specific diseases & treatments but they don’t always know much about running and general health. They are just happy to have people do any exercise at all.
Great blog, and congratulations with your running streak! I stumbled over this post when I did some research on google about blood donation and running. Very informative
Here are my experiences: I am 25 year old man who just started running (6 weeks ago). I have donated blood the last 12 months, a total of 4 times so far, and It has not been a problem for me. I donated one unit (450 ml) yesterday and took it easy after that. But today I ran an 8 km tempo run and I felt very good. I ran the 8 km in 36:06, which is a better performance than my 5 km personal record of 22:o7 (according to Mcmillan running calculator).
As some of you pointed out, I think the individual reaction to blood donation differs from person to person. I’d like to add that my hemoglobin was 17,4 g/dl the last time I donated, which is in the upper range of the normal area. Maybe that makes me more tolerant? Anyway, I won’t take any chances and donate blood right before my race debut in september…
Hey Perry,
Thanks for writing this. I gave a Pint of blood yesterday and I’m running in a short race this afternoon. Your post has added some new items to my diet today so that I can replenish some of my loss.
In addition to the items you listed above (liquids, protein, iron) I was told by the gentleman who took my blood to take in a fair amount of electrolytes.
Hi, some great info. I personally feel the energy loss when I donate red blood cells. Instead I give platelets so there is no red blood cell loss. It takes quite a bit longer but you can donate more often and there is always a great need for cancer/burn patients.