Blood donation

[Geriatricdolan]

I'm not worried about cycling 12 hours.. it's more the 3 minutes at 350 Watt that is a concern, after giving blood. You need all the oxygen you can muster and if the blood is low in red cells, then inevitably you are going to be below par...

[hellymedic]

How do you guys find cycling after giving blood?
I always avoided because the consensus seems to be that there is a 2-3 week period of poor performance afterwards, which is annoying if you do structured training and even worse if you have races planned.

I haven't donated for over 20 years but felt my performance was sub-optimal for up to a fortnight after donation.

I don't think this would decondition you in the long term and as many blood donations are needed as possible.

I'd suggest donating but expecting a little reduced performance for a few days. Athletes elsewhere train at high altitudes to acclimatise to lower oxygen tension in the air. Training with lower haemoglobin will help stimulate your marrow to produce MOAR red cells.

[sojournermike]

How do you guys find cycling after giving blood?
I always avoided because the consensus seems to be that there is a 2-3 week period of poor performance afterwards, which is annoying if you do structured training and even worse if you have races planned.

I haven't donated for over 20 years but felt my performance was sub-optimal for up to a fortnight after donation.

I don't think this would decondition you in the long term and as many blood donations are needed as possible.

I'd suggest donating but expecting a little reduced performance for a few days. Athletes elsewhere train at high altitudes to acclimatise to lower oxygen tension in the air. Training with lower haemoglobin will help stimulate your marrow to produce MOAR red cells.

And then you can put the blood you took out back in as well, just before your next big race...


On a more serious note, yep when I was running competitively giving blood would leave me unable to perform at normal level for anything from a few days to a couple of weeks. Plus I seemed to find myself more vulnerable to colds for a couple of days as well. The nurse told me there would be no effect, but she may have had a different idea of what normal performance was.

[Geriatricdolan]

Athletes elsewhere train at high altitudes to acclimatise to lower oxygen tension in the air. Training with lower haemoglobin will help stimulate your marrow to produce MOAR red cells.

If it was a way to boost performance, you'd have a queue... I think it's different removing red cells, so that the body needs to rebuild them, from training at altitude, so that the body needs to adapt and produce extra. The latter will give you a boost in haemoglobin that will last for a few weeks and enhance aerobic performance, the former will simply restore you to your normal numbers over time.

I suppose this time of the year I could give blood, but for 9 months I am involved in some form of racing or training for said races and I wouldn't want to throw away a lot of work.
Besides, I am AB+, not exactly the most in demand blood type

[zigzag]

according to studies it takes 4-6 weeks to rebuild the red cell count after donation. personally i find i'm back to full strength after ~2-3 weeks.

i haven't practiced keto diet, but from what i gather the effect might be similar - not a lot of difference endurance-wise, only hard efforts feel much harder.

[Geriatricdolan]

according to studies it takes 4-6 weeks to rebuild the red cell count after donation. personally i find i'm back to full strength after ~2-3 weeks.

i haven't practiced keto diet, but from what i gather the effect might be similar - not a lot of difference endurance-wise, only hard efforts feel much harder.

The more oxygen is needed, the more the performance will be affected.

Keto diet will have similar effects, if you mainly burn fat, you'll be fine, but if you need the rocket fuel, you won't have enough.
I find keto diets absurd, but each to their own... and of course off topic

[sojournermike]

according to studies it takes 4-6 weeks to rebuild the red cell count after donation. personally i find i'm back to full strength after ~2-3 weeks.

i haven't practiced keto diet, but from what i gather the effect might be similar - not a lot of difference endurance-wise, only hard efforts feel much harder.

Memory suggests that blood donation had a far greater effect in the first few days than keto on burst capability. However, time makes actual comparison harder. Plus, I was running 800m up to 5,000m so oxygen transport was pretty critical and I wasn’t doing any sort of keto.

[sojournermike]

according to studies it takes 4-6 weeks to rebuild the red cell count after donation. personally i find i'm back to full strength after ~2-3 weeks.

i haven't practiced keto diet, but from what i gather the effect might be similar - not a lot of difference endurance-wise, only hard efforts feel much harder.

Memory suggests that blood donation had a far greater effect in the first few days than keto on burst capability. However, time makes actual comparison harder. Plus, I was running 800m up to 5,000m so oxygen transport was pretty critical and I wasn’t doing any sort of keto.

For clarity, nor was I blood doping!

[Chris S]

I'm not allowed to give blood, but I certainly suffered had to take up the slack on the tandem if Mr Smith had done his part.

Lasted at max a week, I think.

Yeah, worst for the first three days or so; mostly just feeling like being at altitude - you can breath OK, but it just doesn't seem as effective.

For reference, it doesn't work the other way round - I've failed a blood donation because my blood was basically rubbish a couple of days after a 600. I believe I posted about it here somewhere, but it was years ago.

[Geriatricdolan]

For reference, it doesn't work the other way round - I've failed a blood donation because my blood was basically rubbish a couple of days after a 600. I believe I posted about it here somewhere, but it was years ago.

Interesting... I always thought long distance is basically self-destruction... running or cycling, same thing. Our relative apes don't seem to be too keen on long distance stuff, maybe there is something to learn there

[sojournermike]

For reference, it doesn't work the other way round - I've failed a blood donation because my blood was basically rubbish a couple of days after a 600. I believe I posted about it here somewhere, but it was years ago.

Interesting... I always thought long distance is basically self-destruction... running or cycling, same thing. Our relative apes don't seem to be too keen on long distance stuff, maybe there is something to learn there

Yes and no, I think. We ‘are’ persistence hunters, so long and slow is built in. However, there is no question that very long can have some adverse impacts. I’m not sure if these persist or lead to further problems down the line though. There is evidence that regular running is protective for knee joints, for example, but also that high volumes of (intense?) aerobic training can lead to cardiac damage. Obviously, no aerobic training causes damage just as well!!

[Lightning Phil]

High volumes of high intensity is key to the cardiac damage. At the least that’s what the evidence presented is.

[Geriatricdolan]

High volumes of high intensity is key to the cardiac damage. At the least that’s what the evidence presented is.

Got you... no pyramid intervals then...

[hellymedic]

My haemoglobin was 15.3 when I was first diagnosed with MS. This is pretty high for a girl under 40. I was commuting by bike and donating blood (which had to stop). I'd done an overnight 200 a fortnight before.

[Lightning Phil]

High volumes of high intensity is key to the cardiac damage. At the least that’s what the evidence presented is.

Got you... no pyramid intervals then...

I think it’s to do with having continual high levels of cortisol rather than just after the odd high intensity session. So if you do it every day for an extended period you’ll end up with chronic inflammation amongst other things. There also links between sustained high levels of cortisol and Alzheimer’s.

[sojournermike]

High volumes of high intensity is key to the cardiac damage. At the least that’s what the evidence presented is.

Got you... no pyramid intervals then...

I think it’s to do with having continual high levels of cortisol rather than just after the odd high intensity session. So if you do it every day for an extended period you’ll end up with chronic inflammation amongst other things. There also links between sustained high levels of cortisol and Alzheimer’s.

Plus the research paper suggested 4,000 hours of it - that’s quite a lot of high intensity work!

[matthew]

No. 74 today. That includes some 1+1 donations that count for two and I believe the records from prior to uni got muddled up and double counted.

First time I have had the carer go hunting for a better vein. Left arm centre vein has a habbit of drying up, left outside vein is disliked by the 1+1 machine. Right middle vein is not much good so right inside vein it was, obviously not popular but it is the same vein that I have been donating from for the last 15 years.

[hellymedic]

Inside vein is close to Important Nerves and Artery, so blood takers are schooled to Avoid to prevent Trouble.

[slowfen]

No. 74 today.

First time I have had the carer go hunting for a better vein. Left arm centre vein has a habbit of drying up, left outside vein is disliked by the 1+1 machine. Right middle vein is not much good so right inside vein it was, obviously not popular but it is the same vein that I have been donating from for the last 15 years.

Having donated for a number of years, I “rest” my preferred arm for a couple of sessions every few years.  It does seem to help me

[Greenbank]

#20 today. Will hope to get  to the 25 award in early 2022.

Just booked #21 for late March.

[Geriatricdolan]

#20 today. Will hope to get  to the 25 award in early 2022.

Just booked #21 for late March.

Is this fast becoming the fix for the lack of Audax awards? 

[arabella]

Obvs.
In another year I will get a emerald award
I plan to continue past ruby and stop once I have given my own weight in blood (fsvo 'my weight')
I'll never get the higher awards as I don't weigh enough (& ain't male) to get in the required frequency of donations for them.  A bit like audax where I don't have the time/speed for some badges/medals.  I now have more time but less speed (& less drive tbh)

Interestingly with the current rules I'd probably never have started donating blood as they like female teenagers to have some additional checks etc..  & I think the min weight has gone up since 1986 (& possibly the max frequency, unless it was just they only visited $workplace every 6 months)

[hellymedic]

I started donating in 1976 and was near enough 10 stone at the time so weight wasn't an issue.
I donated at the national HQ. I think they took blood from my male friends every 12 weeks and  about every 5 months from the women.

[zigzag]

all went smooth today; a club biscuit and three kitkat's earned

[arabella]

gah! you have a better donation centre than I do. 
limited to one snack I was, and only cold drinks, sob.  Having a leisurely chat & cuppa with multiple snacks makes it worthwhile/enjoyable, now banned.

thought: has anyone else wondered if they donate more slowly if the room is chillier?  I'm suspecting there's at least as much contribution to speed of donation from how well the needle was inserted tbh.