real world recovery time after blood donation

[chuckster12]

I had not donated in a while until this past Thursday.
I have heard that the volume is replaced fairly quickly (48 hours) but it might take a couple of weeks on the red blood cells.
Did a short (90 min) but tough single speed mtn bike ride today and felt great, but it was easy to see my heart rate was higher at the top of the climbs. My Garmin said my average heart rate was about 5 beats/min higher for the ride vs what I usually see with the pace I rode.
Anyone with recent experience?

Chuck

[toaster]

Two to three weeks before back to normal after whole blood donation. Blood volume is down so need to hydrate. Red blood cells down and require some real time to recover. Gave up believing that by donating blood you would get a boost in RBC's by an overcompensation effect in the weeks following.

[gasman]

Ask the pros

Donating blood then getting it back later will help you win the tour and it's undetecable!

Seriously, blood volume back in hours, blood proteins replaced in 24-48 and red cells in about two weeks.

Your milage may vary.

[dekindy]

I donated Friday, July 31st. Intended to ride Tuesday, August 5th but due to rain I did not ride until Wednesday, August 6th.

Wednesday is not a normal riding day for me so I rode a shorter, 22-mile hillier route as opposed to the 30-mile flat training route that I normally ride. I felt good and did much better on the hills than expected. Average heart rate was up 7 beats per minute from pre-donation levels.

I rode on Thursday and was not able to ride at my normal level so I took it easy. I rarely ride back to back days so this may have been a factor.

Rode again today, Saturday, August 8th, and felt great. 55-miles total and some significant hills the first 20 and strong winds on the flat portion. I really felt strong, back to my old self and recorded my highest average and maximum heart rates ever. This route overlapped a couple of hills from Wednesday's ride and I was able to take them in a couple of gears higher than Wednesday.

The last couple of times that I have donated blood I have felt the effects for a couple of days. I took a nap on Saturday afternoon and felt tired on Monday afternoon. IMHO it lowers my performance for 3-5 days.

I know that last year I donated blood five times only missing my rotation during the July period when I did RAIN. My times peaked in May and went steadily downward the rest of the year. Last Friday was my first donation this year and my times have been ahead of last year's and have risen steadily over the summer. It has been a little cooler this year compared to last year so that is a contributing factor to my better performance. My buddy is a registered nurse and he has been discouraging me from donating because he feels it is hindering my cycling performance. He may be right but there are so many variables it is difficult to measure. You just have to go with how you feel.

[Chief]

I feel like it takes me about a week to make a full recovery after donating a pint.

[WadePatton]

i gave once. my pressure runs low so it _wastes_ me for a couple of days. couldn't even think about it "during season".

besides, i manage to "bleed myself" enough already.

kudos to the donors. and i'm a designated organ donor, just hope to wear them out myself. buddy of mine has about 7 years on a heart xplant.

[Peter P.]

If you mean "feel normal" as in you don't notice the loss of blood-about 2 weeks. That's been my experience.

If you mean "feel normal" as in get all your red blood cells back-there's a reason you can donate only every 56 days...with the difficulty the Red Cross has in maintaining adequate blood supplies, I'm sure they'd shorten the time period if they could without harming our health.

[gasman]

If you mean "feel normal" as in get all your red blood cells back-there's a reason you can donate only every 56 days...with the difficulty the Red Cross has in maintaining adequate blood supplies, I'm sure they'd shorten the time period if they could without harming our health.

The Red cross guidelines are very conservative. For some of the young healthy people on this board the time frame could be more like every 30 days but then you would need to take iron supplements.

[Peter P.]

In 2007 I was donating blood and began particpating in a local time trial. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how blood donation would affect performance. There was a clear increase in my time on the week I donated. This began in the middle of the year so I felt I could discount the argument that I had yet to reach mid-season peak fitness. After that donation, my time dropped each week while times of my competitors fluctuated. Assuming my improvement came predominantly from the replenished blood volume, it took 5-6 weeks to recover. Incidentally, that donation resulted in a loss of fitness/increase in TT times of 4%.

[little.man]

In 2007 I was donating blood and began particpating in a local time trial. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how blood donation would affect performance. There was a clear increase in my time on the week I donated. This began in the middle of the year so I felt I could discount the argument that I had yet to reach mid-season peak fitness. After that donation, my time dropped each week while times of my competitors fluctuated. Assuming my improvement came predominantly from the replenished blood volume, it took 5-6 weeks to recover. Incidentally, that donation resulted in a loss of fitness/increase in TT times of 4%.

While I do not have the empirical evidence that Pete has, I believe his experience more closely resembles what I believe to be the case for me. After I donate, I feel that I do not lose so much top end speed, as in the ability to close gaps, pull in paceline, etc, but the ability to recover after the gap, effort, is put in. After 5 -6 weeks, I feel that I am back to where I was before the donation if not a bit stronger. The older that I get, I am 49 now, the longer it has taken to recover. Big surprise there huh? When I was racing more, I would not donate while I was actively racing. I have given 4 times so far this year. I set a goal of giving 5 times at the start of the year. I normally would give about 3 times a year. It seems to me that by giving regular this year, I seem to be recovering better after the donation.

I do try to get more rest after I donate and am sure to take in plenty of fluids. I have O-, "baby", blood, so the blood center is calling me the day I am available.

Did not know if I they were going to let me give this last time. Guy seemed amazed at my heart rate of 40 bpm. I had to run in place to get it up to 58 bpm so that I could give. Go figure.

And I am a registered organ donor as well. Little heart on my driver's license.

Mark

[chuckster12]

great feedback
I'm definitely feeling a little more beat after hard efforts. Off to bed now to get a few more zzzzzz's :)

Chuck

[Mutt]

Thanks to all who donate; it's an easy way to feel good about yourself. In my experience, whole blood donation takes a couple of weeks to recover from. However, donating platelets only slows me down for a couple of days. For several years I did a platelet donation every month, and was able to feel good during my big ride three days after donation. It does take more time than a whole blood donation, but it saves a lot of lives.

Mike in Asheville

[ejh]

+1 on donating platelets, been doing it for about 8 years. If you can Donating platelets saves more liver then Whole blood. And being the doper that I am I have plenty to spare and last time, 3 weeks ago, did 2 units of platelets and 1 whole blood. Take about 2 weeks to get back to normal, and worth every bit knowing how many lives I've saved.







Thanks to all who donate; it's an easy way to feel good about yourself. In my experience, whole blood donation takes a couple of weeks to recover from. However, donating platelets only slows me down for a couple of days. For several years I did a platelet donation every month, and was able to feel good during my big ride three days after donation. It does take more time than a whole blood donation, but it saves a lot of lives.

Mike in Asheville

[Simon Q]

+1 on donating platelets, been doing it for about 8 years. If you can Donating platelets saves more liver then Whole blood. And being the doper that I am I have plenty to spare and last time, 3 weeks ago, did 2 units of platelets and 1 whole blood. Take about 2 weeks to get back to normal, and worth every bit knowing how many lives I've saved.

My son was born with a bone marrow disorder where he produced very few then, from 18 months, no platelets. Luckily at 3 yo he was saved through a bone marrow transplant from his sister's umbilical cord blood but until that time the extremely kind people like you guys kept him alive with platelet tranfusions. Thank you! Others, please consider platelet donation as well. Naturally now I do both platelets and whole blood as often I can.