giving blood

Unknown

hi there, i gave blood on monday, and went for a run on tuesday (about 3 miles) and i was really knackered. How long should you wait after giving blood before you go back to your normal running routine, a couple of days, a week ?

[Deleted User]

Hi Mags. Well done on doing an important public service.

The response to blood donation varies from one person to another. It takes a good 24 hours to make up the fluid volume lost in the donation, so you may well find it difficult to do even a short run the following day. Most people adapt to the reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood (bcause the remaining red cells are diluted) within a few days - if your blood count isn't adequate plus a bit to spare to start with, you're not allowed to donate. Within a week you can reasonably expect to be back to normal exercise tolerance.

Lots of us on the Forums are regular donors, and if you do a search on blood donation you'll probably turn up half a dozen threads on the subject.

[Deleted User]

I agree with Velociraptor, you should be back in training within a few days although any it will be best to keep the speed down for a week to 10 days.
One word of caution - although you recover quickly the last 1-2% takes a little longer - apparently it takes a month for you to make a 100% recovery. This won't affect training but you won't race well. If you have a race where you are aiming for a good time then I think that you need to bear this in mind.

Martin.

[Deleted User]

As well as not donating too soon before a race, it's also advisable not to rush to donate AFTER a race, especially if it's more than half-marathon distance. Your body has quite enough repair work to do then without being put under the additional stress of dealing with the loss of over 10% of your blood.

I'd be inclined to advise anyone at ANY stage of preparation for a marathon to keep their blood, and to defer donation until a full month afterwards. I know there are others around here who would take the opposite view, regarding training under relatively hypoxic conditions as beneficial for endurance, but I go for the cautious approach.