Has anyone else noticed a dip in performance in the days following a blood donation? I gave blood on Sunday and was advised not to exercise for a day or so. Went for a run last night and found my normal pace and distance far harder than usual. Was this random, or has anyone else ever experienced the same? Clearly I'm not going to stop giving blood because of it, but it would be worth being aware of if it is a real effect.
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give yourself at least a week to recover from it, your body doesn't make up the blood straight away, one of the reasons u can only donate every 4mths. I have found it hard too for the following week after donation
The fluid volume is made up again very quickly, but it takes time to generate new blood cells (though our bone marrow will pick up on the fact that we've had what is effectively a fair-sized haemorrhage and go into temporary overdrive) so our oxygen-carrying capacity is reduced for several weeks. We adapt before then, fortunately.
It's a good excuse to have red meat every day for a few weeks :-)
Hey from the U.S....the U.S. forums are down right now so i thought I would stop by here to say hi!
It's difficult to find a perfect time to give blood. Before a major race and it wrecks your training; after a major race and it can interfere with recovery. It's still very important that we DO give blood, though.
I've been really, really careful with the timing since - but as Velicoraptor says, there's no ideal time and I have to confess to failing to hand any over since before Christmas. My next donation will be after Edinburgh - I figured around 10-14 days following the race, but any advice most gratefully received.
I feel particularly guilty about not giving more regularly as I've got the group they can use for everything, but then I guess I'm helping the NHS in other ways by staying fit and out of the GP's surgery!
So next time we donate we're going to rest for a few days after.
The way I have tried to get round it is to do some hard training in advance so your body is crying out for a rest, do no exercise the day or (maybe 2 days) before the donation and then rest as said above afterwards. I did the leeds half marathon 4 days ago and it was fine today.
One thing is that I am more recreational than seriously regular runner, don't know if that has an impact.