Concept2 Forum

My town is hosting a blood drive and I was considering donating as its been about 13 years since the last time I gave blood...

Can anyone offer some insight or experience on how long it may affect training? I'm 46...

Good on you for donating.

Shouldn't effect your training at all. Make sure to hydrate to help replace lost blood volume.

There's already a thread on here somewhere about this...

But FWIW it affects me quite a bit - I go three times a year. It is variable. Minimum is two weeks - but I've struggled sometimes for up to 6 weeks. Never makes much difference to sprints, but the more distance involved the worse the effect - both 2k+TTs and longer than 500 intervals. However, I'm fairly rubbish aerobically at the best of times so it could be psychosomatic and mental weakness as much as a real physical issue.

I'm told the volume of blood is replaced in less than 48 hours, but the red blood cell count can take a much greater time to get back to the same level as before the donation. Diet can help...

The good bit is it provides a natural periodicity to your training allowing for improvements most of the time with a step back every few months. Get to a level, give blood, back off a bit and then build again back to where you were...repeat.

Anyway IMO its an important thing to do if you can so well done for giving it a go.

MPx wrote: ↑

March 26th, 2020, 3:56 pm

There's already a thread on here somewhere about this...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=171631&p=438373&hil ... ns#p438373

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

March 26th, 2020, 2:06 pm

Good on you for donating.

Shouldn't effect your training at all. Make sure to hydrate to help replace lost blood volume.

uh.....no. Plasma replaces quickly but not red blood cells. MPx is correct.

Gammmmo wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 5:52 am

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

March 26th, 2020, 2:06 pm

Good on you for donating.

Shouldn't effect your training at all. Make sure to hydrate to help replace lost blood volume.

uh.....no. Plasma replaces quickly but not red blood cells. MPx is correct.

That's why you get a cup of tea and biscuit after the donation - to replace the plasma.

Citroen wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 6:24 am

Gammmmo wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 5:52 am

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

March 26th, 2020, 2:06 pm

Good on you for donating.

Shouldn't effect your training at all. Make sure to hydrate to help replace lost blood volume.

uh.....no. Plasma replaces quickly but not red blood cells. MPx is correct.

That's why you get a cup of tea and biscuit after the donation - to replace the plasma.

Correct. Paul, I never said that hydration would replace the donated red blood cells. I merely advised hydration to replace volume.

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 9:48 am

Citroen wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 6:24 am

Gammmmo wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 5:52 am

uh.....no. Plasma replaces quickly but not red blood cells. MPx is correct.

That's why you get a cup of tea and biscuit after the donation - to replace the plasma.

Correct. Paul, I never said that hydration would replace the donated red blood cells. I merely advised hydration to replace volume.

Yeah but you said it wouldn't affect his training. It will...for weeks. This is the real point of the thread.

It really will not significantly impact his training. The OP is a 46 year old amateur rower. He doesn't have the olympics next week. He is erging. Go ahead and train as usual. Perhaps you won't be as fast or may tire easier at a given heart rate, but no reason to modify your training. 1-2 weeks and he will not notice any difference in performance. May not even notice any difference now.

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

March 27th, 2020, 12:28 pm

It really will not significantly impact his training. The OP is a 46 year old amateur rower. He doesn't have the olympics next week. He is erging. Go ahead and train as usual. Perhaps you won't be as fast or may tire easier at a given heart rate, but no reason to modify your training. 1-2 weeks and he will not notice any difference in performance. May not even notice any difference now.

I cant say it really affected my training too much, I asked the same question a couple of yrs back, Im not allowed to donate anymore, My concern was the possibility of creating a bleed, so I just rowed a bit slower the day following donation,

I donate fairly regularly 4-5 times a year. It seems to have some negative short term effect but, compared to the effect that the donation has on the people that need my O- blood I can deal with it. I will say that if you do donate the double red cells that is a real whammy and takes some serious recovery time. Donate if you can, someone you never will know will be grateful.

I donated earlier this year, and looked back at my weekly update thread. Turns out, I donated January 30, then the following Wednesday posted about how I'd been in a rowing slump. Now I know why, I guess that had just slipped my mind. 1 week after donating, however, I was able to increase my 30min PB by roughly 120m.

Just a small anecdote from personal experience.

Back in 2007 my haemoglobin levels were less than half of what they should have been and iron reserves at zero, this was due to internal bleeding not blood donation. Took a tad longer than a couple of days to recover.

I always notice a difference when I donate. It takes a long time to build those cells back up. It’s like training at altitude. That’s why they only let you donate every 8 weeks.
The whole point of endurance training is to increase the number of oxygen carrying cells in your blood. When you donate, you give them away.